GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2005-07 > 1121624976


From: "Chris" <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] DNA Testing Across the Pond
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 19:29:36 +0100
References: <200507171800.j6HI0r07004184@mail.rootsweb.com>


I'm in the UK and running two small studies. Atkinson (13 participants) &
Blackstone/Blakeston (8 participants). I have to say I have had equal
difficulty on both sides of the pond. There are people who because they have
an established paper trail see no need to pursue this through DNA. Which is
quite valid. There are people who seem suspicious. Who are wary.

There are a group of Atkinson's who are probably all connected to a Shadrack
Atkinson bn 1706. Shadrack in turn is almost certainly descended from a
shared ancestor of my own. Persuading them to take part has fallen on deaf
ears. Shame really but I can't expect others to share my enthusiasms.

Sadly DNA aside I find that there are family historians who are willing to
accept data from others but don't want to give anything back. Others who are
just innately suspicious or unfriendly. This is on both sides of the water.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Diana Gale Matthiesen" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 7:00 PM
Subject: RE: [DNA] DNA Testing Across the Pond


> My project is small (only 17 members so far), but one of them took a
> vacation to
> Germany in May. He visited his village of origin and found someone
> willing to
> be tested. Another member just left today for Europe and is going to try
> to do
> the same in a different village. The strategy for making the contact was
> to
> first do a search in an appropriate online phone directory, for example:
>
> http://www.telefonbuch.de/
>
> This directory gives addresses as well as phone numbers. He composed a
> letter
> in both English and German telling who he was, including his pedigree, and
> what
> he was trying to accomplish (n.b., with regard to the letter itself, the
> consensus among the recipients was that good English was better than bad
> German
> <g>). About half those he wrote responded, and he telephoned the ones who
> said
> they spoke English, then arranged to visit them on his trip. In the end,
> he
> came back with three samples, one in my project and one each for two other
> projects (men related to his maternal lines).
>
> Now, in all three cases, there was the extreme advantage of having already
> determined on paper where his ancestors were from (down to which village).
> In
> the case of his own male line, he had found someone who actually had a
> common
> ancestor on paper. But getting even a few of your surname tested in
> Europe is a
> great advantage because the European test subject turned out to be a DNA
> "bridge" between himself and another project member. As the project
> grows, no
> doubt other American branches will connect.
>
> Whether it's feasible to randomly find (and pay for) the tests of
> Europeans with
> your surname probably depends on the rarity of your surname and whether
> you have
> at least a general idea where you came from. Anyhoo, this method
> certainly
> worked for my traveling member and is, if nothing else, a big
> psychological
> boost for everyone in the project. It *is* possible to bridge the waters!
> It's
> just going to take time.
>
> Diana
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:
>> Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2005 11:34 AM
>> To:
>> Subject: [DNA] DNA Testing Across the Pond
>>
>> Hi All,
>> This week I got a DNA match with my Hancock line. I had been
>> stuck in NC,
>> and matched the group in Somerset, Worcester Counties, MD.
>> We are pretty
>> certain that this line came from England, but finding any
>> proof is proving to be
>> impossible.
>>
>> I was doing a search for the various names in my Hancock tree
>> and a message
>> from a Hancock in England came up from one of the Genealogy
>> lists. It was
>> dated 2001, but I decided to send a query to him.
>>
>> I asked him if he had done genealogy research and if any of
>> his related
>> males sailed into early American and then asked if he had
>> heard of the Y-DNA
>> testing and explained that we have had a problem in garnering
>> interest in testing
>> from people in the UK.
>>
>> I got a response from him today and he said that he had not a lot of
>> interest in Genealogy research and I got the feeling from
>> what he said that he
>> hadn't been able to get back very far in his Hancock tree. He
>> said that he had
>> never heard of the DNA testing and asked for the Hancock
>> Project page and where
>> he could learn more about it. I gave him a brief tutorial and
>> the links to the
>> tutorial pages.
>>
>> So I am thinking that the problem isn't that the people
>> across the pond
>> aren't interested, they, just haven't heard about it, so how
>> do we remedy that?
>>
>> In my opinion, since the records of arrivals in American and
>> the documents
>> that link us to the UK and Europe are not available, getting
>> those people
>> across the pond interested in DNA testing is the only way to
>> prove our European
>> origins.
>>
>> This fellow was interested enough to want to know more and
>> may tell his
>> friends, so if everyone will write to at least one person who
>> shares their
>> surname, perhaps, we can get the snowball rolling.
>>
>> Perhaps many of you have made those connections, but I
>> believe there is a
>> great void in most DNA Projects.
>>
>> Julia
>>
>>
>> ==============================
>> Search the US Census Collection. Over 140 million records added in the
>> last 12 months. Largest online collection in the world. Learn
>> more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13965/rd.ashx
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ==============================
> Jumpstart your genealogy with OneWorldTree. Search not only for
> ancestors, but entire generations. Learn more:
> http://www.ancestry.com/s13972/rd.ashx
>
>


This thread: