Posted By:	Roger Alexander
	Email:
	Subject:	DNA sale pricing extended to June 30, plus DNA explained
	Post Date:	June 24, 2009 at 13:48:25
	Message URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/alexander/messages/11816.html
	Forum:	Alexander Family Genealogy Forum
	Forum URL:	http://genforum.genealogy.com/alexander/

Dear Alexanders, The DNA sale pricing I posted below has just been extended through June 30. For Alexander research, this is what you want, 37 markers, which is normally $150, plus your maternal line mtDNA which is normally $99. Please go to this link and select Y-DNA37+mtDNA for $119. www.familytreedna.com/group-join.aspx?Group=Alexander&Code=M37011 The $119 is a one-time charge. You can join online. You will get your own personal page at Family Tree DNA, the testing company we recommend. You will receive in the mail a test kit that includes tiny, plastic toothbrush-type affair with which you scrape the inside of your cheek and return to FTDNA. You will get an email notice about four to five weeks later of your results, after which you can go to your personal page and see all your matches, how closely you match, and the email addresses of those you match. You will also get email notices of future email matches. You can add others’ email addresses to your personal page so others can enjoy the same notices. All of this is included in the one-time $119 charge. To briefly explain DNA testing using an example, one could reasonably expect to match on 36 of the 37 markers with a third cousin, and maybe 35 of 37 markers with a fifth or sixth cousin. But because DNA mutates unpredictably, you can never be sure. You might match an eighth cousin on all 37 markers. You will never know until you test your DNA. A distant match would be if you match someone, for example, on 31 of the 37 markers. In that instance, there is about a 50/50 chance you have a common ancestor since surnames came into use in about 1200 to 1400. If this is the case, it is most unlikely you will ever find documentation that far back to link your two lines. DNA testing is NOT a substitute for old-fashioned paper research. It is the historical documentation that enables us to determine relatedness. What DNA testing does is it can “prove” the accuracy of your paper trail. DNA testing can also give you a good idea of your relatedness to another tester, even if no known documentation exists that would link you two. If you choose to make your DNA results and your email address available, you will have that same information for all others you match. This will enable the two (or more) of you to correspond to share information and research efforts. There is no guarantee you will match another tester, either now or in the future. In the Alexander DNA Project there are about 190 members. About 40 of those members are still awaiting their first match. But at least they know they do not match any previous testers, so they know the families they are NOT related to, enabling them to better focus their research. And hopefully, they will match a future tester. (Three years ago there were about 45 members in the Alexander DNA project, so the membership has grown more than four-fold, increasing the chances of a match for new members.) In addition to testing the male yDNA, which is perfect for surname research, the special pricing offer also includes a basic mtDNA test. mtDNA is passed from mother to both daughter AND son. But the son does NOT pass it to his offspring; only the daughter does. So mtDNA is only good for one’s mother’s mother’s mother’s etc. line. Since records were not kept of a wife’s maiden name prior to say 1850, and since women’s surnames change from generation to generation, mtDNA testing is not as popular as yDNA testing. A side benefit of DNA testing is you will learn your haplogroup. Haplogoups are used by scientists to trace man’s migration out of Africa and beyond. yDNA haplogroups are named from A to T. Molecular geneticists using DNA have been able to categorize all men into these haplogroups, and each haplogroup has a number of subdivisions. For example, the most predominant haplogroup for men in the United States is “R1b”. The oldest y haplogroup is “A” and it is 60,000 to 90,000 years old. As this group became separated into smaller groups geographically, their DNA mutated into different, unpredictable directions. This phenomenon is called “genetic drift”. An example of how a haplogroup is the history of the R1b haplogroup I mentioned above as the most prominent in the U.S. By about 30,000 to 35,000 years ago, man had inhabited Western Europe. About 20,000 years ago, the last ice age began, forcing man to migrate southward into “pockets” just north of the Mediterranean Sea. The yDNA of the men in the “pocket” that was in the area of today’s border between Spain and France evolved through “genetic drift” into what is now called haplogroup R1b. About 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, the ice receded back northward, enabling man to migrate north again. The R1b group chose to migrate north along the coast of France, then across the land-bridge that is now the English Channel, and were the primary population of the British Isles about 9,000 to 10,000 years ago. About 80% of the members of the Alexander DNA Project are R1b. The Alexander DNA Project is totally volunteer. I and Carol Alexander Vass coordinate the Project. We get no compensation, monetary or otherwise. We collect lineage information of the members, and we interpret your DNA results, which is a very simple and understandable process. We and our members have a lot of fun and have learned a lot and look forward to learning a lot more about Alexander genealogy. Our website is http://alexanderdna.org/ We hope you join us Alexanders who have learned the benefits of DNA testing for genealogical purposes. And please do it by June 30 to take advantage of the big savings. Sincerely, Roger Alexander Cincinnati, OH rogalex@live.com