Ydna questions

[jeapos88]

I am having some trouble understanding what I'm seeing with my father's matches. I have a few questions.

1.None of my matches share my father's surname, can it be assumed that since it's the male line that his surname(posey) was not the original surname?

2.How do I interpret the genetic distance? How does this translate into relation? 1st.cousin, etc.

[J Honeychuck]

Your father shares a common direct paternal ancestor with everyone on his branch of Y-DNA, but that ancestor may have lived long before surnames.

You can get a rough estimate of how long ago that was by using this tool. http://www.scs.illinois.edu/~mcdonald/tmrca.htm

Or a more accurate estimate by comparing two kits which have both taken the expensive BigY test.

[lgmayka]

To which haplogroup does your father belong?

[jeapos88]

To which haplogroup does your father belong?

his haplogroup is RM-269

[The_Contemplator]

You mean R-M269. That is like one of the largest haplogroups if not the largest. Which test did he take? Y12, Y25, Y37, Y67, or Y111?

Genetic distance simply means the number of differences in the results. You can't determine a relationship based on that. Some times a father and son could have a GD of 1. Other times distant cousins could have a GD of 0 even though their most recent common ancestor lived hundreds of years ago.

However, the lower the GD, the more probable the relationship is closer. Not concrete but it can suggest which matches you should focus on.

[jeapos88]

You mean R-M269. That is like one of the largest haplogroups if not the largest. Which test did he take? Y12, Y25, Y37, Y67, or Y111?

Genetic distance simply means the number of differences in the results. You can't determine a relationship based on that. Some times a father and son could have a GD of 1. Other times distant cousins could have a GD of 0 even though their most recent common ancestor lived hundreds of years ago.

However, the lower the GD, the more probable the relationship is closer. Not concrete but it can suggest which matches you should focus on.

So far the highest I have tested is y37. As I said none of his matches share his surname. I have "match a" 0-12 0-25 3-37 and "match b" 0-12 1-25 4-37. These two are the only ones that match at all three levels.

[Dabney Carr]

I don't think you can assume anything for certain although you have reasons to suspect there may have been a non-paternal event somewhere on your paternal line.

Are you able to determine where the earliest known paternal ancestor of your closest matches came from? Does that correspond to where your earliest known paternal ancestor came from?

Personally, I have not matched anyone with my surname, but then I found out that I am the only one with my surname who has tested. However, my two closest matches come from the same region where my ancestor came from so that gives some credence to paternal line's integrity, in my opinion. In your case however there are quite a few people named Posey who have tested. You would think you would have matched some of them at at least 12 markers.
See here: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/posey

Also, have you done an autosomal test like Family Finder? If so, have you found any matches that you can trace to a common Posey ancestor?

[jeapos88]

I have not been in contact with my matches yet, I was trying to make sense of this first. I have only matched with one Posey so far both Ydna and family finder. Their tree only goes back one generation beyond mine, but we were unable to make a connection. Based on the DNA and photos I have seen I am certain we are related.

[Dabney Carr]

What level is your Posey match (12, 25, 37) and at what generational distance (0,1, 2, 3.. etc)?

[MMaddi]

What level is your Posey match (12, 25, 37) and at what generational distance (0,1, 2, 3.. etc)?

Just a minor correction. GD does not stand for "generational distance;" it seems that's what you're saying above. It stands for "genetic distance" and refers to how many STRs the two men in a match differ on.

You may understand that GD gives no exact information about how many generations have passed since two men share a common ancestor. However, newbies might believe that's what GD refers to after reading your post.

[jeapos88]

What level is your Posey match (12, 25, 37) and at what generational distance (0,1, 2, 3.. etc)?

My Posey match is at 12 markers, the highest they have tested. They are a distance of 0

[Dabney Carr]

I would think because you matched that Posey with Family Finder, then you probably share a common ancestor within the past 300 years. If he had tested up to 37 markers on his Y-Dna test, I would think you would have matched him very closely at that level too.

[jeapos88]

I would think because you matched that Posey with Family Finder, then you probably share a common ancestor within the past 300 years. If he had tested up to 37 markers on his Y-Dna test, I would think you would have matched him very closely at that level too.

my belief is that my oldest ancestor Z born in 1860 and my matches oldest ancestor b. 1820's are uncle/nephew. But I can't find the documentation to prove it.