Puzzled

[piper109]

My wife and I recently received our individual results from FTDNA.

My wife is part of a fairly rare Haplogroup I and has about 1300 matches.
I am part of a very common Haplogroup R-M269 or "predicted" to be. I have one solitary match of a somewhat similar but not same surname and no forename or indications as to when and where.

I am puzzled by the results and can glean practically nothing from them. I am basically as ignorant as before the testing.

Family name is Cotsford, born in London UK as were my paternal father and grandfather so I should not be a rare species.
What am I missing??? These results leave me feeling dumb and very perplexed.

[spruithean]

I'm going to assume you are referring to your wife's mitochondrial haplogroup I (as opposed to her father's Y-DNA haplogroup). The mitochondrial haplogroup is very different from the Y-DNA Haplogroup.

Your R-M269 is merely estimated without SNP testing. You could belong to a less common downstream clade of R-M269, which can be learned through SNP testing.

What is your closest matches surname? Is it a variation of yours? I would pay close attention to that match, and perhaps contact them?

[Biblioteque]

Piper: Please clarify. 1300 is an large number of mtDna matches. I have had full sequence mtDna testing, and only have 41 matches.

[piper109]

Yes, my wife's results are mtDNA. About 1000 of her matches are HVR1, the rest are HVR2 and coding region (not sure what that means)

My family name is Cotsford and the solitary match I have is Scotford. I have no means of contacting them as no info other than the surname is given. I will investigate SNP testing.

[Jim Barrett]

Yes, my wife's results are mtDNA. About 1000 of her matches are HVR1, the rest are HVR2 and coding region (not sure what that means)

My family name is Cotsford and the solitary match I have is Scotford. I have no means of contacting them as no info other than the surname is given. I will investigate SNP testing.

There are only two people in the FTDNA database with the Scotford surname. That may be you and your wife.

[KATM]

My wife and I recently received our individual results from FTDNA.

My wife is part of a fairly rare Haplogroup I and has about 1300 matches.
I am part of a very common Haplogroup R-M269 or "predicted" to be. I have one solitary match of a somewhat similar but not same surname and no forename or indications as to when and where.

I am puzzled by the results and can glean practically nothing from them. I am basically as ignorant as before the testing.

Family name is Cotsford, born in London UK as were my paternal father and grandfather so I should not be a rare species.
What am I missing??? These results leave me feeling dumb and very perplexed.

What do you hope to learn from your and your wife's testing? Are you trying to find ancestors to build a family tree?

You need to familiarize yourself with these tests, what they mean and what you might learn from them, at the very least so you spend your money wisely. You should also learn about genealogical DNA testing overall, including a test that neither your wife or you has apparently done: autosomal (called "Family Finder" at FTDNA).

Here are some links that may help you:
For mtDNA

• Try reading Roberta Estes' blog post "Mitochondrial DNA – Your Mom’s Story". She describes the features available at FTDNA. I think most people would advise that your wife just deal with her mtDNA matches at the mtDNAFullSequence level ("HVR1, HVR2, Coding Regions"), because those 1000 at the HVR1 and/or HVR2 regions may be far too distant to figure out the connection (UNLESS they have also tested at the mtDNAFullSequence level, and show as a match to you on that list). Roberta's blog is very good for answering questions on many DNA topics; just use the search box and see what shows up.
• There is an mtDNA haplogroup I project at FTDNA, that your wife may want to join. The administrators can offer advice.

For your Y-DNA

• Consider joining one or more projects at FTDNA, where project administrators may help you. If there are no projects for your surname, join one for your haplogroup, or the region of your most distant known direct-line male ancestor. The R1b All Subclades Project might be a good place to start for you.
• Professional genetic genealogist CeCe Moore has a series of articles "DNA Testing for Genealogy – Getting Started" which you may find helpful. It starts on the linked page with Part 1 (for Y-DNA), and continues with the other types of DNA tests.

For autosomal (atDNA) and general DNA,

• Kelly Wheaton has a portion of her site dedicated to her "Beginners Guide to Genetic Genealogy," which covers autosomal and Y-DNA testing.
• The International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) website, and their Wiki pages, has a lot of information, including for beginners.
• You may find the "Introduction to Molecular Genealogy" videos helpful. They explain the four types of DNA tested by genetic genealogy DNA testing companies.
• Blaine Bettinger is a genetic genealogist, and has a widely-praised beginner's book on genetic genealogy "The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy", shown at his website, "The Genetic Genealogist." (FTDNA also has a page of recommended books)

Don't forget the Family Tree DNA Learning Center. There are sections for each type of test, each section of your account, and a glossary of genetic genealogy terms.

[Biblioteque]

piper: And in addition to the great info that KATM provided, you could contact Robert Estes for a consultation to get you headed in the right direction which might take the edge off your learning curve.

Just google her at DNAeXplained

[The_Contemplator]

Yes, my wife's results are mtDNA. About 1000 of her matches are HVR1, the rest are HVR2 and coding region (not sure what that means)

The more meaningful matches are the ones that you see in the "HVR1, HVR2, and Coding Regions". Anything lower than that can be even more distantly related or a coincidence. As for what it means, they are different sections of mtDNA that are tested.

My family name is Cotsford and the solitary match I have is Scotford. I have no means of contacting them as no info other than the surname is given. I will investigate SNP testing.

When you see only a surname in black and not the usual blue with no links to see their email address, it means this person has that Y-DNA marker level disabled. Some people disable the lower marker levels because they have many many matches and prefer to focus on those at the higher levels. They also disable lower levels so they don't get as many useless emails from FTDNA about new matches. For some unknown reason, FTDNA has tied the email notification of matches with being able to see matches and be shown to matches. So your match does not even know you are on his list at that level.

Anyways, at what level is this match showing up in (Y12, Y25, Y37, Y67, or Y111)? Usually people are more likely to disable Y12 and Y25 but those with many matches may even disable Y37 and possibly Y67 as well. If you were to upgrade and this match still shows up, you may be able to see an email to contact them.

Family name is Cotsford, born in London UK as were my paternal father and grandfather so I should not be a rare species.

It all depends on how many of your distant paternal cousins have gotten tested. If you come from a lineage that only has a few children at each generation, there may be less cousins out there that would bother to get tested. It can also depend on what level you tested. Perhaps your specific branch has had a few unusual markers that prevent you from seeing your closer cousins who may differ just enough to not show up in your match list. What STR marker level did you test to? (Y37, Y67, Y111)

[piper109]

Lots of good info to digest and try. Thanks !
My test was at the Y37 and my single match is a 12 marker and has a genetic distance of 0

I get the impression that my test put me pretty much beyond the scope of the FTDNA database.

[The_Contemplator]

If your only match shows up at Y12, upgrading may not help. It can happen that upgrading shows a match was that too many differences at the lower levels to show up. It just isn't too likely though.

About the Y12 match, if the match has only tested up to Y12 it may be worth contacting them to get them to upgrade. Though I imagine it is the match you mentioned with no email address which means he likely has tested higher and just does not match you at those levels.

The next thing you can do is recruit potential cousins to get tested. People with the right surname or who have ancestors from the same area as your most distant known paternal ancestor.