DNA Genetic Genealogy?

Question

According to DNA tests, you can see where abouts and what kind of DNA you have within you. The surname "Brand" is found all over the world and is known amongst Christians and Jewish. With my family tree stretching only a certain way back (surname passed male side), it is unclear where I originate from.

The surname "Brand" has been most common within Germany for both Christians and Jews all though has also been marked as Old-Scandinavian and found in Scandinavia as well as in Israel.

I would like to go for one of these DNA tests, maybe when older have have more money. What option would be best for me to go for? http://www.familytreedna.com/

I know very little about this DNA testing and need some advice.

I am in a Christian family and some family members include Archibald, Mark, Daisy, Bradley, Michael, etc.

Answer 1

I would suggest looking at 23andme.com and also the National Geographic Geno 2.0. DNA however is a little different from regular paper genealogy, because it tries to find your deep origins in a more anthropological sense (in the case of Geno 2.0). So you won't necessarily confirm that you're from Germany specifically for example, but that you are similar to populations in that general area also including Austria, Belgium, etc (Central European). Also, if you are from a Mediterranean area genealogically such as Italy, you may get matches all around the Mediterranean basin, but you have to understand it doesn't mean that you have genealogy in all those countries. It only means that there is some probability that you fit that genetic area more than another. 23andme has a feature that shows you people that allegedly have a segment of DNA that is identical to yours, suggesting that within the last 500 years you have a common ancestor. You can then send DNA Tribes your file from the 23andme results, and they run it in their algorithm which has many, many other populations, and they give you a neat breakdown of how these populations rank in their genetic similarity to you. It's a different focus. But I personally find it fascinating.

Answer 2

First spend the time, until you can afford the test, researching your personal family history. Genetic DNA testing is most useful when you can compare your tree and DNA results with other distant cousins. Just finding out which branch of the Brand family you are related to won't give you the ancestors in between the Most Recent Common Ancestor which is what they test for in a Y-DNA test.



If you are mostly interested in your father line, your father, his father, his father etc, and no other ancestors, go for a Y-DNA test. To potentially learn about all the ancestors for 4-5+ generations, take an autosoma DNA test. The MT-DNA (mother line) testy is rarely useful for genealogy.



Knowing about your surname is nice. Knowing the name of your great great grandfather is genealogy. Family Search.org has hundreds of free courses to get you started on your family tree, plus free records as well. The LDS Family History Center nearest you is also a valuable resource. GENUKI.org is another excellent source.



See if there is a Surname DNA Project for "Brand". Contact the administrator for the Brand Surname project and they will be able to make suggestions plus you get a discount on the cost of the test.

Projects - Family Tree DNA http://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx

Answer 3

Surnames are worse than useless in tracing your ancestry; it is like saying you have red hair, green eyes, tall & thin, where did your ancestors come from?



In both cases, the only truthful answer would be "The Garden of Eden".



Further, surnames did not become the rule in most of the world until late 1800s, or even during the 20th century, to include all of Arabia and Africa.



You also make it clear that you have NOT followed the paper trail, but decided to take short cuts. Taking short cuts is useless; I can find examples across the map, around the world, based on ancestry surnames. That doesn't mean that I have ancestors who lived in those particular spots.



So, start with your birth certificate, then the birth/marriage/death certificates of your parents, their parents, and their parents before deciding to utilize DNA testing. You refered to www.familytreedna.com, so follow their tutorials...it says the same thing.

Answer 4

The benefit is you can't afford it and so by the time you can the companies who offer these magical things will actually be able to deliver what they can't do now..........even though they lead people into believing they can..........



Bland is a surname, a surname is just a word and words come from languages not countries............. and Bland is an English word, so anyone , anywhere in the world influenced by the English language could use this name.............. it is from."brinnan", meaning a flash........... a person who lived by a "brant". This described an area of agricultural land, one which was cleared by fire, a common practice in ancient times....and I think you have already asked this before and got answers https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20130111081851AAHhnOB ...........so you see your surname tells you nothing at all about your ancestry....same as DNA tells you nothing at all



If you wish to find where your ancestry is from you need to research and that reearch starts with YOU and the records you have at home http://familytimeline.webs.com/recordsinyourownhome.htm

Answer 5

Family tree DNA and 23&Me are both good.



Please note that surnames rarely have anything to do with your DNA. NPEs happen all the time and there is absolutely no guarantee that you have any of the genes (minus the Y chromosome) of the originator of your surname even if there were zero NPEs in your bloodline. Also, your religion is irrelevant to your heritage as are the first names of your relatives.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-paternity_event



This site is an excellent blog by a genetic genealogist who covers many misconceptions and details for the average citizen.



http://www.yourgeneticgenealogist.com/p/resources.html

Answer 6

Trace your family history and don't get overly involved in surnames. Surnames are not your genealogy but they are convenient identifiers.



This is pretty much my standard answer. I think I have touched on all bases.

There are 4 types of DNA, 3 that are being tested for ancestry.



Y is passed from father to son. It is a male sex chromosomes but about 1 out of 6 females get the Y.

The reason they are the female phenotype is they are totally insensitive to testosterone and therefore they are totally estrogen. They will not have ovaries. They will not know about it until they go through puberty and fail to have a menstrual period. Then their physician will do tests. If you changed the diapers of a xy female it would be no different than if you changed the diapers of an xx female.



X is the other sex chromosomes, both males and females get an X from their mother and in addition about 5 out of 6 females get an X from their father. The X has been regarded as untraceable. However it is being used in the Geno 2.0 test.



Mitochondrial is in the cytoplasm outside the cells and is passed from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it to the next generation.



Autosomal you get 50-50 from both parents but not necessarily 25% from each of your 4 grandparents. The reason why what you inherited can be biased between grandmother and grandfather on both sides of the family. How you inherited any bias will not be how your siblings inherited it. An exception can be for identical twins. When your parents passed on the Autosomal they received from their parents to you it was randomly jumbled and went through a process called recombination.



Y & Mitochondrial testing have been used for years as they both go back in a straight line unchanged barring mutations. How it is useful is if you find others you feel you might possibly share ancestors with in those 2 direct lines and if you are tested and have a complete match with them then you are in a position to share information. The Y is facilitated with surname projects. Now with each they will assign you to a Haplogroup and show you the origin of your nomadic ancestors going back thousands of years. However it is only in 2 lines, Your family lines double each generation you go back. If you can have both tested by the time you got back to your 16 great great grandparents, 14 of them will excluded from the results. So don't be fooled when they tell you they can show you your deep ancestral origins. It is only in 2 lines. Y & Mitochondrial are totally useless in giving a person an overall view of their ancestry. Understand that Y & Mitochondrial testing is very exact but represent a tiny part of your total ancestry.



Most of your DNA is Autosomal. It is what is used in the overall ancestral testing. However Autosomal does not come down in a straight line unchanged. There are no Haplogroups with Autosomal. The problem is the only thing they can do is match you with population samples they have. Therefore it has been reported that if you have your Autosomal tested by more than one company the results will not be the same. No doubt that is because one might be deficient in or not have a certain population samples the other one does and vice versa. This type of testing has been over hyped on TV. Maury Povich doesn't know enough to ask questions to clear things up. If George Lopez and the other celebrities had theirs tested by other companies they will no no doubt get different results. It is not that DNA lies but it is a matter of what they have to analyze it by is not perfect.when it comes to the Autosomal tests. So anytime they give you a pie chart breaking down your ancestry keep some skepticism about you.



A couple of websites to check out are FamilyTreeDNA and 23and me.



Then there is DNATribes that only test Autosomal. What they do is show you your top 20 matches in descending order. They aren't saying you have ancestors from all those matches. They will give you additional matches for an additional fee. They have 1227 population samples and 918 Indigenous populations.



Ask as many questions that you have in advance. You can do that easily with FamilyTreeDNA and DNATribes by going under "feedback" at the top by emailing them and asking questions. They are very prompt at replying before you take any tests and after you take the tests.

DNA testing in isolation of traditional genealogical research is really not all that helpful.

Answer 7

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