Very good Nancy-- Keep up the good work Jim Phillips ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 01, 2006 6:22 PM Subject: [PHILLIPS] The Role of DNA Testing in Genealogical Research > This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. > > Classification: Query > > Message Board URL: > > http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/nNABAIB/7591 > > Message Board Post: > > DNA testing for genealogical purposes has become very popular in the last > five years, and about half a dozen companies have sprung up offering DNA > testing at relatively affordable prices to the general public. The main > emphasis has been on surname projects. Men who share the same last name > or some variant of it are recruited to take a DNA test, and then results > are compared to discover which of them are related within a genealogical > time frame, which generally means within the past 600 years. In Europe, > permanent surnames only came into general use by 1400 AD. By joining a > surname DNA project, people interested in family history with matching DNA > can compare notes and make connections, perhaps enabling them to trace > back several generations further than they could without DNA comparisons. > Also, DNA analysis can reveal the general region where the ancestor of the > participant originated; ie, Scandinavia, central Europe, the > Mediterranean, the British Isles and Western Eur! > opean seaboard, etc. > > The DNA tests are not cheap, but participants get a break on the cost if > they participate in a surname project. For example, at familytreedna.com, > the 12 marker test costs $99, the 25 marker test costs $148, the 37 marker > test costs $189 and the 59 marker test costs $269. I think the 25 marker > test is the least expensive test with the best results. The 12 marker test > results in too many random matches with men who have different last names, > indicating relatedness before 1400 AD when surnames became firmly > established in most parts of Europe. The DNA test is painless and only > requires swabbing the inside of the cheek with a special scraper. The lab > mails a kit to the participant and then the participant mails the kit back > to the lab. The kit is assigned a number and the name of the participant > is never published, thereby assuring privacy and confidentiality. Only > men can be tested effectively in surname DNA projects for two reasons: 1) > the DNA markers studied are located o! > n the Y chromosome which is only found in men and 2) traditionally, women > do not retain the same surname from generation to generation. However, > women who are interested in family history can still participate by > recruiting fathers, brothers, uncles or male cousins to take the DNA test. > > I am a woman and an active volunteer in a Phillips DNA project called > Phillips Worldwide located at this site on the internet: > http://www.familytreedna.com/public/PhillipsWorldwide. If you click on "Y > Results" at the top of the page, it will take you to a DNA chart that > shows the test results of all the participants. Participants are requested > to post their earliest known Phillips ancestor on the DNA chart. The > project has attracted over 95 participants so far and 13 unrelated > families of Phillips have been identified. In addition, there are over 30 > participants who do not match any other Phillips in the project. Over 80% > of the participants belong to Haplogroup R1b, which is the most common > haplogroup of the British Isles and the western seaboard of Europe. > > If you have any questions about DNA testing for genealogical purposes (or > questions about Phillips families in general, especially in the South), > please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or the > administrator of the Phillips Worldwide DNA project, Harry Shannon > Phillips, at [email protected] (Shannon goes by his middle name.) > We are both very excited about the possibilities of this new tool in > genealogical research. By the way, all of us at Phillips Worldwide are > volunteers and none of us are getting paid to help with this project. > > Thank you for taking the time to read this message. > > Sincerely, > Nancy Kiser > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.407 / Virus Database: 268.12.11/460 - Release Date: 10/1/2006 > >