Clay Family Society

DNA PROJECT

At the Clay Family Gathering in Beckley, West Virginia we voted on conducting a DNA study, which was begun right after the gathering.  We are still looking for Clay men that are willing to take this test and share your results with us. The purpose of this project is to connect the various Clay males to Clay ancestors.  The following information is provided to explain the project.

The Clay Family Society has chosen Family Tree DNA as the laboratory to provide testing for the Society. Testing is available at a discount, if purchased as part of the Clay Family Group.  Gregg Hatcher is the Project Coordinator for the Clay Family Society. If you have any questions, please contact Gregg at this email… haccher@bellsouth.net

We ask that all participants choose the Y-DNA25 Male 25 Marker paternal test. The cost of this test is $148.00 which is the group rate. This 25 marker test will be of greater use to the Clay study. 

If you are already in a study or have taken a DNA test, please share your results, or if you are willing to take one to see if you connect to any of our other willing subjects, please  agree to release the findings for our study, your involvement is very important.

• Overview

The use of DNA testing in genealogy is used to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals.  The test involves the comparison of DNA of individuals in order to estimate the probability that they share a common ancestor in a genealogical time frame and to estimate the number of generations separating them from their most recent common ancestor.

Humans have 46 chromosomes, arranged in 23 pairs.  44 (22 pairs) of these chromosomes are an ordinarily paired type of chromosome that is the same in both sexes and 2 (1 pair) are sex specific chromosomes. Humans have an XY sex determination system, so that females have the sex chromosomes XX and the males XY.

The Y-chromosome is present only in males and reveals information on the paternal line. A man's paternal ancestry can be traced using the DNA on his Y-Chromosome (Y-DNA). Testing involves looking at segments of the Y-Chromosome where sequences of nucleotides repeat, known as ‘short tandem repeats’ (STRs). The segments which are examined are referred to as genetic markers.

A Y-Chromosome STR test will reveal a ‘haplotype’, which should be similar among all male descendants of a male ancestor. This is useful because the Y-Chromosome, like many European surnames, passes from father to son, and can be used to help study surnames.

Women who wish to determine their paternal ancestry can ask their father, brother, paternal uncle, paternal grandfather, or a cousin who shares the same paternal lineage to take a test for them (i.e. any male family member who has the same surname as her father).

Y-DNA tests only a single lineage (one's father's father's father's etc. lineage). At 10 generations back, an individual has up to 1024 unique ancestors (fewer if ancestor cousins interbred) and a Y-DNA test is only studying one of those ancestors, as well as their descendants and siblings (same sexed siblings for Y-DNA). However, most genealogists maintain contact with many cousins (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc., with different surnames) whose Y-DNA are different, and thus should be encouraged to be tested to find additional ancestral DNA lineages.

• Procedure

The general procedure for taking a genealogical DNA test involves taking a painless cheek-scraping (also known as a buccal swab) at home and mailing the sample to a genetic genealogy laboratory for testing. Some laboratories offer to store DNA samples for ease of future testing. All United States laboratories will destroy the DNA sample upon request by the customer, guaranteeing that a sample is not available for further analysis.

The Family Tree DNA test kit consists of two cheek scrapers and two collection tubes---designed for a single persons use. Each tube contains a fluid designed to arrest bacteria growth, so you can scrape your cheek and return your kit in any type of weather (hot or cold). The freshness of your sample will remain intact for months.

You will notice the cotton 'toothed' tip at the end of the scraper. The sensation of using our scraper is like brushing the inside of your cheek with your toothbrush. Remember, a good scrape produces lots of DNA, which makes the extraction process easier and decreases the chance that one or more of your markers will fail to be readable on the first test of your sample.

Your kit also includes instructions for collecting your DNA sample (available in many languages) and the all important Release Form. The Release Form is your written consent that allows Family Tree DNA to share your test results with the Clay Family Society DNA Project.

You can see the results of the testing on the Clay Family DNA Project webpage at Family Tree DNA…  www.familytreedna.com/public/Clay DNA Project/

• Results

How to read the results on the Family Tree DNA website

Reading the information (from left to right)…

[KitNum] – Each person that participates in the DNA Project is sent a Kit from the Family Tree DNA laboratory.  Each kit is identified by a unique number and with your permission; the data is posted by this kit number… So Please Make Sure You Sign The Authorization To Make Your Test Results Available.  Your personal identity will not be made public.

[*Haplo] – Haplotype/Haplogroup
This is the Type/Group this individual (KitNum) belongs to. Haplogroups are lettered A through R, and are further subdivided using numbers and lower case letters and used to define genetic populations by region.

(Haplotype)- One person's set of values for the markers that have been tested.
(Haplogroup)- A genetic population group associated with early human migrations and which can today be associated with a geographic region.

Here are definitions of those found on the Project web page:

[390, 393, 19, 391, etc...] - Markers
A physical location (locus) on the chromosome used for the 25-marker DNA testing. The specific marker panels used by Family Tree DNA were developed based on the volatility of each marker, which is an important factor. They didn’t want a marker that doesn't mutate at all with time, as it would yield no information of relevance: this will lead to many matches and therefore give the false impression of two individuals being related, when in fact they are not. On the other hand, they didn’t want a marker that is too volatile, since it will create too much confusion when trying to identify family branches. The composition of the Family Tree DNA panel of markers is one of the key factors that differentiates Family Tree DNA from other companies.

The goal for Ancestral DNA testing is to look for Marker Matches among individuals that are suspected of being related.  Finding 25 out of 25 Markers that are ‘Matches’ (25/25) and 24/25 with the same surname are the type of results one would expect to receive when testing closely related people with Y DNA testing. These results are then interpreted in relationship to the genealogical research and in relationship to the results of others with the same surname. The interpretation process is not difficult, and the larger the set of results, often the interpretation becomes easier. 

The number of Markers that are different is called Marker Distance.  The is the key to determining the relationship.  Most DNA researchers generally accept the following chart as a Standard.

• Additional Information

If you wish to know more about this subject, here are several links that you may find informative and helpful:

    Family Tree DNA Tutorial
     www.familytreedna.com/dna101.html

 
   Blair DNA Project Tutorial
     blairgenealogy.com/dna/dna101.html

 
   DNA Y-Chromosome Marker Comparisons
     www.roperld.com/ycomparison.htm

   Wikipedia – Human Genetics
     en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_genetics