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Archiver > SANDERS > 2004-02 > 1077583570


From: "Justin M. Sanders" <>
Subject: Re: [SANDERS] Call for Sanders DNA Project participants
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 18:46:15 -0600 (CST)
In-Reply-To: <004701c3f9ac$956940a0$0100a8c0@mshome.net>


On Sun, 22 Feb 2004, AnnetteShelton wrote:

> 1. How can DNA collected today be linked to ancestors of long ago?

Briefly, all male descendants of a common paternal ancestor will share the
same Y chromosome-- they inherit it from their fathers, who inherited it
from their fathers, and so on back to the common father of the bunch.
Let's suppose that I can document my ancestry to a Benjamin Sanders born
about 1770 in NC (or maybe VA), and I suspect that he *may* be a son of
Isaac Sanders. I also suspect that Isaac was the father of a son Joseph.
Now if a male descendant of Joseph Sanders (through an unbroken male line)
participates in the project, and if our Y chromosomes match, then that
suppports the connection I've outlined. On the other hand, if we *don't*
match, then I will have to reconsider the notion that Isaac Sanders is the
common ancestor of we two modern folks.

Now suppose that there is a third participant-- who only knows he's a
Sanders, but can't quite figure out how his (short) line links up with
anyone elses. If his Y-DNA matches some other participant's, then those
two will know that they share a common paternal Sanders ancestor, and
they'll know to focus their research on areas which would explain that
common ancestry.

> 2. Do you have certain known ancestors that the study will be trying to
> link to?

Not really, one of the values of Y-DNA testing is that it can establish
links that were previously unsuspected. Now, it is true that several of
our initial volunteers suspect that they share a common ancestor, but we
don't yet have (traditional) proof-- a Y-DNA match will let us know if we
are on the right track or barking up the wrong tree.

> 3. Would you recommend this particular project for Sanders of Franklin &
> Wake Co., NC heritage?

I guess I'd say that I'd recommend this project for *any* Sanders who is
interested in learning how his Sanders line might link up with others.
(And who is sufficiently interested that he's willing to pay the $100 or
so bucks for the test). The more different Sanders lines that are tested,
the greater the likelihood that they will start to sort out into related
groups.

The idea is that the results of the tests-- showing which Sanders lines
match up with which-- will be made available on a website for all Sanders
researchers to use in their own research.

Justin M. Sanders "I shot an arrow into the air. It fell
Dept. of Physics to earth I know not where." --Henry
Univ. of South Alabama Wadsworth Longfellow confessing
to a sad ignorance of ballistics.

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