My DNA
I have become fascinated by the use of DNA as a tool in determining relationships It can help confirm research that you have already done as in the case of my Wippel cousins. We had learned of our relationship through research, but DNA testing confirmed it.
Of course, I have found that my DNA ties me to other people where our relationship is unknown. It can be, at once, fun and frustrating to try to figure out the relationship.
DNA testing also provides a glimpse into your ethnicity. We have to remember, though, that these tools are in the early stages of development. The major testing services each use different reference populations, as do the independent developers.
I used Ancestry.com to test my autosomal DNA and Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) to test my mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). I also paid to transfer my autosomal DNA from Ancestry to FTDNA and also uploaded it to a wonderful free service at Gedmatch.com.
Autosomal DNA is received from each parent - 50% from your mother and 50% from your father. Each of them in turn received the same portions from their parents. Autosomal DNA is a great way to find recent ancestors. If you share a large segment of DNA with someone, it is not a random event.
I was lucky to persuade my dad to test. By process of elimination, I can tell what DNA I share with him and what came from my mom, who died a few years ago.
MtDNA is passed in a near carbon copy from mother to daughter. (Men also receive mtDNA from their mothers, but they also get a Y-chromosome as well.) My understanding is that the X-chromosome mutates more slowly than the Y, so it is best for revealing deep ancestry.
A woman's haplogroup is determined by her mtDNA and mine is K (K1a2b subclade). My "clan mother" is Katrine - the name given by human geneticist, Bryan Sykes, to my female ancestor whose unique DNA split off from the next most similar group (U8) about 35,000 years ago. Haplogroup K moved into Europe about 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. Ötzi the Iceman, the 3,300 year-old mummy that was found in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps, carried maternal DNA from haplogroup K, although no living being has mtDNA that matches his.
I have posted some screen shots of different ethnicity admixture predictions from two testing services and one from the tools at Gedmatch. You can see how different my ethnicity predictions are, depending on where the data has been analyzed. Please click the images to enlarge.
Cheryl
Note that FTDNA does not have as sophisticated a prediction as the other two models. It lumps almost 90% of my DNA under Orcadian, which is probably the least accurate of the predictions.
From raw DNA uploaded to Gedmatch.com