y-STR markers - should 0 distance compare these?

[MBC]

Hello, "Dick" has two matches in his y-DNA at a distance of 0 So, the common ancestor is at about 4-5 generations. I have the y-STR results for Dick. Is it important to compare Dick's STR with the STR results of the two matches at a distance of 0? If so, what is it that would be good to compare? Thanks!

[loobster]

If I understand things correctly - a distance of 0 is saying the y-STR results are the same - ie "distance of 0" means "Zero Differences"

[MBC]

So, no need to compare STR results with someone who is 0 distance as they are the same. Thanks!

[John McCoy]

Whether a Y-DNA match with "genetic distance" of 0 means anything at all, depends on how many markers were being compared. An exact match (genetic distance=0) for a Y-12 test is nearly meaningless, while an exact match at the Y-67 level is likely to be highly significant.

[MBC]

The test is a Y-67 test.

[Jim Barrett]

Hello, "Dick" has two matches in his y-DNA at a distance of 0 So, the common ancestor is at about 4-5 generations. I have the y-STR results for Dick. Is it important to compare Dick's STR with the STR results of the two matches at a distance of 0? If so, what is it that would be good to compare? Thanks!

The common ancestor could be the father.

[MBC]

Some research has been done on Dick's family. The people that have been contacted thus far (0 distance) are not in Dick's known tree, nor are any of Dick's known ancestors in their tree. Dick's tree is known back to the patriarch being born in 1842. (great-grandfather of Dick) The others that have been contacted (A and B) have known ancestors being born in the late 1700s. So, the thought is that the ancestor of Orlow may possibly be the son of the A and B known ancestor (born in late 1700s). In this way, we think we have cancelled out a very close connection.

Is this correct thinking?

[John McCoy]

The Y-DNA evidence shows likely relationship, but it doesn't tell you how far back the connection is. For that, you need other kinds of evidence. Autosomal DNA testing could be useful in putting some limits around the number of generations back to the common ancestor. Autosomal DNA testing is also fairly inexpensive, but it would be helpful if all the people involved use the same vendor, and if the vendor provides good tools to analyze the results (FTDNA is a good choice at this time). Perhaps the most important line of inquiry, now that there is evidence to support a relationship, is traditional genealogy, the "paper trail". The task is to explore all of the family trees to identify where they intersect in time and space, and to discover new documents along the way.

[MBC]

Thank you!