yDNA

[This post is about genealogy, not knitting]

My brother agreed to submit a mouth swabbed sample to Family Tree DNA last month to keep his genealogy-addicted sisters happy. We have the first set of results back and, as expected, have a 12/12 match to a fellow with the same surname who is from our home city. You wouldn't think there should be any question there, but our families hadn't had contact in several generations. What we both knew about our ancestors several generations back led us to believe our lines merged.

We can now confirm that we are the same "family" and share a Gt-gt-gt-gt-gt grandfather and all of his ancestors. Our 4-gt grandfathers were half-brothers - with different mothers.

The other family arrived in this area around 1850. My family arrived here in 1920. When I was a kid, I always wondered WHY the heck my dad's grandfather moved up here from southern MO instead of moving to Southern California. Gt. grand dad was not a farmer, so he didn't come here for the black earth. What brought him here? Did he know that he had 3rd cousins here? Did they let him know there was a new factory here needing workers? Did he get the word from common cousins back in the hills of East Tennessee?

Well, of course, I'll never get an answer to those questions. But, maybe someday I'll find answers to other burning questions, like: who was the immigrant and where did he [and his wife] come from?