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When Suzanne Johnston got
on the E-MAIL with her news that only a little swab in the cheek would be
fine to see if your match (and not in the Zoo) could be found, using 12
markers, it occurred that we have but one man (and his male descendants)
left in our Johnston line who could have his DNA checked. He was as
delighted to do this test as I was that he would do it!
Guess what? He had an
exact match! Not only that, we have decided that almost anyone from the
vicinity of Annandale will also have an exact match, if this is true. His
"exact match" can go back on his family to 1720, and we can go back to
1761.
The two families are apparently unrelated. It could, of course be 14
generations back. Counting 25 years as a generation, that would be (if my
math is right) the year 1652 This is well within the realm of the written
word; so now, what do we do? We find the ancestor in common of these two
men. Apparently, he lived between 1620 and 1720. So he should be living
in Scotland or England, probably. Next, we find the immigrant or
immigrant cousins who come to America, probably landing at Philadelphia.
The wonderful article by
Donn Devine, a noted genealogist, in the N.G.S. Quarterly this time, tells
three ways we can really make use of this DNA test.
Suzanne and her family,
supposedly descending from the Caskieben Johnstons, have run into
problems, she writes, since their DNA didn't match the supposedly
Caskieben Johnstons.
I, on the other hand, had
always suspected that our Johnstons did not come from Annandale. Now it
seems I was wrong, again!
The information is on the Internet about how to take these Y Chromosome
DNA tests. You have to be a male by the surname of Johnston, if you are
tracing Johnstons, because yours is not very different from the most
remote male ancestor, and the same for many generations back, as a rule.
Selfishly, I would like to
see more Clan Johnston/e members and men with the surname Johnston, join
this study. For 12 markers, the cost is $99., for 25 markers, $299.
Then, you must get one who knows all about this sort of thing to interpret
your results. They come back in the form of numbers (DYS numbers, allele
numbers, and MRCA's - Most Recent Common Ancestor.)
Beverly Shuler, Genealogist Clan
Johnston/e in America |
