You are not going to believe this!!!

[Arch Yeomans]

congrats

Hi folks,
Thought I tell you about the wildest, most exciting thing happened to my husband.
He's a member of the Meek surname project at FTDNA.
He's R1b1.
While he has has a few great matches with other project members, he wasn't able to get back to country of origin.
Until now.
A member, with a DIFFERENT surname, went to Ireland to collect YDNA samples from any male Meek he could find.
He thought his family might originally been named Meek.
He only convinced ONE to give a sample. While it did not match the man who was looking for his ancestors, it matched my husband! My husband knew nothing of this man's quest until he received an email from his project manager.
That man matched my husband at a genetic distance of one on 25 markers.
Considering my husband's family has been in this country at least 200 years, we believe we have a great match!
Is this a great story of the power of genealogy through DNA, or what!?
Thought you'd like to know.
Cinda

That is neat. Not often I hear about stories like this.

Appears to be interesting!

Today I happened to bump into the site of www.jobstories.com.au through google. Does anyone know about this initiative or what it is all about?

Cheers

[F.E.C.]

I am an R1B1 y-DNAand most of my cousins are Irish,Scots ,British,but I was born in Italy(Venice).My great grand fether is the last known recent ancestor I know, born around 1840,how can I explain the similarityes of my Y_DNA?

Hi Stelmoglass, just like you I'm Italian (I live near Milan), R1b and my closest matches are in the British Isles and Germanic countries. Our haplogroup is common in Italy, but still I don't even have a single 11/12 match in our country.
Stelmoglass, I'm also a member of the increasingly growing Italy Project (kit no. N12646), please join us

Francesco

[vineviz]

If you are referring to matches at a 12 markers, then you are merely seeing the fact that 12 markers is not enough to distinguish ethnic groups, particularly in the heavily populated R1b1 haplogroup.

Lawrence is right. We have quite a few R1b participants in the Italy DNA Project, and with twelve markers it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between the major varieties of R1b.

If you do indeed have close matches with people in the British Isles, your distant ancestors could have come to Italy as long ago as the Neolithic or much more recently (e.g. the Roman period or later). It is, indeed hard to say.

With more markers and/or a SNP test you might learn more, if you are interested. I also encourage you to join the the Italy DNA Project here at FTDNA.

http://www.familytreedna.com/ftGroupJoinLogin.aspx?joincode=Z53891&special=True

[lgmayka]

I am an R1B1 y-DNAand most of my cousins are Irish,Scots ,British,but I was born in Italy(Venice).My great grand fether is the last known recent ancestor I know, born around 1840,how can I explain the similarityes of my Y_DNA?

If you are referring to matches at a 12 markers, then you are merely seeing the fact that 12 markers is not enough to distinguish ethnic groups, particularly in the heavily populated R1b1 haplogroup.

Please consider upgrading to 37 markers, through the Order Tests hyperlink near the top of your Family Tree DNA page. Of course, if you want to be sure of eliminating the possibility of 'random convergence' (coincidental similarity), you could go all the way to 67 markers.

Here is a database search on my cousin (of rural southern Polish ancestry), at 67 markers:

http://www.ysearch.org/search_results.asp?uid=YX8BS&min_markers=50&mismatch_type=sliding&mismatches_sliding_starting_marker=50

All the Scottish matches are not random! My Polish cousin is at least arguably of the distinctive Scots variety of R1b. If he were very close to Scots, this might be explainable via the large Scot migration to Poland in the 16th century (although a Scottish merchant would not end up as a rural serf except perhaps through a catastrophic bankruptcy). But the fact that he is 15 steps away from Scots at 67 markers--and yet he is clearly closer to them than to anyone else--may indicate that the ancient Celts, roughly 2500 years ago, spent time in southern Poland on their way to Scotland.

new to this tread

I am an R1B1 y-DNAand most of my cousins are Irish,Scots ,British,but I was born in Italy(Venice).My great grand fether is the last known recent ancestor I know, born around 1840,how can I explain the similarityes of my Y_DNA?

[cliffsheets]

Hi folks,

A member, with a DIFFERENT surname, went to Ireland to collect YDNA samples from any male Meek he could find.
He thought his family might originally been named Meek.
He only convinced ONE to give a sample. While it did not match the man who was looking for his ancestors, it matched my husband! My husband knew nothing of this man's quest until he received an email from his project manager.
Cinda

That's great, Cinda! If anyone out there wants to go to Germany and test all the Schuetz men, I'd be happy to hear of your results.

Good results takes time!

Great Stuff Cinda,

I am still looking for that magic in my surname Congrats!!!!!!!!

I am the Group Administor for the Y-DNA Via Surname Project. I started our project July 2005. As of right now, we have 23 members. My twin brother Eugene, was our first member. We have been getting some GREAT results. Out of the 12 Marker test, my brother matches 7 members exactly and a distance of 1 with 6 members. 25 Markers test, he matches 5 exactly and a distance of 1 with 6 members. 37 Marker test, he matches 3 exactly and a distance of 1 with 8 members. 67 Marker test he matches 1 exactly and a distance of 1 with one member and a distance of 2 with another member. The member who matches my brother exactly on the 67 Marker test is a 5th cousin 1 time removed. Our common ancestor was born about 1761 in Albemarle, Virginia. Our 8th great grandfather was born about 1650 in France. Not all our members have gone to 67 Markers yet. But I think when they do we will have more matches.

We have a few different spellings of Via in our group, (Viar, Viars, Vier, Viers) but they still matches my brother's DNA pretty close. But some Via's did NOT. It looks like we have 3 or 4 different Via family lines in our project. So far we have been able to help 3 different members to find their Via family line because of knowing which members their DNA matches. DNA testing is a whole NEW way to look at the family tree.

Elaine =^..^=

[M.O'Connor]

He must have brought some kits with him to Ireland.

Maybe the ancestor was Phoenecian, I think they were thought to have some haplo group J.

Here is a page that might be of some interest. i cannot say the site's information is correct. http://phoenicia.org/genetics.html

[Bob Swinea]

Hi folks,
Thought I tell you about the wildest, most exciting thing happened to my husband.
He's a member of the Meek surname project at FTDNA.
He's R1b1.
While he has has a few great matches with other project members, he wasn't able to get back to country of origin.
Until now.
A member, with a DIFFERENT surname, went to Ireland to collect YDNA samples from any male Meek he could find.
He thought his family might originally been named Meek.
He only convinced ONE to give a sample. While it did not match the man who was looking for his ancestors, it matched my husband! My husband knew nothing of this man's quest until he received an email from his project manager.
That man matched my husband at a genetic distance of one on 25 markers.
Considering my husband's family has been in this country at least 200 years, we believe we have a great match!
Is this a great story of the power of genealogy through DNA, or what!?
Thought you'd like to know.
Cinda

This is wonderful news Cinda; especially for your husband. Sometimes serendipity really surprises everyone.
Best Wishes,
Bob

[Cinda]

Hi Norman,
Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. I've been away from my computer.
To answer your question: I think the gentleman just took off for Ireland with swabs in hand & looked up any male with the Meek surname & asked for his DNA.
I'm not sure of all the details. We just got an email notifying my husband of a match. It's just unbelievable that he only convinced one male & he matched my husband!
Good luck to all in getting a match like my husbands!!
Cinda

[Kathleen Carrow]

Good News & Congrats

I too have my first kit received by FTDNA today for my Carrow/Carew/Caroon surname group.
I would like to think we are all cousin but suspect that will not happen.

The Fant/Faunt group has a kit out also..I am a member there.

[da Silva]

Congratulations! I guess persistence pays off.

[KerryODair]

Good news Cindy,

both the Canada family and the English family are on board for testing. These two individuals represent the only other lines of the O'Dair surname in the entire world. This is about as good as it gets for my project. Thanks familytreedna, without them, I could not have reached out world wide to discover my ancestry.

I have a milestone today. Ftnda has recieved its first kit for my project. The second one is on its way in the mail. I am now a real project and no longer a single enity.

[NormanGalway]

congrats! what an exciting discovery!
I am curious -- did he show up with cheek swabs and mail them back to the company himself, or how exactly did he go to "collect" samples from Ireland?