This month I'll attempt to get you caught up with my ongoing Y-DNA research. If you remember from ninth grade biology class, the Y chromosome is passed from fathers to their sons and the path that Y-DNA travels is referred to the "patrilineal" line. Because of this and the fact that the Y chromosome doesn't experience extensive recombination (changing of DNA segments to create unique chromosomes passed down to subsequent generations) make Y-DNA a valuable tool in tracing male lineage and surname. And it is especially helpful in cases of adoption, which happens to be one of my current genealogy brick walls. After submitting a test, the test-taker should receive matches of men who are from the same patrilineal line as well as learning their biogeographical origin. However, there are limitations as well. The matches might show a common ancestor but will not prove which man in your patrilineal line is that ancestor. That's where all the real work starts: finding other living descendants to test, browsing family trees for common ancestors with your matches and drawing speculative trees for each match.
In my specific circumstance, my father's grandfather was given up for adoption/fostering in about 1875. His birth name was William Henry Stone and after placement with foster parents became known as William Henry Stone Atwell. His father's name was Henry B. Stone and his father is a question mark.
A few years ago, my Dad agreed to submit a Y-DNA test to familytreedna.com and I recently upgraded from the 67 marker test to 111 markers to improve the odds. A marker is a DNA segment either STR (short tandem repeat) or SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) at a designated location. Basically, two people who are unrelated and share the same repeats on the markers is less a coincidence the higher the number of markers tested. My Dad belongs to Y-DNA haplogroup G-M201 and since some of his matches had further SNP testing he is most likely in the sub-group G-Z42474. (Read more about haplogroup G here.) His match list confirmed that he is in the Stone DNA match page. For privacy purposes I will not be posting any of his matches' names or their specific match charts. However, with the help of Diahan at YourDNAGuide she was able to zero in on my 2 BEST matches and where I should begin. On marker DYS459 my father and 2 other individuals share a mutation that is not seen on the same marker in any of the other matches. This means that we all share a common ancestor and although I still have not found that common ancestor one match has a line back to Hugh Stone born 1648 in England and died 1732 in Rhode Island. Currently, this individual and I have agreed to share our trees on ancestry.com and are working together. Diahan estimates the common ancestor is 8 generations back. Doesn't seem far you say? Eight generations means 256 grandparents! It's a bit daunting.
Moving forward, Diahan gave me a "To Do" list to help me to accomplish my goal of growing my Dad's Y-DNA line:
1. Find as many descendants as possible of Henry B. Stone to test, priority on second cousins and older generations.
2. Look for autosomal DNA matches with the Stone men who have been tested. (Autosomal DNA tests are what Ancestry.com and 23andme offer and contain chromosomes 1-22 inherited from both parents. In this case, matches will be both male and female.
3. Go through my Dad's autosomal match list and mark out any maternal matches, as those are not necessary for this exercise.
4. Ask the 2nd best match to upgrade his test from 37 markers to 64. (In this case it's probably not a possibility, unfortunately. Interestingly, his surname as well as my Dad's is not Stone.)
Wish me luck and I will keep you undated as I find new information!