Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of Y-DNA

[Alan H]

Alan H, Thank you. So now that leads me to think I could just get one of the less expensive DNA tests. For what ever use they would be.

Honestly, think about your goal.

Do you want to trace, person to person to person, your direct lineage as far back as you possibly can? If that's the case, then IMHO there is no DNA testing that is worth the money. Spend it on airline tickets and go to the counties and look up parish records.

if you want to know the general makeup of your genetic material, understanding that people have moved around the world since.....forever..... and you are almost certainly going to see linkages to populations that you don't expect, then DNA testing might be interesting.

Do you know that a very large number of "Scots" especially Scots that live in the Borders share genetic markers with a significant population of people from the Caucasus and Steppes?

It's because the Romans fought the Sarmatian empire for hundreds of years. In one battle, they won and wound up with 30,000 male Sarmatian hostages. They took those young men, put them in Roman uniforms and sent then to Hell...otherwise known the very furthermost border of the Empire..... where the Borders are, now. Well, what happens when you drop 30,000 young men into a local population?

But would you be shocked to find out that you shared genetic polymorphisms with people from Azerbaijan?

How about Hannibals march across southern Europe? Do you think some local women got raped along the way, and genes from Hannibals soldiers got spread into Europe? Do you know that apparently a significant subset of the population of Pakistan (not that many Pakistani's have been tested) share genetic markers with a subset of the Greek population? Son of a gun, remember that Alexander the Great guy?

Resign yourself to the fact that there's a good chance that you're going to share genetic markers with people from Saudi Arabia. Remember the Islamic empire? "Moors"... in Spain? Just how far is it from Spain to the Cotswolds?

This is the sort of thing which if INCREDIBLY LUCKY, you might find out by "DNA Testing".

[Alan H]

As a general rule, DNA testing paints a very broad picture of anybodys background.

If you HAPPEN by pure chance, to have a unique combination of mutations, or one incredibly unique single polymorphism, and IF some other people who just happen to have that same combination just HAPPEN to get tested, then it's possible to calculate, not precisely, but a "most probable outcome" of how related you are to them.

But what does it mean if you....John Smith in Texas, might be 2nd or 3rd cousins with Monique Desmartes, who happens to live in Paris, France? If Monique happens to have, stored in her attic, reams and reams of diaries, travelogues and the family bible dating back six generations, then you have found something. If she doesn't, and not many people have those things any more, then all you've done is discovered that MAYBE you have a second or third cousin who lives in France.

[Alan H]

What DNA testing is extremely good at is determining if the hypothetical pair, Joe and Bill are closely related, or not.... or you and Monique in Paris. Determining how closely related two specific individuals are, is eminently doable by standard DNA testing.

[WoodyGA]

What DNA testing is extremely good at is determining if the hypothetical pair, Joe and Bill are closely related, or not.... or you and Monique in Paris. Determining how closely related two specific individuals are, is eminently doable by standard DNA testing.

I did the Family Tree DNA Y-DNA67 test, and am awaiting the result. I've also joined a surname project for my family name. I hope that it will at very least give me some hits that my family is indeed Scottish, and maybe related to someone else in the surname project. My oldest paternal ancestor just appears in South Carolina, with no records to link him elsewhere or conclusively to anyone. I'm hoping this might at least point me in the right direction.

--Woody

[McElmurry]

I did the Family Tree DNA Y-DNA67 test, and am awaiting the result. I've also joined a surname project for my family name. I hope that it will at very least give me some hits that my family is indeed Scottish, and maybe related to someone else in the surname project. My oldest paternal ancestor just appears in South Carolina, with no records to link him elsewhere or conclusively to anyone. I'm hoping this might at least point me in the right direction.

--Woody

Hopefully you will get a good prediction from your STR (short tandem repeat) testing. You can also poke around in the DNA results from the surname project and see if you recognize any of the paternal ancestor names in the results chart.

[McElmurry]

Scroll along to where L1335 starts (blue section) and I am the first match (Preston). I also have a rare terminal snp, plus 9 snp's downstream. 1335 is known as the Scots Cluster. The tree is a work in progress and is continuously updated on the basis of new discoveries.

I am a little envious of how well your part of the tree is developed. It could be years before another result shows up in my part of the tree.