[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA Testing

[Earl Schultz]

Hi Bob, I can certainly understand your comments about DNA testing.  It can be complicated and it can seem to be unproductive because it is impossible to find the paper to match the many matches you are likely to get.  But DNA is the only way to prove that the paper documents are right.  Here are some examples:

I have several distant cousins who have also done DNA tests.  Our DNA matches so the paper documents for us are correct.  Without the DNA test we wouldn't know if someone in our lines was adopted or illegitimate.

I have found a long lost branch of my family when I got a close match with someone and we also had a common surname.  I have pictures of his great, great grandmother that he doesn't have and he knew nothing about her except for her name.  Lucky him.  She was my grandmother's sister who moved to California and wasn't heard from again.

Even the very distant matches I have dating back 12 or more generations have told me generally where my Schultz family may have come from in Germany (because they are distant they are more likely to be close to the origin of my family).  No, I will never get the paper to prove it and surnames probably were not even used at the time.  Also, I discovered that the Halls and the Diamonds/Dymonds in the UK likely come from my Schultz ancestor, who's son was a Saxon invader hundreds of years ago.

Also, knowing my haplogroups, I can trace the likely movement of my ancestors 8,000, 20,000, or even 50,000 years ago.  Yes, these were cavemen but I generally know where they travelled.

Most importantly, Bob, I was like most people who take a DNA test and then wait for a match to show up.  That is not how you use DNA testing.  The book Genetic Genealogy, the Basics and Beyond, was a real eye-opener for me and I learned that the way to make DNA testing work is to get a group of related people (1st to 4th cousins for example) to submit their DNA.  From the results you can then figure out what DNA segments our common ancestors had and then anyone who shares that segment has to be from that common ancestor.  Yes, you may not have the paper documents yet because maybe there is a missing line in your records but that's when you try to identify where the missing line is.

It is not always easy but it is getting easier.  If you find a Krampetz family in Germany, a simple y-DNA test will tell you if they are from your family or not.  Otherwise you will never know until you find the paper document which may never come.

DNA evidence is more reliable than paper documents but I think for most people it is an issue of not understanding how to use it. 

I hope you decide to give it a try.  I'm curious if our lines have ever crossed.

Earl

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Message: 5
Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:14:06 -0400 (EDT)
From: Krampetz at aol.com
To: ger-poland-volhynia at sggee.org
Subject: [Ger-Poland-Volhynia] DNA Testing.
Message-ID: <255e0.76cd94c2.412d011e at aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Other than narrowing the area(s) ones ancestors were probably  from,
   and possibly finding someone with close matching DNA markers  who MAY
   be related.   I really don't see much  use beyond those 'finds'.
 
   If someone is truly interested in their genealogy,   they've already been 
   searching for matches, and very likely posted their tree  they already 
have at some site that will be found by other  genealogy seekers, and 
hopefully both will match what they have.   
   Should two people's DNA have a  match but no  ancestors of either 
match.. then what?
   
    DNA analysis keeps announcing ever wider, and ever less expensive 
analysis.
    Also, the myriad changes in what you can do with  your DNA readout,  
and where it's acceptable to post for comparisons on,   reads to me as a 
ever changing headache to track and keep up with.
 
   I other words,  from what I've read so far - there's more  frustration 
in store than clarification and match-ups..
 
   Is there a simple explanation somewhere where true  benefits are to be 
had at this time, with the existing tests?
 
Sign me:  Skeptic,
Bob K.
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