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Archiver > GENBRIT > 2004-03 > 1078205952


From: Brian Pears <>
Subject: Re: Shearer Family DNA Project.
Date: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 05:39:12 GMT
References: <c1v5c1$a3t$1@news.tudelft.nl><200403011157.i21BvpT1054696@smtp2.freeola.com><c1vd6n$ckg$1@news.tudelft.nl><8b4eb963.0403011357.369b1018@posting.google.com>


John Shearer <> writes
> In my situation, I hope to find someone that is connected and has
>traced their families back past the 1770's, in hope that they have some
>type of clues that may help my family in identifying our roots.

John

But you wouldn't know if that "connection" was before or after
the 1770's - the connection might be a grandfather or a 20 X gt-
grandfather from the 15th century. So even if you found someone
"connected" who'd traced their ancestry to 1600, you wouldn't
know if that traced line was one you shared or was just a very
distant collateral line.

Anything which tries to circumvent the tracing of a line generation
by generation, carefully identifying and verifying every link along
the way using original records, will inevitably produce rubbish.
There are no short-cuts.

The DNA project won't knock down brick walls - if the document
trail has come to an end then no amount of DNA testing will
help! With every line there comes a point where we have to
accept that we've probably reached the end of the trail - and
all we can do is to pray for some hitherto unknown documentary
source to be found which might take us just a little further.
--
Brian Pears
Gateshead, UK

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