GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives
Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-03 > 1046566920
From:
Subject: Re: [DNA] Success stories [source of DNA]
Date: Sat, 1 Mar 2003 20:02:00 EST
In a message dated 02/28/03 6:04:36 PM Pacific Standard Time,
writes:
> Pardon my ignorance, but how did you get Lawrence Ellison's DNA from the
> 1500s to test?
DNA tests use the Y chromosome from living descendants. Fortunately, the Y
chromosome changes very little over hundreds of years. If several different
men have paper genealogies going back through different branches to a common
ancestor, AND their Y chromosome patterns match, then their DNA tests
reinforce each other in proving the paper genealogy.
Bill Bailey was lucky that his DNA matched someone whose paper trail went
back to the 1500s. Bill may not be descended from the same ancestor, but the
match gives him some very good clues on when and where to pursue the
documentation.
That brings up a question: do you all think it's worthwhile for Bill to do
some "reverse" genealogy? We're taught to start with what we know and work
backwards, rather than starting with some immigrant with our surname and
tracing all his descendants in the hopes that one of the branches will lead
to us. But Bill may be within 3 or so generations of Lawrence Ellison. I
think I'd be tempted to gamble and research descendants of Lawrence Ellison
at least a little bit, knowing full well that the common ancestor could be
farther back and/or in a different location.
Ann Turner - GENEALOGY-DNA List Administrator
Search or Browse the archives, Subscribe or Unsubscribe at
>http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENEALOGY-DNA.html
DNA preservation kits: http://www.dnafiler.com
This thread: