Genetic Genealogy - yDNA, mtDNA, autosomal DNA

Ron Benson has worked with others in an attempt to use all three common types of genetic genealogy tools in order to help solve family mysteries.

     yDNA - is passed down from father to son, generation upon generation.  Ron was able to utilize yDNA matches in order to confirm the likelihood that Jesse Ellis (a veteran of the War of 1812) was a son of Jeremiah Ellis (a veteran of the Revolutionary War).  Conventional genealogical research had shown that Jesse Ellis served in a company recruited from Jefferson County, Ohio in 1812 and that Jeremiah Ellis had lived in Jefferson County, Ohio prior to 1807; combined with Jesse Ellis having been born in Virginia in about 1786 and Jeremiah Ellis having lived in Brook County, Virginia between 1781 and 1804.  A descendant of Jesse Ellis in a continuous paternal line was recruited to submit a sample for yDNA testing and was found to exactly match two men who were descendants of two of the brothers of Jeremiah Ellis.  An article written about this research was awarded First Place in the 2013 Ohio Genealogical Society Writing Contest.

     Autosomal DNA - is passed down from both parents to their children where a child's DNA is made up of one half of that for each parent.  Each successive generation, the DNA which one receives from a grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. becomes more and more dilute, although segments of DNA from one's ancestors of a significant length for matching with others are likely to be found in each of us going back five or six generations.  Ron coordinated a research project where descendants of three siblings who were orphaned shortly before 1850 were able to match up family history stories with DNA evidence to support the suspicions needed to break down some brick walls.

     mtDNA - is passed down from mother to child, so for a continuous line from mother to daughter for successive generations the mtDNA signature will be the same for each generation.  Research tracking female lines for many generations into the past if often very difficult due to the change of surname upon marriage - we really need to find some sort of record which links the woman to both her father and her husband in such a combination that we can prove we have the correct woman.  One potential way to confirm this research is to compare mtDNA of two persons whose mother's mother's mother... would have been a common ancestor.