Can yDNA be used to identify the biological father of an ancestor?

Question

The father of an ancestor born in 1854 is unknown. A direct male ancestor has submitted yDNA for testing. No matches came back from FamilyTreeDNA. How can his test results be used to find a potential surname of his father?

Answer 1

Maybe I'm getting old, but for me that means you're looking for gt-gt grandparents. I would have tried using autosomal DNA testing first - plus it's a lot cheaper! There's no guarantee, but there's a really good chance of finding matches from that part of your tree - if you're a bit lucky some might even have trees that point you to the common ancestor.

Answer 2

If no matches were returned then you have nothing to compare to. The best you can do is find another descendent of the same predicted ancestor and compare, which will tell you if they match, they are descended of the same person. If they do not match there was an NPE along the way.

Answer 3

Consider adding Family Finder to testers test.  If no other males available for Y might consider adding mtFull Sequence if indeed he tested with FTDNA, can be useful.  (Not to be intended as a ad for that DNA company.)

Answer 4

To add to Lance's answer, you will need to do more paper genealogy and find some additional male line descendents of Wiley, preferably from different sons. Even with matches, you will need to do more work since you could get a close or exact match and it could be that a brother or uncle to Wiley who was the father. 1854 is also within the realm of possibly using autosomal DNA to supplement the Y

To the more specific question of finding the surname, this can be problematic for a number of reasons. even if someone matched, they might have grown up using a different surname or chose to change. All the Y DNA might do is identify possibilities.

Since you haven't had any matches, you either have to be patient or you can start trying to get more matches. You might find clues with autosomal DNA tests and then do some targeted Y-DNA if you find possibilities.

Answer 5

I don't know if you are still looking.... but it appears that Eli H Mason has been identified as the biological father of Wiley Weatherman. Here's a link:

https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/MYDR-XZV

Answer 6

Do Y-DNA testing, and the number of surname matches can give you a clue. I imagine you're saying that you're not sure what the actual surname would be of someone who has an assumed surname. If so, then you ask what's at the top of the list after Y-DNA testing. If you're NPE (not parent expected) subject thinks he is actually of another surname than that he possesses, Y-DNA 37 marker, 67 marker, and 111 marker testing can lead you in the right direction.

Answer 7

Depends on the kit that was used... What was it BigY? y37? y67? y111?

Ultimately it cannot distinguish between men in a family...BigY is the most definitive.

There is also the possibility your settings for the kit at FTDNA aren't quite right. If you aren't sharing, you won't get many or any matches...