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Thanks Kathleen for your suggestions.  I will certainly try those. 

All help is appreciated!

Theresa

I have been a researching and transcribing records for over 15 years.  My lines have migrated from England, Germany to all throughout the United States.  My main research has been surnames Leverett / Cannon / McAllister / Frank / Schmiz and Hildermann.  Whether walking a cemetery, searching through old records and indexes, its been a love history and family that keeps me searching on.

Hi to all. I'm a former political science professor based in Drexel Hill, PA, born in Venezuela. Last year, I watched a Nat Geo documentary about the Genographic Project, an event that piqued my interest in my family's history. I started putting together family stories, a family tree, and pestered my parents for information. My maternal side of the family is well documented--there are two geneticists in the family and a long record of marriages, births and deaths. The trail led to Spain (Castile) and parts of the former Hapsburg Empire. My paternal side of the family was not as well documented. My paternal grandmother was a descendant of Jewish converts from the city of Granada by the name of Obediente. Internet searches led me to a family tree in Mundia.com of an Obediente family that went back to southern Portugal and Spain, but whose main line fluorished in Holland and Hamburg beginning with a patriarch called Judah Obediente in the XVI century. This family jumped from Holland to Curazao, and from there to the Venezuelan mainland. It is the same family.

Now. I knew almost nothing about my paternal grandfather. Only his name. After the documentary, I also decided to participate in the Genographic Project and ordered a Y-Chromosome test. What came back left me dumbfounded!

After nearly four and a half months of waiting I got my results. I was predicted Haplogroup B (the second oldest Haplogroup after A), and tested positive for a mutation (M181+) that I share with a small number of Central African Pygmies! I have entered my haplotype in every Y database available, and haven't found a single match. Everyone in my family laughs at this (they, as well as me, have fair children, with light hair and eyes). Now, no one wants to talk any more. Our paternal grandfather has become almost taboo. I need to know more about him, and that's an importat part of my quest. I have a blog, but it's in Spanish (http://psanoja.blogspot.com/2011/04/sobre-mi-identidad-y-otros-pens...), so I don't know if it will be to any use to you. Anyway, thanks for admitting me in the group.

Pedro can I ask how much it cost to get this test done? and what do I have to do?

Kathleen

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/categorySeries.jsp?ca...

Here's the link to  Genographic Kits.  These results can be download in Ancestry.com and upgraded by Family Tree.  I bought mine 6-7 years ago as a birthday present to myself and have upgraded.    There are different "family" projects also, that offer a discounted price.  Most of them are for males only.

Thank you Linda.

Kathleen,

The Genographic Project is an academic project, not a commercial service. The advantage of donating your dna to them is that when you get your results you can transfer them for free to FTDNA. FTDNA is based in the University of Arizona and is the testing partner for the Genographic Project. So, once you're tested, it takes only a click of a mouse to transfer your DNA 12 marker profile to FTDNA. If you tested first with FTDNA and wanted to donate your DNA to Genographic, you'd have to pay 15 extra dollars to do so.

Also, the genographic project gives you your "deep ancestry", how and where your genes have traveled over the past 60-15 thousand years. So be prepared to to be surprised.

Men are offered two types of tests: Y-DNA (from father to son, etc) and mtDNA (from mother to son or x chromosome). Women, because they have two X chromosomes, can only get the mtDNA test--which is the one that Mary (see below) obtained. This is not a proof of "race" as haplogroups where formed tens to thousands of years ago. Believe me, it's worth it. As for what you have to do, Linda already gave you the link. Click on it and enjoy.

Dear Pedro,

I found out, after years of searching, that my maternal great-grandmother was mulatto. It was never mentioned, my grandmother and her two brothers were seen as white. Their father was white. This took place in the South, 1862 and forward. I still do not have any documentation on her - no birth record, baptism, marriage, nothing. Her death certificate states her father was, "unknown Simpson born in Scotland" mother is "unknown, born in USA". I am Hapalogroup LO (subclade LOa2) from the Genographic Project testing."Although the arrow of your hapologroup currently ends across sub-Sarahan Africa, this is not the end of the journey for Hapologroup LO.This is where the genetic clues get murkey and your DNA trail goes cold". I am looking into more updated testing to see what more I can discover. Don't give up -it takes time.

Dear Mary, it seems we are on the same boat!

I got the same text from genographic. There is simply no paleoanthropological evidence in the tropical regions in Africa, and there seems to be little work in population genetics research in that area. I know that Y dna is not, it cannot be taken as a "racial" test, but still... I was very disappointed when I had my genographic project results in my hands. My mutation was only a small arrow that ran from Eastern Africa to what is now Nigeria and Cameroon. Most people had a whole map crisscrossing Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Europe. Mine was so short... I've tried doing genealogical research on countries where my haplogroup is more prevalent, but not even Nigeria had online white pages. Where do I start?

Hi Pedro,

That's what happened to me. A friend and I had the test and her results started in Africa and went all over the world. Mine never left a small area in Africa. I am still looking for my great-grandmother on the Internet, Web pages, genealogy pages, etc. I don't have the money right now for any more testing, but that is what I'm going to follow up with. I don't have any knowledge about where to go next, sorry. I'm Googling everything I can think of that might bring me closer to finding her and her ancestors.

Good luck. If I come across anything that will help us, I'll contact you.

~Mary

I began working on my family history in the early 1970s as a school project. It has rapidly become a life long passion or obsession.  I have an extensive family history on the Brinkley family of NC and VA.  The Simpson family of NC and VA, Draughn of NC and VA and most allied lines that married into my Brinkley line.

I have a pretty good history of the Gardner family. Not many photos in this line. Had them but then they were requested not to be published by a cousin.   And since I honestly cannot remember which ones I got from her or from other Gardner relatives I have held off on all of them unless it is something new that comes into my hands.

I am working on the Russell, Williams, Bertz, Stowe and Barrett lines now from NY and CT.

I would love to connect with other family members who are working along the same lines and willing to help others with their research as time allows.

kathie, where in nc do your brinkley family hail from. I live in eastern nc, and we have quite a few brinkley's living around the littleton, weldon, roanoke rapids, and enfield area. i was wondering if these may be relatives of yours.

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