DNA Results, Part 1
My father's 23andme results came in the other day and saying I was excited would be the understatement of the century. The results confirmed a lot of my suspicious but also raised some new ones. First off, his Y-DNA was in the haplogroup I was expecting it to be in, a sub-clade of R1b1b2, which also happens to be the predominant haplogroup for Allens/Allans (as well as most of Western Europe). Since his Y-DNA is one of the most common, it came as a shock to learn that his mtDNA (maternal DNA) was one of the most rare, N1a. His maternal grandparents were from Italy which appears to be outside the traditional N1a area (the Middle East) so some investigation is in order.
One of the first things I did when I got the results was to join dna-forums.org and I've already learned quite a bit there. Another thing I did was to do various Google searches to try and find any relatives. "r1b1b2a1a2d*+allen," "r1b1b2+allen," "r1b1b2a1a2d*+scotland" were some of the searches I did for my paternal line and I actually managed to find an Allan in the same R1b1b2a1a2d* haplogroup. I left him a message and we're looking to see how we might connect. Some searches I did with N1a included "n1a+mtdna+foggia," and "n1a+mtdna+italy," which didn't get me too many results (like I said, it seems to be a rare haplogroup). Speaking of matches, I was surprised to find that I have over 250 Relative Finder results at 23andme. I haven't reached out to any of them yet (though some have contacted me) because I'm afraid of the rejection which seems to be pretty common when it comes to asking to share genomes there. One thing that is interesting is that many of the matches I've been contacted by or have public profiles I've viewed have the surname Baker listed. As far as I know, I don't have any Bakers in my family tree but since so many of my matches do, I guess I need to start looking into the possibility.
Some sites I've come across that have been helpful include: Google Scholar (for researching specific SNPs especially), PhyloTree (specific to mtDNA), and the aforementioned dna-forums.org. Obviously, the well known staples of the Genetic Genealogist and ISOGG have been helpful to me as well and I'd be remiss not to mention them. If any one out there has any experience/knowledge of genetic genealogy and can recommend some more websites or pieces of literature (keep in mind that I'm a total newbie so nothing too technical please), I'd love it!
One of the first things I did when I got the results was to join dna-forums.org and I've already learned quite a bit there. Another thing I did was to do various Google searches to try and find any relatives. "r1b1b2a1a2d*+allen," "r1b1b2+allen," "r1b1b2a1a2d*+scotland" were some of the searches I did for my paternal line and I actually managed to find an Allan in the same R1b1b2a1a2d* haplogroup. I left him a message and we're looking to see how we might connect. Some searches I did with N1a included "n1a+mtdna+foggia," and "n1a+mtdna+italy," which didn't get me too many results (like I said, it seems to be a rare haplogroup). Speaking of matches, I was surprised to find that I have over 250 Relative Finder results at 23andme. I haven't reached out to any of them yet (though some have contacted me) because I'm afraid of the rejection which seems to be pretty common when it comes to asking to share genomes there. One thing that is interesting is that many of the matches I've been contacted by or have public profiles I've viewed have the surname Baker listed. As far as I know, I don't have any Bakers in my family tree but since so many of my matches do, I guess I need to start looking into the possibility.
Some sites I've come across that have been helpful include: Google Scholar (for researching specific SNPs especially), PhyloTree (specific to mtDNA), and the aforementioned dna-forums.org. Obviously, the well known staples of the Genetic Genealogist and ISOGG have been helpful to me as well and I'd be remiss not to mention them. If any one out there has any experience/knowledge of genetic genealogy and can recommend some more websites or pieces of literature (keep in mind that I'm a total newbie so nothing too technical please), I'd love it!
Well, you are in good company. There are a few of us out here who are complete newbies that took advantage of the 23andMe sale. I haven't sent my sample in yet, hope to do that in the next few days. I'm hoping to learn from others that will be blogging about it.
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