Genetics and genealogy

Susan Doak

SW Nebraska

Genealogy Society

McCOOK, Neb. -- My cousin received her results from taking the Ancestry.com DNA test and she sent me her results to see how I interpreted them. My first response back to her was that the scope of her Germanic ancestry was so vast that even though we are first cousins, I have a feeling my results would be remarkably different except for the fact that her results show a 99% European heritage.

The first thing that does is eliminate all of the "family rumors" concerning our great-great grandmother being a Native American. The smallest listed ancestry for my cousin was 1% Finnish. Even if our grandmother was only an eighth Native, my cousin would have a greater than 1% Native Heritage which would have been reflected in her results.

The second thing it has eliminated was my theory that our third great-grandmother was perhaps one of the many mixed heritage indentured servants or slaves who escaped into Kentucky and then hid her true heritage by marrying "white." The term for that was "passing," meaning the light color of the escapee's skin gave them access to a lifestyle forbidden by law for African Americans at that time. Again, this test would have shown a greater than 1% heritage from Africa if true.

It's good to know these two answers because it will eliminate any further venturing down those very difficult-to-trace linages. I'm not sure it's going to make finding more information any easier but it does point me in a different direction.

The only reason that I can even make these assumptions considering that my cousin and I are female children of a brother and sister is because the test that she submitted was autosomal (non-gender specific) and the resulting matches will cover both the maternal and paternal sides of a family all inclusively (siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.) for the past few generations or as Ancestry.com states: "Genealogically relevant time periods."

For me, that is an important statement. Y-DNA tests look specifically at your direct paternal lines: Father to father to father and so on. If female, you must have a living father, brother, paternal grandfather, etc., to take the test for you. A male cousin's results would take an alternate path to connect your tree.

On the other hand, mtDNA, which both men and women can have done, looks at only your direct Maternal Lineage: Mother to mother to mother. A mother passes her mtDNA to all her children, but only her daughters pass it on to their children. If you are interested in your maternal ancient history -- the migration pattern of your maternal ancestors -- this test will give you those answers, but it will not be as generation specific as an autosomal or even an YDNA test.

I am not touting Ancestry's test, just reviewing what results you might expect. There are several testing groups out there that claim to tie your results into their data base of possible "cousins" you might find. In fact, I am not rushing to take one of these tests yet but I certainly can see where someone who is uncertain of, or their parentage is unknown, might find the autosomal test and the resulting links to possible "cousins" interesting.