This blog was created to provide a forum for people to discuss their experiences with maternal line genealogy, especially in regards to DNA testing.
My motivation? Aside from obsessive interest, I'd like to encourage more people to honour their maternal lines - to the same degree that paternal lines have been done traditionally.
Primarily though, I'd like to see more people invest in maternal line DNA tests, in hopes that ongoing public demand will create improvements and advances in maternal line testing.
At this time, the 2 most common DNA tests for genealogy are Y-DNA for strict paternal lines, and MtDNA for strict maternal lines (no influence of spouses along the way).
The difficulty is this: the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) one can find with a Y-DNA test, falls within what's considered a traditional genealogical time frame. For example, a person who finds an exact match on a high marker Y-DNA test, can be related to their match as close as 2 generations away or better. Read the details here: http://www.familytreedna.com/faq2.html
However, if you find an exact match on a low resolution MtDNA test (HVR1), there is a 50% chance that you shared a common grandmother in the last 52 generations (a 1000 years or so), and 50% chance that it goes way back in time.
If you match someone on a higher resolution test (HVR2), there is a 50% chance that you shared a common grandmother within the last 28 generations - about 560 years. That's a bit better, but still a longshot.
MtDNA seems to be more effective in proving relationships, rather than matching people in a database, but there are a few success stories out there...
As well, indications are that better tests might be possible in the future, either improved versions of the MtDNA tests, or completely new technologies altogether, such as X chromosome testing.
So please, tell your story here!
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3 comments:
Interesting that you should be doing this. My own (maternal) cousin, who just so happens to live in B.C., has been doing this, and gave me some vital information about the maternal DNA line we share. I wonder if you know her -- her name is Kitty Russell Prophet. She lives in Coquitlam.
Sorry I didn't identify myself before. I seem to have pushed the wrong button.
Interesting that you should be doing this. My own (maternal) cousin, who just so happens to live in B.C., has been doing this, and gave me some vital information about the maternal DNA line we share. I wonder if you know her -- her name is Kitty Russell Prophet. She lives in Coquitlam.
Phooey, I seem to have no knack for this. I wanted a URL on my name. I'll try again.
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