GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-12 > 1167080519


From: (John Chandler)
Subject: Re: [DNA] a new member links to Sligo Ireland
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 16:01:59 -0500 (EST)
References: <123700.65339.qm@web36804.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <123700.65339.qm@web36804.mail.mud.yahoo.com> (message from D111on Mon, 25 Dec 2006 09:56:56 -0800 (PST))


D111 wrote:
> I believe that the assumption of mutation rates is wrong. Is there a
> family anywhere that has had a large portion of known close
> relatives tested?

The closest possible relatives (in terms of Y DNA) are fathers and
their sons. The results of literally thousands of father-son pairs
have been published, and these form the basis for the most reliable
rate estimates.

> I have a third cousin with whom I have two mismatches out of 37
> markers

That's not at all out of the ordinary. Actually, the most likely
relationships for the case of two one-step mismatches (in the absence
of any genealogical information) are fourth or fifth cousins. There
are known cases of even closer relatives having as many or more
mismatches, but these cases are just notable exceptions. The rate
estimates have to be based on the average of all cases, not just on
the rare exceptions.

John Chandler

This thread: