Help required please !

[Susan R]

Hi there,
Im a new user of the site and would appreciate some advice please. I recently found my sister - we have the same mother - and we have a strong feeling that we also have the same father. If we both have a DNA test, will it prove that we have the same father without us having a sample of his DNA.
Many thanks in anticipation. Sue

[A.Hunt]

Sinc eyou are both female a Y-DNA is out of question. mtDNA is a female line test so you will not get the result you are looking for.

Try google for sibling test. I am not sure this test will also get the results you are looking for.

Wish I could be more help

Allen Hunt

[Susan R]

Thanks for replying anyway Allen - I know nothing about DNA !!! will try the google search........
Sue

[Jim Denning]

Hi there,
Im a new user of the site and would appreciate some advice please. I recently found my sister - we have the same mother - and we have a strong feeling that we also have the same father. If we both have a DNA test, will it prove that we have the same father without us having a sample of his DNA.
Many thanks in anticipation. Sue

well since there was a sister there might be a brother and if there is his dna ould test as his dad and his mtdna would be yours

[Jim Barrett]

well since there was a sister there might be a brother and if there is his dna ould test as his dad and his mtdna would be yours

I guess I misunderstood the original question. I thought the question was if the two women had the same father. If that was the question then Y-DNA will prove nothing since the women don't have Y-Chromosomes. mtDNA will prove nothing since the father does not pass mtDNA to anyone. I don't believe the original question mentioned anything about a brother. Even if it did, that would prove nothing about the father of the two women.

I don't believe FTDNA offers any test that would help with the original question. The suggestion to search for a sibling test by another company was a good one.

[Jim Denning]

I guess I misunderstood the original question. I thought the question was if the two women had the same father. If that was the question then Y-DNA will prove nothing since the women don't have Y-Chromosomes. mtDNA will prove nothing since the father does not pass mtDNA to anyone. I don't believe the original question mentioned anything about a brother. Even if it did, that would prove nothing about the father of the two women.

I don't believe FTDNA offers any test that would help with the original question. The suggestion to search for a sibling test by another company was a good one.

the original post said one women found a sister they share the mom and would like to know if they could prove the same father
after acutually reading that i suggested there might still be a brother
and IF THEY found one his dna would match the father and his mtdna should match the girls

is that simple enuf

[Don Potter]

Mr. Denning,
FTDNA does not offer paternity/sibling tests and that is exactly what this woman needs. Even if one woman had a brother or they found a son of the man they suspected to be their father the test offered by FTDNA would not help.
Also Mr Barret is very knowledgeable and has helped many people on this forum and I think your comment "is that simple enuf" was very condescending and inappropriate. We are all just trying to find and exchange information and I believe that rude comments have no place here. One can disagree but should do so politely. Personal attacks are uncalled for.
Don Potter

[Jim Denning]

Mr. Denning,
FTDNA does not offer paternity/sibling tests and that is exactly what this woman needs. Even if one woman had a brother or they found a son of the man they suspected to be their father the test offered by FTDNA would not help.
Also Mr Barret is very knowledgeable and has helped many people on this forum and I think your comment "is that simple enuf" was very condescending and inappropriate. We are all just trying to find and exchange information and I believe that rude comments have no place here. One can disagree but should do so politely. Personal attacks are uncalled for.
Don Potter

if the two daughters have mtdna and they find a brother and he has y and mtdna the brother dna should match . that is what people have said over and over so if mom matches mtdna they are mom and son and daughters
and if son matches dad then they prove the father is the father of the daughter too . or is this another of we dont really count that.
if this guy got around there is a good chance there might be a brother too.
stranger things have happened

[Don Potter]

if the two daughters have mtdna and they find a brother and he has y and mtdna the brother dna should match . that is what people have said over and over so if mom matches mtdna they are mom and son and daughters
and if son matches dad then they prove the father is the father of the daughter too . or is this another of we dont really count that.
if this guy got around there is a good chance there might be a brother too.
stranger things have happened

Mr Denning,
If two people are a mtDNA match on the test performed by FTDNA that does not mean that they are brother and sister. Mutations in the mtDNA occur at a very low/slow rate.
For instance, lets say a woman who lived ten generations ago had a certain mtDNA mutation. All her direct line female descendants would carry this mutation as would all sons of the direct line females. This shows that they all descend from her but are not even close to all being siblings. You can view this as one branch on a tree. When the next mutation occurs that would indicate a new branch from the original branch (ie everybody with the first mutation is related but the ones which also have the second mutation are more closely related). I hope this explanation helps those interested.
Don Potter

[Jim Denning]

Mr Denning,
If two people are a mtDNA match on the test performed by FTDNA that does not mean that they are brother and sister. Mutations in the mtDNA occur at a very low/slow rate.
For instance, lets say a woman who lived ten generations ago had a certain mtDNA mutation. All her direct line female descendants would carry this mutation as would all sons of the direct line females. This shows that they all descend from her but are not even close to all being siblings. You can view this as one branch on a tree. When the next mutation occurs that would indicate a new branch from the original branch (ie everybody with the first mutation is related but the ones which also have the second mutation are more closely related). I hope this explanation helps those interested.
Don Potter

Mr.Potter i dont know why you cant follow what i said

James denning is the long lost brother of Mary Potter who recently has meet her sister alberta hunt alberta and mary are the daughters of elizabeth hunt
they know elizabeth is their mom all have had mtdna test with whatever company they wanted !! they all match so they are all siblings of elizabeth


but they wonder if they are all the children of bill clinton elizabeth doesnt know


so if james hs 25 and they match then james is the son of bill

and since he has the mtdna of elizabeth he is elizabeths son

thats as close as anyone can get


now that i have typed this five times that should be enuf

[Don Potter]

All,
In this thread there seems to be two opinions. Can the more knowledgable help set this straight. Can a mtDNA test prove paternity or not?
Don Potter

[Susan R]

Oh dear, I didn't think my simple question would cause a problem !! I will try to explain the situation a bit better.........

My sister was born in 1950 (no fathers name on her birth cert) and was given up for adoption. We have the same birth mother. Our mother married my father in 1951. I was born in 1953. I found out about my sisters existance 3 years ago and I found her 6 weeks ago. In talking to her and seeing the resemblance between our 7 children (one example - my father had striking blue eyes, which I and my sons have inherited, also blonde hair - there is no history of blue eyes or blonde hair as far back as they can go that my sisters husbands family history) yet two of her children have the same eyes and blonde hair and they are all the image of me and my sons. This suggests to us that there is a stronger genetic link than us just having the same mother. Given other circumstances we are convinced that my father is also my sisters father but we dont know why my sister was given up for adoption. There is no trace of our mother having any more children, I have checked all available birth records from our mother being 16 - 55. We have no other living relatives male or female.

I just wondered - being a complete novice to DNA - whether my sister and I taking a DNA test could prove that we had the same father as well as having the same mother. I can assure you that my father did not 'get around' it was our mother who left us both - I haven't seen mum since 1959 - my father was 100% faithful to our mum and brought me up alone !!
Thank you anyway Don and Jim for your assistance.

[Don Potter]

Susan R,
There are test that could help you but a mtDNA test is not it. I suggest you look at the tutorial on the Family Tree DNA site. This should help explain it. My wife and I have both taken the mtDNA test. I am mtDNA haplogroup "U2" and so far have no matches. My wife on the other hand is mtDNA haplogroup "K" and has 9 exact matches and I assure you none of these are her siblings. However they do all descend from the same woman on their direct female line. This person could and proabably lived hundreds of years ago.
Don Potter


Mr Denning,
Have you taken a mtDNA test. If so which mtDNA haplogroup do you belong to.
Don Potter

[A.Hunt]

Hi Susan here a link to sort of test you need.
http://paternitytestingassociates.co..._dna_test.html

I would shop around $315 seem a lot but if it really answer longing question $315 maybe not that much. Specially when you really can sit back and say yes or no.

Good luck I hope you get your answer.

As to why she was put up to adoption? What was age of mother and being that was early 50's. I heard those was innocent time and very strick. =p

[jablair]

All,
In this thread there seems to be two opinions. Can the more knowledgable help set this straight. Can a mtDNA test prove paternity or not?
Don Potter

I am no expert on the subject of mtDNA, but I do know that mtDNA and Y-DNA testing can NOT PROVE paternity. They can certainly DISPROVE paternity and they MAY provide evidence to support the theory of paternity, but neither can PROVE paternity.

Consider the follow example. Four people, Bob, Tom, Sue, and Jane believe they may be siblings. All four take the mtDNA test. Bob and Tom also take the Y-DNA test.

First assume that all four match on the mtDNA test and that Tom and Bob match on the Y-DNA test. What does this prove?

1. It proves the all four share a common female ancestor. But this common female ancestor could be a mother, grandmother, gr-grandmother, gr-gr-grandmother, etc. There is NO way of knowing how far back you need to go to find that common female ancestor.

2. It proves that Tom and Bob share a common male ancestor. But this common male ancestor could be a father, grandfather, gr-grandfather, gr-gr-grandfather, etc. There is NO way of knowing how far back you need to go to find that common male ancestor.

3. It does nothing to connect Sue and Jane to a common male ancestor, or to Tom and Bob.

Even if we know for a FACT, that the four have the same mother there is no proof that they have the same father. Even though Tom and Bob match on their Y-DNA test there is no way to be certain that they have the same father. Maybe their fathers were brothers, without other proof, you can not know for sure.

As for Sue and Jane, their is NO way of knowing through either mtDNA or Y-DNA testing if they have the same father or if either of them has the same father as Tom or Bob. In fact there is no way of knowing if they even share a common male ancestor.

Coupled with other traditional genealogical research these DNA test results could certainly support the theory that the four were siblings, but would NOT PROVE it.

On the other hand, if any or all of the four had very different test results, this would prove that those with the different results were NOT siblings.

John