Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of Y-DNA

[McElmurry]

Next Generation Sequencing is the most in-depth test currently available for Y-DNA. Like many people I initially took an inexpensive test with 23andMe and was placed in a very large group called R-L21. After a few years I took a more in depth test called the L21 Panel with the Lab YSEQ. This test put me in the group R-L21>DF13*. The * means I was negative for further know mutations in that group. Realizing that very few of German ancestry are in the L21 group and very few Germans get DNA testing I decided to blaze my own trail and take Y-Elite 2.0 from Full Genome Corporation (FGC).

What I got out of the test was my terminal SNP, that is the last mutation I share with another tester, and a list of private mutations (SNPs), those I don't yet share with anybody. I shared my results with The Big Tree and they can be seen at the link below. I am happy to answer any questions about NGS or Y-DNA testing in general.

http://www.ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=1254

I am on the far left along with a Welshman with whom I share nine private SNPs, and a dark stranger. Scroll down to see the names and countries of origin. If you scroll across the bottom you will find a few other Germans scattered amongst the "Celts". Portions of L21 are believed to be associated with the Bell Beaker Culture and proto-Celtic languages. The origin of these Y-DNA groups is hotly debated but one popular theory is they originated along the Rhine and perhaps the upper Danube and were scattered during the Great Migrations.

[jebrooks76]

I just received my swabs in the mail from Family Tree DNA. It's the Y-DNA67 kit. Thanks for posting your results. I was wondering what they looked like and how specifically it was used for information.

[Red Redwine]

It sounds like you have quite a bit of knowledge on this subject. Are you aware of a good basic explanation on the web of the different tests available and what they provide in the way of results? I'm just beginning to get into genealogy and recently gifted my Mom the AncestryDNA test. She's been doing it for quite a while, but this is our first foray into the DNA testing.

[McElmurry]

It sounds like you have quite a bit of knowledge on this subject. Are you aware of a good basic explanation on the web of the different tests available and what they provide in the way of results? I'm just beginning to get into genealogy and recently gifted my Mom the AncestryDNA test. She's been doing it for quite a while, but this is our first foray into the DNA testing.

Here is a good source of information: http://isogg.org/wiki/Wiki_Welcome_Page

The test you gave your Mother is an autosomal DNA test: http://isogg.org/wiki/Portal:Autosomal_DNA

It tests portions of all chromosomes, compares them with other people in that database, and matches you to people with identical little snippets of chromosomes. Autosomal tests are good for people who are interested in more than just their surname line (male Y-DNA) and particularly women because they don't have Y-DNA. One advantage of using Ancestry.com is most people in the database should have a good understanding of their family tree. It is not helpful to know you share small amounts of DNA with somebody if you can't compare trees to figure out where the common genes originated.

[Baker04]

Scroll along to where L1335 starts (blue section) and I am the first match (Preston). I also have a rare terminal snp, plus 9 snp's downstream. 1335 is known as the Scots Cluster. The tree is a work in progress and is continuously updated on the basis of new discoveries.

[Evestay53]

I have some questions about DNA testing. I am thinking about getting tested, but which level of test do I need? I have decided when I test to use FamilyTree DNA because they have surname projects. I have my ancestry traced back to when we came over to America. But we do not know which ship we came over on. The courthouse and all of its records burned and our record tracing stops cold. We know that we are from Peebleshire and Roxbourghshire. Will DNA testing be able to provide the link or area so we can pick up the paper trail? Does anyone have any ideas?

[Alan H]

I have some questions about DNA testing. I am thinking about getting tested, but which level of test do I need? I have decided when I test to use FamilyTree DNA because they have surname projects. I have my ancestry traced back to when we came over to America. But we do not know which ship we came over on. The courthouse and all of its records burned and our record tracing stops cold. We know that we are from Peebleshire and Roxbourghshire. Will DNA testing be able to provide the link or area so we can pick up the paper trail? Does anyone have any ideas?

No.

Or at least, it is phenomenally highly unlikely. It is POSSIBLE that you could have some incredibly unique polymorphism which might be shared by a relative who because of the family bible, or something, actually has paper records dating back to the 1700's. It is POSSIBLE that this distant relative also went and got DNA tested which revealed this same polymorphism, and decided to make their genomic data publically searchable.

I would just strongly suggest that the huge combination of unlikely factors added together means for all practical purposes "no" is the right answer.

[Alan H]

McElmurry wrote this: " It is not helpful to know you share small amounts of DNA with somebody if you can't compare trees to figure out where the common genes originated. "

I can't emphasize this strongly enough.

What's a SNP? How do they appear? When do they appear? Can they spontaneously appear? What's a haplogroup? Why is autosomal DNA different from Y-DNA or mtDNA?

Honestly, to make sense of this you need to understand a lot of modern human genetics. Without that fundamental understanding, you're just getting a mess of information from which you really can draw very few conclusions. There's a reason that some modern human population geneticists actually spend a lot of time researching the telephone book and census reports.

Do you want to know if you belong to a haplogroup which is associated with "Northern Europe"? Easy-peasy.

Do you want your DNA testing to show that your great, great, great grandmother hailed from Glasgow in 1740? No can do....not without a stupendously improbable alignment of events.

What if you happen to have genetic polymorphisms primarily associated with populations of people from Africa? It's very likely to happen. Does that mean that your great, great, great grandmother is actually from Zaire?

This stuff is a lot more complicated than people want it to be.

[Evestay53]

Alan H, Thank you. So now that leads me to think I could just get one of the less expensive DNA tests. For what ever use they would be.

[Alan H]

I have some questions about DNA testing. I am thinking about getting tested, but which level of test do I need? I have decided when I test to use FamilyTree DNA because they have surname projects. I have my ancestry traced back to when we came over to America. But we do not know which ship we came over on. The courthouse and all of its records burned and our record tracing stops cold. We know that we are from Peebleshire and Roxbourghshire. Will DNA testing be able to provide the link or area so we can pick up the paper trail? Does anyone have any ideas?

If you know that your family hails from there, then your best bet is to start looking at records in those counties that date to approximately the time that your relatives emigrated. I'm sure that I'm not telling you anything that you don't know already.