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Subject: Re: [HARRIS-DNA] Group 10 versus Group 12
Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 22:15:30 EDT
James, Gregg, everyone,
I think we are still to some extent feeling our way in this business, trying
to see how close the theory matches reality. I am reassured of the utility
of DNA testing by the fact that two putative descendants of William Harris
from around 1800 had a 12 out of 12 match. The odds of that happening by chance
are vanishingly small. This one discovery clarified a baffling situation in
which there were three contemporaneous William Harrises in Patrick County VA,
and I hadn't been sure they were all related. Paying to have one of the tests
done was the best money I every spent in genealogy. Not only that, it made
an elderly cousin who submitted the sample happy to learn about his ancestry.
With experience we'll get a better idea of how far back we have to go to find
the most recent ancestor with a five-step difference in results. Till then,
I think it's better to err on the side of caution.
Charles Leon Harris
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