Bookmark
Us
Print PreviewDNA Newsletter November 21, 2002
Facts & Genes from Family Tree DNA
November 21, 2002 Volume 1, Issue 5
In This Issue
Editor's CornerIn the News: Family Tree DNA announces the ANCESTRY by DNA test
Recruiting Participants: 6 Action items
Understanding Your Results: Ethnic Origin
Haplotypes: Convergence
Case Studies in Genetic Genealogy
Managing a Surname Project: Poor Documentation
Spot Light: Witt Whitt Surname Project
In the Next Issue
Editor's Corner
We enjoy hearing about the results of your DNA testing. One customer wrote:
"Just a word of thanks to you for the work you are doing on this project. The information I received today has already helped direct my genealogical work into a more focused and well-researched area, and has saved innumerable hours of work! Thanks for making this testing available, and for providing it in a financially accessible form. It's appreciated!"
We at Family Tree DNA would like to thank everyone for their suggestions, comments, and submissions. Your input is appreciated. Send you comments, suggestions, tips, questions, and tell us about your Surname Project to: editor@familytreedna.com. We hope you enjoy this issue.
In the News: Family Tree DNA announces the ANCESTRYbyDNA test
Family Tree DNA is pleased to announce that the ANCESTRYbyDNA test is now available. The ANCESTRYbyDNA test was developed by DNAPrint Genomics, Inc., and is available through Family Tree DNA.
The ANCESTRYbyDNA test will measure a person's Personal Anthropology and their corresponding ancestral ethnic proportions. The result of the test is a report showing your percentages of each ethnic ancestry or major human population group. For example, your result could be 18% Native American, 70% European, and 12% African.
Perhaps you have wondered whether you have any Native American ancestry, or maybe you are just curious to find out more about yourself. The ANCESTRYbyDNA test will unlock the secrets to your ancestors contained in your DNA.
The ANCESTRYbyDNA test analyzes your DNA to determine which of the major human populations your ancestors belonged to, and what percentage you have inherited of these groups. These four geographical areas and the corresponding major human population groups are: Native American, East Asian, European, and sub-Saharan African.
This test, developed by DNAPrint Genomics, utilizes SNP's that are diagnostic of a person's continent of origin. SNP's are deep ancestral locations along the human genome, and have a different result when tested with different peoples.
To order the ANCESTRYbyDNA test, click on this link: http://www.familytreedna.com/products.html#dnaprintorder
Recruiting Participants: 5 Action Items
Are you wondering why the XYZ surname project has over 50 participants, and you only have 6 participant so far? Do you look at your web site and correspondence, and wonder what is their secret to recruiting participants?
The answer may be that they have a larger population of their surname from which to recruit participants. Your Surname Project may actually have a higher percentage of the surname participating than the project with over 50 participants.
It is common knowledge that Smith is the most frequent surname in the US. The chart below shows the 10 most frequent surnames in the US in the 1990 census. For each surname, the percentage represents the percentage of persons in the US with this surname, and the Rank is the ranking of the surname with 1 being the most frequent. For example, in the chart below, 8 surnames are more frequent than Moore.
Surname % Rank
SMITH 1.006 1
JOHNSON 0.810 2
WILLIAMS 0.699 3
JONES 0.621 4
BROWN 0.621 5
DAVIS 0.480 6
MILLER 0.424 7
WILSON 0.339 8
MOORE 0.312 9
TAYLOR 0.311 10
Assume that a person started a Smith Surname project. There are over 2 million
Smith's in the US, of which over 1 million would be males. This is quite a few
people. If they signed up 50 people, they have only signed up a very very small
percentage of the Smith surname.
Compare this to the surname Mumma, which is .001 % of the population, and its Rank is 15,109. There is a much smaller pool of Mumma potential participants. If we look at the surname Norin, their number is so small in the US 1990 census, that it does not even get a result when the 1990 US census Surname Frequency is searched.
You can find out what percentage of the US population holds your surname by going to the US Government census site at: http://www.census.gov/genealogy/www/freqnames.html
The site also covers the methodology they used to come up with the percentages and rank for the surnames.
The US population on April 1, 2000 was 281,421,906 people. If you would like
a rough idea of the males with your surname in the US, first search the site
above to get the percentage for your surname. Multiply that percentage times the
population of the 2000 census. In our rough calculation, we will assume that 50%
are males, so now divide by 2. This is an estimate of the number of males with
your surname. To estimate the number of adult males, multiply by .7. The formula
is:
Percentage * 281,421,906 / 2 * .7 = adult males with surname
You can also find out how common your surname is in the UK at the site:
http://www.taliesin-arlein.net/names/search.php
There are 269,353 surnames in the UK database, representing 54,412,638 people.
This database is provided by the Office of National Statistics of the UK, and
gives an actual count of the number of persons for each surname.
These two databases used different methodologies to come up with their results.
Rare surnames will not get a search result in the US census site, while they
will in the UK site, even if there is only one person with the surname.
Now that you have an idea of the size of your potential prospect pool, lets
assume that only 1/3 are interested in genealogy, so you now divide by 3. The
end result is a very rough approximation of the number of potential participants
available. If you are only using the Internet to find your participants, cut
this number in half for the US. Other countries have a smaller percentage of
persons on the Internet than the
US.
As your first step, you have probably posted your project to as many sites and mailing lists that are applicable and allow such postings. You have probably also put up a web site, even if it is only one page. Most likely you have contacted all those persons whom you had contact with in the past regarding genealogy.
Here are some suggestions to consider to make more people aware of your project:
- Consult the Directory of Family Associations. If there is a Family Association for your surname, contact them and offer to write an article for their publication about your project.
- Register your web site with familysearch.org. Everyone searching on your surname at Familysearch.org will find your web site. You must first register yourself with familysearch.org to be able to submit your website for consideration.
- Visit your local Family History Center, and offer to show the Genealogy by Genetics video to the staff and patrons. This might not find you any participants, but if every Group Administrator takes an hour to do this, then all the Surname Projects might find participants.
- Review your web site. It needs to be easy to understand for those not familiar with DNA testing, and clearly present the benefits to the participant. What will they gain from participating? How will it help them in their research? What might the results tell them?
- Find out if there are any genealogy clubs or organizations in your area, and volunteer to show the video, and answer questions.
DNA testing for genealogy is a new field, and we are all pioneers. Most likely you have learned a lot about the field as a result of your testing. Those of us who have learned about DNA testing and how to interpret the results are aware of the benefits and how the testing can assist us with our genealogy research. The majority of those interested in Family History research most likely aren't aware of Genetic Genealogy. If you volunteer an hour to help your fellow genealogists understand this new tool, and help more people become knowledgeable, all of us will benefit as we seek participants for our testing.
Understanding your Results: Ethnic Origin
Whether you are just starting a Surname Project, or ordered a test for yourself to learn about DNA testing for genealogy, everyone experiences the situation of receiving the first test result, and what now? You have one test result, and what do you do with a string of 12 or 25 numbers? Can they tell you anything?
In the situation of the one or first test result, most likely you will not find others to whom you are related. The odds of a random match to some one to whom you are related when you are the first of your surname to test is slim to none. Instead, you might find some clues to your ethnic origin.
To find clues about your ethnic origin, Log into FamilyTreeDna.com, and at your Personal Page click on Recent Ethnic Origins to search this data base. The results show others whom you match, or who are a near match, and their ancestor's ethnic origin.
The information on their ethnic origin is provided by each testee. The information provided for ethnic origin is only as accurate as the knowledge held by the testee regarding their ancestors. Testees are instructed to answer unknown for ethnic origin when their ancestor's origin is not known, or not certain. Sometimes the origin the testees provided is incorrect.
Incorrect origins provided by testees may lead to search results that do not seem logical. For example: Assume your ancestors are from England, but your search results show the ethnic origin of your matches as England, France, AND one match shows an origin of Native American. Does that mean that your ancestor's relatives may have lived in England and France? Yes. Does it mean that your ancestor was also a Native American? No. It means that a settler in America had a child with a Native American woman, the child was brought up as a Native American, and that, over time, the family has "forgotten" the European ancestor, and believes their ancestry to be Native American.
Over the span of generations people tend to move, as do borders, so nationality or ethnicticity becomes subjective. For example, testees may enter Germany for ethnic origin, because the land of their ancestors is in Germany today, but the land had been held by Denmark for many centuries.
Your search should return at least one match, namely yourself. If your results show 3 matches from Ireland and 1 from Scotland, and you have reported to us that your ancestors came from Scotland, then you are the Scotland result. The other 3 matches are either from the Family Tree DNA database or from the databases we have been supplied by the University of Arizona.
To see how your ethnic origin is recorded in our database, click on the link titled Update Contact Information. You can also update your paternal and maternal ethnic origin on this Update Contact Information page.
Exact matches show people who are the closest to you genetically. The Ethnic origin shows where they have been reported to have lived. Since many persons migrated since the beginning of time, you will typically see matches in more than one country.
For information purposes, the Recent Ethnic Origin search also displays results for those who are not an exact matches, but are 'near matches'. A near match is either one step or two steps from your result. An exact match is 12/12 or 25/25. A one step match is 11/12 or 24/25. A two step match is 10/12 or 23/25. The value of the near matches is to see where those who may be related migrated over time.
Other databases available that you can search are:
EuropeTo: http://ystr.charite.de/index_gr.html
US: http://www.ystr.org/usa/
In some cases you will not find any results. This is because only a very small percentage of the world population has been tested and are in the databases. The Ystr databases, plus the FamilyTreeDNA Recent Ethnic Origin database together hold about 21,000 test results. Every day more results are added, and it is only a matter of time before you will have some matches. Your test with Family Tree DNA includes access to our databases for matching.
If you do not find any results in the two YSTR databases shown above, try entering your result, and then eliminating a marker, and do this until you have a smaller set of markers that results in some matches. This might provide some clues regarding where your markers have occurred geographically.
The value of DNA testing comes from comparing your results to others. If you have started a Surname Project, you will most likely have results from others soon. If you only tested yourself, you may want to consider either using DNA testing to solve one of your Family History questions, or starting a Surname Project.
Haplotypes: Convergence
A Haplotype is the 12 Marker result from testing the Y Chromosome. Some Haplotypes are common, with a high frequency of occurrence and some Haplotypes are rare, with a low frequency of occurrence.
Many people have common Haplotypes, which means that they would expect to find matches to those who do not have their surname. This occurs because we were all at one point related. As the different branches of the Adam + Eve tree evolved throughout time, mutations occurred, forming different Haplotypes. Thousands of years later, you have many different Haplotypes. Due to these mutations, you could have two branches that mutate to an identical Haplotype. This is called convergence.
If your Haplotype matches an individual with a different surname, and your genealogy research shows no evidence of an extra-marital event or adoption, your match may be the result of Convergence.
The example below shows convergence between the ABC surname and the XYZ surname, using just 3 markers to keep the example simple. Notice how the mutations over time bring two different Family Lines to the point that they match.
Time ABC XYZ
1000 A.D. 12 24 15 14 25 13
1200 13 24 15 14 25 13
1400 13 24 15 14 25 14
1600 13 24 15 14 24 14
1800 13 24 15 13 24 14
2000 13 24 14 13 24 14
Convergence explains why a haplotype will match others with a different surname.
DNA testing for genealogy is not a substitute for genealogy research, but is instead a companion. Results that match must be considered in light of the genealogy research. If you match someone with a different surname, most likely there wasn't an adoption or extra marital event, and your match may be the result of convergence.
Case Studies in Genetic Genealogy
In each issue of the Newsletter, we look at what Genetic Genealogy will do for your Family History research. This article is a continuation of the topic, with situations, called "Case Studies", followed by a recommendation. The objective of the case studies is to present different situations you may encounter in your family history research, and how DNA testing can be applied.
Case Study
I have participated in a Surname Project, and had quite surprising results. All the other Lines of my surname are related, except my Line. We have all traced our ancestors to England. Not only is my line not related, but also my ethnic origin is Eastern European. What do I do now?
Recommendation
I am sure you were quite surprised, and perhaps disappointed. The first step is to validate the result for your Line or family tree. Since onlyone person was tested for your Line, we recommend testing additional males from each branch on your tree, to see if they all match each other. If they end up matching, your result is probably due to either an extra marital event, an adoption, or a name or spelling change. In reviewing the surnames of Eastern Europe, your surname is pronounced as the surname in England, only the spelling is different. A review of your Family History shows that the research and documentation for the time period 1800-1850 is quite sparse. Many more records are available in England for this time period, including parish registers and wills. I would suggest that more family history research might shed some light on the situation.
Managing a Genetic Genealogy Project: Participants with poor documentation
Occasionally you might run across a willing participant for your Surname Project who has a poorly documented family tree, perhaps even built entirely out of the International Genealogical Index (IGI) by matching surnames. Your dilemma is that the prospective participant appears to be from a Line you haven't tested yet, but without better research you can't be sure. What comes first, the testing or the research?
This is a complex issue. If you turn away the participant and suggest that they do more research, they may become discouraged, and never return. If the participant tests, and gets unexpected results, they may become an unhappy participant.
One solution is to fill in the gaps of their research yourself. You may not
have the time to take this step. A better solution may be to communicate the
situation to the participant, and let them make the decision to test now with
the possibility of
unexpected results, and also encourage them to do further research. Perhaps from
your research experience, you may be able to suggest to the participant specific
sources for them to investigate. Most likely, they want to do more research, and
just need some guidance and direction.
It will be a win-win for both the Surname Project and the participant if you are able to achieve both additional research on their part, and their participation.
Spot Light: Witt - Whitt Surname Project
Objective: Prove or disprove the genealogy research of the Witt / Whitt Line
from Old Virginia
There are three identified Lines or families of the Witt / Whitt surname in the
US. One family Line that today spells their surname as both Witt and Whitt
begins with German immigrants in both South Carolina and Pennsylvania in the
early 1700s. A second family Line that today spells their surname as Witt and
DeWitt, began in New England around 1640 with an English immigrant by the name
of John Witt. The third family Line that today spells their surname as Witt and
Whitt began with an individual named John Witt or Whitt, who first appears in
early records in 1670 in colonial Virginia. The records relating to John show
the spelling of his name both as Witt and as Whitt. It was from John Witt-Whitt
that the Witt-Whitt Family of Old Virginia began.
Early Virginia records, John Witt-Whitt was the father of at least four sons, John Witt II, William Witt, Edward Whitt, and Richard Whitt.
The participants in the Witt-Whitt Surname Project are all documented descendants of the 4 identified sons of John Witt-Whitt: John Witt II, William Witt, Edward Whitt, and Richard Whitt. For each of these sons, at least two documented male descendants participated in the Project. All participants took the 25 marker test.
The results for this Surname Project are that the majority of participants matched 25/25, and a few matched 24/25. Therefore, the Project has confirmed the genealogy research, and shows that the participants are related and have a common ancestor.
When combined with surviving colonial Virginia records for the surnames Witt and Whitt, the Witt-Whitt DNA study determined John Witt II, William Witt, Edward Whitt, and Richard Whitt were brothers and their father was the immigrant John Witt-Whitt of Charles City County, Virginia. The Witt-Whitt DNA Surname Project also identified the common ancestor of these four men was from England, or possibly Scotland.
A DNA baseline for the Witt-Whitt family of Old Virginia has now been
established. Other descendants who have incomplete records, or where records no
longer exist and preclude the determination of a family's origin, may take the
25 marker DNA test to determine if they are related to the Witt-Whitt Line from
old Virginia. If other descendants find that they match, they can contact one of
the participants in the baseline study to share the Witt-Whitt family of Old
Virginia ancestral history for their
family line.
The next phase of the Witt-Whitt surname project is to identify the county in England or Scotland from which John Witt-Whitt originated.
In the Next Issue
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Facts & Genes. Please feel free to contact the editor with your comments, feedback, questions to be addressed, as well as suggestions for future articles. If you would like your Surname Project featured in our Spotlight column in a future issue, please send an email telling us about your project. If you are a Project Manager and can help others with tips or suggestions, please contact the editor: editor@familytreedna.com
REPRINT POLICY:
We encourage the circulation of "Facts & Genes" by newsletters and lists
providing that you credit the author, include our copyright information
(Copyright 2002, Family Tree DNA), and cite "Facts & Genes"
(http://www.familytreeDNA.com/facts_genes.asp) as the source.
This page was last updated on: May 18 2008
