Which DNA test to purchase?

[Ruskie]

A little story …. Husband has one of the most common names in the UK, yet only has 19 Y DNA test matches, with only two at 67 markers, two at 25 and the majority at 12 markers. None of them share his surname - surname group administrator said he is a “singleton” (so doesn’t fit anywhere).

Untangling Y dna is very befuddling I think, unless you have a scientific/mathematical mind. 

In your DNA journey keep in mind that (for whatever reason), often people don't reply to messages, even if they are close “DNA relatives”. My advice is to hope for the best but expect the worst.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to go with. 

[phil57]

Phil is more knowledgeable than me, so see what he thinks, but in my very limited experience the Y dna test has been of no use whatsoever, so you may find it is an expensive gamble especially for a non direct ancestor.

Yes, it depends what you are hoping to achieve. For the greatest chance of matching and finding living relatives, which combined with traditional research can hopefully prove your ancestral descent through most recent common ancestors (those people from whom both you and your match are descended) it has to be an autosomal test every time.

Y-DNA can only be used to investigate the direct male line of your ancestry. It may help for instance if you are unsure of your father's ancestry. It is also useful if you want to research more distant aspects of that line and become involved in a one-name study for your paternal lineage. It might help break a brick wall in that line, but expect the results from a close relative matching point of view to be very disappointing, generally.

In that sense I was very lucky, I have one 67 marker match who is my 2C1R, but I already knew about him since I already had an autosomal match to his sister. All my other matches are at much lower levels and relatively so distant that there is very little chance of finding an MRCA within a reasonable timeframe, if at all. But one thing the Y-DNA markers can do is to cluster those individuals so that you know which are more recently related to you, and which are more distant.

My surname group is heavily US biased, and very few of them have any idea at all of the identity of their British or European ancestors.

Although to put that in context, I knew nothing about my paternal GF's origins when I started researching. He was an orphan whose parents died before he was 3 years old. It took me many months of researching and comparing records and contacting possible relatives to identify his parents. My single Y-DNA 2C1R match would have shortened that process considerably, but as I say, I think I was in a sense very lucky to find that match via a Y-DNA test. Most people who test will not get a single match at such a close level, and by the time I did, I had already confirmed my suspicions through autosomal testing anyway.

[Isabella Mac]

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to answer, and especially Phil for your clear explanations of what is a very murky subject to me!

I will order Ancestry tests for myself and sisters.  I now realise that the Y-DNA tests are not what I thought and that if nephews / cousins test in future, they can do Ancestry too.

Re the health test.  I decided to purchase 23andMe+ which seemed fairly comprehensive for sister but when I went to order thought at first only available in USA but then seemed I had to first have the 23andMe + Traits purchased, then upgrade later to 23andMe+ with stuff about chips etc.  I could only order through the International site which wouldn't let me order the '+' one, so gave up!!  (I am in NZ but sisters are in Australia).  If anyone can enlighten me on this, please do!

I have a question for Brigidmac.  Was there a reason you suggested sister should do health test first?

And to Ruskie, No I haven't asked on RootsChat re GGF's brother - have only just discovered the site!  But will do when I have a bit more time.

Cheers

[Ruskie]

Isabella, apologies. I didn’t notice that you are a new member. Welcome to rootschat. 

Yes, please do start a thread to ask about great grandfather’s brother. There are a lot of excellent researchers who love a challenge and you never know, they may be able to find him.

I’m sure you and your sisters will have some good matches with your Ancestry tests. Hopefully someone will be able to help you with your 23 and Me order.

Phil, another excellent post as usual. I read a lot of posts on rootschat and you are the first person I recall who has had a positive result with a Y-dna test. There must be some, but they don’t often pop up here. 

[Kamante]

I am partial to the y-dna "next generation sequencing" test called BigY700 and also to a better priced equivalent that is part of a whole genome sequencing test sold by a German laboratory. After 25 years of searching for matches to my USA surname in Somerset parish registers, with no results, a chance autosomal DNA match led me to a particular parish and suggested my surname back in the 1700's could have been different from now. That match led me to search for Wills (persons with a surname other than my own) and by chance I found a Will by a man who mentioned the names of his three sons (one of whom was "in America"). I was able to find a descendant of one of the sons (not the one in America) and got a confirming y-dna match from the descendant by testing only for my own "terminal SNP". Then, using a triangulation approach, I confirmed that the man who wrote the Will had to have been my ancestor in England.

My opinion is that it could be very useful for anyone (even females who can test a brother or father or uncle etc) to establish a male full sequence of SNP mutations as a baseline for working with future possible matches. In my particular case, my terminal SNP mutation is estimated to be about 200 years ago. Anyone else with that same mutation would definitely be my cousin, whatever the surname.

Full sequencing y-dna tests produce both SNPs and STRs. In my own experience, working with STRs to try to locate and prove match connections was extremely difficult and did not produce the accuracy of terminal SNP matching.

Which type of y-dna full sequencing to purchase should not be made until one understands what y-tree databases are available. In my case I tested in a manner allowing access to two match databases. Some haplogroups may be better represented in one database and not the other.

[brigidmac]

Answer for Isabella
Various family members have already tested
And sister hadn't been interested
+ Is partly accepting the kit because she knows it will help my knowledge of DNA
She' s scientifically trained

In  order to be able to help others it's good to have experience of all things

Sis is epileptic ..and  something a bit unique ( which isn't my place to share )

No one talks to me about health stuff cos I'm squeamish

I ve sent her link to my topic which some of you have kindly added links to
So she can choose herself

I have vaso vago Syncopy ...a tendancy to faint.

We have colitus and IBS and low blood in the family so would personally be interested to know if it's genetic but don't NEED to know

[phil57]

We have colitus and IBS and low blood in the family so would personally be interested to know if it's genetic but don't NEED to know

It won't tell you that it is. It may tell you that you share mutations that could make you predisposed to those conditions.

But if several family members already have those conditions, I suspect you know that with more certainty than the test will tell you

[brigidmac]

Phil you are very wise and correct

I don't know if sis has seen the options on offer

I expect we already know family traits too

But wonder if it would be useful stuff for adoptees to know
We have adopters and adoptees in every generation
+ Single parents
+ Recomposed families

So would it help someone who doesn't know birth father to add to conviction that they belong to my family

& How many generations do the traits show clearly too

I have a 2nd cousin on paternal smith + Jones side who we've already worked out most likely
Father from 2 brothers on Jones side

The smith side didn't match as high as expected to 2 brothers descendant but then discovered a half brother ..war baby  matched his grandchildren & the half brothers mother's line which clinched the deal