Friday, April 20, 2012

Genes Day Friday - Testing, testing...

Not too much to say for this Genes Day yet. I'm still waiting for the results from my paternal grandpa's autosomal DNA test. My maternal grandma also just submitted her autosomal DNA test, so that's underway as well. The Y-DNA test for my grandpa just came in the mail, and my grandparents are coming down this weekend, so hopefully I can get that one sent off soon. I just need to receive my last autosomal test (for my paternal grandma) in the mail so I can get that one completed and sent off as well. That will give me three autosomal tests and one Y-DNA test to look at. Hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew with all these tests!

If I can manage it in the next couple months, I'd also like to have all three grandparents do mtDNA tests. These tests, together with those mentioned above, will give me the Y-DNA data on my Gibson line, mtDNA on my Sitzman/Zitzmann, Joseph/Rosen, and Harris/Craddock/Beilstein/Waechter lines, as well as assorted autosomal DNA for all the above and my Wagner line as well. Eventually I'd like to get a male Wagner relative, a male Joseph relative, and a male Bergstad relative to take a Y-DNA test, so I can get the Y-DNA data on those lines. That would cover the mtDNA and Y-DNA of three of my four grandparents' surnames. I need to find a Bergstad descendant of my grandfather's generation, or a child of one of his sisters for the fourth mtDNA test, and possibly a sibling of my grandfather to take an autosomal DNA test. My grandma still has some Bergstad connections, maybe we'll get lucky and find one of them willing to test?

Finding a Harris relative for the fourth Y-DNA sample will be a little trickier. My grandma from my Harris line had only one brother, and he passed away several years ago, and had only had one daughter, no sons. My great-grandfather, James Harris, had five brothers, and according to my records, three of them had sons. Those sons might be gone by now (my grandma was the daughter of the 6th and last son) but maybe, if I'm lucky, those cousins of my grandma might have had some sons, among whom at least one would be willing to take a Y-DNA test for me. Looks like I might have to work on my cousin contacting skills - or rather, start building some from scratch. Wish me luck!

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