DNA

Identifying the mtDNA and Y-DNA of my ancestors

As part of my quest to discover more about my ancestors, I am looking for suitable candidates to undertake Y-DNA and mtDNA testing for me. So far, I’ve had the following tests taken but am looking to extend all of my ancestral lines! This post is intended to document my progress and will be updated as new haplogroups are discovered.

mtDNA

  • Murphy-Cassidy-Sweeney line (my maternal line) – I was able to undertake this test myself in 2011. The line currently extends back from myself, to my 3rd great grandmother from Rathclooney, County Clare. The image below shows our mtDNA line from me, up to Mary Sweeney Cassidy. Our mtDNA Haplogroup was J1c5, but in 2025 was upgraded to J1c5n1 which was said to have been formed about 900AD. We need more descendants on this line to undertake mtDNA testing to help bring this date forward into a closer genealogical timeframe.
My maternal mtDNA line – starting with me

Joan Patricia Roberts descendants (1930s – 2010s) DNA confirmed
  Mona Veronica Murphy descendants (29 Aug 1892 – 03 Apr 1973) DNA confirmed
    Rebecca Mary Gertrude Cassidy descendants (29 Jun 1852 – 04 Jan 1931) DNA confirmed
      Mary Sweeney descendants (abt 1816 – 11 Mar 1896) DNA confirmed

  • Elizabeth Richards 1823 (on my paternal side) –    I was able to ascertain the mtDNA of my 3rd great grandmother Elizabeth Richards (who married John Coat) by testing Corinne in 2017, a descendant of Elizabeth’s sister Selina. We share Susanna Richards as our mtDNA ancestor, whose line extends back to Somerset, England. Susanna Richards married John Richards, they had different parents and don’t appear to be close cousins – we hope by knowing the mtDNA of Susanna we can better identify more of her family given Richards is such a common name in the area. Her mtDNA Haplogroup is Ub4.

Susanna Richards descendants (29 Apr 1802 – 18 Dec 1879) DNA confirmed
  Elizabeth Coggan descendants (abt 1765 – 25 Dec 1806) DNA confirmed
    Mary Bosgrove descendants (abt 1739 – abt 1800) [confident]
      Betty Shearman descendants (bef 1719 – ) [confident]

  • Margaret Ellard 1853 (on my paternal side) –    I was able to ascertain the mtDNA of my 2nd great grandmother Margaret Ellard (who married Frederick Griffin) by testing my 3rd cousin Sharon in 2016. Our great grandmothers Ada and Edith were sisters, daughters of Frederick and Margaret. Her mtDNA Haplogroup is H1e1a.

Mary Elizabeth Brotherton descendants (abt 09 Jun 1810 – 13 Nov 1889) DNA confirmed
  Mary Elizabeth Elstone descendants (abt 1788 – 22 Dec 1853) [confident]
    Charlotte Elstone descendants (bef 1768 – )
      Elizabeth Scott descendants (bef 1748 – )

Priorities for additional mtDNA testing

Help me complete the chart at the end of this post – if you are descended from any of the missing mt-DNA test ancestors please contact me. They are listed in priority order but all lines are important! Of course, I would be willing to pay for the tests of suitable candidates. Please contact me using the contact form if you can help with any of these projects.

My priority ancestors for mtDNA tests are shown below, we are looking for males or females who carry the mtDNA of these ancestors. Living males whose matrilineal line (mothers, mothers, mother etc) leads back to the ancestor are eligible, but generally as males don’t pass on mtDNA more eligible testers are likely to be female.

  1. Descendants of Elizabeth Bateman (Kennedy) – married James Murphy (of Wexford) in Windsor NSW 1844;
  2. Descendants of Catherine Britton c1768 – married Stephen Cassidy, Fermanagh, Ireland. Unfortunately, we are not yet aware of any daughters who could have passed on Catherine’s mtDNA . We hope this changes in time.
  3. Descendants of Abigail Paice born 1845 Droxford, Hampshire, England, or her mother Harriet Parker.
  4. Descendants of Mary Lee born 1816 in Lilbourne, Northamptonshire, England who married William Laundon. Her daughter Ann, the mother of Edward Roberts/Baker/Dye has no eligible mtDNA descendants.
  5. Descendants of Mary Ann Bradley or her mother Mary Ann Hines born 1840 Kent, England.
  6. Descendants of Maria Elisabeth Wohling, born 1817 in Tucheim, Prussia.
  7. Descendants of Amy Hewlett born 1787 in Somerset – married Marmaduke Coat in 1813. However, first we need to confirm she is John Coats mother!

Y-DNA

  • Coat line (on my paternal side) – Thanks to the generosity of two of my male COAT cousins, Robert and Peter who first tested in 2012 and 2017, I have been able to find out more about my fathers paternal line. We have been able to ascertain the paternal haplogroup of the Coat line through Big Y testing as R-S22869.
My paternal COAT Y-DNA line – starting with my father John Coat

Lenard Coat descendants (08 Jul 1901 – 30 Aug 1979) DNA confirmed
  Charles Coat descendants (18 May 1862 – 11 Nov 1937) DNA confirmed
    John Coat descendants (abt 1826 – 01 May 1907) DNA confirmed

  • Roberts line (on my maternal side) – Mum’s brother Barry took the Y-DNA test for me in 2012 and for many years we had no matches at all. We still only have one match, other than my 2nd cousin Greg who later also tested to confirm our line. We have since discovered through autosomal testing that Edward Roberts Baker b1869, Mums grandfather, was not a Roberts or a Baker after all, but probably a Dye! We have been able to ascertain the paternal haplogroup of the Roberts/Dye line through Big Y testing as R-BY160942.
My maternal ROBERTS/DYE Y-DNA line – starting with my first tester, Barry Phillip Edward Roberts

Edward Arthur Roberts MM descendants (27 Mar 1893 – 01 Jul 1966) DNA confirmed
  Edward Roberts descendants (7 Aug 1869 – 16 Mar 1954) DNA confirmed
    Edmund Dye descendants (22 Sep 1844 – 29 Jan 1880) DNA confirmed
      Edmund Dye descendants (1817 – ) DNA confirmed
        Edmund Dye descendants (1790 – 1871) [confident]
          John Dye descendants (bef 1762 – ) [confident]

  • Cassidy line (on my maternal side) – I was able to ascertain the Y-DNA of my 3rd great grandfather Thomas Cassidy c1800 by testing Des, my 3rd cousin, in 2012. We share the ancestors of Thomas Cassidy and his wife Mary Sweeney. I was particularly keen to be able to trace Thomas back to Ireland and our Y-DNA testing has confirmed that he came from Fermanagh, Ireland. The paternal haplogroup of the Cassidy line identified by Big Y testing is I-FT193932.

Stephen Cassidy descendants (aft 1760 – aft 1830) DNA confirmed
  Y-DNA Cassidy descendants (bef 1740 – ) DNA confirmed
    Fermanagh DNA Cassidy descendants (bef 1720 – ) [confident]

  • Sweeney line (on my maternal side) – once again, I was very keen to be able to connect back to Ireland on our Sweeney line. I was able to ascertain the Y-DNA of my 4th great grandfather John Sweeney c1795 of Rathclooney County Clare by testing Torin, my 3rd cousin, in 2016. Autosomal DNA testing had confirmed our relationship, we share John as an ancestor, descending from children with his wife Johanna Hanrahan/Enright – Terence and Mary. We have had limited matches to date on the Y-DNA test, with no other known suitable descendants from John and Johanna so we were stuck in a ‘watch and wait’ scenario. However, a few years ago we discovered that John had married again after Johanna died. We are now looking for a suitable Y-DNA candidate from one of the 3 male children of John and his second wife Honor Murphy. The paternal haplogroup of the Sweeney line identified by testing 37 markers is R-M269. We hope to upgrade this test to a Big Y once we have confirmed the connection between male descendants from both Johanna and Norah.

Daniel Sweeney descendants (bef 1775 – ) [uncertain]
  Roe Swyny descendants (bef 1754 – abt 1801) [confident]

Priorities for additional Y-DNA testing
Help me complete the chart below – if you are descended from any of the missing Y-DNA test ancestors please contact me. They are listed in priority order but all lines are important! Of course, I would be willing to pay for the tests of suitable candidates. Please contact me using the contact form if you can help with any of these projects.

My priority ancestors for Y-DNA tests are shown below, we are looking for males who are still carrying the relevant surname or where that surname is on their patrilineal line:

  1. Descendants of the Dye family of Kent England, including Edmund Dye 1791 (married Philadelphia Yowell), or John Dye c1768 (married Ann King) are needed for testing to confirm conclusions about the Roberts-Dye line;
  2. Descendants of the Murphy family of Glenbrien Wexford in Ireland, including James Murphy 1810 (married Elizabeth Bateman), or Maurice Murphy bef 1775 (married Margaret (Peggy) Sinnott). We would love to be able to get back to Ireland for this family line;
  3. Descendants of John Sweeney c1795 of Rathclooney County Clare and his second wife Honor Murphy are needed to find a second Y-DNA tester to confirm the Sweeney family line.
  4. Descendants of Samuel Bradley c1821 or his father John Bradley who is currently a brick wall.
  5. Descendants of Johann Friedrich Wilhelm NOLL, born 1844 in Tucheim, Prussia.
  6. Descendants of Frederick Griffin or his father James Griffin born 1824 in Cambridgeshire, England.

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Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested) I would love to hear from you. It’s the power of DNA that can help us breakthrough our brick walls!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via the contact form on this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Finally, I think I’m a MacNamara!

For many years I have been researching my Irish roots attempting to bridge the gap in paper records through the power of DNA analysis. I recently wrote about my Sweeney family who came from the townlands of Rathclooney and Moyriesk in County Clare. You can read about them here.

From DNA matching, I have long felt that the MacNamaras, McInerney’s and McMahons must have had close associations with our family. I’ve been told that every second person in Clare was named MacNamara so perhaps it’s not that surprising. However our trip to Ireland in 2017 was to reveal more close associations to the family.

We had known from Mary Sweeney’s baptism record in 1816 (my maternal second great grandmother) that her sponsor was Catherine MacNamara. Who was Catherine and how was she related? Sponsors were usually close family members.

1816 Baptism of Mary Sweeney

It was in my discussions with Antoinette from the Clare Heritage Genealogy Centre in 2017, that she told me of a conversation she had more than 20 years ago with Joseph MacNamara who had acquired the landholding at Rathclooney. He had told her that after the death of Thomas Sweeney in 1960, the Rathclooney property had been transferred to Lizzie MacNamara and subsequently to himself. Who were these MacNamaras and how were they connected to the Sweeney’s?

Later that same day, we had a chance discussion with neighbour John Daffy who said he ‘barely remembered Thomas Sweeney when he lived at Rathclooney’. However he was able to tell me that Lizzie and Joe MacNamara had lived there together, he didn’t think they were related as Joe wasn’t ‘entitled’ but recalled that Lizzie may have been a niece of the Sweeney’s. Lizzie had lots of brothers and was the housekeeper for Thomas Sweeney who had never married. John thought Lizzie might have come from Drunmore but had lived most of her life in the Barefield-Ruan area. The final interesting piece of information, was that Lizzie and Joe were buried together in the nearby Clooney cemetery.

The headstone at Clooney describes a number of family members, most of whom seem to be connected to Joe. The entries for Lizzie and Joe’s brother John looked like they had been added long after their actual deaths, probably at the time the inscription was made for Joe in 2002. Joe’s parents were named but not Lizzies.

Clooney Cemetery, 2017

My quest when I returned to Australia was to research these clues more thoroughly, hoping to find our connection!

Ancestry of Joe McNamara 1914-2002

From the wealth of information on the headstone, I was able to piece together Joe’s ancestry back to what I thoought were his great grand parents Cornelious MacNamara and Nancy Keeney. (Click on the link above to view the extended family tree at Wikitree.com).

Subsequent to this post it was discovered there were 3 Daniel MacNamara’s born around the same time and Joe’s grandparents were a different family. The Michael McNamara who appears on the headstone is actually buried in the USA and this is only a memorial, which confused matters. These lines have now been corrected on Wikitree. His correct family is shown below.

Ancestry of Lizzie McNamara 1897-1992 (Note: To be updated: see 2023 addendum below)

Identifying Lizzies ancestry was more challenging but eventually our first thought was that Lizzie was actually Joe’s paternal first cousin, sharing grandparents Daniel MacNamara and Johannah ‘Ann’ McKeogh! However no Sweeney’s were identified – how could she be a niece of Thomas Sweeney 1881–1960? Was the connection on her maternal side via the McMahon or Quinn families? (Click on this link above to view the extended family tree at Wikitree.com).

Subsequent to this post we found that we had the wrong Lizzie after all! Refer 2023 Addendum below.

Gathering DNA clues

My first big clue came back in 2019 when I discovered a large match of 47cMs with several siblings of the Worthington family. I soon discovered we also triangulated with their second cousin, which suggested our connection was coming from their shared ancestors William Clayton or his wife Bridget Helena McNamara. This McNamara line extended back to Jeremiah McNamara and his wife Margaret Haiskins, of Clooney, County Clare, it was definately looking promising, but I was unaware of any of these names in our family tree. Utilising the Visual Phasing technique with my mother and her 3 siblings DNA kits, it did suggest the match was on our Cassidy-Sweeney line, but where and how?

My maternal uncle and his first cousin also had a small 13cMs triangulated ‘X’ match with the female sibling. Tracing the X inheritance path on both sides suggested that it could have been inherited from John Sweeney or Johanna (Enright) Hanrahan on our side and Clayton, Haiskins or O’Sullivan on their side. Being such a small match it could well be a long way back, further than any of the known ancestors we have identified so far. This ‘X’ chromosome match was also part of a small triangulated group. Another cousin in the group has ancestors from County Clare with names in contention that included Walsh, McInerney, McMahon, Clarke plus of course potential unknown females! Where did this leave us?

The information was very tantalising! My mother always used to say we had McInerney relations back in Ireland, but no one in the family knew exactly how they were connected. We also had more DNA matches leading back to the McNamara, McMahon and McInerney families in County Clare. One particular group of matches all went back to a McMahon-McInerney couple. Could these be more clues?

Combining genealogical and genetic research

By pouring over the parish records and other genealogical research of my Sweeney family I looked for our possible connections to the MacNamara, McInerney and McMahon families.

  • 1816 – Catherine MacNamara sponsor of Mary Sweeney, daughter of John and Johanna Sweeeny.
  • 1821 – Freeholders list of Clare, Canny’s and McMahons leasing from MacNamara’s at Moyriesk.
  • 1821 – Martin and Bridget McNamara sponsors at baptism of Ellen Sweeney.
  • 1824 – Michael McNamara, sponsor at baptism of Joan Sweeney, daughter of John Sweeney and Honor Murphy.
  • 1825 – Tithe record, John Sweeney residing at Rathclooney sharing 61 acres with McNamara’s.
  • 1830 – About this time, Michael McNamara married Mary Hanrahan.
  • 1830 – Tom McNamara – sponsor at baptism of John Enright, child of Patrick Enright and Mary Sweeney.
  • 1839 – Michael McNamara and Bridget Doloughty sponsor of John Sweeney, son of John Sweeney and Honor Murphy.
  • 1846 – Bridget Sweeney sponsor of Thomas MacNamara, daughter of John and Norah Sweeney.
  • 1846 – Thomas McNamara baptism, sponsors John Hays? and Bridget Sweeney.
  • 1860 – Cornelious Sweeney and Bridget Hogan, sponsors at baptism of Michael MacNamara, father of Lizzie.
  • 1860 – Patrick McNamara, witness at wedding of Daniel Sweeney.
  • 1871 – Honor McMahon m Michael McNamara. Lizzie McNamara’s parents.
  • 1874 – Bridget McNamara m William Clayton – Shared ancestors of McNamara/Clayton DNA Group, Chromosome 18.
  • 1896 – Lizzie McNamara born, believed to be niece of Thomas Sweeney. Sponsors Margaret McNamara and Peter McMahon.

  • 1811 – Hannah McInerney (spouse Michael McMahon). Ancestors of DNA match with triangulated X segment, also matches on chromosome 11.
  • 1818 – Michael McInerney holding property at Rathclooney, ‘life’ on the lease John McInerney.
  • 1849 – Eliza McInerney marries James Ryan at Tulla. Witness Tom McInerney probably a brother. Ancestors of an AncestryDNA match who appear in a potential Sweeney cluster.
  • 1855 – Margaret McInerney acted as sponsor with Daniel Sweeney to a child also named Margaret McInerney.
  • 1885 – Bridget McInerney marries John McMahon (date estimated). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in the Worthington AncestryDNA cluster.
  • 1901 – Denis McInerney residing at the home of Daniel Sweeney, described as a cousin. Son of John McInerney and Eliza O’Grady who had 10 children. From their baptismal records it appears John may have had at least two other siblings named Margaret and Mary.

  • 1792 – Miss McMahon married John McNamara at Dronmore (where Lizzie reputedly lived), her father Terence McMahon.
  • 1811 – Michael McMahon (spouse Hannah McInerney). Ancestors of DNA match with triangulated X segment, also matches on chromosome 11.
  • 1817 – Patrick McMahon held a lease dated 15 Oct 1817, the ‘life’ on the lease was Daniel Sweeney.
  • 1838 – John McMahon (spouse Mary Canny). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in a cluster with the McNamara/Clayton siblings.
  • 1838 – Michael McMahon (spouse Margaret Quinn). Lizzie McNamara’s grandparents.
  • 1850 – John McMahon marries Honor Hanrahan (date estimated).
  • 1871 – Honor McMahon m Michael McNamara. Lizzie McNamara’s parents.
  • 1875 – Bridget McMahon sponsor at the baptism of James Sweeney.
  • 1885 – John McMahon marries Bridget McInerney (date estimated). Ancestor of an AncestryDNA match who appears in the same McNamara/Clayton AncestryDNA cluster.

Other research yet to be completed suggests additional Sweeney links via the Mahon family and connections to Clonroad Beg near Ennis, County Clare.

  • 1800 – Circa this date, a daughter of Roe Sweeney married an Hehir 
  • 1817 – Daniel Hehir held a lease dated 15 Oct 1817, the ‘life’ on the lease was Daniel Sweeney.

So where does this all leave us?

Piecing together the MacNamara family

Based on consolidating all the clues mentioned above, the following pedigree image seeks to outline my probable links to the MacNamara family. The current hypothesis (after following the land transfers and associated BDM sponsors etc) is that Daniel Sweeney’s wife was a MacNamara (52Ancestors #11). Daniel and she would be my maternal 4th great grandparents. The MacNamaras are associated with the townlands of both Rathclooney and Moyriesk and her father was probably born in the mid to late 1700’s. Whilst we are unclear of her name, it is believed she may have been an older child in the family, one of at least 8 siblings including:-

  • Catherine MacNamara bef 1795
  • Martin MacNamara bef 1800, married Bridget
  • Jeremiah MacNamara bef 1800, married Margaret Haiskins
  • Cornelious MacNamara bef 1800, married Nancy Keeley
  • Francis MacNamara bef 1800
  • James MacNamara bef 1800
  • Michael MacNamara bef 1803, married Mary Hanrahan

Limited tree – only includes 31 DNA tester lines (as at Nov 2021). See Wikitree descendants list for more information (up to 5 generations).

Connections with Lizzie MacNamara (Important: see 2023 addendum below)

This hypothesis suggests that my family is potentially linked to Lizzie McNamara on her maternal side.

Based on what I have been able to establish on her maternal side, it would appear Lizzie’s maternal grandfather Michael McMahons mother was a Sweeney. If correct, Lizzie was a second cousin once removed to Thomas Sweeney rather than his niece. It also suggests Lizzie would be my third cousin twice removed.

On the MacNamara side, if the hypothesis is correct the wife of Daniel Sweeney was Cornelious McNamara’s sister. It is unclear if Lizzie’s paternal line is connected to this same line or not. Whilst I have not yet identified any DNA segment matches down this line, it doesn’t mean they don’t exist!

DNA matching is providing clues on relatedness, however the close marrying of these families means that it is essential to undertake chromosome analysis to be able to determine how segments have been inherited by DNA testers. Extreme care needs to be taken when assigning these segments to ancestors, as they could have been inherited from multiple common ancestors. Many of our clustered matches who currently only have their results on AncestryDNA need to upload to a chromosome site to be able to contribute to further research.

NOTE: This hypothesis needs re-visiting given recent information. See 2023 Addendum below.

The MacNamaras of Moyriesk

The MacNamara name is a common one in County Clare, however there is a well documented MacNamara family associated with Moyriesk. These MacNamaras were resident from the 17th century and can trace their lineage back to Maccon MacNamara Fionn – the Chief of Clann Kullen in 1379.

Could we also be part of this prodigious family? Only time (and a lot of work) will tell!

Very interesting that John MacNamara’s 2nd wife was a MacMahon from Clenagh!

Where to next?

It’s taken a lot of work just to be able to add Miss McNamara to my tree as my potential 4th great grandmother, but it’s all about one step at a time. Whilst the DNA evidence is not conclusive, it has certainly helped to be able to point us in the right direction and piece together these fragmented families.

I will be continuing my search through DNA matching to assist in confirming or refuting (hopefully not!) my hypotheses. I have created a Family Finder project at FamilyTreeDNA for ‘Rathclooney and Moyriesk, County Clare’ in the hope of attracting more DNA testers with documented ancestry to these townlands to connect more of the family. As always, I am keen to find suitable Y-DNA testers for both the MacNamara and Sweeney lines. Please contact me if you are male, descend from either of the Sweeney or MacNamara families mentioned in this post and are willing to take a Y-DNA test.

If you have tested your DNA and have ancestors from Moyriesk or Rathclooney in County Clare, please join our FTDNA Project.

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In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Elsie Ritchie for encouraging me to get a wriggle on with my Sweeney and MacNamara research and for helping to put some of the final pieces of the puzzle together.

Do you know more about the families mentioned in this post? If you are connected to any of them (particularly if you have DNA tested) I would love to hear from you. It’s the power of DNA that can help us breakthrough those brick walls in Ireland!

As always, please do not hesitate to contact me via this blog or by private message via Ancestry, Wikitree or Facebook.

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Featured Image: Green Tunnel, Spancelhill Moyriesk, 2017.

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ADDENDUM – December 2021

Subsequent to this post it was discovered that the Michael McNamara mentioned on the grave of Daniel McNamara, stated to be brother of Thomas McNamara, is the Michael McNamara who died in the United States in 1916. Corrections have been made to appropriate family lines in Wikitree. This changed the original assumption that Lizzie McNamara may have been related on both her paternal and maternal sides. The connection on her maternal side to the Sweeney’s is still sound. The chart for Joe has been updated accordingly.

ADDENDUM – May 2023

They say never to let the facts get in the way of a good story, but in this case I need to. I was recently contacted by a relation of Lizzie and it seems that the Lizzie buried at Clooney is not the child of Michael and Honor (nee McMahon) McNamara, her parents are Patrick and Bridget (nee Mulconry) MacNamara. Both families have associations with Crusheen and both Eliza’s were born in 1896. There are so many MacNamara’s in Clare it will take some time to unravel it all, but they may be cousins of some sort, it appears the ‘real’ Lizzie (our possible Sweeney descendant) was one of 12 children . I still think my 4th great grandmother was a MacNamara, but I can’t include the Lizzie connection as evidence just yet!

Watch this space for my next blogpost to (hopefully) explain it all!

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An historic event – 52 Ancestors, DNA confirmed!

The journey so far

A momentous milestone was achieved last month, and no, it wasn’t that I have written about ANY of my ancestors for the 52 ancestors challenge, the main reason for starting this blog site 2 years ago!  At the time, I was very enthusiastic and excited by the thought of the project but I must have known I couldn’t keep up the weekly challenge given the tagline ‘starting small!’  It’s probably fitting that my inaugural post is about my genetic research, when you think of how totally obsessed I have become with solving various mysteries associated with my ancestral roots in the past few years.

Cause for celebration –  I now have 52 confirmed DNA ancestors!  It has however been a long hard slog and don’t let anyone tell you it’s easy.  You might think 52 confirmed ancestors is a lot, but if we go out 7 generations (that’s to 6th cousins) we all have a total of 254 direct ancestors who may have contributed to our DNA.  So after 6 years since my Family Finder autosomal test with FTDNA I am about 20% of the way there, but don’t forget much of what I have achieved so far is what they call ‘low hanging fruit!’  Of those 52, 28 of those are clearly confirmed and the remaining 24 we have confirmed connections back to 12 sets of ancestral couples.

dna-pictures1
Courtesy: http://www.all-about-forensic-science.com/dna-pictures.html

To start doing DNA research, getting your head around the 4 Kinds of DNA for Genetic Genealogy is the most important first step, no one can explain that better than Roberta Estes.  Reading her stories about how DNA has helped her in understanding her family history as part of the 52 ancestors challenge is always inspiring.

I just thought I’d share some quick comments about my progress to date on each of the 4 Kinds of DNA:

Y-DNA

Passed down from father to sons.  Being female I don’t have any Y-DNA passed to me from my father.  A common problem in our family, particularly on my maternal side, is that the male line had a tendency to die out.   So I have had to rely on the generosity of other extended male family members to help me.  So far, I have test kits for my COAT, ROBERTS, CASSIDY and SWEENEY lines.  I am still searching for possible candidates for my BRADLEY, GRIFFIN and MURPHY lines.  In particular the COAT line has given me loads of interesting follow up research, but I’ll tell you more about that in a subsequent post! These tests helped me confirm 7 of my 52 ancestors, so 13%.

Mitochondrial DNA – better known as mtDNA.

Only females can take this test, but unlike Y-DNA which only gets passed down to sons, women pass this on to all their children.  I had the full sequence mtDNA test back in early 2011 and six years later only have six matches and all of them at a genetic distance of 3, which many say is too far out to worry about!  My maternal haplogroup is J1c5, it is said to have originated between 8-13,000 years ago, European, but often found in West Asia, South Asia, Central Asia or North Asia.  My maternal line traces back to County Clare in Ireland.  

By contrast, my fathers maternal haplogroup (which I was able to obtain by testing a distant cousin), is H1a1e, also European and originating 15-20,000 years ago, also found at significant frequency in the Near East and in some Middle Eastern populations.  It is the most common haplogroup for most Europeans being about 14% of the population. Consequently, it is not so surprising that we have 192 full sequence matches, with 37 of them a genetic distance of 1.  

Unfortunately, no DNA confirmations have yet come from these two tests.

Autosomal DNA

I like to think of this as the ‘cousins’ test.  It’s the part I love best, trying to untangle lines and identify where your DNA segment matches are coming from, a great big puzzle! Unlike Y-DNA and mtDNA it can’t just be attributed to one person up the line, but any of them! This means finding other cousins to compare your results to.  You can either recruit more testers or just build on your results as you find matches.  Every new confirmed match is a clue to finding more matches.  The remaining 45 confirmed ancestors (including the 12 couples) I have found from this type of analysis.  After about 5 years of research I was only up to about 17, mainly confirmations of my known tree through targeted testing.  In 2015, I reached a turning point, a Mac version of Genome Mate Pro was released and I haven’t looked back.  The program helps you be systematic in your approach to your research and results show for themselves. If you haven’t used it yet, I’d encourage you to give it a go, it’s a free download and they have a great support network.

X chromosome

Not to be confused with mtDNA,  the X chromosome has special inheritance patterns and in theory can help you find your common ancestor.  I’ve had a lot of fun colouring in my charts which you can find on The Genetic Genealogist, by Blaine Bettinger which I do for all my known cousins so I know when ‘X’ might be relevant.  I haven’t had any success, YET, in having this help me confirm any ancestors but it has helped me narrow down the possibilities for some of my autosomal matches.

screenshot-2016-11-06-07-17-48

See my full tree at Wikitree ! embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

Why did I start this and where to from here?

I started out on my DNA journey to test a theory about my very elusive 2nd great grandfather, the father of Abigail COURTNEY, Arthur George COURTENAY or is it really George William COURTNEY?  I am no closer to finding him than I was when I started but I have now finally established that there are no known male descendants who may have carried his Courtney Y-DNA.  So, its only autosomal testing that can help me – one segment at a time!

The other major goal is to identify the father of my paternal grandmother, Thelma Irene GRIFFIN.  The mystery man who must have been in Adelaide, South Australia around 1903. I am in search of cousins from her known GRIFFIN line to help me isolate that DNA from the segments I have inherited from her father.  I thought I had a contender, right place, right time, but as will happen with DNA, subsequent testers have proven that those segments came from my fathers paternal side.  Back to the drawing board….  If you are a Griffin cousin please let me know if you are interested in helping with this research.