Joe’s DNA Success Story: French Ancestors Identified Using Both Y Chromosome and Autosomal Testing
Editor’s Note: Joe describes his main DNA success, which came not on the Hart side but with a branch of French ancestors on his mother’s side. Through the records he had traced his triple great-grandfather back to Erie County, New York, but could never make the jump to France — until a living cousin in that branch tested and his Y chromosome matched a possible connected family in France. I asked whether that stood out as the exception to DNA’s general utility, and Joe agreed. He adds that autosomal testing has been useful in closer generations, though most of his matches come to him for information rather than the other way around.
Transcript
Speakers: WJB — William J. Bowe; JH — Joseph Hart. Transcribed from the recording; punctuation added and obvious mis-hearings corrected.
JH: So the other uses for Y chromosome — there have been a couple. I used Y chromosome testing on a branch of French ancestors that I have on my mother’s side. So I found cousins in that branch. I had them test. I was able to, through the records, find a branch of a possible family in France that was connected to my branch in France. I found a living cousin in that branch that also tested, and my cousin’s Y chromosome DNA matched with this other person’s Y chromosome. So I was able to identify my triple great-grandfather in France, whereas before, I was able to trace him back to Erie County in New York, but I was never able to make the jump to France until I was able to confirm that connection with using DNA.
WJB: So was that your greatest success, in a way, to look at it that way with the DNA — that one stood out as an exception to the general utility of it?
JH: Right. That’s been my main success with DNA.
WJB: Yeah.
JH: I would say that there have been some other interesting developments using autosomal. So since they’re autosomal — Jimmy and I had our autosomal test as well, but I could already tell that since our common ancestor was back 10 generations or beyond, that Jimmy and I were not going to show up as DNA matches using autosomal because it only goes back about six generations.
WJB: Right.
JH: So that was no surprise. But the use of autosomal DNA has been useful in kind of developing some information in the closer generations. And so my big hope is that someday I’ll find a match in my Hart branch that knows more about my Hart branch than I do, and can tell me everything I wanted to know about my Hart branch.
WJB: Yeah.
JH: Because what’s happening is that most of the matches that I find are coming to me for information.
WJB: Yeah.
JH: And because I know more than they do, because I’ve been following the paper trail for years.
WJB: Right.
JH: And so I can usually tell them more about their branch than they can tell me about mine.
WJB: But one of the —
