Is Anyone Posting?

I joined the group and have submitted my test kit and I am starting to get my results back. Is anyone actually using this data base or did I just waist my time and money?

[Deirwha]

Give yourself 6 months to figure out what you do or don't know and what it is that is possible to figure out given technology and the state of others with a configuration similar to yours also taking tests that are reported. Some of us have had great, useful and sometimes surprising connections. Others of us have wandered this Forum sad for lack of match ups and wondering if we have wasted our money. For me personally, I did not get as much out of this as I had hoped, I found I had projected way too much onto the development of the field, I found that science is the turtle while imagination is the hare, BUT I did achieve some useful and surprising connections that tell me some things about the golden thread of my heritage I had not expected to learn. So it is a glass half empty/ glass half full thing.

[rbsvnski]

Originally Posted by Deirwha

Give yourself 6 months to figure out what you do or don't know.

I agree, and I would suggest that the 6 months occur prior to ordering a test. Read Sykes, Wells or any of the other books recommended by FTDNA. Know in advance exactly what you will be getting and not getting from a specific test.

I think that the source of some of the frustration expressed on this forum is also the source of DNA's most exciting aspect, i.e. it is an emerging science and we all have the rare privilege of participating in it as human patterns begin to gain form and take on order.

If you find an interesting rock, that is a personal discovery. But you can take it to a trained geologist and he/she can probably tell you exactly what you have. Geologist have it pretty much figured out. The same cannot be said of genetic anthropology. Your results are your personal discovery which become part of the larger data base and assist science in constructing the bigger picture.

We get to witness the restructuring of the phylogenetic tree as it takes shape. We have a front-row seat to the discovery of new SNPs. We get to watch haplotypes gel as modal values become clearer and better understood. But we don't get immediate answers because all the "rocks" have not yet been disovered or identified. The data base needs to grow significantly and it needs to become much more globally inclusive before science can make sweeping conclusions about human history. Your test helped it grow.

It is rare that one gets the opportunity to be an active participant in emerging knowledge so critical to human understanding of itself. But it also requires a fair amount of patience. Hang in there.

-Rob

[Deirwha]

I agree with you 100 percent. And not incidentally, I would have saved myself some money had someone given me this advice. Instead of beginning with the 12 marker through National Geographic and one by one adding on as I learned a test was needed, I would have gone for my 37 marker, my deep clade and a full FGS right off the bat. But, as you say, AFTER I had a clearer idea into what I was getting. I have learned a great deal but it has been a steep learning curve and along the way I spluttered a bit myself. The other thing I will suggest is that one understand that those of us who write on this forum are of mixed experience levels ranging from day one-ers to PHD experts in the field. Some of us have real knowledge we offer. Others of us, and I will include me in this although I have tried to keep it under control, offer our private obsessions, what my son calls "dream castles." None of us probably can afford to feel too haughty about what others say because even the scientists among us may well harbor such dream castles. So read with an open mind but not so open your brains fall out. That includes when you read my own posts. After all, I may not be a Gemini but sometimes I too have a debate with myself and lose. I agree that you are best to get some good basic technical information under your belt before you expose yourself to the jousting field. Best of luck. It really is both exciting and a privilege to be in the midst of something this new and promising.

[efgen]

This is a sub-forum for the Doane surname project. So I think the original poster was commenting about no one posting from his surname project.

Aldoane -- Having a discussion forum is completely optional for surname projects and shouldn't be used as a determinant for how active the particular project is. Check out your surname project's website and communicate with your surname project's administrator(s) about your results. Your surname project administrator will be in the best position to help you learn about your results with respect to others with your surname.

Your surname project's website is here:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/doane

Project administrator names and email addresses are at the top of the project's website. Y-DNA results for 32 members of the Doane surname project are available on the Y Results page of the website.

To read or contribute to general genetic genealogy discussions, check out the main page of these discussion forums by clicking the "Family Tree DNA Forum" link above. You can also access it via the direct URL - http://forums.familytreedna.com

Good luck!

Thanks to all. Efgen, you are right. I purchased the kit because of a suggestion by the Doane Family Assn. I came here thinking there would be other postings and find nothing. Thanks for the link and I will check it out.

Al