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smithsworldwide (Admin)
YDNA Example Graphic

Posted by smithsworldwide in Smith DNA on April 12, 2021 Views:(82)  Replies (0)
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Did a graphic of YDNA as sometimes it's confusing for people. Let's say you have an early male Smith ancestor. You don't know what his YDNA is or haplogroup or markers or anything else, except you have some sort of paper trail or theory.


You know that this man had 6 children. If you know that there is a living direct line male descendant of this early ancestor Smith, he by right of getting his YDNA passed male to male to male, ought to match his ggggrandfather, with maybe some mutational variations. That is son # 1 on the left. Son #2 also would get his father's YDNA but in the 3rd generation, he had no sons so did not pass on YDNA to any descendants as a female (daughter) doesn't get YDNA. Son # 3 also has a living male Smith descendant whose line goes to the early ancestor. Son #4 passed on his father's YDNa but in the 3rd generation, there was an NPE, ie, a non-paternity event, where the male was NOT a Smith from this line. Daughter #5 married but her son, assuming she has one, will carry the YDNA of her husband, NOT her father. Son #6 is an NPE, meaning he does not, at this level, share the YDNA of his father and thus, no matter which sons he has, they will be passing along the YDNA of the unknown male.

Does it matter where these people went? Suppose that this line started in Virginia, and son number one moved to Kentucky and son #3 moved to Tennessee. They will still, with some possible mutational variations, share the same YDNA as their father because they match each other

Son #4 who in the 3rd generation had an NPE, may still have matches IF he had multiple sons in generation 2 .

Females often ask about who they could get to test for a YDNA match with a male Smith ancestor. If they are married to, say, a Brown, and have a son Brown, this son will be a YDNA tester for the surname Brown, not Smith. But said female may have a Smith male uncle or a Smith male cousin OR find someone with a tree on the internet that is a male Smith from their line to do a YDNA test as proxy. People often do autosomal tests because they want to find out the Smith or have no Smith to do YDNA testing. Best is when an autosomal match matches someone who has done a YDNA test AND matches into a grouping.

For ANYONE wanting to test, note that if you can't find someone in your own direct line to do a YDNA test, look in an adjacent line, ie, a different male Smith son of the father.

For NPE, note that it can happen at any point. The early male Ancestor may not be a Smith (had one member where the ancestor changed his name from something else, but the member definitely matched the other surname and proved his family story of name change). There may be something a little off in the tree line. (have had trees where there are two very similarly named people with almost identifical stats from the same location, hah, EVERYBODY IS NAMED WILLIAM, and the line actually went a different way. Frankly, you might never find out why or where the NPE occurred, and it doesn't matter if it goes back a long ways or is more recent. Not saying it can't happen but, for example, adoption has its own set of challenges. Was looking at a home in Kansas City for unwed mothers, where the home destroyed all the records. However, following the migrational trail of the parent family OR of the ones you heavily match if it's not Smith may help.

For anyone, you need to have more than one person do testing and, as a matter of time, suggest you spend the time to locate some theory people and reach out to ask them if they will test for you. This project has been around 20 years and some of the best results have been when a person seeks out others they believe should match and asks them to do it. See the I-M253-3 group which Dewey Smith has diligently created from a raft of testers for his Nathan Smith https://www.smithsworldwide.org/tng/smtrees.php?grouping=GRP-I-M253-3 For myself, I have on 3 occasions paid for tests, with the provision that if the member wanted to go beyond 37 markers, he would need to pay for himself. I found 2 of them on the internet with trees from my ancestor and the 3rd was a match to me on autosomal. Incidentally, all 3 of them matched AND matched others within a YDNA group. Sometimes just asking people if they will consider a test, even where you're not offering to pay, can interest a person into getting it done.