It took me years to overcome certain reservations, but I finally sent my DNA to FamilyTreeDNA, and have never had regrets. As I type this, their labs are analyzing new submissions. Who knows? When I next check my email, I may finally find the cousin who knows the family history back farther than I do??
There's more about all of that, and about my other relatives, at my general family history hunt webpage, so I won't repeat it here.
This page is about my paternal line. If you think you might share this line, you have only to submit your DNA to FamilyTreeDNA, sign their document allowing them to pass your eddress to others with your DNA and we will soon know... and can share the complement of the intersection of what we know about our ancestors!
My Y-DNA, using FTDNA's naming conventions, is of haplogroup R1b1b2a1b3, aka haplogroup R-SRY2627
In a moment, I will give you my SNP, STR data. If you need want with the meaning of either of those, click on the word, and the Wikipedia article will open in a new window or tab.)
My SNP results to date are...
Positive for the following SNPs: M173+ M207+ M269+ M343+ P25+ SRY2627+, and...
Negative for M126- M153- M160- M18- M222- M37- M65- M73- P66-
(If you've been tested by FTDNA, some SNP data may be available to you. Not everyone's SNPs get tested. It is a function of how far you've gone along the "pay for more..." path you've gone, and the results of your STR tests. Some STR results are fairly reliable predictors of your haplogroup, other STR results have a greater need of SNP support before a haplogroup assignment can be made with reasonable confidence. Once upon a time (6/10) people with SNP data could dowload them from the "My Downloads" page at FTDNA. At 5/12, I could no longer find that, or the offer of SNP data downloads, but it may be there... somewhere.)
My great-great-great grandparents were John and Sarah Boyd... of whom I would like to know more! Their sons' baptism records say John was a "Fruiterer", abode Glasshouse Street, London, England. Glasshouse Street was subsumed later in the expansion of Piccadilly Circus. The baptisms were "solemnized in the parish of St James, Westminster, in the county of Middlesex".
I KNOW (baptismal record) John and Sarah had another son, William. I have a line of his to the present day. I suspect (no "official" confirmation) that John and Sarah had at least one other son... there are pointers on the internet... where anyone who can fog a mirror can post anything, as the Encyclopedia Britannica lamented, back when it thought it could sell itself on a CD for $500... of a John Boyd born 1810, Holborn London, and a George Boyd, born 1812 St James, Westminster, London. I believe they are mentioned in the IGI, both in batch no.C055242. If someone more expert than me in the use of the IGI has done more work on these Boyds, I would love to hear from you.
John's son Robert Andrew Boyd, born London, 1815 was my great-great grandfather
Robert's son was my great grandfather, Thomas Lunham Boyd, (TLB) born in Ireland of English parents, 1849. And yes, he was my father's father's father... the one that matters for DNA family history tracing. Just in case you were worried that I didn't understand that. In June of 2010 I began to wonder if I, or an antecedent, was adopted! (Why no DNA matches to any other Boyds??) I've begun to explore that. Also, in hopes of getting a wry smile from readers, I'll tell you that it was many, many years before I was able to find a record of Robert Andrew marrying a Miss Lunham, thus explaining my great grandfather's name. That discovery came at 3 in the afternoon, the day after my birthday in 2000. (There's a note of the time and date on my first hardcopy of the document. It was an exciting moment! I already knew that there were business connections between Boyds and Lunhams, and at last I had more detail. Mysteries remain at June 2010. Ah, the joys of family history research!)
Not on my direct paternal line, but thrown in here for no good reason: TLB had a brother, Robert William Boyd, born 8 September, 1860, near London England. At that time, Robert's father (TLB's as well, of course) described himself as a sugar refiner. I have a copy of the birth certificate. And, from other research, I believe their father was part of the sugar refining concern "Hall and Boyd", operating in London's east end, at Breezer's Hill, Virginia Street.
However... the information at http://home.clara.net/mawer/sugarbbio.html makes it hard to see a John or a Robert connected with Hall and Boyd, which is something of a worry. (At 11 Oct 22, no httpS version of this was available, sadly. It worked fine, if you persuaded your browser to access it via http(no s).
Wikipedia tells us..."Sir John Boyd, 1st Baronet Boyd (29 December 1718, St Kitts, Leeward Islands - 24 January 1800, Danson Hill) was a sugar merchant and vice-chairman of the British East India Company." The following were the Danson Boyds...
... so they don't "fit" my needs either, nor do they(?)fit with the most promising Boyds from the claranet list, Jameses... (the Hall & Boyd sugarhouse was in Virginia Street, Breezers Hill.)
Are those all one James? I haven't done the "arithmetic".
(http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=6092&inst_id=61 said James Boyd owned Avery Hill 1859-1882) (An "Avery Hill" in Eltham exists today, and the Danson House of Sir John is only about 2 miles away...
So! I hope that you have information linking your researches to one or another of those, and that you will get in touch. Alternatively, if you thought you were related to one of the above, and have done DNA with FamilyTreeDNA, and signed the release, I have to tell you that one of us is wrong in our research, and that we should "talk"!!
See my main page for offers to help you defray the cost of DNA testing.
My main page can be accessed via https://tinyurl.com/boydhist, if you want a shorthand way to cite it.
Concerned about "issues" surrounding the submission of DNA samples? So was I. But eventually, I came to believe that FamilyTreeDNA handles those issues well. I worried about three things... Civil liberties issues- FamilyTree, last time I checked, said they'd not yet been forced to hand over an data. Getting medical insurance issues- With more and more insurers requiring a pre-insurance medical, including blood draw, we've "lost" this one already. Being "pestered" by other FamilyTree participants- I've been a member, in the "contact me if we have similar DNA" system for years. No problems yet... the system protects your email address.
I have signed the "FTDNA Release Form" that you will find mentioned in the Family Tree literature. (As should you!) So- as soon as you submit your release form, if we are a perfect match, we will both get emails.
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AND tested for
