How to connect my YDNA results to anyone

Question

My "paper" lineage traces me back to George Webb, b. 1794, VA.  However, my YDNA test from FamilyTree DNA shows I am a direct descendant of William Adkins, b. 1689, VA.  When I look at some of the William Adkins profiles, it says "there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line".  But, I am a known yDNA descendant of this William Adkins.  How can my DNA results be shown so others may connect to me?

Comments

In what generation in your direct paternal line did Adkins change to Webb?

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Unknown.  Had to have happened between around 1705 to 1794.  William Adkins was b. 1689, & George Webb was b. 1794.  Could have been anytime between.  I have reference that George's father's name was John Webb, but the only info I have is that name.  Could have been a Webb female with an Adkins male & she just kept the Webb name.  I'll probably never be able to pin it down.  Do U have any research that may help?  Thanks

Answer 1

Click here for the DNA Help pages.

Your DNA information will automatically filter through eight generations of your family in the tree. But you have to build your family tree first.  Without a tree, your DNA just sits there.

Answer 2

Rick, I didn't want to write this, but I'm concerned you've been seriously misled.  And I apologize in advance if I'm wrong.  I also don't know how much you know about yDNA.

Your statement above, about how a yDNA test from FTDNA shows you're a direct descendant of William Adkins born 1689, seems so unlikely to anyone that knows much about yDNA, that I had to at least ask if there's more to it than that one test, and which test it was.  The only test I see on your profile is a 37 marker STR test, which couldn't possibly confirm any connection, let alone a connection to someone from the 1600's.  It predicts a haplogroup, but those are very broad, matching thousands of males.  I'm not saying you are wrong, that you are not a direct descendant of his, but it would take a lot more testing and triangulation than a 37 marker test.  And it seems to me that such testing and triangulation would be much more important to mention than your STR test, which is why I had to question you on it.

Now if you have Big Y tests or other full genome testing, and special testing of private SNP's known by others to triangulate to him, that's a different matter, but I think you would have mentioned that.

If you were to test further markers, like a Y67 test, that's 30 more markers you would have to assume all match, and better yet a Y111 test, with 74 more markers that could be the same or different.  And that still would not *prove* a connection, without very good triangulation and tree building.

I'm sorry about doubting you, but if you understand yDNA, you'll understand why I'm concerned, based only on that one test.  I'm worried someone has convinced you of something not true, or at least not proven, not even close to proven.

Comments

Yea, I noticed that right away too.  I would have said something similar if you hadn't already done it.

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Rick has several Y-STR matches with Adkins and Webb surnames in YSearch.  I have not checked the direct paternal lines of those testers to determine if they are a Y-STR triangulation back to William Adkins.

Sincerely, Peter

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Thanks for your concern & info. Very sharp & blunt in my opinion. I will agree that I don’t know much about yDNA testing, but when Family Tree DNA tells me that I match 37 of 37 markers to descendants of said William Adkins, then, personally, I’ll accept that as fact.  Seems like I’ve been flamed just because you know a bit more about DNA testing than I do. The info is appreciated, but the flaming was not appreciated. Thanks again. Best wishes in your research.

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Rick, I'm deeply sorry, I apologize completely.  I only wanted to help.  I never knowingly flame or criticize anyone, not even in my thoughts if I can help it.  It's my principle to only criticize behaviors, not the persons, and that doesn't include you, you haven't done anything wrong.  I do understand your reaction is normal, I wish it wasn't.

The problem is that just because you match descendants at 37 markers does not mean you yourself are a direct descendant of that individual.  Matching a number of Adkins just means you match past Adkins somewhere.  Matching those descendants means you also match William's brothers and grandfathers, so it's possible for example that you are a descendant of William Adkins's great grandfather's brother, who would also share that DNA.  There are a number of Adkins ancestors you may be a direct descendant of, and the problem now is to determine which one it might be.  That's going to require tree building, and probably some triangulation.  There appears to be an active Adkins project, so I would recommend using their expertise to help.  I would also recommend considering more testing, the 111 marker test in particular, and if you can afford it, the Big Y, as it could narrow down the possible ancestry.

Apart from that, I'm truly sorry.  I'm not an expert, and I hope you will get better advice from others here that know more than me.

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Thanks so much for your comments.  I definitely will keep digging into my ancestors to determine who I am.

Answer 3

Rick, on your WikiTree profile, there is no one else connected to your line. You only have a single straight parental line, but no other connections.

You need to fill out your tree more completely for each of those ancestors -- siblings, children, etc. in order to be able to connect with anyone else.

Comments

Working on that. Been very busy this last week.

Answer 4

To be clear about this, when they say you "match 37 of 37 markers to descendants of said William Adkins" what that means is that you match these people exactly, and that they can trace their paternal line back to the said William Adkins.

It DOESN'T necessarily mean that the most recent common ancestor for these guys is William (although it might be), and it certainly doesn't mean that he's your ancestor.

What it DOES mean is that if you go back enough generations - an UNKOWN number of generations - that you DO have common ancestor.

That being said, your George Webb is 5 generations back, so it sounds like we're looking at an unusual event (assuming your paternal line matches your biological line). A mutation occurs about every 6 generations with Y37, so the odds that you, yourself, have a perfect match to your own George Webb is only about 40%. The odds that you match 3 generations further back is about 23% (call it 1 in 4). Your distant cousin also has that 1 in 4 odds of having zero mutations, and so the odds of you BOTH having no mutations, vs 8 generations back, is about 1 in 16!

That doesn't mean it can't happen, but you might want to consider that maybe you're really closer relatives than that, and something ELSE might be going on. In my (limited) experience, even 6th cousins generally have at least one mutation.

How distantly related are those other perfect matches from EACH OTHER, anyway? If they're closely related to each other, that might explain why they ALL match you exactly.