DNA Testing?

[Gina501]

you got it....

[john_dominic]

Well yes, but we were after something specific when we did the testing. We heard rumors that his grandfather and grandmother were cousins when they married. We were trying to disprove that theory. We did, but then we found out a whole lot of information that blew our minds. Unbelievable stuff. My cousin discovered from his father (not my relation, I am related to his mother), that his is of Davidic lineage. Descended from King David's ancestors. He's now been able to trace his ancestors back to 1492 when they were Spanish Jews forced out of Spain, where they traveled to Italy and adopted Italian names. He would have never known that without the DNA testing.

Hmm... interesting, considering my grandmother's line is supposed to be from Spain, also.... 8O

[JamesBianco]

You guys have really sparked my interest, I very much want to do this and soon. I've been reading all sorts of sites on the subject and am fascinated.

[Gina501]

Well, John Dominic, I can tell you what my cousin found out. He found that his family's name was Gracian in the 1400s. Then Queen Isabella expelled the Jews and they fled to Italy and England. My cousin's line went to Italy and changed their name from Gracian to Graziani (Italianized it) and became Christians. Pretty fascinating stuff. From what I can gather of my DNA results, my people have been in Italy since about 900 a.d. Before that it looks like they came to Italy from India??? That was news to me!

[MikeSavoca91]

WOW!!!! That is so awsome Gina, India who would have thought? My mom is thinking about letting me do it, thanks to your help. This should be great and the crazy thing is one of my GREAT GREAT grandfather's sisters is still alive and she might want to help. This should be a fun ride.

[Gina501]

Your great-great grandfather's sister is still alive? How COOL. That should be interesting.... let me know. Your mom was very interested in the DNA thing. Keep positive thoughts.

[MikeSavoca91]

I always try to stay happy! Yeah isn't it cool she is like 95 or something and is very smart still. I will let you know my progress, it should be nuts to see where my roots go.

[wldspirit]

I have a question about DNA testing facilities.....first, how do you know it's completely reliable? Is there some facility or registry where you can check their authenticity? I have seen some ads offering in home, mail in swabs for 99 dollars.......
wldspirit

[huskyItalian]

Hi Guys,

Ok, the DNA tests have been fascinating for me. However, please remember that for each DNA test, you are only testing for ONE of your many ancestors lines. So, if a person gets a Y-DNA test and an mtDNA test, then out of their 8 great-grandparents, they only will know the ORIGIN of 2 of those great-grandparents-----specifically, their fathers father's fathers origin and their mother's mother's mother's origin. The other grandparents lines will still not be tested for. If you want to get the rest of your great-grandparents DNA lines, well then you will have to track down some cousins who correspond to the other lines, and you will be set. SO FAR, I have all 8 of my great-grandparents DNA lines!! (Dont worry though, as it is still pretty interesting to know about the origin of 2 of your ancestors' lines).

Ok, as to weather you can tell if your line is a Jewish line, an Albanian line, European line, a Middle Eastern line, etc., let me say this: You can generally tell where your ancestors line originated, BUT sometimes there are too few samples from around the world studied yet, so you might have to wait until scientists gather more results.

To learn more, visit FamilyTreeDNA's website: www.familytreedna.com or even call them, as they are very nice about explaining things. Also, for all you Calabrians out there, please feel free to join my project: www.calabriadna.com

Best,
Louis Loccisano
Calabria DNA Project Coordinator

[nuccia]

Louis,

Welcome to the forum and thank you so much for sharing all this info with us. You have certainly sparked an interest here! I am becoming more and more interested in this as I read each post.

I hope you will continue to be available to answer questions here and to share any new developments with regards to DNA testing.

[Gina501]

Hi wldspirit. They do mail the swabs to you and then you mail them back. I used familytreedna.com and have been very impressed. You can go to their site and read all you need to know. I do, recommend that you stay away from the $99 test. A 12 marker test doesn't give you enough "meat". If you test, you will only be able to test your mother's mother's mother's etc, DNA. It's better if a male can do it. He can test both maternal and paternal.

[john_dominic]

Hi Guys,

Ok, the DNA tests have been fascinating for me. However, please remember that for each DNA test, you are only testing for ONE of your many ancestors lines. So, if a person gets a Y-DNA test and an mtDNA test, then out of their 8 great-grandparents, they only will know the ORIGIN of 2 of those great-grandparents-----specifically, their fathers father's fathers origin and their mother's mother's mother's origin. The other grandparents lines will still not be tested for. If you want to get the rest of your great-grandparents DNA lines, well then you will have to track down some cousins who correspond to the other lines, and you will be set. SO FAR, I have all 8 of my great-grandparents DNA lines!! (Dont worry though, as it is still pretty interesting to know about the origin of 2 of your ancestors' lines).

Ok, as to weather you can tell if your line is a Jewish line, an Albanian line, European line, a Middle Eastern line, etc., let me say this: You can generally tell where your ancestors line originated, BUT sometimes there are too few samples from around the world studied yet, so you might have to wait until scientists gather more results.

To learn more, visit FamilyTreeDNA's website: www.familytreedna.com or even call them, as they are very nice about explaining things. Also, for all you Calabrians out there, please feel free to join my project: www.calabriadna.com

Best,
Louis Loccisano

Calabria DNA Project Coordinator

I'm a bit confused.

I thought if you took a Y-DNA test between two males of the same (or similar) surname you could determine if they came from a common Y-Ancestor, which means they are from the same family line (aka: They both originally had the same last names, years and years ago).

Therefore, if my DiMaggios, who supposedly originally came 600 years ago, from Himarë, Albania truely did originally have the original surname of "Dhima" and someone who is currently living there with the surname "Dhima" and their family never left there, I should be able to get a match and PROVE the connection (especially since the city was NEVER conquered by the Ottoman Empire - it literally held out the entire 600 years), right?

[huskyItalian]

Hi john_dominic,

Yes, THE MAIN REASON most people get a Y-DNA test is for the reason you mention---to see if they share a common male ancestor with another male in recent times (sometime in the last 500 years, lets say). By ordering a Y-DNA 25 marker test and comparing it to another persons Y-DNA 25 marker test, you can tell if you do indeed share a common ancestor and can estimate the time when that common ancestor lived.

For me, I am more interested in what the DNA test shows about the origin of my male line from 1000s of years ago.

The good news is that a Y-DNA test will show both things: 1) If you are related to another male in recent times and 2) the deep origin of your male line (i.e. European, Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, etc.)

Hope this helps,
Louis

[Gina501]

HI John_dominic. Louis is correct. We got some exact matches, but the last names are different. Your DNA may connect you to the family you are looking for in Albania but you might not share the same surname. The fun is in writing to all your matches and see who responds with what info. However, like Louis, I was more concerned with my father's results for the information about where our Italian line emerged from. Seems his line came from India.

[Poipuo4]

I just attended a convention where an expert, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (she married someone unrelated with the same last name!) gave a lecture on DNA testing for genealogy. She has done DNA testing for the government to i.d. unknown soldiers from the Korean war. Anyhow, here are two useful links:
www.honoringourancestors.com
www.smgf.org

SMGF takes you to a site where they do DNA testing for free as part of a scientific study to essentially prove that all the world is kin. You have to be able to supply them with a 4 generation pedigree. They don't give you your results, but as I understand it, they are published in six month intervals, so you can search the name of an ancestor who is from 1906 or before and thereby find your results. They do not publish the names of anyone prior to 1906 for privacy. Visit the site for more info. It sounds interesting. There is also a coupon for commercial testing sites.