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I have to admit that I have some biases. I’m a techhead. When I think of technology, I think of science fiction. What does the future have in store for genealogy? Read More »

It's nearly the end of December, and as we are heading into the New Year, we at IDG are sharing YOUR favorites! Read More »

We're rapidly reaching a very special milestone: Our One-Thousandth Subscriber! Our To celebrate, we're hosting a very special giveaway. Enter today for your chance to explore your tribe with Deep Into DNA columnist, Mike Maglio of Origin Hunters and OriginsDNA. Read More »

For most people the sense of being part of a tribe is lost to us. We try to fill the void by joining affinity groups or living vicariously through a sports team. One of your tribes, the tribe of your paternal ancestors, is as close as your own DNA.

Your y-DNA can give you micro details. A 67-marker test can connect you to cousins within the last 300 years. The results, your haplotype, can act like a genetic fingerprint to help identify your family. Unless a marker has changed (a natural mutation), all the men will have the same haplotype.

Over time, normal mutations occur. A father and a son can have a genetic marker that no longer matches. These mismatches are beneficial in identifying and grouping parallel family lines. With enough records, you can sort folks. Everyone with this marker goes in this family and everyone with that marker goes over there, etc. All of these family lines roll up to a larger clan. 

Your DNA can give you macro details. With as little as a 12-marker test, you can learn distant origins going back over 10,000 years. I like to work with at least a 37-marker test to learn more about a person’s tribe. In a y-DNA test, not all of the 100+ markers are created equal. Some of the markers mutate quickly, perhaps every 3 to 4 generations. Other markers mutate quite slowly and may not have changed in over 15,000 years. The markers that rarely change make up your Tribal Markers. Read More »

Self-identity, what culture or ethnicity do you identify with? Your current culture? Your immigrant ancestor’s culture? Perhaps you identify with a culture buried deep in your DNA. See this article as a great primer on the differences between - Ethnicity, Nationality, Race, Heritage, and Culture. Culturally, I’m an American. I could even say that I’m a New Englander. I grew up in an Italian family, but other than my surname and a few foods I like to cook, I don’t feel Italian. I don’t strongly identify with that ethnic group. My immigrant great-grandfather, Raffaele, may not have had strong feeling about being Italian either. Italy as we know it only dates back to the 1860s. Italian was his nationality, but culturally he probably associated more closely with the big cities he grew up near, Benevento and Naples. Read More »