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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2009-04 > 1239651334


From: (John Chandler)
Subject: Re: [DNA] Fwd: New Matches Found for your DNA Test Results
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:35:34 -0400
References: <E1Lt3ID-00020K-KA@elasmtp-masked.atl.sa.earthlink.net><REME20090412142120@alum.mit.edu><C5278EEEB0684C438F48C82B4D98E21F@Silva>
In-Reply-To: <C5278EEEB0684C438F48C82B4D98E21F@Silva> (grandcross@swbell.net)


"grandcross" wrote:
> I'm not sure where you got the idea the surname pattern you describe
> "prevails" in "Portugese (sic)-speaking" countries. Perhaps you were ...

For reasons that are not at all obvious, you completely missed the
point of this thread. Perhaps you were diverted by the perceived
opportunity to slip a "[sic]" into the record. No matter. It would
seem that I need to be clearer. The fact is that I did *not* describe
the surname pattern under discussion, and nobody else did, either. The
complaint from Itzhak was that everyone in this discussion had been
speaking as though the pattern prevailing in the English-speaking world
were the only pattern, and I responded by pointing out that the *same*
pattern prevailed in many other contexts as well, without actually
spelling out what "everyone knew" he meant. Let me remedy that now.

In the English-speaking world, a surname is inherited, generally at
birth, from the recognized father. There are many exceptions, but
this is the accepted pattern. Since this list is focused on the
genetic side of genealogy, I am not proposing a broad discussion
of the exceptions or of the pattern itself, except insofar as they
might apply to specific cases in genetic genealogy.

I will go so far as to bring up some examples of my own. The Chandler
DNA project has a goodly collection of clusters of DNA matches, some
large and some small. My cluster happens to be very close to the
Atlantic Modal Haplotype, and I happen to match the group's mode on
the first 25 markers. On two occasions, out of the blue, I have
learned of exact 12/12 matches with other Chandlers who in due course
received the rest of their test results and found out that they do not
belong to my group after all. In both cases, it would have been a
real breakthrough for the matches to hold up, since both men had (and
still have) relatively recent brick walls on their paternal lines.
Alas, it was not to be. I note, however, that Chandlers who knew in
advance that they traced back to a common ancestor (whether in my
group or in another) found that extending their test results confirmed
the initial match.

The lesson here is that even sharing a surname may not be enough if
the surname happens to have multiple origins (such as an occupational
name or a popular patronymic).

John Chandler

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