Where to go from here??

[cycleman]

It has now, via Y-DNA (Family Tree) testing, been confirmed that my surname line originated in 1823 with the birth of my g-g-grandfather whose mother (but no father) was listed in a family Bible. He was given the surname of her husband who died two years earlier. His descendants including me do not match other individuals who were the results of documented marriages, etc., in this line.

I could care less about the “paternity issue” but am interested at some point in ascertaining info about my, as yet, unknown ancestors. To date I have no 37 marker matches closer than 4 mutations. As with many folks, I have hundreds of lesser matches. In general, do you folks think I should just sit and wait for a better high resolution match or should I begin to focus on lower resolution exact matches that I can determine are from the geographic area of my g-g-grandfather’s birth? For example, if an exact 12 or very close 25 marker match is determined to be from the right area and the match has not tested at 37, would it be appropriate to contact this individual? Heck, I’d be willing to pay for an upgrade under the right circumstances. Thanks for any advice.

[hachaliah]

I'm in the same boat. I'm just sitting and waiting. I was hoping that my results would give me some sort of "brick wall destroyer" to the current patriarch of my family. But nope.
I'm just learning about my haplogroup, waiting for the subclade test to be finished, and crossing my fingers that someone out there will be a match someday.

[efgen]

I do email my 12 and 25-marker matches who haven't upgraded to 37 markers, though I generally have less than 50 matches, not hundreds. (I've had several male family members tested.)

In my email, I introduce myself and give a summary of my genealogy, explain why I'm looking for a match with a different surname (in my case, most Jewish families didn't have surnames prior to about 1800), explain why our 12 and 25-marker matches aren't enough information to determine if we are related in a more recent timeframe, and encourage them to upgrade to find out if we have something worth pursuing genealogically. Some decide to upgrade, others don't.

You can also check Ysearch and attempt to identify those who are from the same area and then target those people.

[griffj3]

Where to go from here?

I am in the same boat too. It appears that my gggrandfather was born out of wedlock. Same thing on my husbands side too.
Not sure where your gggf was from but if it was England ... I would suggest that you see if you can get a hold of the church records. If the family was in any way dependant on the church for support - the church may have tried to determine who the father was to order him to provide support. It can also give you an idea of the social conditions of the time - which can provide some clues. For example neighbours, movement of people, relocation's, industry trends etc.

It turns out that some believe that as many as 1 in 10 births in England in the early 1800's were illegitimate. I suspect that many of us are not who we think we are.

Good luck.

[tomcat]

I would contact those low-res geographic matches and let them know you are searching. You seem to have some detailed information about your g-g-g-grandmother and her milieu perhaps it will click with what they know of their own family history.

Good luck,
Tom

[AngelaC]

Hello Cycleman,

How common is your haplotype? (ie. how many 12, 25 matches do you have), and in what haplogroup is it?

How common your haplotype is may affect the chance of whether any close matches are likely to be close via common descent, v's close via "convergence"/random chance.

If your haplotype is very common (eg. more than 50-75 12 marker matches), then I probably would only contact close 37 marker matches.

If you perhaps have up to 25-50 12 marker matches, then perhaps you could contact close 25 marker matches.

I'd follow efen's suggestions of an introductionary e-mail, and also targeting those from a similar area.

Angela.

[cycleman]

Hello Cycleman,
How common is your haplotype? (ie. how many 12, 25 matches do you have), and in what haplogroup is it?

I'm a I1a with all the indicators of "Ultra-Norse" -- most of my low resolution matches are Scandinavian or from Scotland. I have no 25 matches other than another descendent of my g-g-grandfather. I have 120 12 marker matches but a lot of them have been tested to 25 and 37 for which there are no matches. I'll start looking at the 12 markers to see if anybody is from the North Carolina area where my g-g-granfather was born.