You've asked two important questions.
Let me answer the second one first, because it's the easier question
to address:
Which test to take?
As you are a male surnamed Carlisle, you would be taking the Y-DNA test.
You need to order a minimum of 37 markers but 67 is now considered the
standard.
Other tests will not give you the answers to the first question as
satisfyingly and definitively as the 37 or 67 marker Y-DNA test.
Y-DNA tests DNA shared by all males descending from a single paternal
ancestor back many, many generations. At the 67 marker and higher
levels and with a sufficient pool of participants and lucky DNA, you
may be able to distinguish branches of the family by slight mutation
pattern differences.
You could say it's a quick and rather conclusive way at 37 and 67
markers to sort several thousand males of fathers having Carlisle
variant surnames into biological family groupings.
Then the work of the genealogists is to compare solid archival data
and theories and to search for ways to put the family into some
plausible order.
The last statements lead into your first question: are you linked to
other earlier known Carlisle families, by means of which you might
find your way to an ancestral homeland or confirm a family history
back in Britain.
You can see some information self reported by current participants in
the Carlisle DNA project at
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Carlile/default.aspx?section=results
Many of these participants chose at random to join the project. Many
of them have found, by chance, matches within the project.
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Carlile/default.aspx?section=ycolorized
I cannot tell you how many participants have been able to pool their
archival research and extend their genealogies by a few generations.
There obviously are areas and periods of probable contact for many of
the participants within each group that should lead to new discoveries
for them.
It is Group B which I am following, that includes a couple of
descendants of my 4 X great grandfather Edmund Carlisle who died in
Morgan Co., GA, ca 1830 and whose widow Elizabeth Whatley Carlisle
died 1855 in Chambers, AL. Several of Edmund and Elizabeth's children
report his birthplace as NC in the 1880 census.
Some of the participants have recruited known or suspected distant
cousins to join them in the project. That is one of the most
satisfying ways to use DNA testing, to actually prove your great
grandfather's DNA pattern or haplotype by testing and matching of two
2nd cousins, then to work your way back by adding 3rd, 4th, 5th cousins.
I encourage any of you male Carlisles or any of you females having
Carlisle brothers, fathers, uncles, grandfathers, to join the
project. It is especially important to get the older living male
generations tested now and share the results with them.
What else would you like to know?
Anne
On Nov 17, 2011, at 5:39 PM, william carlisle wrote:
My Carlisles could be traced back to about 1755 where Mifflin Co.,
Pa. is now. We cannot tell where his father or ancestors were from
before this, only guesses. If I took one of the DNA tests (I'm a
male) would it let me know if our family is linked with some of the
earlier known Carlisles and if so, which test should I take since I
have read that there are several?