If you're among the thousands who have ventured into the world of "genetealogy" (my word for the merger of genetics and genealogy, the use of DNA testing to learn more about your roots), you've probably gone through a bit of a learning curve. Most of us start with Y chromosome testing since it has more apparent genealogical applications. Y-DNA is passed from father to son down through the generations, so it conveniently travels in tandem with a surname (with a few exceptions, such as non-paternity events). For this reason, many of us first jump into genetealogy in order to participate in a surname-based project.

When we get that first report with its jumble of numbers, it's not unusual for us to find ourselves perplexed and slightly uncertain of what it all means. But by comparing notes with others (especially at the GENEALOGY-DNA Mailing List), pinging our testing company with questions, and poking around the Internet, we eventually master the fundamentals and make sense of it all (find more articles on this topic). And one of the first lessons we learn is the value of matchmaking.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make Me a Match
Testing in a vacuum is almost meaningless. The heart of Y-DNA testing is finding others whose haplotype (that collection of numbers you get from your testing company) match—or at least, come close to—your own. In many cases, this will mean that you share a common ancestor with such individuals. Not surprisingly, then, those of us who have been tested (or like myself, have had a proxy tested in her place, since women don't have a Y chromosome) are always on the lookout for new means to find haplotype-mates.

When looking for matches, we usually start by looking within our project, and then within the propriety database of the company that did our testing. For some, that might surface enough matches to swap pedigrees with. But others have rare haplotypes that produce no mates, and some of us are determined to extract every little ounce of meaning we can from our results. So we go exploring for more resources, and usually our cyberspace wanderings take us to www.ystr.org and www.ybase.org that are both helpful databases where we can enter at least a portion of our haplotype to see what matches might pop up.

YSearch
Until recently, these were our only options, and while we are grateful for them and continue to make use of these resources, we're just greedy enough to hope for still more. This past holiday season, our wish was granted. In December 2003, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) launched Ysearch another site for genetic matchmaking.

Although it is administered by FTDNA, Ysearch is open to all, regardless of where a person's testing was done. If you tested through FTDNA, however, it will be easier for you to enter your data, since you are given an option to simply upload it from your FTDNA results page. One click to approve the process, and a page appears with all your markers pre-entered. Several other fields, such as haplogroup, surname variants, and data about the most distant known ancestor (including name, years of birth and death, city and country of origin, and immigration details) can also be completed. I especially like the privacy options, which allow you to specify whether your e-mail will be displayed to everyone, to no one, or to only those with relevant matches (defined as at least twenty markers). For my own purposes, I opt for this last choice since it essentially pre-qualifies those who might contact me to exchange information.

If you are not a FTDNA customer, you can still provide all this data, but you will have to enter it manually. In this case, you would select the “create a new user” tab to start the process. And no need to worry if you discover great-granddad's immigration date after the fact. You can choose “edit an existing user” at any time to update the information.

Search Options: If You've Been Tested
Ysearch can be perused several different ways. Most of those who have been tested will likely start by clicking the “search for genetic matches” tab. Here you are prompted to enter your user ID, which was assigned to you when you first entered your data.

If you'd like to try, I invite you to borrow one of my user IDs (for my Reynolds line) "HWJQK" to get a feel. Doing so will bring you to another screen where you can specify search criteria. I am only interested in very close matches, so I might indicate (by using the dropdown menus) that I only want to compare results with those who have at least, say, 20 markers and a genetic distance of no more than 2 from my Reynolds results. When I hit the search button, I'm presented with a table of those in the database who meet my requirements.

It quickly jumps out that there's a person who's only one mutation removed from my results, so if I click on his user ID, I can inspect his ancestor's details, as well as find his e-mail address to contact him, should I choose. Alternatively, I might want to compare results for all the hits (or just the one who's one off) by checking the relevant boxes (including the one for my own ancestor) in the last column and then clicking “compare.” Then I can look at the comparative Y-DNA results to see exactly how our haplotypes differ. By doing this, I can see that the difference occurs at marker 458, one of the ones known to mutate somewhat more quickly than others. This reinforces my earlier notion that it might be worthwhile to contact this person whose ancestor is a one-off match.

Another option for those who have already been tested is to “search by haplogroup.” Admittedly, this will only reveal your veeeeerry distant genetic cousins, but as with all genealogy, it's always worth a look. For instance, my Smolenyak line is haplogroup “I” and we hail from Eastern Europe. If I specify these criteria, I find a handful of matches. Once again, I can check off the boxes in the far right column to do a comparison. In this case, the genetic distances are so large that it's clear any connection among us was millennia ago. If I back up and remove the Eastern European requirement, I'm inundated with genetic cousins (not surprising, since “I” is the second most common haplogroup in Europe), so there's not much to learn in this case, but you never know when experimenting with different specifications in this manner might turn up something interesting!

Search Options: If You Haven't Been Tested
Ysearch is especially flexible in how it can be searched, which means it's useful even to those of us who have not done any DNA testing. Let's say, for instance, that you're thinking of making the leap and taking that first test. Naturally, you'll want to know if there are any projects already under way focusing on your surname. Ysearch is an excellent place to find an answer.

You can use either the “search by last name” or the “alphabetical list of last names” tabs. Fortunately, even these features are flexible. If I want to be sure to find any variation of Smolenyak, for example, I can I search by last name and then query the database for names that start with “smol.” Or if I know there are several common variations of my name, I might just want to browse the surname lists by letter. If your name is Arundel, doing so would alert you to the fact that there are also entries for Arrundale, Arrunell, and Arundell. Again, clicking on any entries of interest will lead you to more details and usually an e-mail address. A quick message later and you'll be in contact with folks who will probably welcome you into their surname study.

More to Tell
Ysearch has still more features, which will likely be enhanced over time, but I'll leave them for another article (or for you to explore yourself). In the meantime, if you have any interest in genetealogy and haven't already played with this new toy, please do yourself a favor and take some time to explore soon!

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of Honoring Our Ancestors (HOA), In Search of Our Ancestors, and They Came to America: Finding Your Immigrant Ancestors, can be contacted through: www.honoringourancestors.com

Upcoming Events

NGS Gentech04
(22-24 January 2004, St. Louis, Mo.)

West Florida Genealogical Society Spring Conference (6 March 2004, Pensacola, Fla.)

Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference
(3 April 2004, Bloomington, Ind.)

Ohio Genealogical Society
(22-24 April 2004, Wilmington, Ohio)

Westchester County Genealogical Society
(8 May 2004, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.)

Central Jersey Genealogical Club
(11 May 2004, Mercerville, N.J.)

Ontario Genealogical Society Seminar 2004
(28-30 May 2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Details and links to upcoming events

Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com.