Donna: I presume you are asking about DNA testing for genealogy research? This is just an example. Contact me directly and I will give you more specifics. Well, in the 1960s, I was stuck with researching my John Cobb who came to CA in the early 1850s. I thought this would be my easiest family to research since we 'knew' a lot about him from family stories AND we had his biography published in the 1880 Napa and Lake County History book. A piece of cake I thought. Well, on digging into this history a bit, we realized that neither of his parents nor his siblings were named in that history, none of their family history was included and some of the dates did not match what we found in our research. My grandfather, Edward Burnham Hinton (his mother was Mary H. O. Cobb - daughter of John and Esther Deming Cobb) was born on the Cobb ranch in Lake County where he was raised by his grandparents, John and Esther Cobb. He did not pass down that vital information about the Cobb family and it is probable that he never asked the question. Following the Cobb family migration trail back to Henry County Kentucky where John said he was born in 1814, I found, through Genweb mail lists, that one of John's three sisters was named Mary. So far so good. Fortunately, the descendant of this sister of John was also a genealogy researcher. It ONLY took both of us over 15 years to piece together the early story of the Cobb children, the names of another sister and their parents. About this time, I found the Cobb/Cobbs website and the gathering of Cobb DNA testing being done through the generosity of the mother of one of the Cobbs who also did not know from which family he descended. This may be getting a bit convoluted, but it is how we unraveled this mystery. Knowing which group of Cobbs from among the 9 we found in these tests, we could determine which Cobb family from which we descend. This was needed to know our direction to focus our research. I contacted one of our Cobb relatives who graciously dontated his DNA for this family history test. The part of the DNA used in family history is not the part used by the forensic detectives to find people as seen on TV programs, what is used is considered 'junk DNA' and this junk DNA looks into the past family members by using 'markers' with numbers. You can learn more about this on a generic DNA site [1]www.worldfamilies.org. If I had this site early on, it would have saved me years of research. We now had OUR Cobb DNA and by comparing the markers and numbers, we learned we matched (with what is now considered to be a preliminary test of 12 markers - now, genealogists are using a minimum of 37 or more markers for comparison) the group of similar marker/numbers to the Ambrose Cobbs family who moved into York, Virginia in the early 1600s. This narrowed down our search greatly since there are at least 9 known DNA groups, each with different markers/numbers. Knowing which family group to research is VERY helpful. DNA testing is gender specific - meaning that MY DNA cannot be used for this determination as MY DNA goes from me back in time through my female lines while my cousin's male DNA goes back in time through the father-son direct line. A lady from Indiana found both of us on a mail list and she told us that John's mother was HER relative - we still had no father's name but census records gave us two Cobb names to go on, two Cobb men sailed down the Ohio River from Virginia to Kentucky/Indiana - but which one was our Cobb 'father?.' We (several of us) are continuing to search for the generations between 1600s and 1814. We have found the name of John's parents and one of his uncles, and we are still researching for earlier generations - most of the Cobb families we contact claim no knowledge of our William and Thomas Cobb who are the father and uncle of my John. We know that John claimed his father was born in Virginia - this from a later census. Well folks, Virginia, at that time was Augusta County, VA went from the east coast to the Mississippi river - until shortly before John was born - an easy area to research? At least, with the DNA testing, our research area was narrowed. We have a similar problem with my Hinton family line. We can trace our direct family line, with certainty, back to George Henton in PA (records find he was purchasing land in 1717 and he is mentioned in the James Boone history of the 1700s as sailing from Bristol, England to Philadelphia with their family in 1717 - so far so good. Then comes a big controversy among Boone historians who disclaim this as fact. I will not go into the controversy as that only detracts from what I am finding as 'truth' - proof by using actual records. I learned that one of my male cousins - descendant through a son of my George Henton - had his DNA tested. By using his DNA markers/numbers, we can now pinpoint which of the Hinton/Henton families that George is genetically related by matching the marker/numbers. This narrows the research from among several/many Hinton and Henton families of England. So, in a quick nutshell, the comparison of DNA markers and their corresponding numbers are most helpful in narrowing your research to the correct family line. Just don't get bogged down with all the 'way back in time' information that these sites love to tell you - how many thousand of years your family can be 'traced' to which part of the world. That isn't what you are needing to know - at this time - to find your nearer relatives. Sorry if this seems long, but DNA testing is not well understood. Margie -----Original Message----- From: djsmith4927@comcast.net Sent: Apr 17, 2014 11:46 AM To: Margie , norcal@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Is anybody there Margie, can you explain that more? Thanks, donna References 1. http://www.worldfamilies.org/

Well said Margie... I might add that the National Geographic also has DNA testing available to those of us who want to know more about from whence we came!!! Happy holidays to all...???????? Judie Cook On Apr 17, 2014 4:02 PM, "Margie" <twigsnbranches@earthlink.net> wrote: > > Donna: I presume you are asking about DNA testing for genealogy > research? > This is just an example. Contact me directly and I will give you more > specifics. > > > Well, in the 1960s, I was stuck with researching my John Cobb who came > to CA > in the early 1850s. I thought this would be my easiest family to > research > since we 'knew' a lot about him from family stories AND we had his > biography > published in the 1880 Napa and Lake County History book. A piece of > cake I > thought. > > > Well, on digging into this history a bit, we realized that neither of > his > parents nor his siblings were named in that history, none of their > family > history was included and some of the dates did not match what we found > in > our research. > > > My grandfather, Edward Burnham Hinton (his mother was Mary H. O. Cobb - > daughter of John and Esther Deming Cobb) was born on the Cobb ranch in > Lake > County where he was raised by his grandparents, John and Esther Cobb. > He did > not pass down that vital information about the Cobb family and it is > probable that he never asked the question. > > > Following the Cobb family migration trail back to Henry County Kentucky > where John said he was born in 1814, I found, through Genweb mail lists, > that one of John's three sisters was named Mary. So far so good. > Fortunately, the descendant of this sister of John was also a genealogy > researcher. It ONLY took both of us over 15 years to piece together the > early story of the Cobb children, the names of another sister and their > parents. > > > About this time, I found the Cobb/Cobbs website and the gathering of > Cobb > DNA testing being done through the generosity of the mother of one of > the > Cobbs who also did not know from which family he descended. > > > This may be getting a bit convoluted, but it is how we unraveled this > mystery. Knowing which group of Cobbs from among the 9 we found in > these > tests, we could determine which Cobb family from which we descend. > This was > needed to know our direction to focus our research. > I contacted one of our Cobb relatives who graciously dontated his DNA > for > this family history test. > > > The part of the DNA used in family history is not the part used by the > forensic detectives to find people as seen on TV programs, what is > used is considered 'junk DNA' and this junk DNA looks into the past > family > members by using 'markers' with numbers. You can learn more about this > on a > generic DNA site [1]www.worldfamilies.org. If I had this site early > on, it > would have saved me years of research. We now had OUR Cobb DNA and by > comparing the markers and numbers, we learned we matched (with what is > now > considered to be a preliminary test of 12 markers - now, genealogists > are > using a minimum of 37 or more markers for comparison) the group of > similar > marker/numbers to the Ambrose Cobbs family who moved into York, > Virginia in > the early 1600s. This narrowed down our search greatly since there > are at > least 9 known DNA groups, each with different markers/numbers. > > > Knowing which family group to research is VERY helpful. DNA testing is > gender specific - meaning that MY DNA cannot be used for this > determination > as MY DNA goes from me back in time through my female lines while my > cousin's male DNA goes back in time through the father-son direct line. > > > A lady from Indiana found both of us on a mail list and she told us that > John's mother was HER relative - we still had no father's name but > census > records gave us two Cobb names to go on, two Cobb men sailed down the > Ohio > River from Virginia to Kentucky/Indiana - but which one was our Cobb > 'father?.' > > > We (several of us) are continuing to search for the generations between > 1600s and 1814. We have found the name of John's parents and one of his > uncles, and we are still researching for earlier generations - most of > the > Cobb families we contact claim no knowledge of our William and Thomas > Cobb > who are the father and uncle of my John. We know that John claimed his > father was born in Virginia - this from a later census. Well folks, > Virginia, at that time was Augusta County, VA went from the east coast > to > the Mississippi river - until shortly before John was born - an easy > area to > research? > > > At least, with the DNA testing, our research area was narrowed. > > > We have a similar problem with my Hinton family line. We can trace our > direct family line, with certainty, back to George Henton in PA (records > find he was purchasing land in 1717 and he is mentioned in the James > Boone > history of the 1700s as sailing from Bristol, England to Philadelphia > with > their family in 1717 - so far so good. > > > Then comes a big controversy among Boone historians who disclaim this as > fact. I will not go into the controversy as that only detracts from > what I > am finding as 'truth' - proof by using actual records. > > > I learned that one of my male cousins - descendant through a son of my > George Henton - had his DNA tested. By using his DNA markers/numbers, > we > can now pinpoint which of the Hinton/Henton families that George is > genetically related by matching the marker/numbers. This narrows the > research from among several/many Hinton and Henton families of England. > > > So, in a quick nutshell, the comparison of DNA markers and their > corresponding numbers are most helpful in narrowing your research to the > correct family line. Just don't get bogged down with all the 'way back > in > time' information that these sites love to tell you - how many thousand > of > years your family can be 'traced' to which part of the world. That > isn't > what you are needing to know - at this time - to find your nearer > relatives. > > > Sorry if this seems long, but DNA testing is not well understood. > > > Margie > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: djsmith4927@comcast.net > Sent: Apr 17, 2014 11:46 AM > To: Margie , norcal@rootsweb.com > Subject: Re: [NORCAL] Is anybody there > > Margie, can you explain that more? Thanks, donna > > References > > 1. http://www.worldfamilies.org/ > > > ----------------------------------------- > NORCAL ARCHIVES: > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/ > Enter NORCAL. Browse by month. > Or click the "Search all archives" link to search by keyword. > ----------------------------------------- > To post a message to the NORCAL mailing list, send an email to > NORCAL@rootsweb.com > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > NORCAL-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >