How helpful is finding your ancestry orgins through DNA testing vs surname searching?

Question

Does one provide more detailed information than the other?

Answer 1

DNA testing provides a general overview; such as what countries/area one's ancestors came from. The paper trail provides minutae details, such as dates/places of birth/marriage/death, names of individuals, etc.

Doing one without the other leaves big gaps. DNA testing (both mtDNA and yDNA) is a good back up. Paper trails have so many errors in them (perhaps nowadays more than ever: remember the MODERN saying, "To err is human; to really s***w up, you need a computer".

I suggest the following (there is lots more!):

You should start by asking all your living relatives about family history.  Then, armed with that information, you can go to your public library and check to see if it has a genealogy department.  Most do nowadays; also, don't forget to check at community colleges, universities, etc.  Our public library has both www.ancestry.com and www.heritagequest.com free for anyone to use (no library card required).

Another place to check out is any of the Mormon's Family History Centers.  They allow people to search for their family history (and, NO, they don't try to convert you).

A third option is one of the following websites:

http://www.searchforancestors.com/...

http://www.censusrecords.net/?o_xid=2739...

http://www.usgenweb.com/

http://www.census.gov/

http://www.rootsweb.com/

http://www.ukgenweb.com/

http://www.archives.gov/

http://www.familysearch.org/

http://www.accessgenealogy.com/...

http://www.cyndislist.com/

http://www.geni.com/

Cyndi's has the most links to genealogy websites, whether ship's passenger lists, ancestors from Africa, ancestors from the Philippines, where ever and whatever.

Of course, you may be successful by googling: "john doe, born 1620, plimouth, massachusetts" as an example.

Good luck and have fun!

Check out this article on five great free genealogy websites:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article...

Then there is the DNA test; if you decide you want to REALLY know where your ancestors came from opt for the DNA test. Besides all the mistakes that officials commonly make, from 10% to 20% of birth certificates list the father wrong; that is, mama was doing the hanky-panky and someone else was the REAL father. That won't show up on the internet or in books; it WILL show up in DNA.

I used www.familytreedna.com which works with the National Geographics Genotype Program.

Answer 2

DNA will tell you about your ancestry from way back (we are talking hundreds of years back) and can suggest your ancesters movement from the African continent to wherever your family line ended up. It will not be able to tell you anything about individual ancesters.

Surname searching can lead you to census, birth, marriage, death documents which will tell your about the last few hundred years and will be able to help you track the exact cities, occupations etc of your ancesters.

Answer 3

DNA testing won't tell you *who* your ancestors were, the way traditional genealogical research can.  But if you've reached a brick wall with your research and aren't sure where to look next, DNA testing can give you some clues.

There are actually several different types of DNA tests, but if your goal is find specific ancestors, then the Y-DNA test is the most helpful.  This test studies the DNA on the Y chromosome, which is passed from father to son unchanged, except for occassional mutations.  Therefore, if you are a male, your Y-DNA is identical to that of your father, his father, his father, and on back through history.  All of your brothers, your father's brothers, your grandfather's brothers, etc, will have the same Y-DNA, as will all their male descendants.  Think of Y-DNA as being passed down along the same path that a surname is passed down.  This means that any two males with the same surname and same DNA sequence share a common ancestor somewhere along the line.

This can be very helpful to genealogists.  Let's say you've traced your family back to a John Carter who lived in Tennessee in 1820, but you can't find any records of who his parents were or where he came from before that.  With nothing to go on, you'll have to research every Carter family in the country, hoping to find a connection.  

So you take a Y-DNA test, and find that you have a DNA match with some dude named Bill Carter out in California.  Which mean the two of you are related and share a common ancestor somewhere along the line.  So you contact this Bill and ask him about his family, and he tells you that his Caters (who are related to yours) were in Greene County, Pennsylvania in the late 1700s.  Voila!  Now you have place to start searching.  Or if you're lucky, Bill's done a lot of research on the Carters and knows exactly who your John's parents are.

Even if you don't match any of the other Carter men who have been tested, that can still be helpful. If you know you're NOT related to them, you can eliminate their ancestors from your list and not bother spending hours and hours checking them out.

Answer 4

DNA does not tell you who your your great great grandparents were or where all of them came from..  You have to do the research for that.

Answer 5

Neither without actual family research with records and documentation are worthwhile.  

The same surname can come from more than one national origin.  Also, even people with the same surname from the same national origin do not necessarily share ancestors.  Surnames were not taken or assigned in Europe until the last melennium.

In England, most had one by the end of the 14th century. They were based on a) being the son of someone b)their occupation c)where they lived d)some characteristic about them.  When they got through it wasn't impossible for legitimate sons of the same man to each have a different surname and still they could have each shared their surname with others not in their family.

Y & Mitochondrial DNA is used to match family trees.  Y is passed from father to son only.  Mitochondrial is passed from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it on to their children.  Y & Mitochondrial are used as they go back in a straight line virtually unchanged.

Most of your DNA is autosomal. Testing companies are working to use autosomal but it is much more complicated.  It is the only DNA that relates a female to her father or anyone to the spouses and their families of their direct Y & Mitochondrial lines except for their parents.

Your ancestry pyramids as you go back.  If you get back to your 6xgreat grandparents, barring any duplicates, you will be directly descended from 510 individuals.  Of those 510 individuals, you get your mitochondrial DNA from 8 and if you are  male you get your Y DNA from only 8.  However, you get your autosomal DNA from all 510.  So no way could the current testing give you a complete picture of your origins.  Also, they usually will not pinpoint it to specific nationality or ethnicities, but will indicate something like Northern European.  

I used the term "barring any duplicates."  As you go back you probably will find for instance a great great grandparent in one family line was your great great great great grandparent in another.  Many people discover they are married to a distant cousin when doing family history.

The best way to discover your origins is to trace it starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time. Anytime you wish to do this, there are lots of good people on this board that can give you some great tips and advice.  DNA testing certainly can be an additional useful tool but it is not something that is total or final.  

A lot of people ask us what percentage or fracture of certain ethnicities they are.  You might think you are say 1/2 of one thing and 1/4  and 1/4 of somethings else, but as you go back those fractions will probably change.  There are no pure nationalities and no pure races or ethnicities.