This document discusses how DNA is inherited from parents to offspring. It notes that individuals inherit 23 pairs of chromosomes, with 22 pairs from each parent and an X chromosome from the mother or a Y chromosome from the father, determining sex. It describes how DNA is recombined during meiosis and how autosomal DNA is inherited from ancestors over generations. The document provides examples of how DNA is inherited and shared between different family relationships on both mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA. It discusses using DNA testing to trace ethnic background, break through genealogical "brick walls", and confirm family relationships.

1. How We Inherit Our DNA
Presented by Joyce Hodges

2. Deoxyribonucleic acid
23 pairs of chromosomes
• 1 thru 22 one from
each parent
• 23rd always X from
Mother
– If X from father= female
– If Y from father=Male

3. How chromosomes recombine
meiosis

4. Autosomal DNA Inheritance
(22 pairs and X) –
at 7 generations 128 people

5. FTDNA – Family Tree DNA
Father to daughter

6. FTDNA – Family Tree DNA
Father to daughter

7. FTDNA - Father to son

8. FTDNA - Father to
daughter & to son

9. FTDNA - Sister and Brother
from prior slide to each other

10. 23 & Me - Siblings
Sister and Brother

11. FTDNA
Father-Daughter-Grandson

12. FTDNA from Father
to Daughter, Grandson, Great-Grandson

13. Blaine Bettinger

14. Who will always share
atDNA with you
• Parents
• Grandparents, great-grandparents
• Siblings and ½ Siblings
• Aunts, Uncles, ½ Aunts, ½ Uncles, great Aunts
great Uncles
• Nieces, nephews, ½ Nieces, ½ Nephews, grand
nieces, grand nephews
• Grand, great grandchildren, 2nd great grandchildren
• 1st and 2nd cousins, ½ 1st and ½ 2nd cousins

15. FTDNA – Male
Sister, Nephew, Grand-Nephew

16. 2nd cousin high 416 cM

17. 2nd cousin mid range 219

18. 3rd cousins from mother’s side

19. Not a match,
but still could be a cousin.
• ½ cousin 3 times removed or more
• 1st cousin 4 times removed or more
• 2nd cousin twice removed or more
• 3rd cousin or more

20. 2nd cousin once removed
his children, hence 3rd cousins to
the tester, do not show as matches

21. 23 X Chromosome Inheritance
21 of possible 128 ancestors 33 of possible 128 ancestor

22. 23rd pair the Y
• Y is only inherited by a male from his father and
it should be an exact match.
• Follows biological father-usually the surname
• Testing at various levels, currently max at
FTDNA is 700 markers – most test at 37 or 67
• Changes do occur at 67 markers
• High of 2 differences for brothers
• No difference at 67 markers for 8 generations

23. Y inheritance

24. 3rd mitochondria - mtdna
• 23 chromosomes are in
nucleus of the cell
• Mitochondrial DNA is
outside of the nucleus
and is passed, usually
unchanged, from mother
to all her children
• It goes back thousands of
years and changes
relatively slowly

25. Why do people test?
• Ethnic background
• Breaking down brick walls
• Confirm relationships

26. Ethnic background-misleading
AIM - Ancestry Informative Markers
Roman and
Mongol Empires
Travels of the Norsemen
“Vikings”

27. Dockyards map Y haplogroups

28. AIM Jan 2022
Ancestry FTDNA Living DNA

29. AIM Jan 2022
23 & ME FTDNA

30. Living DNA – United Kingdom

31. Living DNA - Father Daughter
father daughter

32. a b
c
d
?
self Nth cousin
Breaking down brick walls
a + c is what you share with ?
c + b is what your cousin shares with ?
the best case is that there is a segment in c that can be
compared to more cousins to find ?
BEWARE of possible d - shared with cousin from other ancestor

33. Y-DNA - Example Moore
• Because it follows only the direct male line
and would normally follow the surname
this is where I started
• Jeremiah Moore “from Ireland”
– over 600 Moore samples, 1 Moore and 1
Moher, both from County Cork
– Additional tests, but only Moore matches are
descendants of Jeremiah or John Moore from
Cork
– The descendants of Jeremiah differ from each
other by 1 or 2 at 67 markers

34. Y DNA – Example Hodges
• Jesse Hodges first record 1850 census
age 21 - mystery man
• No Hodges matches, 2 pages of Crow
matches at a distance of 1 or 2 at 67
markers
• Tested 2nd cousin – exact match at 67, to
confirm that the NPE had to occur prior to
William P. Hodges, Jesse’s son

35. Y DNA - Turrentine
• Two brothers Samuel and Alexander
arrived together in 1745 from Ireland
• Have tested various descendants and
have at least one from each line who
matches one from the other line at 67
markers (8 generations)
• The range is 0 to 3 differences
• Turk with difference of 2 from N. Ireland

36. Confirm Relationships
• Y-DNA for direct male line only
• mtDNA for direct female line only
• atDNA is more complex
– you maybe related on multiple lines
– or
– a cousin might not share significant atDNA

37. mtDNA few matches
Because mtDNA changes slowly it is less likely to help with a brick wall
But is can be used to confirm a maternal line, particularly if there are
multiple wives and dates of birth and death are uncertain.
Mry
This is my brother, I am first name. The father of our Mary Jane Williams
was Isaac who married 4 times. We are waiting for someone descended
from another line of her alleged mother Delila Banchum (various spellings)
to test and connect, so far no luck. Only connection is the 3rd person,
Rapier, who is also a descendant of Mary born about 1837.

38. mtDNA 393 matches
Grandmother born 1876 Sweden

39. a b
c
d
?
self Nth cousin
atDNA breaking down brick walls
a + c is what you share with ?
c + b is what cousin shares with ?
the best case is that there is a segment in c that can be
compared to more cousins to find ?
BEWARE of d - shared region comes from other ancestor

40. Relationships with multiple
connections
Intermarriage across multiple generations
Small populations such as early settlers of North America
Isolated groups in areas where travel is difficult
Religious groups that don’t permit marriage to outsiders
Recent immigrant communities that encourage members to stick together
Racial and ethnic constraints place by community or even by law
Resulting in
siblings marry siblings, hence double and triple cousins
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th cousins marrying each other

41. FAN (friends, associates and neighbors)
approach to traditional research
DNA cousin clusters can locate a community
or area to which your ancestor is connected
.

42. Jeremiah Moore from Ireland
2nd great grandfather
Family Finder/DNA cousins - Filtered out those without public trees.
Came up with a list of surnames that were associated with each other and the
Methodist community that lived in the communities shown on the prior slide.
These families intermarried over the span of more than 100 years. Many sharing
ancestor couples between multiple lines in their own pedigrees. Some families
immigrated to Canada, settle in the same areas, and the families continued to
intermarry.
Included in those surnames was Morgan. Jeremiah married in Canada in 1839
Martha Morgan whose parents are also unknown to me. She was also likely from
these communities. Oral tradition says she had relatives in Morganstown. Some
of the in common matches are also connected to Morganstown.

43. 7,000 Cousins and Counting
Why people don’t have trees and/or don’t reply
• Just looking for their “ethnic” background
• Don’t know enough to get started
• Overwhelmed by the number of their matches
Where to start - grouping
father mother
Paternal
grandfather
Paternal
grandmother
Matches
both?
Maternal
grandfather
Maternal
grandmother

44. FTDNA
Ancestry
23 and Me
My Heritage

45. FTDNA matching segments
step 1

46. FTDAN Chromosome browser
Blue is the in common person, although all 7 people share DNA with the testor
and with the in common person, only 2 share the a portion of the same segment,
what 23 and Me calls overlap - see chromosomes 1 and 10 -

47. FTDNA download
results & tool, autosomal DNA, Chromosome Browser

48. Remember Pairs of
Chromosomes
At any given location on
chromosome 1 to 22, you
could have 2 matches, one
from each parent.
When using downloaded data
the first task is to attempt to
identify which matches are
from the father and which are
from the mother.
Using close cousins who do
not share multiple common
ancestor couple is the way to
start.

49. Ancestry Grouping & Notes

50. Ancestry ThruLines
Based on your tree and other Ancestry trees.
Predicts how you and your match are related
NOT matching segments, but matching
trees. Trees can be broken or wrong.

51. Choose an ancestor

52. Choose from matches

53. Multiple connections

54. 23 & Me

55. To obtain 23 & me locations
check on the yes
Purple is 1st cousin Kerry
Orange is Rubottom with no tree

56. My Heritage can display
segment data for paid
memberships similar to
FTDNA and 23 & ME
bar type graphics

57. Joys of half cousins
John Turrentine’s first wife is unknown, but does
not appear to be related to the second wife
Second wife is Mary Barlour
If a descendant of the first wife matches a
descendant of the second wife, the match has to
be from John’s DNA
6 106,362,406 149,300,228 42.6 5,760 5cJohn Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 106,706,403 135,053,269 25.1 3,663 r5cr1John Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 106,706,403 149,124,808 41.7 5,542 5cr1John Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 106,706,403 149,124,808 41.7 5,542 5cr1John Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 106,706,403 149,300,228 42.0 5,709 5cJohn Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 106,938,359 149,166,809 41.02 9,553 5cJohn Turrentine and Mary Barlour
6 112,750,918 139,406,923 26.07 5953
6 112,750,918 139,406,923 26.07 5953
7 8,326,148 14,585,030 11.0 1,373 half 6c1/2, John Turrentine (1755-1821)
7 8,326,148 14,585,030 11.0 1,373 half 6cr11/2, John Turrentine (1755-1821)
No trees

58. Testing Relatives
FTDNA –
I have 7,321 matches
Tested my brother
He has 6,674 matches
We share 2,584 matches (a+c)
Including my brother adds
3,090 cousins
Tested my father
He has 5,915 matches
We share 2,283 matches (c+b)
Adds 3,632 cousins
Some of the added cousins from
my father will overlap with the ones
from my brother (d), so less than
6,712 additional cousins, but
significantly more than by testing
just myself.
me
brother father
a
b
c
d