There is an emerging interest in looking at the
possibility of studying the DNA markers for
the Scottish and UK descendants. This could be of
interest for genealogist looking for possible
family connections to the Clans and to seeing
if there is a relationship to other Clans.
The Scottish clans are very unique in that the
Clans have been identified and family relationships
tracked for hundreds of years. Some Clan family
have documented histories stretching back to
before 1000 AD ( and some back to 500AD) .
So this leads to some interesting possibilities
of identifying current clan family members and
determining if the Scottish ancestry line can
be identified. Some have cautioned: be careful
because you may find out that you are not who
you think you are :-). Non-paternity events
were as frequent then as they are now.
There is also an interesting mailing list here on
Rootsweb : Genealogy-DNA-L(a)rootsweb.com.
It turns out that A couple of factors make this
a very interesting study for the Clans to be
involved in.
A: The mtDNA passes down the mother to daughter
line. ( All of her children receive the MtDna
but only the daugher passes it on.) So all the
current children can provide mtDNA. The matriarch
of the family becomes clearly identified and
traceable. Scottish history is one of the few in
the world where female lineage was often documented.
Iceland is another. Note that non paternity events
don't occur very often in this DNA since obviously
the mother knows her daughter is her offspring.
B: The Y DNA passes only from father to son. Then the tests can
see if there is a line of potential coordination
between the written documentation and the DNA
markers.
C: The Most Recent Common Ancestor ( MRCA) should
also give some interesting insights into the common
ancestor lines that they may share.
There are some other fine points of the DNA identification
and you can find out a lot more in the archives of the
mailing list.
Anybody that is really interested in participating
should please reply to me at the email address below
or reply to this message post.
Then just list only your interest, surname , contact info
and potential Clan association. I don't want to
clog up the archives with a lot of "me too" emails
and board posts. :-) Any comments or questions are
appropriate to post.
Someone will then contact you for further details and
how to proceed. Please note there will probably be
cost of some amount for the DNA test. I don't know
what that amount is for the test, but it is probably about
$250. My initial survey indicates that we will want
the 21 or 23 marker DNA test to get some definitive answers.
I expect to get more details next week.
Please feel free to pass this message along to other
mailing lists and boards that may have a high per centage
of Scottish Clan or Sept descendants.
At this point, we have about 300 interested people
with about 45 of the various family, Clans, and Septs
represented. In addition, there are other DNA studies
already underway.
Should be some interesting database and DNA comparisons
over the next months and years :-)
Best Regards
John A Hansen
jahansen(a)qwest.net