Recent Ancestral Origins -- no meaningful matches?!

[zabo]

Hi all.

I just finished reviewing my 25-marker Y-DNA test and I'm pretty disappointed. Not only do none of my 12-marker Y-DNA tests go anywhere near 2%, but there are no matches at all for my 25-marker Y-DNA test.

Is this just a result of insufficient data? I feel a bit mislead by this experience...

[ragnar]

Why do you feel misled? It's just that not very many descendants of your ancestral male line have had their dna tested. That's all. One of these days you will get closer matches. Believe...

[T E Peterman]

This experience should also be informative about why the 12 marker test is relatively useless for determining whether you are actually of the same patriline.

Timothy Peterman

[lgmayka]

I just finished reviewing my 25-marker Y-DNA test and I'm pretty disappointed. Not only do none of my 12-marker Y-DNA tests go anywhere near 2%, but there are no matches at all for my 25-marker Y-DNA test.

Is this just a result of insufficient data? I feel a bit mislead by this experience...

The short answer is that closer matches will eventually appear. Most likely, your patrilineage is a rarer one, at least among Americans.

The longer answer is that you can help make this happen by sending email to any 12-marker matches who have not yet upgraded. Encourage them to upgrade at least to your own 25-marker level, to see if the match holds at the higher level of resolution.

The more expensive answer is that you may be able to get useful information--possibly even in a genealogical timeframe--by upgrading to the full 67 markers. Sometimes two people are related at 67 markers, but are not listed as such at 25 or 37 markers due to the precise pattern of mutations (e.g., the infamous recLOH mutation that changes 4 markers at once).