I'm new to this group, however I wanted to comment that understanding Y-DNA results is not simple by any means. You may learn your general male line haplogroup by getting just the 12 marker Y-DNA test (for women you'd have to submit your father or brother's sample), however there are more extensive tests that can better define the haplogroup. For instance, I've gone from 12-markers to 37 markers to 67 markers to 111-markers, plus a deep clade (SNP) test. My haplogroup has gone from R1b to R1b1a2a1a1b4 and it matches the Scottish Modal with little variation. However it doesn't end there. Since my SNP marker L21 was positive and all the others tested thus far have been negative, that led me to the R-L21+ Y-DNA Project, which has several hundred members who are all at least R1b1 and positive for L21, with many having fairly well defined haplogroups as well as being positive for other SNPs. However all are searching for even more defining information to indicate where our distant ancestors came from. While I fall into the Scottish Cluster there, many other clusters are not Scottish. Plus,! there are subgroups of the Scottish Cluster that are still being defined as more advanced SNP tests become available. Matches to your Y-DNA results may help define your Y-DNA ancestor's origin and if you're very fortunate, you may find someone with the same or a similar surname who can help extend your genealogy research and possibly better define your common ancestor's origin. Early in my Y-DNA tests and at a roadblock in my paternal genealogy research, I was fortunate to locate someone with the same surname who I matched perfectly at 12, then 37, then 67 markers, although the most recent extension to 111 markers shows some slight variation on a couple of the more mutatable markers. However by working together over about two years, we found our common ancestor 7 generations back and I now have distant cousins who are descendants of a different son of that ancestor. We were fortunate to find that our genealogical research indicated Scottish or Scots-Irish ancestry, with our common male ancestor being born somewhere in Ulster (North Ireland) in 1731, migrating to what was to become the U.S. by 1755, moving into what were largely Scots-Irish areas in VA, NC, and TN by the time of the American Revolution. We also found he was a neighbor and hunting/exploring companion of Daniel Boone in Rowan County NC and was one of the Overmountain Men in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. What I want to indicate is that your DNA testing should not be just stand-alone information, but serve to assist and augment your genealogy research. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tests can likewise provide general origins of your maternal line, however it is difficult to determine exact origins. It is also difficult to augment with your genealogy research since wives' maiden names were often not recorded, especially as you go further back in time. While my mtDNA results shows Native American ancestry, which is backed up by some oral family history, exact names and origins are not available before 1850 for my maternal line. Matches to my mtDNA results are few and only indicate a common Native American female ancestor somewhere in the eastern area of what is now the U.S. I don't want to discourage you or anyone else from getting DNA tests done, since the results can be very helpful. However it won't answer all the questions you may have because more questions arise with each new finding. Les Tate ========== On Nov 28, 2011, at 10:50 AM, Heather Dau wrote: > Hi Linda, please recommend a book/site that spells out how to read DNA results (especially Y-DNA); something understandable, please. > > Heather > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCOTCH-IRISH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >