Every man has his mother's mtDNA; it just cannot be passed on. mtDNA is useful for determining geographical connections but not surname connections. Shirley ---------- Original Message ---------- From: David Bartley via <cotyroneireland@rootsweb.com> To: Tom Walden <twalden27@gmail.com> Cc: "cotyroneireland@rootsweb.com" <cotyroneireland@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [CoTyIre] COTYRONEIRELAND Digest, Vol 10, Issue 113 Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 13:34:15 -0400 I think you’re a little off here, Tom, about the possibility of an individual carrying his or her father’s mtDNA. Actually, each individual carries only his or her mother’s mtDNA. Therefore, tracing back through mtDNA is exactly analogous to tracing via the Y chromosome. One gives the paternal line, whereas the other, the maternal. Either line is very limited in describing the genetic makeup of an individual. For example, going back 6 generations, often there are 32 pairs of great^4grandparents as ancestors, each of which can have genetic influence on the individual in question (not just your single pair of great^4grandparents named Walden). David > On May 29, 2015, at 11:48 AM, Tom Walden via <cotyroneireland@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Ancestry.com has a lot of ability to match you up with everyone in their > database so it has a lot of information that comes up including exact > matches with shared people in your tree and in the tree of a match. I've > often been able to add new information and connections. The ethnicity > information is interesting. I'd no idea I'd turn out to be 51% Irish. > I do have a beef with ancestry.com though. I originally did a YDNA test > for the male lineage because that was a brick wall only a couple > generations back. The YDNA feature gave me some interesting matches and > I'd had great hopes that it would get me connected to others. However > ancestry.com phased out that feature and stopped offering the test and so > no new results were available. YDNA is a great tool for searching out your > male lineage and I'm still irate about them dropping the test. MTDNA is > less useful because each female carries two copies and children can inherit > either their father's one copy or either of their mother's copies. YDNA is > a single thread tracing back to every male's common ancestor with distance > giving increased mutation variations. > Family tree DNA is the way to go for YDNA testing now. Ancestry.com has a > lot to offer if you have a tree with a lot of people in it to match up with > others who've taken the test. > A side note: We had an oral history hint that the Waldens were whalers > from Ireland. My recent breakthrough connected me up with Nantucket and > Martha's Vineyard where the name was spelled Waldron and the men were > indeed whalers or in related trades. Now I'm not sure if we are Waldron > whalers from Ireland or Waldron whalers from the Islands. Maybe DNA will > tell me some day. > Tom Walden > > >> >> Hello all >> I hope this hasn't already been discussed but... >> Ancestry has started offering their DNA matching service in Ireland. >> Has anyone tried it yet? I'm wondering if Irish folks are jumping into it >> at all. I'm hoping for a robust Irish database! >> Bridgid >> Toronto >> >> >> >> >> I still feel family tree DNA is the best company to test with. Not sure >> what >> Ancestry offers because I haven?t heard anything good about it. >> >> Regards, >> >> Michael Kelly >> >> Emporium, >> Cameron County, >> Pennsylvania, >> United States of America >> > -- > TOM WALDEN > > 3707 HIGHWAY 13 > STITES, IDAHO 83552 > ------------- > Our community web-site: http://cotyroneireland.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COTYRONEIRELAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------- Our community web-site: http://cotyroneireland.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to COTYRONEIRELAND-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message