Roberta Estes has been a professional scientist and business owner for 35+ years, (MS Computer Science, MBA, graduate work in Geographic Information Systems), as well as an obsessed genealogist since 1978.
In 2005, reflecting her interest and expertise in genetics for genealogy, she formed DNAeXplain, a company providing genetic research, analysis, and consulting services.
Roberta is a National Geographic Society, Genographic Project affiliate scientific researcher, and became part of the design team in 2012. Roberta has authored multiple academic papers and provided content and consultation to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the History Channel, National Geographic Magazine, FamilyTreeDNA, and other organizations and businesses.
The Million Mito Project
In 2020, Roberta launched the Million Mito Project, a collaborative scientific effort to rewrite the tree of womankind for all of humanity in partnership with Dr. Miguel Vilar, Lead Scientist for the Genographic Project, Dr. Paul Maier, Population Geneticist at FamilyTreeDNA, and Goran Runfeldt, Head of Research and Development at FamilyTreeDNA.
In June 2022, the Million Mito Team published a paper announcing the discovery of a 100,000-year-old branch of the human tree.
On February 25, 2025, Mitotree, the new tree of humanity, was published, along with a raft of new tools, including mtDNA Discover.
Early Years of Genetic Genealogy
In 2000, thanks to FamilyTreeDNA, the infant scientific field of DNA for genealogy emerged, allowing DNA to be used to trace individuals to common ancestors. With traditional genealogical records already researched to no avail, and several brick walls needing to fall, Roberta was one of the early DNA project administrators and pioneer adopters of DNA analysis for genealogy. Roberta manages over 20 DNA projects with an emphasis on Native American heritage.
Roberta’s blog, Native Heritage Project documents early evidence of Native people in records and can be found at www.nativeheritageproject.com.
Publications
Roberta wrote the books DNA for Native American Genealogy andThe Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal, and X-DNA.
She authored or co-authored several scientific, academic papers and appeared in the History Channel documentary, In Search of: The Lost Colony of Roanoke.
Products and Services
You can purchase Roberta’s book, DNA for Native American Genealogy, here for people ordering within the US, or here for people outside the US. You can purchase The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA, here and here for people outside the US.
Roberta speaks and writes widely about DNA and genealogy and has provided keynotes at several major international conferences. Her educational webinars are among the most-watched in the industry.
Follow Roberta’s activities and available educational resources by subscribing to this free blog.
Currently, Roberta is not accepting private clients but is pleased to recommend Legacy Tree Genealogists.
You can e-mail Roberta at roberta@dnaexplain.com.
Hi Roberta,
Love your site and look forward to learning more from it.
Regards,
Larry Crumley
Katy TX
Great to see you here:)
Roberta did an outstanding dna report for me. I recommend her services to anyone.
Thank you Wilbur. I love doing the reports!
so I cannot find a link how and where to purchase a dna report. thank you
Hi Pauline,
Go to http://www.dnaexplain.com and click on the “store” tab at the top of the page. There are both Y DNA and mtdna reports available for purchase. I am currently traveling and will be in communication to provide you with the opportunity to ask any questions you might have when I return.
Thank you,
Roberta
Finally, one site where I can read everything under one roof! Thanks, Roberta!!
Hi Roberta:
I learned about your site via Geneabloggers and read about your encounter with Yvette.
My reason for writing to you is that I also have a blog with many genealogical subjects. One of my posts shows a survey of foreign genealogical blogs/sites showing Dutch origin surnames. The URL is http://www.patmcast.blogspot.com/2012/05/dutch-ancestors.html. The idea is to try and establish contacts between people who have an interest in the same surname. There are numerous cases in The Netherlands where people emigrated centuries ago without leaving a trace in Dutch archives. With my blog I try to bring Dutch and foreign (mainly US/CAN) genealogists together.
> Therefore, I like to have your permission to show your site in my a.m. blog and to mention the surnames of your Dutch ancestors..
> I look forward to your reaction!
> Kind regards,
> Peter
What a great idea Peter. Dutch genealogy is both interesting and challenging. I welcome any exposure on my ancestral surnames, so by all means, please do list them. Thank you.
Roberta:
As you can see here http://patmcast.blogspot.com/2012/05/dutch-ancestors.html your site appears now in my blog showing the surnames that you mentioned in your post about Yvette.
Do you also have a twitter account? I like to show that as well. And maybe the city and/or state where you live?
You mentioned that you have 3 Dutch lines. If you tell me those surnames as well I will also show them.
Later today I will include the “americanization” of the Ferwerda name in another list on my blog. It is about Dutch surname equivalents: http://patmcast.blogspot.com/2012/06/dutch-surname-equivalents-abroad.html
If there is anything you want me to change, just let me know.
BTW, with Yvette you have struck gold, she is a name here in the field of genealogy!
Hi Peter. I don’t have a twitter account. Also, my surname is Estes. My entire list of Dutch surnames from Friesland is Ferverda (Ferwerda in Holland), deJong (Young in the US), Camstra, Henstra, Roeloffs, Douwes, Houtsma, Harmens and Noordhof. I love your site. Thank you for what you do.
Peter, I just discovered Roberta’s site. My paternal grandmother’s family is from the Cumberland Gap area. However, my mother’s family migrated from the Netherlands/ Belgium in the late 1500’s (per Mennonite history). They lived in Prussia (Danzig area) until 1790 or so and then to Molotschna near the Crimea. They came to the US in 1879. Just submitted full DNA results so looking forward to what I might learn from that and your site!
So sorry about misspelling your surname! Probably took your middle initial to be part of your surname. Sorry. Have added all the other names to the list. Now and again I publish the existence of this list here. So I hope that interested genealogists take notice.
Hello Peter, my Surname SARLES may be from the English John SEARL but family in Indiana (Floyd Couty0 all refer to one anotyher as Dutch or refer to our ancestor5s as coming to Indiana in bout 1806, as documentd in the two Volumns titled: Falls of the4 Ohio. Theu believe we are of Pe4nnsylvania Dutch lineage. Some suggest we are of German Descent and the re4ference to Dutch is actually in reference to deutch,, a German word meaning German and sometimes twaken for Dutch. Do you have any information about this Surname? If so, pleae advise.
I too am interested in DNA and became so with the book co-authored by:Ann Turner and Megan Smolenyak, Titled: Trace Your Roots with DNA. I was feverishly entusiastic about DNA after reading only a few papes of their book back in the mid 2000s. I had already submitted my DNA to Sorenson and looked for ward to my feedbadk which took forever (over a yar that I recall). Even then I did not know what I was looking at. Perhaps now, with new people to leard me, I will re-engage myself and go on to discover my roots, my goal along.
Maurice L. SARLES, Jr.; Hendersonville, NC
Hi Maurice, thanks for your message. First about the word “deutch”. In German this is “Deutsch” and indeed means “German”. In German the word “Dutch” does not exist. So you can rule out “Deutch” meaning “Dutch”. In older versions of the Dutch language the word “Diets” exists. The meaning can be either Dutch or Duits (German). The word goes back to the 1200-1550 period. All I want to say is that if you want to connect to Dutch lineage based on the word “Deutch”, that is debatable to say the least.
I did a quick check on your surname Sarles. Spelled this way I can’t find it. But name changes occur and there are variants such as Sarlije and Sarleij. People with such names sailed to New Amsterdam in the 17/18th century. But whether that name developed into Sarles can only be speculation. My advice to you would be to try and find out as much as you can about your name in the States. And if you find out anything tangible about foreign descent, you should follow that lead to possibly a European country.
As far as DNA is concerned, I believe the owner of this site, Roberta Estes, can advise you much better than I can.
I wish you good luck with your investigations.
Are the New York Haudenosaunee Tuscarora part of the Lost Colony?
If the Tuscarora in NC absorbed the Lost Colonists, then the NY Tuscarora would be related to them as well. However, at this point, we don’t know whether any of the colonists survived, and if they did, which tribe or tribes they would have become part of. You might be interested in my other blog, http://www.nativeheritageproject.com – there is a lot there about the Tuscarora.
Hi Roberta,
I have ancestors who lived in the Melungeon community in Hancock Co., TN and photographs clearly show Native American ancestry. I was a little disappointed that Family Finder results for my father indicated 0% Native American ancestry, 92% European and 2% Middle Eastern. I didn’t expect any Middle Eastern ancestry, but assumed that it was either from some unknown Jewish ancestry amongst my Pennsylvania Deutsch ancestors or possible from some mediterranean Roman ancestry amongst my British ancestors.
Your article makes perfect sense and I believe describes my situation exactly. I know that we had ancestors of mixed ancestry in the Hawkins/Hancock Co., TN Melungeon community in the 1830s-1850s and while my ancestral family isn’t one of the core families, it is one of the known peripheral families that appears in Plecker’s infamous letter that was sent to Virginia county clerks in 1929. My family had moved back into Virginia in the 1850s and Plecker identified them by surname and county and described them as Tennessee Melungeons.
I have assumed that my father’s Native American ancestry was too far back to show in the Family Finder results and that these ancestors were bi-racial (European and Native American – as photographs clearly show Native American ancestry) and thus not really Melungeon per-se. I now believe that they were in fact most likely tri-racial and that the Middle Eastern component in my father’s ancestry is actually a sign of his European, Native American, and African tri-racial Melungeon ancestry.
Thanks for writing this article. Please contact me if you are interested in more information.
Hi Roberta, Thank you for your article referring to Ancestry.com’s new autosomal DNAancestry test results. This has been my expericence, and I agree with you that there is something very incorrect with the ethnicity part of the test results. I did the test and received the results. I have quite a few “cousin” matches where I can find a “common ancestor.” This is a good thing. Most/many of my “common ancestor” matches with others are through my English/British Isles ancestors. Yet according to the DNAancestry ETHNICITY results it shows me having 0% British Isle/English (I have many, many English and Scotish ancestors, including 13 documented Mayflower great, gr… grandparents) (my grandmother was half English and half Scot,) and the results show 50% Scandianavian (I don’t have one Scandinavian ancestor that I know of in my family tree and I have a LARGE family tree – going wayyyy back in some of the lines.) and it shows 47% Central European (which is quite understandable) and 3%undetermined. Why would my DNA test results match other “cousins” who have the same English ancestors if I show 0% British Isles ethnicity? I think perhaps somehow ancestry.com has the Scandinavia and the British Isles ethnicity mixed-up. I have read that many people who believe they should show a large amount of Scandinavian ethnicity show a large percent of British Isles ethnicity when they do not know of any British Isles persons in their lineages. I have sent messages to ancestry.com – I have called and talked to people there expressing my concern about the ethnicity results. However, they just tell me that this is the ethnicity that I “INHERITED.” I feel that that doesn’t explain why most/many of my “cousin matches to commom ancestors” are to my British ancestors. Why would my DNA match so many British Ancestors if I show 0% British Isles in my ethnicity results? And, why wouldn’t any of that LARGE amount of English ancesors show in my ethnicity? Thanks for listening. Becky
Hi, Roberta, I would like to introduce myself to you. I’m Charles T. Watts. I have taken over the role as the unofficial family historian. The Watts family name is from the old country Whelsh/Scot /Irish origins. We are on the Roles in Virginia in 1650. We have some members of the family who apparrently married into one of the Cherokee tribes and apparently fought the British before the Revolutionary War. And Moved to Alabama, and married into other Cherokee families there. I know there is some mention of the Watts family being on the bad side of the British Government for aideing them in their fight against that government. How would i find out how to become part of a test that might give me some more answers. Also i went to the eye doctor not to long ago and was told that i might have native american back ground due to fact i have an eye ailement that occurs in that group could help me. Thanks Charles
Hi Charles,
I don’t know about the eye ailment. You’d have to get the name of the ailment to begin. Regarding Native testing, please go to my website at http://www.dnaexplain.com and under the Publictions tab, there are several papers you might be interested in. In particular, there is one about Proving your Native Heritage and it talks about the different kinds of tests, etc.
Roberta
Dear all,
I recently found out that my Grandfather went into a Barnardo’s home in Ireland, I was intrigued by this as I know nothing about his past whilst in Ireland (He moved to the Midlands when he left the home). For a project I am going to tell his story and I would love to hear other people’s stories and see photographs.
I have looked everywhere to try and find a community that discusses this topic, even Barnardo’s has no forum to discuss these stories. It is like it is a forgotten subject now that all of the homes have gone. My Grandfather’s story was luckily a success story and thankfully that was down to Barnardo’s.
The end goal would be to approach Barnardo’s with these stories and ask them if they would consider setting up a community for family history stories that involve them.
I know that this isn’t a UK blog, but I know that some of the children from these homes emigrated to the USA & Canada, I just want to get the word around and tell some great stories
I am currently doing this as a university project but I want to take this so much further. Have a look at my blog and the progress I have been making so far – http://www.jenniferhearn.wordpress.com
Please feel free to email me at jenniferhearn1@hotmail.co.uk or leave a message on here, if you would like more information or even better tell me your story.
Thank you for your time,
Jenni Hearn
Hello Roberta,
I received my mother’s DNA matches on Ancestry.com (and am still waiting for the results on FTDNA website) and saw that she has many matches that I don’t have. While I know I inherited 50% from my dad and 50% from my mother, I remember reading somewhere, likely in one of your previous articles, that I do not inherit a perfect percentage from each grandparent. I do inherit a 25% from one set of grandparent, but it could be 15% from my maternal granddad and 10% from my maternal grandmother. Is this correct?
Does this mean that my mother, while she matches 50% to each parent, would be closer to them and have a stronger match to her grandparents than I do? And from that I have less % from my great-grandparents while she has more from them. I thought this is the case but saw that she matches a Flippin cousin while I don’t have that match. My great-grandmother was a Flippin so why don’t I have that match, too? It puzzled me about how that works because I thought that if she inherited more of the Flippin line (her grandmother) then I should inherit a portion of it, too. If you can tell me where to look or provide some input, it would be GREATLY appreciated.
I hope my inquiry makes sense. I did contact you some time ago about our matches on FTDNA and it would be interesting to see if my mother’s matches to yours, too. If not, then it should be from my dad’s side.
Thanks,
Nova Lemons
Hi Nova. These are all good questions. Yes, you do understand this correctly. There are two reasons why your mother may match a Flippin cousin and you don’t. First, you may not have inherited enough of that DNA segment to be considered a match. Remember, that doesn’t mean you didn’t get any, just not a long enough contiguous segment to be over the match threshold. Second, you could have a misread right in the middle, which would make it look like two smaller segments and not one large one. Or you could have not inherited a small piece causing the same phenomenon. Lastly, DNA is what we refer to as “sticky” meaning that lots of times, you get the entire segment or group or none at all. And to answer your next question, no, we don’t know why.
Many thanks! Your articles are very helpful for I still want to find that link to the Native American connection which I know is in there somewhere.
Nova
Hello Roberta, I live in Durham. I’ve taken 3 dna tests, one says Native American, one says East African. Today received results from FFDNA with Orcadian – which makes sense, but searching for NC root to possible Lovelady or Ware family surnames. Thanks.
In the Native Names project, I have nothing on Lovelady at all and nothing from NC on Ware.
You are so cool! I don’t believe I have read something like this before. So great to discover somebody with a few genuine thoughts on this issue. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This site is one thing that is needed on the internet, someone with a little originality!
My Dad was adopted and I have not had any luck finding his birth family. I have his adoption record, original birth certificate and had his DNA tested with FTDNA and 23andme. He was born George William Nelson on June 8, 1928 in Los Angeles, California. Sincerely, Julie Blake
Here are two articles to help you. http://dna-explained.com/2012/12/17/im-adopted-and-i-dont-know-where-to-start/ and http://dna-explained.com/2012/07/30/adoptee-resources-and-genetic-genealogy/
Hi, Roberta! I have used DNA Surname testing for three family lines to great effect! I am now wanting to know if there is an “expert” in Scottish Genealogy that you may be aware of? I would like to talk to someone about starting a Scottish Prisoners of War DNA Group study. Please see: http://www.scottishprisonersofwar.com to see what I mean about Scottish prisoners of war. Thanks for any suggestions!
I refer people to the Association of Professional Genealogists to find experts in a particular region. http://www.apgen.org/
Best of luck with your project.
Roberta, I enjoy reading your blog! I would also like to email you about a match that Leon Kull did that shows me related to Gretchen Estes. Thank you!
Dear Roberta,
I am brand new to your site and the concept of genetic blood testing and wondering if I will ever find out more specific data than I have right now. My mother’s family is from Eastern North Carolina, with the surnames Moore, Keys, Bailey, Pierce, and Wilkins (Beaufort County) on her dad’s side, and the surnames Leary, Reed, Simpson, and Skinner (Perquimans and Chowan Counties). My paternal grandfather said that his family had no African heritage, saying they were Native and something he called “Mongul”. His family does not appear to have been enslaved. I believe they are direct descendants from the groups in the Heinegg study. I wonder if they are descended from Lumbee people because of striking family resemblances with some persons from the Pierce, Locklear, and Oxendine Lumbee families. I have also thought we may be considered Melungeon on his side. Since I can find no census data on my grandmother’s side prior to the Civil War, I am presuming that her family probably had African heritage along with Native.
My father’s family is from Carriacou, Grenada in the former British West Indies. My paternal grandfather said his family was from the Temne tribe in Sierra Leone. My grandmother was 3/4 Scottish and 1/4 Native (said to be Caribe and/or Arawak).
As a woman (only child) what genetic information is lost to me without involving male cousins from uncles/great uncles? In which studies do you recommend I participate? Which blood tests do I need, and how expensive will they be? When you say that you get a list of cousins from a test, how do the testing companies get these people’s names?
As a woman of color, documentation of my mother’s family history is limited at best. How much more detail can I expect to find out from blood testing?
I look forward to reading more.
Thanks,
Kim
Hi Kim,
Welcome to the blog. Let me address several of your questions. First, these aren’t blood tests. Depending on the company, they are either cheek swabs or spitting in a vial – so no blood and no needles involved. If you test at http://www.familytreedna.com, there many projects that you can join that are focused on these different groups and surnames, depending on how that family fits into your family and the focus of the project. Here’s an article I wrote about this: http://dna-explained.com/2012/07/19/what-project-do-i-join/
As a woman, you don’t have a Y chromosome, so you can’t test the direct male line without involving your male family members. There are 4 kinds of DNA used for genealogical testing. He is an article detailing what you can expect from each kind: http://dna-explained.com/2012/10/01/4-kinds-of-dna-for-genetic-genealogy/
So you would be working with either mitochondrial DNA (your mother’s mother’s line) or autosomal. Her is an article about working with mitochondrial DNA: http://dna-explained.com/2012/10/04/working-with-mitochondrial-dna-results/
Here’s one about what to expect from autosomal testing: http://dna-explained.com/2012/08/19/autosomal-results-the-basics/
Best of luck on your journey. It will be interesting to see what your DNA holds. There is always something to learn and your DNA is a gift from your ancestors.
Roberta
Have just recently subscribed to your blog. Thank you for making this valuable, intensely interesting and helpful information available and accessible. As a novice, I will need to spend much time over the summer studying & absorbing it all. Many thanks for your astonishing generosity, Bonnie.
Wow! I am so happy I have found your blog! The info I have read is so helpful. My maternal grandfather is who I believe was Native American. He is no longer living but four of his sons are. It sounds like I should check the DNA on one of his sons. Do you agree? I have two brothers but it seems the closer I can test to my Grandfather’s generation would be best. Thank you for all the information! Pam Barrow
Hi Pam,
Yes, by all means. Here is an article that explains the different kinds of tests and who can test for each.
http://dna-explained.com/2012/12/18/proving-native-american-ancestry-using-dna/
Roberta
Hi Roberta. I’m interested in your analysis of mtdna as well as y chromosome dna in Africa particularly among Bantu, pygmies and the san. I’m researching chronic illnesses, migrations and trade patternsin sub Sahara Africa.
Hi. That sounds like the mtdna and y personal reports. You can order them individually athttp://www.dnaxplain.com/shop/features.aspx
Hi Roberta,
Have you seen the new Ethnicity Estimate on Ancestry.com? They say they went from 30,000 markers to 300,000 markers. I was wondering if they developed their own analyses or leveraged tools developed by others. I was hoping to get your comments on it…
Thanks,
Ellen
I have seen that info, but since I’m traveling, I haven’t been able to do anything with it. I will take a look when I get home.
Wow, this is really interesting! I feel I have Cherokee on my mom’s side, and Miami on my dad’s, but have never been able to prove it. I’m not interested in the rolls, per se, but just to find my people, and to understand this drive, this calling to be a metis teacher. I had some research done on our tree on my dad’s side, but it didn’t go up the branch I wanted. I’d love to know how to do this DNA to find out what is going on “in there”, and to also find a geneologist who could help me to find the links to my great grandma that I am looking for. I have her name, but that’s all I could get to before. Thanks for your interesting site! Be blessed, FE
Have we talked before? Based on the names you list, Estes and Vannoy, it seems we should know each other if we don’t. These are names that run pretty wild in Watauga County where my fathers family was from for generations.
Not sure if we know each other, but we do now. If you have either Estes or Vannoy in your lines, just drop me a line. I’d be glad to share my pedigree chart regardless. You just never know. robertajestes@att.net
Hi Roberta –
I would like to draw your attention to our genealogy Charting Companion, which prints X-chromosome-style ancestor charts featuring the customer’s data:
http://progenygenealogy.com/products/family-tree-charts.aspx
We can read the database of any genealogy program, and provide a fun & attractive complement to every genealogist’s research.
If you have your data in a genealogy program, you can print an X-chromosome chart in seconds!
Roberta,
I greatly enjoy your DNA Explained and Native American newletters, and I am hoping you can help me with something.
I have a photo which I got from my mother that I have also seen on an ancestry.com public member tree labeled William Lafayette Baker and ELIZABETH. Wm. L. Baker was my great great grandfather. The online note says “this photo was from an old photo copy from a book I found in the files of GLYNDA HUTCHENS ESTES”. (It was originally posted by bwheaton in the McCook Family Tree.)
Are you related to Glynda Hutchens Estes? Do you have any idea what book this is or where the photo came from? I am looking for sources for personal information about this ancestor.
The back of my copy of that identical photo I got from my mother is labeled Wm. Lafayette Baker and “Sarah Alice Teague”–a different name.
My mother (age 85 & still living) was raised by her grandmother, Ataline “Attie” Baker Parks born Searcy Co. Ark, 1877, died 1943 Ector Co, Odessa, TX, the daughter of the woman in the photo. In my genealogy research I have reached my brick wall at the woman in the picture who is Attie’s mother and according to several family members is allegedly “full blood Indian”. My mother vividly remembers a lost,framed photo that hung on the wall in Attie’s house of Attie’s mother in Indian clothing sitting in front of a teepee. I am a direct maternal descendant and have had FMS testing done and am T2e.
Just wondered if you are familiar with Glynda Hutchens Estes.
Thanks,
Cheryl
I am not familiar with that person, but I would recommend this Estes resource. It’s the most complete we have. http://roots-boots.net/ft/estes-ab.txt
Hello Cheryl, My name is Conrad Berganza and I am a descendant of Sarah Alice Teague. If possible I would like to know if you ever found anything more about her.
Wow! Thanks so much for your quick reply. I will check into that right away. I appreciate the lead.
Right away I see a lot of Estes born in Cherokee County, Alabama, which is the only place I have found where “Elizabeth” could have been born around 1834. If I have the right Elizabeth, her brother (also born in Cherokee Co.AL, married the sister of Wm. L. Baker. Also, the parents of Elizabeth Teague and Dr. Joshua Thomas Teague also moved to Searcy Co., Arkansas, where Attie was born and raised.
Any of this ring a bell with you?
No, my branch of that line is out of Tennessee and before that, Virginia.
My ancestry composition from 23andme:
100%
European
Northern European
30.6%
French & German
3.2%
British & Irish
17.9%
Nonspecific Northern European
Southern European
32.8%
Italian
2.7%
Iberian
10.7%
Nonspecific Southern European
2.2%
Nonspecific European
2.2%
I understand your desperation, but ethnicity data is way, way too speculative to even begin to determine parentage. You need to have your Y data tested and I’d suggest testing your DNA at 23andMe as well. They also have an international base.
And I think I’d be searching for the band members, very discretely:)
Roberta
Would you suggest a 37 or 67 marker test with FTDNA?
And what would I win with it specifically ?
If you purchase a 37 marker test, you may need to upgrade to 67 markers to get enough info to process. It’s up to you.
”I understand your desperation, but ethnicity data is way, way too speculative to even begin to determine parentage. ”
Yes I know that, but can’t it be used for extra proof considering my DNA-relatvies and the story combined..? I mean is it even possible in my case that my biological father is from an other country with most of my DNA relatvies being either Italian or Dutch/German and some people from Eastern Europe, not to forget my first match coming from Napoli.
My phenotype is very southern also..Some people on forums thought I was half MENA or Lebanese. From what I know, it’s possible with the data I have to know for sure I’m not half Hungarian or Romanian for example. It would show in one of these calculators, and in the database from 23andme’s DNA-relatives. I had many people take a look at my data, and everybody said it showed that I was 100 % European with a very big chance that one part was Southern Italian due to my high west Asian and other components, combined with my paternal haplogroup , phenotype and DNA relatives.
http://dna-explained.com/2013/10/04/ethnicity-results-true-or-not/ and http://dna-explained.com/2013/10/19/determining-ethnicity-percentages/
Roberta,
I don’t know if you read it carefully but the reason I’ve concluded that he must be my biolofical father is because I’ve actually tested WITH 23andme and my first match was someone from Napoli. The ancestry composition just adds up with it, and I’ve compared my results with numerous other half Italians half Irish/English/German people and their results are similair to mine..
I mean what else could it possibly be with either my DNA relatives matches(who are from that same region..) and my ancestry composition from 23andme and all Gedmatch calculators.
I must be clear here that I don’t see the ancestry composition as an actual proof of that specific story, but the DNA relatives that gave me that first match actually did..
Regards,
Ruben
P.S: My mother also send her saliva to 23andme, but the results are not yet known.
I must be a bit realistic on this one because there aren’t dozens of man who potentially had intercourse with my mum with in that period of time. You can’t actually say from what I’ve said that I can not use the genetic proof that I got a fair amount of certainty that he is actualy my biollogical father. Accept if all those functions like DNA relatives and Gedmatch are just bullcrap.
I’ve discussed with countless people on this subject and they’ve all agreed with me that the change is too big that he must be my biological father, to begin to think of another mystery guy who happens to be something near Italian…I mean what else besides Italian and Ashkenazi Jewish can produce similair results..And how in the world can I have countless Italian matches from that specific region, with my first match coming from that same city…
At Family Tree DNA my mtdna cane back as haplogroup x2a …. confirmed my maternal Ojibwe (Chippewa Native American ) ancestry. But my ydna is a little more confusing. My great grandfather came from Calabria Italy in 1875 and mybydna came back as E1b1b1 a1b (v13 ?) … I ordered 67 markers. My family is Italian but my 3 closest matches to 25 markers are Sephardic jewish. …. Lurie/Luria, Dwek, Saenz….. This was a surprise since my family is very Catholic possibly including Cardinals and even a Pope (Paul V – Camillo Borghese) … The one who financed and constructed the Vatican in 1620…. so I went to Google and typed my Family name + jewish and found the Semi Gotha from 1912 that lists European jewish Nobility and it says my family is ancient jewish converting to Catholic in 13th century…. All so strange? I am told by many dna experts that e1b1b1 a1b (v13) is Not jewish ? At least I can say with 100 % certainty I am ojibwe. … or Galilean Druze? (X2a)
Hello, I would like to commend you for such an interesting and informative blog! I’ve enjoyed reading through the posts and comments. I have been working on my genealogy and would eventually like to take a DNA test. However, in the meantime, I wonder if anything can be gleaned from paternity test results I participated in 22 years ago? I suspect a lot has changed during that time! But I am intrigued by the results of the 2 HLA-A and 2 HLA-B results, as well as one listed as “ACP” and would like to know what can be learned from these results. Thank you.
I have worked with the Codis markers, but not with HLA results. The earliest tests I’ve worked with are about 15 markers and we don’t use them today.
Thank you for taking the time to respond! I’m not surprised, so much has changed in 22 years.
Hi Roberta,
I think I transferred my DNA test from 23 and me, or maybe I was mistaken. Is there a way I can check that? I have been out of the blogs for some time. Thanks.
Linda in Denver
I’d sign on to Family Tree DNA and check your Family Finder link to see if you have results there. If not, I’d call Family Tree DNA and check your status so you can do what needs to be done.
Thanks so much, I feel like there is nothing I can do on either site because I am at a dead end. The fact that I don’t have any information about my grandfather on the Ukrainian side is frustrating. I was just sending a message to someone named Jennifer who is feeling lost too. I know my niece is on Ancestry but she mostly has the information I have and mainly is looking for relations on her father’s side.
I will do as you suggested. Thanks again.
Linda
Roberta,
Thanks so much for the posting about the Matrix on FTDNA. Now how do we get them to add the wonderful name slide function box to the chromosome browser instead of having to page through countless pages to find the person we are looking for? THANKS!
regards,
Barbara
Submit feedback to Family Tree DNA. They do listen. That’s how we got this:)
Thanks, I did that and suggested that a few others do the same!
Barbara
Hi Roberta, i found a couple of links you might like to follow up on, the first is a spoof on Irish DNA and the second is an explanation of where the Irish came from as far as DNA is concerned-
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland-s-provisional-dna-1.649672
http://hubpages.com/hub/Irish-Blood-Genetic-Identity
Kind Regards
Leigh
Dear Ms Estes:
First, let me thank you for your blog. Your explanations of everything from how websites work to how to interpret all sorts of data are clear and stimulating, two qualities often missing from explanations of DNA. Not least why I recommend you site to others. Possibly this is clear to people immersed in family history DNA, possibly I’ve just missed a post or explanation, but it seems to me that it would be a simple thing in autosomal databases like FTDNA family finder which sets out matches to note whether the matches occur on the part of the chromosome inherited from one’s mother or the part inherited from one’s father, and thus indicate whether it’s through one’s mother or one’s father that one shares a common ancestor. At your advice I resorted to Don Worth’s ADSA. He notes that if two people match you on the same segment but do not match each other that, most likely, one matches you on the part of the segment inherited from one parent, the other on the other. Should it not be obvious to the machines making the analysis which part of the segment comes from which parent? But I’m hardly skilled at this, so what seems obvious to me, might not be obvious, let alone correct. Could you write about this?
Many thanks, and best wishes to you.
Scott Swanson
sswanson@butler.edu
I’m curious: You are an Estes and, from what I gather, at least part Cherokee Indian. My mother is an Estes and all of her family (myself included) are registered members of the Cherokee Nation ‘O’ Oklahoma.
Could it be that we are related? I just recently joined 2andme but have yet to find any DNA relatives that are Estes/Cherokee.
HI Mark,
You can download your results from 23andMe to http://www.gedmatch.com for free. You can then run your kit against other people’s and see exactly how you match. My kit number is F6656. I am not Cherokee, that I know of. I descend from two Native sets of people. One is from the Micmac and the other is found in the Virginia/North Carolina border region – a group of people whose tribe was decimated early and who have no tribal affiliation today. They were probably Tuscarora.
I ran a kit to kit comparison and this is what I got:
Comparing Kit M224253 (Mark DeMucha) and F6656 (Roberta Jean Estes)
Chromosome #9 starting at 86,765,320 and ending at 101,199,431 we have an 18.9 Centimorgans (cM) of match
Estimated number of generations to MRCA = 4.8
I don’t have any idea what any of that means.
Perhaps you can enlighten. My Gedmatch kit is M224253
That’s interesting. Let’s see if we can find a common ancestor. My mother’s kit is F9141. See if you match her on the same segment. If not then the match is from my father’s side.
I ran your mom’s kit against mine and the results were negative. Looks like we are related on your dad’s side.
Here are the results:
Comparing Kit M224253 (Mark DeMucha)(M) and F9141 (Barbara Jean Long)(F)
Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 1000 SNPs
Mismatch-bunching Limit = 100 SNPs
Noise Reduction Threshold = 0.95
Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 5.0 cM
Largest segment = 0.0 cM
Total of segments > 5 cM = 0.0 cM
No shared X-DNA segments found
Comparison took 0.03003 seconds.
That’s a pretty big segment. The only possible connection I have on that area is someone who has a McKee match. Any McKees in your tree?
Good morning Roberta, I hope this beautiful winters day finds you doing well. I have seen your name many times over the past year or so while researching my ancestors. I have been searching for the ancestors of my 3rd great-grandparents for more than 20 years. I have excellent research and information on them, but nothing before 1815 Claiborne County, East Tennessee. In October 2012, while on vacation in TN, we stopped in the East Tennessee Historical Center and as I was explaining the reason for our visit, a patron, who was standing next to me signing in to use the facilities and the librarian looked at each other and smiled. He was a frequent patron and researcher of the same area and surname as me. He was a Collins from Newman’s Ridge. This is when I became familiar with the word, Melungeon…..
My 3rd great-grandparents were Nathan Collins (1815-1912) and Jemima Mays (c1820-1897). I believe I know who Nathan’s parents likely were. I have narrowed down Jemima’s likely parents. For a Christmas gift, to go along with the ancestry.com membership my husband gifted me, he purchased a DNA kit which I have submitted and received my kit number that I have since uploaded to GEDmatch. I had only been doing one-on-one matches, because that is all it would allow and showed matches to everyone of the folks I had been in recent contact with (Gibson, Collins, Goins of Newman’s Ridge). I have two ‘cousins’ who were known descendants of Nathan and Jemima who have also recently tested. Today I was able to access ‘one-to-many’ matches and I saw your name listed there! My kit # is A310041 if you care to compare. I also have a public tree on ancestry.com (a work in progress) if you care to compare.
Good day!
MJ Joye
( ( 🙂 ) )
…p.s. I saw above, you posted your mother’s kit #. I ran it, results:
GEDmatch.Com Autosomal Comparison
Comparing Kit A310041 (Myra Jean (Pitts) Shive) and F9141 (Barbara Jean Long)
Minimum threshold size to be included in total = 500 SNPs
Mismatch-bunching Limit = 250 SNPs
Noise Reduction Threshold = 0.80
Minimum segment cM to be included in total = 3.0 cM
Chr Start Location End Location Centimorgans (cM) SNPs
2 113,916,754 117,128,990 3.1 549
7 78,613,135 81,123,703 3.3 518
Largest segment = 3.3 cM
Total of segments > 3 cM = 6.4 cM
What does this mean?
Thanks,
MJJ
( ( 🙂 ) )
I have 12 family members 23andme data that I manage including 4 generations – my parents, me, my husband, 2 of my siblings, my daughter, her son, his other grandmother (from India), two of my father’s siblings and his first cousin. I should look at the data more closely like you did. I was surprised at how far off from predicted the comparisons looked at first. But I never did the type of comparisons you did. Thanks for your posts.
Hi Roberta,
Thank you so much for passing on the article about Mary Kittamaquund. My husband is a descendant of Giles and Mary Brent through Katherine and Richard Marsham of Prince George’s County MD. I am estactic to see that DNA is being used to help define the descendants of this historically important marriage.
Hi
Thanks for sharing 🙂
My cousin and I both have the same ancestors from your ‘Bowling’ vicinity! We also match people with Bowling in their ancestry.
My Gedmatch: F130149 and M081919
My cousin’s is: F289460.
BTW we still both reside in the Isles 🙂
Sorry I meant to put the above reply on your ‘The Bowling Family of Charnock Richard, Lancashire’ post 🙁
I understand that we share family I come from the Dodder family.
My half-sister’s mother was a Dodderer.
I just got results from Don Worth and I have some matches with a Phillip Stephen Estes. I am curious to find out if he is any relation to you.
Maybe we are related?
Not that I know of, but probably if he is from the same line, just back many generations:)
Hi Roberta, my 3rd Great Grandmother (on my mother’s side) was Matilda Estes, wife of Robert Creed and daughter of Joseph and Ritta (Ritty?). I’m just starting to explore your site now. Do you have a public family tree up that I can look at? Both my brother and my mother’s brother have taken the Ancestry.com DNA tests. I actually came to your site in hopes of understanding DNA a little and then noticed your name. 🙂
I’m traveling and will get back with you when I return.
Hello Ms Roberta… I submitted my DNA about 15 years ago as part of the National Geographic project…. the results I received were …. pretty basic … (“you are from Germany”)… has this data been examined since… and can I get those results ? A web link will suffice if you have one.
You need to have your account number at Nat Geo to sign in and retrieve those results. You obviously had it at one time as you did receive the results and the only way to do that was to sign in to their site. You need to find them and sign in again. The first test at Nat Geo was only the STR test for 12 markers. If you transferred your data or have tested at FTDNA, those results were there. If you took the Geno 2.0 version, that has been since 2012, and that provides you more location info.
I note you seem to have Campbells in your ancestry
It is possible that either David Doak (1710-87) or his 2nd-youngest son may have married a Campbell so I am wondering if you have seen the name Doak (Doack/Doke and Doage are sometimes found)
David was in Lancaster Co, PA, until about 1740, when he moved to what became Augusta Co, VA
In the 1760s he moved to what became Botetourt, then Fincastle, Montgomery and finally Wythe Co, VA
Robert was in Washington Co, TN, by 1803, when his wife was Polly, but soon after is listed in Campbell Co, TN
David’s widow, a 2nd (or later) wife, was also a Polly/Mary
Any possible connection would be of considerable interest to
Ralph … and a few cousins !