Why we test

When it all comes together it's just beautiful! DNA, family trees, indexed records on several websites and images of originals - the tools of our trade.

A couple of days ago, I decided to do a check of my Ancestry DNA matches to see if anyone new had been added among my 3rd to 4th cousin matches. I am 100 percent Ashkenazi Jewish (an endogamous population). As a result, I rarely look beyond those (currently) 62 matches who share 90 or more centiMorgans (cMs) of DNA with me.  

Ancestry does not provide information about individual shared segments. So, I usually spend quality time only with those matches with a relatively low number of segments in common with me. The idea is to high-grade the matches by looking for those who (on average) may share at least one or more 20 cM segments with me. For the first time in many months there was a new 3rd to 4th cousin on my match list.

My match listed his full name, but it meant nothing to me (we'll call him CS). He had no tree associated with his DNA results. He shares 121 cMs of autosomal DNA and 10 segments with me. He is 51 percent Ashkenazi Jewish.

Although, due to endogamy, a search of matches in common is often more confusing that illuminating, I tried it. CS seemed to match my Liebross side and I  noted that another match (JS) had the same last name as CS and 19 percent Ashkenazi Jewish. JS was below my usual research threshold: 4th-6th cousin and only sharing 5o cMs and five segments. 

I tentatively guessed, based on the name and the percentage of ethnicity assigned to Ashkenazi, that this might be CS's son. When I contacted JS he confirmed that to be the case.

JS has a tree of 74 people. His emphasis was quite obviously on his mother's non-Jewish family, but the three people listed on his father's side were enough to indicate this might be a match with which I could work. JS's grandmother, Heather Marie Schafer was born in Vienna, Austria. 

My great grandfather, Louis Liebross. had a sister named Rifke who married Abraham Dov Ber Schaffer in Radautz, Bukovina (now in northern Romania) on 24 June 1877.[1]

Extract: (left page) Marriage 24 June 1877. Groom: Abraham Ber Schaffer of Radautz, son of Mortko and Scheinde Schaffer of Radautz.

Extract: Bride: (right page) Rifke Libruss of Radautz, daughter of Mani and Zirl Libruss of Zaleszczyki.

While Heather Marie's first and middle names had been clearly Anglicized in the Ancestry family tree, her birth date was provided: 17 February 1917. I searched in Ancestry on Heather Marie Schafer and another more in-depth tree came up. This one identified Heather as Herta Marie Schaffer and indicated her parents were Raphael Schaffer and Susan Frank.

Raphael was a good hit because Rifke Liebross Schaffer's fourth or fifth child was Rafael, born on 1 April 1875 in Radautz.[2] Yet, Rifke and Abraham Dov Ber Schaffer were married in 1877. 

This situation of marriage years after children's births is not unusual in Austrian Empire Jewish marriage and birth records. The Austrian Empire government had made it costly for Jewish couple to register their marriages with the civil authorities. As a result, many Jewish couples had religious ceremonies and often did not register their marriages with the government until may years later. If the couples did not register their marriages, the state did not consider them married. Birth records for their children would often only show the mother's surname and the children would be recorded as illegitimate. Couples might register their marriages years later for several reasons including to make sure future inheritances would follow the framework from legally identified father to child.

Rafael was recorded as illegitimate. A note in the last column indicate he was legitimized by his parents marriage at a later date. 

Another note on Rafael's birth record indicated he'd married Dvoira Grupp in Bucharest on 17 September 1934. For me, after that, the trail ran cold. I had no further information on Rafael or Dvoira; no indication of offspring (although by 1934 Rafael would have been 59 so there might not have been any from that union). I assumed that Rafael and Dvoira, like several of Rafael's family members had been killed during the Holocaust.[3]

Extract: Rafael, son of Abraham Berl Schaffer and Rifke Libruss, born 1 April 1875 in Radautz, house no. 1102. Legitimized by marriage registered in vol. I, p. 64/65, entry no. 36, 24 June 1877. Rafael married Dvoira Grupp in Bucharest on 17 September 1934.

But, Herta Schaffer was supposedly born to a Rafael Schaffer and Susan Frank in 1917 in Vienna. This was new information. Did my Rafael have an earlier marriage and a child? I needed to see a copy of Herta's birth record.

I found her birth record indexed on JewishGen. The date and location in Vienna matched. The father's name matched. But the mother's name was Susie Grunwerg not Susan Frank.

Vienna Jewish community vital records have been imaged, but not completely indexed, on FamilySearch. One may find the records listed in the FamilySearch catalogue. But, these records cannot be viewed from home. They must be viewed at a Family History Center.
 

Record entry 282 shows Herta Schaffer, daughter of Raphael Schaffer and Susie Grunwerg, born on 19 February 1917 in Vienna. Parents married 6 September 1903, Czernowitz [4].

The imaged record did not provide much more than the basic information shown in the JewishGen index. The comment on the far right column, however, was excellent: Herta's parents had been married in Czernowitz on 6 September 1903.

Like the Viennese Jewish records, some Jewish Czernowitz vital records listed in the FamilySearch catalogue have not been indexed. I looked for the indexed marriage record in the GeneaSearch Czernowitz database and found it.

I then took this information to the FamilySearch catalogue to view an image of the original record. Czernowitz records may be searched and viewed on FamilySearch from one's home computer, but one may not download the images (a screen shot is not optimal, but worked for me).

Extract: Groom: Raphael Schaffer, born in Radautz, son of Abraham Schaffer and Rifke Liebross of Radautz. Born 1 April 1875. Bride: Sossie Grunwerg born in Kolomea, daughter of Berl Grunwerg and Sura, born Frank, in Czernowitz on 20 November 1880. [5]

Extract: Married on 6th September 1903 in Czernowitz. Rabbi Benjamin Weiss.

Evidence in this record addresses the problem of Herta's mother's name. Sossie was identified with her mother's last name (Frank), not her father's (Grunwerg). To be sure, I located Sossie's birth record via the Jewish Records Indexing- Poland database.[6]

Extract/summary: Sossie, born in Kolomea on 18 November 1880 [her marriage record showed 20 Nov. 1880]. She is shown as illegitimate and her father's information is not included in the last column on this page. A note above the illegitimate notation indicates that her parents married in Czernowitz on 5 May 1888, thereby legitimizing her.

Extract: Mother's name was Sura Frank. Sossie's father's name, Berl Grunwerg of Kolomea is recorded in the first column under her mother's name. Sura's parents were Meier and Ester Rifka Frank of Kolomea.

She, like Rafael, was listed as illegitimate. Her parents married civilly after her birth.

I did find Sossie's parents' marriage record from 1888 among the Czernowitz  Jewish marriage records, but will not include it here. It shows that her mother Rifka's surname had been Udelsman (perhaps Rifka's mother's maiden name!).

It appears I have located a new 3rd cousin (CS) and his son (JS), who is my 3rd cousin once-removed. Now, I have other record-confirmed 3rd cousins+ on this side of the family with whom I share no autosomal centiMorgans. So, these matches with CS and JS are special. I hope to get more of my clear-cut Ancestry matches' results uploaded to other websites to allow more in-depth analyses.

Mane and Tsiril had four children (that I know of). Rifke Liebross Schaffer had nine or ten. Louis had at least eight. So the family tree below just shows our direct lines from our common ancestral couple.

For those who sometimes question the value of DNA testing for one's family history, note that in this case DNA results allowed me to find a person for whom I was not previously searching. Without the initial interesting match with CS I would not have looked further. And without the availability of indices and images of European Jewish records I never could have made this connection. It takes a village of websites and organizations to build a family tree. 

In addition to CS, JS and all my cousins whose curiosity and trust allow me access to their DNA test results, I think kudos are due to GeneaSearch, Edgar Hauster and Bruce Reich (who are behind the acquisition and indexing of Radauti Jewish vital records), JewishGen, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, and FamilySearch. And of course, let's not forget the big four DNA testing companies: Ancestry, FamilyTree DNA, MyHeritage and 23andMe. With patience DNA tests are gifts that keep on giving.

Notes:
1. Radauti Jewish Marriages, Abraham Ber Schaffer and Rifke Libruss, 24 June 1877, Vol. 1, p. 64, entry 36; Radauti City Archive. Indexed records searched at: https://czernowitz.geneasearch.net/
2. Radauti Jewish Births, Rafael Schaffer, 1 April 1875, vol. 1, p. 83, entry 30; Radauti City Archive. Indexed records searched at: https://www.reisch-family.net/RadautzBirthRegistersIndex/BirthsSearchForm.html
3. I have been in touch with one descendant of Rifka Liebross Schaffer who lives in Israel who has been very helpful.
4. Vienna, Jewish births 1917, no. 282, Herta Schaffer, 19 February 1917; images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org: accessed 2 October 2019), "Metrikel 1826-1943,">Geburten 1917-1918 (microfilm 1199227); citing Judische Gemeinde Wien (Niederosterreich), Stadt und Landesarchiv Wien.
5. Czernowitz, Jewish marriages 1903, Raphael Schaffer and Sossie Grunwerg, 6 September 1903; images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch,org : accessed 2 October 2019), Austria, Bukovina, Czernowitz - Jewish Records>Metrikel Books, 1856-1940>microfilm 2395731, Item 1>image 73 of 850; citing Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine, Czernowitz, vol. IX, p. 104, record 128.
6. Kolomyya, , Jewish births, Sossie [Grunwerg] Frank, 18 November 1880; images, Polish State Archives, AGAD, Stanislowow Wojewodztwo, Kolomyya, Fond 300, Signatura 395, Akta 670; accessed via Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (https://jri-poland.org/ ).

Take one Utchenik off the table

Drat! 

This was going to be soooo cool. But now, it's back to the drawing board.

A while back I was able to show that my great grandfather, Abraham Garber, had a full brother whose last name was Lederman. I did this through a combination of traditional records research and DNA results. I did a twelve-part series on that research. The last post may be viewed here. In short, the Lederman I tested is my second cousin one-removed. Pretty close.

Feeling emboldened, I began to think that perhaps the family story that there had been four brothers in the Old Country who each adopted different surnames might, indeed, be true (see the story here). So, I set out the find the unusual name that had been identified as the original one: Utchenik.

Now ordinarily I would not recommend trying to spend much time trying to prove family stories, but Utchenik is an unusual name and finding an Utchenik family was not particularly difficult. There seemed to be one main Utchenik family who primarily settled in Detroit, Michigan (also the place where one of my Ledermans settled). Some Utcheniks from the same related clan were also in Connecticut, Massachusetts and, for a short while, Florida. The family was also from Volhynia Gubernia - the same area as my Garber-Lederman family. I was not successful in finding a family tie via paper records.

My main problem was finding some Utcheniks to DNA test. 

A few years ago I located one Utchenik descendant named Greenberg who agreed to test. His grandmother was an Utchenik by birth. His autosomal DNA test results did not include my Garbers or Lederman as strong matches.[1] I know that sometimes third cousins may not appear as matches in autosomal DNA and, in at least one instance, that is the case in my own family. So I was not dissuaded from my quest with these particular results. If I could only find a male Utchenik to test for Y-DNA!

That was a challenge until recently when a male Utchenik contacted me after seeing one of blog posts (Hurrah for blog posts!). 

He agree to test. 

I received his autosomal DNA results a few weeks ago. Again, nothing to get too excited about. Lederman did not come up as a match at all. There did seem to be a nice stack of Garbers matching on chromosome 15:

The orange, above, is Greenberg. The largest of the Garber segments on this chromosome is 16.8; the smallest, 14.5 cms. The gap in the green and purple lines could be where some Utchenik DNA dropped out during the last few generations. Family Tree DNA predicted that all the matching Garbers but one were between third to fifth cousins with Utchenik. I showed up as fifth to remote.

What I was really hoping for was a good haplogroup match on Y-DNA. It was not to be.

This morning I received the Y-DNA 37 marker results. Utchenik came in at 37 markers in haplogroup E-M35. My Garber males and Lederman match exactly at 67 markers in predicted haplogroup T-M70. [2]

Sigh.

So, I am thinking that, if we are related, it is not along the Garber-Lederman line. 

The good news? I have another Utchenik family I am looking at. Two Utchenik brothers from Polonnoye (about 10 miles from my family's tow of Lubin) changed their surname to Robinson after immigration. The bad news? One brother had no children and the other had only girls. The pretty good news? One daughter is still available to test. I am hoping she agrees.

Meanwhile, I am trying to get around a seeming paucity of records on these Robinson/Utcheniks. Wish me luck!

Notes:
1. Annette and Mel, who are 1C1R to me and 2 C to Lederman, show up sharing 99 cms and 14 largest segment (projected 3rd to 5th cousins) and 63 cms/9 cms (5th cousins to remote) with Greenberg, respectively. Greenberg shared only 56 cms and a largest segment of 8 (5th to remote) with Lederman. Generally, we like to see over 100 cms total and over 20 (better 30 cms) for the longest segment. My documented third cousins who show up as matches to me may have large segments under 20, but share more than 100 cms total. So, the Greenberg matches were nothing for a member of this endogamous Ashkenazi Jewish family to get excited about. 
2. In case anyone is wondering, for my own edification I did compare STRs and there are over 40 differences between Utchenik (E-M35) and my Garber-Lederman (T-M70) group at the 37 marker level - in no way a close match.

My DNA Arboriculture

Commons.Wikimedia.org

Recently many genealogists have jumped on a bandwagon started by blogger J. Paul Hawthorn. He created a chart using Excel to show where ancestors on his family tree were born. Then some genealogists, including Lara Diamond, thought to show their Y-DNA (father's father's father, etc.) and mitochondrial DNA (mother's mother's mother, etc.) haplogroups. 

Using this tool for DNA results is a terrific way to see how well one has applied DNA testing to one's tree. It really shows where the holes are and gives one an idea which relatives to approach next for further testing. 

For my family, I had to remake the chart to take into account the fact that my paternal grandparents (Jacob Garber and Dora Morris) were first cousins. Jacob's mother and Dora's father were siblings.

Holes in the Chart:

Morris (Mazewitsky) Y-DNA: I have not pursued this line yet, but I do have more than one Morris male relative to approach.

Wilson (Wilensky) Y-DNA: Soon to be accomplished. My cousin (a Wilson male) has just sent in his cheek swab test to FamilyTree DNA. Yes!

Liebross Y-DNA: I have asked some of my Liebross male cousins to test and have not yet received a yes (sigh).

Hoda Epstein Mt-DNA: I know of only one person I could approach on this (I missed my chance to ask her late mother to test). Right now I do not think the daughter is interested.

The other blanks cannot be pursued, at this point, unless I determine some additional collateral relatives on my tree.

Happy Mother's Day, L2a1l2a!

Happy Mother's Day to my late mother Norma, grandmother Tillie, great grandmother Bertha and my great great grandmother Reisel!

Bertha Wenkert Liebross

I do not know the maiden name of my great great grandmother Reisel Wenkert from the Zaleszczyki area of today's Ukraine but among her children was my great grandmother, Breindel Wenkert, born about 1868. 

I know Breindel had one elder sister, Perl Wenkert Ett, who died in Skole, Austria in 1895. Perl had five daughters, all of whom bore daughters, as well (she also had a son, but that information is not helpful for following out MtDNA results). Beyond Perl and Breindel, I do not yet know of any other siblings.

Breindel married Eliezer (Leiser) Liebross. They resided in Radautz, Austrian Empire (now Radauti, Romania) and had eight children. 

Leiser and Breindel  immigrated in 1897 and 1898, respectively, and became Louis and Bertha Liebross in New York City.

Tillie Liebross Wilson

Their eldest child was my grandmother Tillie (born about 1888 in Radautz). Tillie attended school through the eighth grade. She married Joseph Wilson in 1917 in New York City. Of Louis and Bertha's three daughters, Tillie was the only one to bear children who lived to adulthood.

Tillie was not the stereo-typical white-haired grandmother. While she was doting and a superb cook, she dyed her hair to match her former auburn locks. She was ten when she became an immigrant and in later years did not have an accent from the Old Country. I think this photo (at left) really shows her as stylish woman.

Joe and Tillie's second child was my mother Norma Circe Wilson, born in Brooklyn in 1921. The Wilson's did well financially and purchased their two-family home in Brooklyn at 31 Colin Place. 

Me and my mother Norma Wilson Garber (about 1977)

Both Norma and her brother Ira attended Lincoln High School and then New York University. Norma graduated in 1941. She worked as a bookkeeper for a few years before marrying Bernard Garber in 1947. She became a home-maker after my brother Jim was born.

Our maternal line mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is L2a1l2a. Unfortunately, our haplogroup is an exact match with 25 other people who have tested with Family Tree DNA. Thus far, there does not appear to be any discernible common ancestor among us.

Avrum's Women, Part 12: Finding Family with Family Finder

I've been neglecting this series - and it's not for lack of something to share. So, let's continue on!

When we last met, I'd found that Lederman Y-DNA was an exact match at 37 markers for Garber DNA and S (Morris Lederman's son) was definitely related via the (male line) Y chromosome to my brother Jim and my father's first cousin, Mel. In the T-M70 Y-DNA haplogroup there are no other males tested who match them exactly. I awaited results of Family Tree DNA's Family Finder (aka autosomal DNA test) to see what the company would predict for the kinship relationship between Garber and Lederman.

Autosomal testing looks at the 22 chromosomes that are not sex chromosomes (neither Y nor X). Segments of DNA on these chromosomes may come from either mother or father and one cannot tell without further analysis which chromosomes have been inherited from whom. To understand the results of autosomal DNA one should have comparison samples from those for whom one knows the relationship. I have tested myself and four known Garber relatives. The chart immediately below shows how we (those tested are highlighted in yellow) are related to our common ancestor Avrum Garber. I have included S and his known male ancestors.

Avrum was great grandfather to me, my brother Jim, my first cousin Lynne, and my second cousin Ellen. Avrum was the Mel's grandfather. I know from Avrum's tombstone that his father was Mordechai and his grandfather was Yitzchak Leib. Beyond that I have little information. We do not know how we are related to S, but we do know that his father was Morris, contemporary of Jack, Feiga and Eddie (who were siblings). Morris' father was Levi Yitzchak.

Family Tree DNA provides some tools for autosomal DNA analysis. This is a comparison of the results for the five Garber relatives to S's autosomal chromosome results. A color key is inset, below.

Each colored line above represents a specific segment on that chromosome where that person matches S's DNA. There are matches with S on every chromosome tested except 16, 18 and 21. On most chromosomes, S matches more than one Garber in the same location.

Generally, it is considered that the longer the shared segment the closer the relationship. I could have plotted only segments greater than 10 centiMorgans (cM = the measure of segment length) rather than greater than 5 to more clearly show robust relationships. But I noted that there are several locations where segments 10 cM or less for several Garbers match S in striking unison: especially on chromosome 7, 11 and 15. I thought these were worth sharing.

FamilyTree DNA predicts the following relationships with S based upon these shared segment results: first to third cousins for me, Jim, Ellen, and Mel and second to third for Lynne. (One would expect that Lynne's predicted relationship with S should be the same as mine and my brother's - since we'd be related along our shared grandfather's line. But, we are dealing here with probabilities. In theory, autosomal DNA is inherited 50% from each parent. But in reality, we might inherit more material from one side than another and, possibly, more from one grandparent than another. The prediction for Lynne is certainly within the range one would expect considering her known relationship to the rest of the tested Garber clan.)

Now, barring a non-paternal event, we know that S cannot be our first cousin because we know who our grandparents were and we do not share them with him. We also know that Mel and S do not share grandfathers (Mel's was Avrum; S's was Levi Yitzchak), so they could not be first cousins. Unfortunately, we do not know Sn's ancestry beyond his grandfather Levi Yitzchak. So, right now, if Family Tree DNA's Family Finder predictions are correct, then S and Mel could be as close as second cousins.

This is great news, but it still cries out for further research. Unless and until we can provide some documentation, we cannot tell exactly how the Ledermans are related to the Garbers. However, I will leave you with this tidbit: as a result of some new information, I have been doing some happy genealogy dances - more in the next post.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Other posts in this series: 
Avrum's Women, Part 2: Feiga Grinfeld
Avrum's Women, Part 3: Following Feiga (and Raya)
Avrum's Women, Part 4: The Trouble with Harry
Avrum's Women, Part 5: Finding Feiga 
Avrum's Women, Part 6: Added Confirmation
Avrum's Women, Part 7: Feiga's Family
Avrum's Women, Part 8: Fannie's Story 
Avrum's Women, Part 9: Fannie's Brother Morris 
Avrum's Women: Part 10, Morris Lederman - Who's Your Mama? 
Avrum's Women, Part 11: Garber Y-DNA = Lederman Y-DNA
Avrum's Women, Part 13: Bond of Brothers 

Y-DNA: The Garbers are descended from....squid

We've no backbone! Or, so says Family Tree DNA. They're going to give us some.

Last December during a FamilyTree DNA sale my brother humored me by agreeing to take the Y-DNA 37 marker test (patrilineal).

I'd previously taken the full sequence mitochondrial DNA (matrilineal) and the Family Finder (autosomal) tests. I know that Jewish people are relatively rare in the world, and my Family Finder test shows a very interesting pie chart:

Guess my family hasn't valued diversity.

In my brother's Y-DNA test results not only are there no connections at the 37, 25 or 12 marker level, there is no predicted haplogroup. FamilyTree DNA predicts haplogroups by comparing the Y-DNA test results at the 12 marker level to known (backbone) haplogroups. When they cannot predict a haplogroup with certainty, they provide a free Y-HAP-backbone test.

The backbone test is projected to be completed by the end of April. In the mean time, I loaded the results into the Predicting Haplogroup in One Step application provided by Steve Morse. 

The answer is . . . T.  It will be interesting to see what FTDNA  reports.

Are the Garbers, as represented by my brother's Y-DNA, all that unusual? Maybe. Could be that my brother is just unusual (I knew that!). Or, maybe smaller, more insular ethnic groups (such as Ashkenazi Jewish folk) get hit with this no matches situation a bit more often than others. I haven't found any statistics on how often FTDNA must run a Y-HAP- backbone test (if anyone knows, please share).

This underscores for me the moving target nature of the relationship between current DNA studies and genealogy. The more of us who test, the greater the knowledge of human genetic variability and the greater the accuracy of predictions. 

FTDNA is thinking the same thing. They are running a $39 per 12 marker Y-DNA test sale through the end of March. After that, the price will settle in at $49 - a new low for 12 marker tests.  So, now's a great time to test.

While I'm waiting for the backbone test result, I'm looking over previously overlooked family portraits:

 

And if any of my male Garber relations would like to test their Y-DNA, let me know. We can only benefit from more participants.

DNA: Another tool for the toolbox

I really like to concept of DNA testing for genealogy research. I like it just about as much as manifests and census records. Having no experience with DNA testing, I anticipate liking it a little less than the records I've found most useful: probate, naturalization and obituaries. In other words, I see DNA test results as a another source of data - another tool in my genealogical toolbox, to be used in conjunction with other good information. Perhaps DNA information will generate more questions than answers, but that is all part of what keeps me engaged in genealogical problem solving.

I'd been thinking about trying a genealogy DNA test for some time. Actually, what I'd really been thinking about was convincing a male relative of mine to do it. But then I thought, "Well, I need to do a test myself so I am familiar with the ins and outs and can honestly say, 'It's no big deal!' " So,this past Sunday, the last day of the recent Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) sale, I ordered up a mitochondrial (mtDNAPlus) and Family Finder kit.

I chose FamilyTree DNA because they are known to have the largest database of Jewish tests and they have partnered with JewishGen.org. If one is looking for matches, a large comparison population is a distinct advantage.

I first looked through a variety of resources on the Family Tree DNA website to ascertain which test would be best for me. Their resources include pages, articles and videos on not only the testing results, but also the testing procedures. When one selects the Products tab, the website asks you to tell them whether a male or female will be tested. It then offers you only the testing options for that gender.There are a variety of tests at a variety of prices - the pricier ones, naturally, provide results at greater level of certainty. But, one may upgrade later if one feels the need and has the cash.

Due to the character of DNA and genetic inheritance, women can only test along their female lines (i.e., mother's mother's mother, etc). Thus, my choices were limited to the mtDNA test. Men (lucky them), however, may track their DNA along either line, depending upon which test they select: mtDNA (which tests along the mother's line) or Y-DNA (which will only test along paternal lines (father's father's father, etc.)).

For me, then, the mtDNA test meant that I can only test my mother's mother's mother's side.

It is a good idea to tie oneself to a DNA project. These may be oriented to surnames,  geography, or both or haplogroup (something one wouldn't be able to identify until receiving Family Finder test results). One may change, add or subtract DNA projects from ones profile at any time. The DNAeXplained blog has a recent post regarding considerations for selecting a project.

Aside from the opportunity to compare notes with researchers with similar genetic genealogy interests, with project affiliation one may also find some discounts on FTDNA tests. In my case, I bought the test during a sale - so project discounts did not apply and would not have provided an advantage. However, current discounts in the project in which I was interested only apply to the Y-DNA 37 Marker test (the one most recommended for paternal line genealogy) on which one may save $20. The Family Finder and mtDNA tests are not discounted for the project I selected: Gesher Galicia.

Gesher Galicia is for those with Jewish origins in the area that is now part of Poland, and Ukraine. Around 1900 when most of my mother's family left Europe, Galicia was a province in the Austria-Hungarian Empire. There are currently 278 members of this Jewish genetic genealogy project. There are other projects to select, but I thought I'd start with one and see how it goes. This is all new for me, so information overload is a concern.

Having earned a little overtime pay recently, I chose to splurge a little and decided to not only go with the mtDNA Plus but also the Family Finder. The Family Finder is an autosomal DNA test. This is similar to the tests Henry Louis Gates has completed on his PBS series Finding Your Roots participants and gives one a breakdown of ones ethnic percentages. It may also provide information allowing one to connect with ancestral lines within about the last five generations. Since most Jewish people (including me) can't really trace much beyond that for people with surnames (for most of us surnames didn't appear until after 1800), this could prove useful in taking me back a generation or two. I believe my family line is 100% Ashkenzi Jewish. So, it will be interesting to see how that plays out with the autosomal test results.

Signing up with FTDNA meant selecting a project, selecting a test package, entering my name,  contact information, and credit card info and learning my kit number and password. After paying online, I received an email receipt reiterating my kit number and password.

My test kit arrived in the Friday's mail. I read the enclosed instructions and watched a suggested video demonstrating the DNA collection procedure. I'm glad I watched the video. The only tricky part is handling the scraper and releasing it from the handle into the specimen tube. The video does a better job explaining this than the written instructions enclosed with the kit.

After dinner last night, I waited, as prescribed, more than an hour and took the kit into the bathroom. (For some reason brushing my inner cheek seems like a bathroom type of activity but, truth be told, the collection procedure was not messy at all.) I unwrapped the first scraper, set my stop watch and scraped the inside of one cheek for 60 seconds. After I carefully delivered the scraper to the specimen tube and screwed on the lid, I repeated the procedure on the other cheek. I placed the specimen tubes into the provided zip-locked plastic bag, and put them and the completed waiver form into the provided mailing envelop. I will go to the post office this morning, buy postage for $1.95 and mail in my DNA.

One topic usually comes up when talking about this test. What about privacy? Well, while there are companies that will screen for some health information, the FTDNA tests only look into DNA for genealogical purposes. One does have the opportunity to select privacy settings for ones test results. Consider, however, that the concept of DNA testing for genetic genealogy is to connect with others. The larger the sharing group, the better for finding matches. And the usefulness of ones results will be tied to contacting those that FTDNA identifies as possible relations and figuring out the relationships. I don't see anything in these tests that someone may use against you.

Collecting the specimens was easy - no big deal. Stay tuned. I'll let you know how my DNA exploration turns out. And, if you're a relative, beware that if the results are interesting, I may be asking you for some cheek scrapings (!).