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Posts Tagged ‘Genealogy DNA’

Genealogists turn to ancestral DNA testing to answer questions that historical records alone cannot.  All people of the world have DNA so it makes sense they would form a large information base about the evolution of humans.

It isn’t necessary to test every member of a family to learn their origins.  Women carry mtDNA because they lack the Y chromosome that men have to determine the male gender.  Brothers and sisters share the same mtDNA and brothers share the same Y DNA.   MtDNA yields information about the maternal line of a family.  Mt is short for mitochondria present in both men and women.  Y DNA tests the paternal line.

Here is what you can learn from a DNA test for ancestry:

Do your ancestors originate from Europe, or the farmers from the Middle East?  Europeans came from seven maternal clans and your DNA can spot the markers that show the specific area of Europe where your mother’s family originated.

Even if you are Caucasian you may discover a bloodline that points to Africa and the oldest human population from 100,000 years ago.  Some of the early tribes are the Bantu, Ibo and Kung.

Native Americans are predominately from four clans which migrated from the Old World.  Native Americans today seek to know which modern tribe they are from and DNA evidence of early tribal migration narrows the focus of an otherwise broad population sample.

Some families today are conducting surname projects to learn the origin of their last name.   Whether the name is Jones or Andrianopoulos, families want to know who they are related to around the world.

The human race has been mixing since it evolved in Africa 150,000 years ago.  You may find identifying markers from several groups that don’t seem connected because of the constant evolution of families.  If you’re looking for many answers to specific questions, proceed with ancestral DNA testing with an open mind.  Collectively the more people that do have genealogy DNA testing performed will help to grow the database for the overall study.

OK, so you know about DNA testing to discover your father and mother’s deep ancestry, now how to do genealogy research online will be covered.

Many of you will be very familiar with all of these methods, but for those of you that are just starting on creating a family tree these ideas should help to get you started.

You should always start with yourself and work backwards through your ancestors locating as much information on each generation as you can before you move on the earlier ones.  More time is lost trying to make a connection with some famous person that you were told you might be related to.

Well that may turn out to be right but in order to do this thing right you have to take one step at a time and document all of your research.  When you find something that is helpful you should record it in your journal or notebook and then enter the information into your computer genealogy program.

The notebooks should have their pages dated as you enter details that way you can always return to them at a later date when you find another piece of the puzzle.

Some of the most helpful websites that you will use are actually free and you will spend many hundreds of hours online before you will have to shell out any money for online subscription websites.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, (LDS) or the Mormon Church, owns the worlds largest accumulation of documents in digital and microfilm formats.  Their main library in Salt Lake City, Utah is free and open to the public and no one will try to convert you, it is just a library.  Millions of rolls of microfilm are at your fingertips and you will find everything from church records, civil records, local histories, census records, marriage records, cemetery records and everything in between.

LDS also has Family History Centers (FHC) in a Mormon church near you.  These smaller branch libraries have access to most of the materials that are at Salt Lake City either by computer or by your renting the microfilm to use at the local FHC.

To find out what they have available you may use any computer on the internet and go to www.familysearch.org to go to the main website.  From here you can do some actual personal name searches and see if any of your ancestors have had their information extracted from primary record collections and added to the online database.

This is only one small part of what they have available as most of the records have not been transcribed and digitized yet, so in those cases you will want to click on the library button and then go to the library catalog, and do a surname search or a location search to see what they have in their index and then you will know which film to order.

Another great resource that is free is the huge accumulation of extracted records and queries from other researchers that is online at rootsweb.com.  This site is one of the oldest on the web and was operated by volunteers at the beginning until recent years when it was purchased by ancestry.com.  Rootsweb is still free to use.

The USGenweb.com site is also free and you will find many exciting discoveries there.  My recommendation is to go down to each state/county level for the individual county Genweb sites where you will find cemetery records, maps, documents, bible records and untold wondrous things.

Do not overlook online newspaper collections.  Check for newspapers that were in operation in the areas where your ancestors lived.  Many of them have online access to the historical editions but you will have to search around and ask questions.  You will want to read the article: “21 Ways to Start to Build Your Own Family Tree” at old-newspaper-articles.com.

Later on as you become more advanced and after you have tested your Genealogy DNA you will no doubt want to subscribe to places like ancestry and genealogybank, but for now you should have fun starting with just the free information above.

Another name for genealogy DNA is molecular DNA because that is where the science of family begins.  Until the late 1980s the only tool available for people seeking information about their ancestors was historical records and the remembrances of grandma and grandpa.  You might be able to recall the names of your grandparents, but do you know the names of your great-grandparents?  Precisely.  Few people do.  Advances in DNA typing are filling in the blanks.

Almost all cells in the human body contain DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid.   DNA is a string of proteins that tell our bodies how to grow; whether to have blue eyes or brown, whether to have a predisposition to heart disease or cancer. It is the complete genetic blueprint of people.  It makes each of us unique but also similar to our parents and ancestors.

There are two types of cells used to map out genealogy, Y-Chromosome DNA, and Mitochondrial DNA or mtDNA.  The Y chromosome exists in men and is passed down from fathers to sons.  Women don’t have a Y chromosome and thus cannot be tested for their paternal heritage.  Men can know who was their father’s father, and on and on through hundreds of generations.  Generally the paternal line can be tested to the origin of the surname, although some African-Americans have surnames dating back just to the 19th century.

Mitochondrial DNA is the opposite of Y-DNA and is passed down from mothers to her offspring of both genders.  The difference with this kind of DNA is that both men and women have it and can be tested for it.  Therefore, a man can learn about the ancestral lines of his mother and his father, but women can only know the lines of their mother.  In order to learn information about their father’s ancestry, they have to have their father, brother or male cousin tested.

Despite the limits of DNA testing for women, mitochondrial DNA has a slower rate of mutation than Y-DNA.  The results of clean strains cover more years.  While Y-DNA may go back for 12 generations, Mitochondrial DNA can reflect 30 generations or more.
When scientists test DNA for genealogy they assign letter values to “markers” which are specific spots on a microscopic strand of DNA.  The values reveal a pattern that shows similarities to other people in DNA data bases.  Some strands have fewer mutations or differences, and the more you have in common with others in the DNA databases, the more likely they are to have a common ancestor with you.

One of the limits of Mitochondrial DNA is that the mitochondria exist in the cytoplasm of the cell instead of the nucleus.  As stated before, mtDNA mutates very slowly.  When scientists find an exact match it is difficult to know if the common ancestor lived recently or hundreds of years ago.

One famous use of mitochondrial DNA involved the identification of the Russian Royal family.  Czar Nicolas, his wife and their five children were all executed by the Bolsheviks in 1919.  For nearly 100 years their fate was not known however with the fall of the Soviet Union a search for the bodies unearthed the probable graves.

Prince Philip of England provided a DNA sample in which mtDNA was extracted to determine if the Russian Royals were within the newly discovered graves.  Prince Philip shares the same maternal line as Queen Victoria, as did Czar Nicholas.  The DNA test proved the bodies in the graves were indeed the Romanov family, the last royals in Russia.

It is easy to give a DNA sample.  100 labs around the world provide the services.  Find an accredited one, order the kit and begin your search with genealogy DNA for ancestors the world over.