Autosomal DNA

For anyone that takes a journey through ancestry, you’ll begin to learn things about your family history that makes you want to know more about who they were. This goes far deeper in some cases to questions like what nationality were they, what was their country of origin, and are any of them Native American or another origin. In the early colonial period, the number of women willing to live in the new frontier was very small and the choices for men to choose a spouse were therefore limited. This left many men to choose women that were non-European such as free women of African descent, Native Americans, etc. In our family surnames such as Phelps, Pollard, Conner, McDaniel, etc. provide some clues toward English, Irish, and Scottish surnames but little toward whether they were persons of color that took those surnames.

Although DNA research has been around for some time, using it with genealogy tended to only provide a portion of your family background. For instance, a male son inherits Y-DNA chromosomes from his father and MtDNA chromosomes from his mother. A daughter only receives her mother’s MtDNA and does not receive her father’s Y-DNA. For me that meant that I could learn much about my fathers father, his father’s father, his fathers father, etc. through Y-DNA and the same for my mothers mother, mothers mother, etc. through the MtDNA. However, what it didn’t provide me was all of the DNA carried within me from everyone before me and what their make up was – until today. For instance, a woman marries a European male in your line and her 3rd Great-Grandfather was of African or Native American descent, her mother of European descent. This bi-racial or possibly tri-racial woman and her European husband have children, what would the Y-DNA or MtDNA tell us? The Y-DNA would be of the European father and the MtDNA would be of the mothers mother who was also European. Therefore, you would not receive information on the 3rd Great-Grandfather of the woman and that would remain unknown.

Until now, DNA genealogy tests could only tell you about a small part of your family tree, because they only used the Y chromosome (Y-DNA) and mitochondria (MtDNA). By including autosomal DNA, new products such as “Relative Finder” from laboratories (23andMe and Family Tree DNA) can trace any ancestor, no matter where they are in your family tree!

Your DNA is comprised of 23 pairs of chromosomes - 22 of which are your autosomal chromosomes, and 1 pair of which is your sex chromosomes. Laboratories such as 23andMe now can read half a million locations in your autosomal DNA, giving you the most comprehensive, detailed picture of your ancestry that is commercially available. This means that this new tool provides you with more accurate, reliable data about your genetic similarity to populations across the globe. If you're African-American, they can tell you approximately how many African and European ancestors are in your family tree. If you're of European descent, they can pinpoint what populations your DNA is most similar to. Using a technique called Ancestry Painting, they can determine whether you have any Native American ancestors within the past five generations.

I am a direct and documented (verified) male descendant on my paternal side to William Gowin and Annester ? Gowin (Goin/Going/Gowan/Gowen, etc.), through their son Joseph Gowin and his wife Judith Pollard. My Family Tree DNA results are extensive on my paternal side and are considered rare and very young in terms of Y-DNA. This Y-DNA subclade is indigenous to the British Isles and most significantly Scotland for the past 3,000 years.

The autosomal DNA results stated that my complete ancestral family origin is 100% Northern European (this is an expansive area including the British Isles, Western Russia, France, and the Orkney Islands north of mainland Scotland). This is certainly consistent to what I understood of my paternal side and along with that, my maternal side is of English and French origin according to written and verbal records. The Autosomal DNA results also stated that I am 0% Native American, 0% Asian, and 0% African. This meant that both my mother and fathers large families geographic/ethnic ancestry was identified.

Just so you understand how test results vary, a self-identified African American male in the database had results of 64% Europe, 33% Africa, and 4% Asia which meant that more than likely one of his parents were European due to one genome being fully European.

So, what this also tells us is the origin of Judith Pollard, Anester ?, Susan Elizabeth McDaniel, etc. ancestry because I carry their genomes and the results were conclusive of one geographic region.

This is an exciting time for science and genealogical research. New studies and information will continue to expand our horizons and will hopefully allow us to enhance existing written records and fill in the many gaps that currently exist due to the disasters (fires, war, etc.) of the period which destroyed some of the records.