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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2001-01 > 0980182516


From:
Subject: [DNA] Joining projects
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 11:55:16 EST


In a message dated 1/22/2001 6:04:29 AM Pacific Standard Time,
writes:

> For clarification of my MUMMA ancestry...Elizabeth MUMMA, daughter of Jacob
>

Welcome to the GENEALOGY-DNA list, Margaret. You must have been surprised to
see the name of MUMMA pop up in your very first message. Doug Mumma may
respond to you himself about the MUMMA project, but in the meantime, you can
search the archives of our mailing lists for other mentions of MUMMA at
http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Miscellaneous/GENEALOGY-DNA.html. It's
a fascinating case study of MUMMA name variants.

In the way of general background, DNA testing is most useful for testing
hypotheses about lines of descent which follow a straight line of males (for
Y-chromosome testing) or females (for mitochondrial DNA testing). Other DNA
markers get shuffled between maternal and paternal lines, and there's a 50%
dropout rate with every generation. After several generations have passed,
there's a very small chance that you would have inherited any specific
example of Jacob's markers yourself. However, if you are tracing other lines
of male descendants from Jacob and can find some which carry the MUMMA
surname (and presumably the Y-chromosome) down to the present day, they could
be your "representatives" in the MUMMA project.

I'd like to encourage other list members to post "case studies" where DNA
testing might be helpful, even if they are just "thought experiments" at the
moment.


Ann Turner
List Administrator


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