Hello John, In my own experience with the Bunch Y-DNA Surname Project, it has been much easier to recruit Americans (currently ~60 test results) than Britons (currently 0 tests), but I'm still actively seeking ways to turn that around. One thought I've had is to post to my website the first few generation of the largest British Bunch family trees I've come across in the course of one-name research -- maybe someone searching on a particular name/place will come across the trees there and be motivated to do a DNA test. Since you asked, here' the text of my direct reply to Corinne: Hi Corinne, I'm facing the same dilemma of providing a brief-but-informative overview of DNA testing for genealogy to an audience. I'm to give a ~30 minute presentation at a genealogy fair in North Carolina in June -- about half to be devoted to explaining the DNA tests used for genealogical purposes, the other half to talking about my surname project. It's the first half that I'm more concerned about! I think your presentation is fine, but everyone would "skin a cat" a bit differently, so here are my two bits: You might do well to mention the two other main types of test besides y-DNA (mitochondrial DNA and autosomal DNA), just to forestall any confusion when your potential contributors head off to FTDNA's website. I think all you would need to do is mention them, then immediately segue to, "but the type of test we're interested in HERE concerns y-DNA." If you do mention autosomal DNA testing, you might do well to say something about autosomal chromosomes and to mention that the sex chromosomes (x & y) present a special case of them. There are actually two types of mutations on y-chromosomes -- "single nucleotide polymorphism" (SNP) mutations that happen rarely and are pretty much irreversible, and "short tandem repeat" (STR) mutations that happen much more frequently and can go backward as well as forward (repeated segments can be added or subtracted from one generation to the next). HaploGROUPS are concerned with SNP mutations, and are an indication of deep (ancient) ancestry, going into the tens of thousands of years. HaploTYPES (the strings of digits posted to surname project websites) are concerned with STR mutations, and tend to be an indication of much more recent ancestry. There's a bit of confusion about this distinction caused, in part, by the fact that FTDNA (for the most part) only offers STR testing, but uses the results of an STR test (the STR haploTYPE is the result) in conjunction with their database of results to statistically "predict" an individual's SNP haploGROUP. FTDNA used to offer! a test that would directly look at an individual's SNP mutations, but they've since passed that form of testing off to National Geographic's Genographic Project, in a partnership with them (the y-DNA haplogroup results of their Geno 2.0 test can be downloaded directly into FTDNA's database). All of that is probably more information than you want to include, but it might be useful to at least draw a distinction between deep ancestry (SNP) haplogroups and recent ancestry (STR) haplotypes. Terry Barton's "World Families Network" website offers pages that attempt to explain DNA testing to the layman. You might want to add a link to something there (such as http://www.worldfamilies.net/dnatesting) for people seeking more information. I hope you find at least some of these suggestions helpful. Best wishes with your project! -Mark Bunch Othello, Washington State, USA GOONS #6223 ---------------------------------------- > To: goons@rootsweb.com > Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 15:44:30 +0000 > Subject: Re: [G] feedback request > From: goons@rootsweb.com > > As someone who took a Y-chromosome test a year ago and has included a DNA page on my website - to no avail - I would appreciate hearing from anyone experience of this. > > And, as I suspect I'm not alone in this, could I ask that those who respond to Corrine, do so publicly rather than privately. > > In the 21st century, this is an issue of potential interest to all of us. > > John Plester

Corinne’s "Dummies’ guide" looks good to me, and Mark’s comments are very helpful - the link to Terry Barton’s site was very useful. I have had very little success growing my Duignan Y-DNA project, even though some of the results from the very small number of participants seemed (to me anyway) quite interesting. However, I’m intending to post something in my ONS FaceBook group that I hope may excite a little more interest, and reading what you both had to say has given me some ideas. Fiona — 5538 - Duignan & variants worldwide > On 4 Feb 2015, at 17:44, Mark Bunch via <goons@rootsweb.com> wrote: > > Hello John, > > > In my own experience with the Bunch Y-DNA Surname Project, it has been much easier to recruit Americans (currently ~60 test results) than Britons (currently 0 tests), but I'm still actively seeking ways to turn that around. One thought I've had is to post to my website the first few generation of the largest British Bunch family trees I've come across in the course of one-name research -- maybe someone searching on a particular name/place will come across the trees there and be motivated to do a DNA test. Since you asked, here' the text of my direct reply to Corinne: > > > Hi Corinne, > > I'm facing the same dilemma of providing a brief-but-informative overview of DNA testing for genealogy to an audience. I'm to give a ~30 minute presentation at a genealogy fair in North Carolina in June -- about half to be devoted to explaining the DNA tests used for genealogical purposes, the other half to talking about my surname project. It's the first half that I'm more concerned about! > > I think your presentation is fine, but everyone would "skin a cat" a bit differently, so here are my two bits: > > You might do well to mention the two other main types of test besides y-DNA (mitochondrial DNA and autosomal DNA), just to forestall any confusion when your potential contributors head off to FTDNA's website. I think all you would need to do is mention them, then immediately segue to, "but the type of test we're interested in HERE concerns y-DNA." > If you do mention autosomal DNA testing, you might do well to say something about autosomal chromosomes and to mention that the sex chromosomes (x & y) present a special case of them. > There are actually two types of mutations on y-chromosomes -- "single nucleotide polymorphism" (SNP) mutations that happen rarely and are pretty much irreversible, and "short tandem repeat" (STR) mutations that happen much more frequently and can go backward as well as forward (repeated segments can be added or subtracted from one generation to the next). HaploGROUPS are concerned with SNP mutations, and are an indication of deep (ancient) ancestry, going into the tens of thousands of years. HaploTYPES (the strings of digits posted to surname project websites) are concerned with STR mutations, and tend to be an indication of much more recent ancestry. There's a bit of confusion about this distinction caused, in part, by the fact that FTDNA (for the most part) only offers STR testing, but uses the results of an STR test (the STR haploTYPE is the result) in conjunction with their database of results to statistically "predict" an individual's SNP haploGROUP. FTDNA used to off! er! > a test that would directly look at an individual's SNP mutations, but they've since passed that form of testing off to National Geographic's Genographic Project, in a partnership with them (the y-DNA haplogroup results of their Geno 2.0 test can be downloaded directly into FTDNA's database). All of that is probably more information than you want to include, but it might be useful to at least draw a distinction between deep ancestry (SNP) haplogroups and recent ancestry (STR) haplotypes. > Terry Barton's "World Families Network" website offers pages that attempt to explain DNA testing to the layman. You might want to add a link to something there (such as http://www.worldfamilies.net/dnatesting) for people seeking more information. > > > I hope you find at least some of these suggestions helpful. Best wishes with your project! > > -Mark Bunch > Othello, Washington State, USA > GOONS #6223 > > > ---------------------------------------- >> To: goons@rootsweb.com >> Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 15:44:30 +0000 >> Subject: Re: [G] feedback request >> From: goons@rootsweb.com >> >> As someone who took a Y-chromosome test a year ago and has included a DNA page on my website - to no avail - I would appreciate hearing from anyone experience of this. >> >> And, as I suspect I'm not alone in this, could I ask that those who respond to Corrine, do so publicly rather than privately. >> >> In the 21st century, this is an issue of potential interest to all of us. >> >> John Plester > _____________________________________________ > > RootsWeb lists - surnames, regions, software, etc http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to GOONS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message