Case Studies in Genetic Genealogy
Reprinted from “Facts & Genes”
copyright 2006, Family Tree DNA

Case Study:

I've had the 37 marker Y DNA test through a Surname Project for my surname. I don't have any matches with my surname. Is there anything further I can do? I have a brick wall with my 2nd great grandparents who left Ireland in the early 1800s. They only said that they were born in Ireland in the various censuses. Their death certificates didn't give parents.

Recommendation:

It is only a matter of time before you will have a match. If you want to speed up the process, the first step is to learn more about your surname in Ireland to see if a geographic area is indicated. One approach is to look at the distribution of the surname in Ireland in the mid-1800's by using a database based on Griffiths Valuation. Click on the link here and enter your surname scripts.ireland.com/ancestor/index.cfm. The results tell the number of households with that surname for each county.

Depending on your surname, you could find the majority of the surname in one county, or two heavy concentrations, or perhaps the surname is spread out in low levels in several counties.

Let's assume you find two concentrations of your surname, in distant counties. One approach would be to recruit participants in Ireland today who are living in each of these counties. Perhaps you will find a match to those in one county. This provides a clue as to the county in which you should search parish registers for the marriage of your great-grandparents.

You can further refine your search by also searching on your grandmother's surname. Perhaps both these surnames are only found in one county. Then, invite persons in Ireland to participate who reside in that county. Since this is important to your research, you may want to sponsor the test kit.

To find persons and their address in Ireland today, go to 159.134.203.172/search.asp?source=GP. After getting a DNA match in Ireland you can prioritize the parish registers to search by extracting the Griffiths Valuation data for both surnames for the identified county or area and determining which parishes have both surnames present.

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compiled by Marian Crowley Chamberlain