Creating a Research Plan for DNA Testing

Most people simply take a DNA test out of curiosity.  Some really want to the DNA to help them shed light on a family mystery or break down a brick wall.  Unfortunately, simply taking a DNA test will not help you to answer your questions.  These tests can throw open the closets on family secrets, but they also should be treated like another record source.

DNA is an excellent tool when used correctly.  I like to tell people to think of your DNA results the same way you would any other record.  It can give you some answers, but it can also leave questions.  To get the most out of your tests you need to know what questions to ask and which tests will answer those questions.

With that thought in mind you can easily incorporate DNA testing into your research plans.  What is crucial for you as the researcher is to determine which test you should use to answer your question(s).  Remember you may have to perform a variety of genealogical research as well.  This includes finding living descendants of your ancestors who could hold the genetic material you need.

There are 5 steps to successful a great research plan.  As a researcher, you need to:

1.      Ask questions

2.      Look for information

3.      Speculate about the answer

4.      Establish the facts

5.      Explore what else should be researched (like DNA)

You can turn this list into a written narrative or leave it as a simple list.  Whatever works the best for you is what is important.  I tend to do a little of both, which you will see in the example plan section below.  I can tell you that if you follow these steps you will go far in your ancestor hunting.

Ask: What do I want to discover?  Often this is called your objective or research question.  Ask yourself what specifically you want to find.  Be detailed and only ask one question at a time.  For example: Who was the father of John Jones, born in New York City, 24 May 1893?

That is a great specific question.  If you just asked “who were John Jones parents” that is too vague.  Which John Jones?  Where? When? You want to ask a question that will have only one correct answer.  It could ask about a person and their relationship to someone else, to verify a person’s identity, or for verification of an event that took place. 

Look: What do I know? After you decide what you are researching you should look at your files to determine what you already know.  Pull together all of your information into one place and start to analyze it.  You also want to take into consideration how reliable are the sources you are looking at.  Remember back to chapter 1 when we talked about types of sources, information, and evidence.  Those guidelines will help you determine how much credence you put into the documents laying before you.

Speculate: Do I have an idea of the answer? Sometimes after looking through all of the information you have gathered you might be able to make a hypothesis for the answer to your question.  You may hear genies talk about serendipity or that they were guided by their ancestors.  I like to say it was good detective work that gave them a gut feeling on what they needed to do next.

Whatever you would like to call it see if you can develop an idea about what happened.  You may end up with a handful of ideas, which is great.  Those will be the places you will want to check first in the next step. 

Establish: Where should I look? This can be one of the hardest things for a new researcher to do, determine where they should look for records.  Since you are new to the field it may seem like an uphill battle.  You will need to educate yourself on what is available for the location and time frame you are interested in.  Maybe you will need to start out by interviewing family members on the problem.  They could lead you to resources that you didn’t know existed. 

Explore: What should be done? Ok, now you should think about what you need to research.  Start to determine if there is a type of record you should look at first or maybe a database you need to consult before other research begins.  This part is where your plan comes together.  Take all this information and collate it into one document

Simply follow your research plan, tweak it was needed, and you will discover that research really is not that difficult.  For DNA testing the hardest part might be finding willing participants.  Persist, ask, and look for the people who potentially hold the answer to your questions.

Resources:

Genetic Genealogy in Practice by Blaine Bettinger and Debbie Parker-Wayne

The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy by Blaine Bettinger

Family Search Blog: Using atDNA Testing in Your Genealogy Research https://familysearch.org/blog/en/fishing-tips-autosomal-dna-test-results-genealogy-research/

BCG Website: DNA and the Reasonably Exhaustive Search by Judy Russell http://www.bcgcertification.org/skillbuilders/skbld141.html

DAR and genetic genealogy one step closer

DAR Library, Washington DC. Photo by Shannon Combs-Bennett

On the Today's DAR blog there was an exciting headline:  "DAR is Expanding its Work with DNA for Genealogical Research" Wow!  I had to read the article through several times before I was able to write this post.  To say that this isn't exciting would be lying.

Go and read the blog post.  It is packed full of so much information that I would not do it justice to list everything here.  The important thing to note is that the DAR and FTDNA are working together again on a DNA project.  Yep, did you test with FTDNA and are a DAR member?  If you said yes then go put your DNA in the project.

Why?  Well currently they are accepting any type of DNA (atDNA, yDNA, or mtDNA) from members or THEIR FAMILY into this group (Surname Project NSDAR).  It is being overseen by staff genealogists at the DAR and they can then use that information to help with hard to prove ancestors.

Better yet, if you have been putting off testing FTDNA has discounted rates for DAR members and their family.  So, as the NSDAR Register General, Sharon Withers, stated today "be a DNA pioneer - join the NSDAR DNA Group!"

DNA Differences and Siblings

Mom with her brother's DNA in yellow

If you have read any amount of blog posts or articles on genetic testing for genealogy you have encountered over and over again the concept that you should test as many people as possible. Particularly when doing an autosomal DNA tests.  I like to say go broad or go home which causes eye rolls around my house. 

The basic idea, for those of you not sure, is that you ideally want to test as many people who are willing, from as many different lines and generations as possible, enabling you to get the most coverage of your known family available to you through DNA.  Mainly, because family members may not have the exact same DNA passed on to them from their ancestors.  This is true to cousins especially the more distant you are.

Cousins, yes! Makes sense right?  Your most recent common ancestor was several generations away from you so of course there would be big gaps in shared DNA.  What I never, ever, dreamed of seeing was how important it is to test siblings.  Needless to say I am now scrambling to convince my husband’s siblings to test.  Which I think will happen about the same time they start serving ice water in hades.  I won’t bore you here with the large number of relatives who think I have lost my mind on this subject, but I bet you all can commiserate on some level.

In August I convinced my dad’s sister and brother as well as one of my mother’s brothers to give DNA testing a try. They dutifully took the tests when they showed up a month later from FTDNA.  I was optimistic that these tests would help break down a few walls and shed new light on some genealogy path overgrown with brush.  While I was at it I had my uncles do Y-DNA tests too.  Might as well right?  I am still waiting on those results which should be here any day.

dad with his sister in yellow
and brother in blue

My mom and her brother were what I expected from siblings, and then some.  They shared nearly equal amounts of DNA across all chromosomes.  Pretty typical right, when you assume that they had the same father and mother they should share a significant amount of DNA.  All I could think of was “wow, those are some strong genes."

Now, my dad and his siblings were completely different.  While they did fall within the suspected sibling percentage range there were large segments that my father did not share with his siblings.  What made that exciting was when their results hit the pages I was able to connect with lines that would not have been possible with just my dad’s results. (Plus if you look closely you can see where likely common cross overs took place during recombination on some chromosomes.)

To make it even more fascinating I compared my dad’s ethnic charts to his siblings.  Neither of them have ANY of the British Isle markers that my dad has.  They both are heavy on what I know through the paper trail is the Northern and Western European (aka German and Swiss) lines of the family.

Yep, this is going to lead to some interesting debates in the family about who takes after who I am sure.  Now I am waiting impatiently for my great aunts results.  She is the last living sibling of my paternal grandmother.  At 94 I am just thankful she agreed to do a test, and even more thankful that my dad’s sister facilitated it.  When I have her DNA I will be one step closer to my Irish and German immigrant families.  Plus maybe even more relatives…

Dad's ethnic breakdown

His brother's and sister's
ethnic breakdown