DNA genealogy research

[DPowell]

Has anyone researched the best online DNA genealogy project to use?

I signed up my husband for the National Geographic project, they go back to the earliest people as they traveled out of Africa but don't provide much info after his family stopped to paint caves in Spain. The project doesn't seem to have added anything to it since joining.

The www.dnaancestryproject.com offers more recent history, tries to incentivize by ones possible relation to a few important historical figures like Thomas Jefferson, but then doesn't give a list so you could see whose DNA they have on record.

My father is getting up there and I have no brothers, thinking I should make a stab at this.

[DPowell]

I did get the 37 marker Y-DNA test done for my father this summer. It connects me to other participants who are descended from Thomas Powell b. 1641, a Quaker and early settler who founded Bethpage, Long Island, NY. I didn't know where the family came from -- so this is a breakthrough. But I still haven't found out how, where the connection is, but does look more promising to figure it out.

It is interesting to see one's DNA markers strung out and then you see other people who match.
So far the only way I have participated is in a listsrv type email (reading), a lot of people exchanging info about Powells. One person took the trouble to show the line back to Adam and Eve!
If you are considering signing up, I would list an extra email address as you get bombarded with email - lots of info from distant cousins (not spam).

http://www.FamilyTreeDna.com

[DPowell]

Re: Y-DNA listsrv
Recently there has been a lot of email discussion where the DNA test shows some participants are not related to a Powell and are somewhat surprised and disappointed to learn that info.
I half-wondered if that is how it would be for me.

[Albert]

Yahoo Video on DNA genealogy research:

Your saliva could reveal from whom you were descended.

DNA database used to fill gaps in genealogical history

[DPowell]

I had the 67 marker test done for my father and it shows an exact match to one other person and three close matches in the FTDNA project. They are all descended from Thomas Powell, a Quaker settler, born in Wales 1641, who bought more than 15 square miles in the Bethpage Purchase, a 1687 land transaction with local Indian tribes, including the Marsapeque, Matinecoc, and Sacatogue.

http://www.familytreedna.com/.
The project noted my father shares a common ancestor 8 generations ago with the match.

FTDNA gives these percentages for a 67 marker match:
 1 generation is
43.47%
2 generations is
68.05%
3 generations is
81.94%
4 generations is
89.79%
5 generations is
94.23%
6 generations is
96.74%
7 generations is
98.16%
8 generations is
98.96%
9 generations is
99.41%
10 generations is
99.67%
11 generations is
99.81%
12 generations is
99.89%
13 generations is
99.94%
14 generations is
99.97%
15 generations is
99.98%
16 generations is
99.99%
17 generations is
99.99%
18 generations is
100%

[DPowell]

I think I found my line back to Thomas Powell, thru his youngest son Solomon.
All 15 children are listed as married except for the youngest, a daughter.
Thomas must have been about 62 when Solomon was born, by his second wife.
 
The 67 marker DNA match is descended thru another son of Thomas,
I expected to see we would have shared common ancestors a few more generations down.

Thomas would be 10 generations back from my father.

[DPowell]

Strange story:
This fellow was found beaten and naked in Georgia with no ID in 2004 and continues to suffer from amnesia. He has a Powell DNA strand and the story has come up on a Powell DNA list serve.
He now goes by name Benjaman Kyle and is still trying to figure out his past.

To see an article about him:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/life/ocpeople/article_2597526.php

[DPowell]

On researching where my Powells came from:
A key source was the website http://www.findagrave.com/.

Photos of tombstones and their inscriptions are available.
Has simple but effective search functions for cemeteries & burials.