It is interesting how some in the genealogical community are not embracing the trend toward dna research. In fact a distant cousin who wrote a genealogy of our common ancestor became outright disgusted when the Haplogroup of a desc. was established. This genealogical work of this individual was well done, and in fact quoted by NEHGS in one of their articles. When I emailed him, wanting his thoughts, he responded, "I don't beleive in this Haplogroup" bs. And this guy was a college professor no less. I was shocked.
And I agree with your comments about old fashioned research. I tell my students that rule No. 1 is never beleive anything you find on the internet without validity of primary and no less than secondary sources. Sloppy genealogoist, Ancestry, and the LDS with "ancestral file" have ruined the hobby. I have done my best work at cemeteries, court houses, libraries. In any case, Freepmail when you have a chance, we probably have a lot notes to compare.
>> I see you refer to the autosomal angle at ftdna which is relatively new. Have seen many with any successes yet? <<
I’ve seen a few cases of success here and there. But nothing like the successes that have occurred in the Y-chromosome (exclusively-male DNA) area. Now on the one hand, the number of successes should increase as more and more people have this new type of test; but on the other hand, I don’t think it will ever be as useful as Y-DNA testing.
>> I have only gone ydna route trying to extend my surname, but I wonder how good the claim to link relatives to the “gg gp level”. <<
The autosomal tests definitely work. If you and a bunch of your third cousins all have these tests, you will have some degree of matching with ca. 90% of them. But you will match only about 50% of your fourth cousins, and maybe only 15% or so of your 5th cousins, 1% of your 6th cousins, and so forth. Therefore, the test is definitely limited in usefulness.
You ARE likely, however, to find literally hundreds of autosomal matches with people who are your “probable” 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th cousins. But these matches almost never pay off, because virtually nobody can identify more than just a fraction of their hundreds of GGG, GGGG, GGGGG, GGGGGG and GGGGGGG grandparents.
(I calculate that you have 1060 of the above sorts of grandparents, assuming there have been no close-cousin marriages among your ancestors. Moreover, somebody has said that if you walk down the street in most parts of the USA, at least half of the folks you meet will be your 7th or 8th cousins. There truly are millions of them!)
>> It is interesting how some in the genealogical community are not embracing the trend toward dna research. <<
There used to be a lot of outright hostility. For example, some Rootsweb list administrators would ban you if you even MENTIONED the subject of DNA testing! But nowadays, that attitude seems almost to have disappeared among serious researchers.
>> In fact a distant cousin who wrote a genealogy of our common ancestor became outright disgusted when the Haplogroup of a desc. was established. This genealogical work of this individual was well done, and in fact quoted by NEHGS in one of their articles. When I emailed him, wanting his thoughts, he responded, “I don’t beleive in this Haplogroup” bs. And this guy was a college professor no less. <<
Obviously a jerk. Looks to me as if you need to do a better job of selecting your distant cousins!