I do think Autosomal DNA testing is very helpful, but I actually feel more confident with Y DNA results when it comes to establishing relationships with more distant relatives. The fact Y DNA is only passed down to males through a direct line of male descent makes using this DNA test more difficult than the autosomal test which anyone can take and the results reflect all of our lines.
I'm a female so I've had to find males to test for lines I'm interested in. The autosomal test has been marketed much more than the Y and mtDNA tests. I don't believe people realize how useful the Y test is. This test can establish that men carrying a common surname are related. I have found I'm related to some of my autosomal matches through more than one family line, so this test isn't always helpful in proving how matches are related to you.
I've been looking at our family's 23andMe results daily now because this DNA test was offered as a premium during the recent PBS pledge drive in the United States. 23andMe is a great place to collect up family Y and mtDNA haplogroups, which can be helpful in proving a relationship between cousin matches (Family Tree DNA is also a place where you can find these haplogroups if your matches have taken these separate tests. haplogroup testing is performed at 23andMe at no additional charge and is included with your autosomal results.)
I've been researching my great-grandmother Isis Browning-Forgey's Browning line since 1999. This was the only family line I found when FamilySearch first went online in 1999. When I saw the family group sheets linked to my great-grandmother I assumed that our relationship to these ancestral lines had been proven. There was no documentation attached to them. I've been trying ever since then to find documentation. Basically over 20 years, and haven't found any documentation to prove our relationship to this family (the family group sheet below is from June 1999 when FamilySearch first went online. It first went online in late May, but it was very difficult to actually search because the servers were always busy.).
Yesterday I noticed we had a match with a woman who had the surnames Browning and McPike in her list of surnames. Checking her shared matches she appeared to be at least a 3rd cousin of a man carrying the surname Browning. Doing a little research on both of these matches I discovered they both appeared to descend from Nathan Browning and Obedience McPike, our common ancestral couple originally from Tennessee. They also both appear to descend from William Jefferson Browning, the brother of my Browning ancestor Richard Washington Browning, who were sons of Nathan and Obedience ( I wouldn't have been able to trace these matches without access to the 1950 Census).
Below you can see these 3rd cousins, on paper, share multiple autosomal segments with each other. Sharing multiple segments does suggest a valid fairly close relationship with matches.
Our Nathan Browning is a proven son of Roger Browning of Greene County, Tennessee. Using naming patterns many researchers have surmised Roger was the son of Benjamin Browning of Maryland. Benjamin had a son named Roger who disappeared from Maryland records in the late 1700s and we believe he migrated to Tennessee. Roger of Tennessee's eldest son was named Benjamin which could be a clue to his father's name, because eldest sons were often named after the paternal grandfather. Of course Roger also had a son Nathan, our ancestor, and the name Nathan was also used by the Maryland Browning family.
The naming pattern is the only thing we have linking the Tennessee and Indiana Browning family with Maryland. A Maryland Browning descendant had taken the Y DNA test. Up until now I haven't found a male in our Tennessee line who has a Y DNA test result. Now we apparently have one at 23andMe.
The fact that our male Browning cousin matches us on the autosomal test is very helpful because it suggests there had been no break in the male line. I'm an administrator of a couple Y DNA projects at Family Tree DNA and have found non paternity events. It's good to have supporting evidence that a non paternity event hasn't occurred. If this Browning distant cousin had tested at Family Tree DNA a marker match would establish whether there was a non paternity event. 23andMe doesn't match markers.
Since we are only basing our link to the Maryland family based on a naming pattern we have been in search of documentation confirming our relationship. No such documentation has surfaced. Y DNA, at this point, appears to be the only way to establish a relationship between the Tennessee/ Indiana Brownings and the Maryland family. A couple Maryland Browning direct line males have taken the Y DNA test at Family Tree DNA and are in the Y Browning Surname group at FTDNA.
The Browning males in the surname group at Family Tree DNA are in the R-M269 Haplogroup which is the most common European male haplogroup. My heart skipped a beat a little when I saw our Browning matches haplogroup was R-U152. In order for there to be a chance of a relationship between these men they would have to be in the same haplogroup. As it turns out R-U152 is downstream of R-M269, meaning it's a more recent mutation and is a younger haplogroup. I believe in order to get this result at Family Tree DNA our matches would need more testing because the 37 marker test they took doesn't test for the SNP. It is very good that all these men share the haplogroup R-M269 but since it's such a common haplogroup we need a Browning male to take a marker test at Family Tree DNA to confirm they are really related.
The fact 23andMe provides both autosomal and haplogroup results is their biggest strength. If they provided markers that would be even more helpful.
If our distant cousin tested in another haplogroup, such as I for instance, the game would be over. Since he is in the right haplogroup, so far, the game is still on.
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| Isis Browning-Forgey my great-grandmother |
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