Lacie's Genealogy Blog

Last week, I saw a video on my recommendations feed. Of course, this intrigued me because the topic was about DNA. We all have seen the DNA testing commercials and the excitement they can bring to many people, but that isn't always the case. Over the years, the popularity of DNA tests has exploded. People have become interested in learning about their ancestry and where they came from. There is another thing about DNA tests-they can reveal family secrets. You probably have seen articles, videos, and even books about the effect on people's lives of DNA testing. This may change the way someone thinks about themselves and or their identity. In the theoretical example, "Sally" took a DNA test as well as her immediate family. 6 weeks later, she checked her results, all her family matched her, but Sally's sister didn't share enough DNA to be considered as a full sibling. Sally's mother tells her that sh...

This is a continuation of my post  Having a DNA Plan in Place  with a worked example. The 1st step is to formulate a research question or goal.  My goal is to identify who is the mother of my great-grandmother. You can view my posts about this challenge here . Next is to  choose a DNA test.   Since I am trying to identify a mother, I need to use mtDNA testing at FamilyTreeDNA. The 3rd step is to find a candidate. In the chart below, I created to illustrate the possible candidates to take a test.  Brother 1, 3, and 4 are now deceased. Brother #2 is the best candidate. Remember, mothers pass mtDNA to all their children. There are no links that break this maternal line.   If Brother #2 wouldn't be willing to submit a sample,  I would need to  trace down  a descendant of the probable mothers' sibling(s), then hope that the person(s) would take a test. Hopefully, this post will help illustrate what a testing ...

Do you want to test more relatives? Do you want to incorporate DNA into your research project? If you said yes to any of these questions, it's time to start creating a plan. Like all great plans, start with a great question. Ask yourself this question: What is your goal or research problem?   For example, you could ask the following: Who is the father of William Jackson?   Once you have your goal or question, it's officially time to say: "What DNA Test Should I (or relative) Take?" Here is a reminder of the 3 types of DNA tested: Y-DNA- Direct paternal  line . Pass down Y Chromosome from father to son. Mitochondrial DNA- Direct maternal line. Mt Chromosone passed down to daughter and son. But stops at the son. Autosomal DNA- DNA   passed down from all lines. Each generation will pass less and less DNA and eventually will be zero. The BIG 5 DNA companies offer the following DNA tests: Autosomal DNA Primarily a British...

(Updated 27 August July 2019) Thank you, everyone, for viewing this post. Everyone has a DNA match that doesn't have a tree. Don't get discouraged by this. There are many other ways to find that relationship to identify the common ancestor. A method I found very useful in my own res earch. T his method might not work all the time , but 95% it will. This was a session from Rootstech 2018. This method was created was by Lisa Louise Cooke and Diahan Southard. I tweaked the method a little bit, so all the steps won't be shown.  Choosing Your Match It's best to choose a male match because males don't usually change their last name. The trees can be either private or no tree at all. Clues To Names in Usernames This DNA Match shown below has a tree, but when I first did this method (Mar 2018) the match didn't have it at the time. One of the things to look at is the username.  Think about "Is the username a name or contain a name?" ...