A question was asked as to possible testing laboratories for DNA studies. I cite some names from Doug Mumma's investigation and interested readers should read his web page to be found at www.mumma.org/dna.htm . Two of the laboratories that he mentioned are GeneTree, Inc., and Family Tree DNA, Inc. Both of these are now doing genealogical testing. There are probably more.
Some workers in the field of Y chromosome research believe that the mutation rate for one site on a Y-chromosome is about 0.2% or about once in 500 generations. If you test several factors, or sites, say 12, the observed rate of change would be much higher than this. There is a lot of stability in the Y-chromosome.
Probably, when man first migrated to Europe, say 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, the Y-chromosomes were very similar for all the migrants. They could be said to have a common haplotype or "fingerprint". As time went by, groups developed differences, which are recognizable today. The group that first moved to the British Isles was pushed to the north and the west by later groups. This first group, now known as the Celts, has a characteristic pattern that is different. If do your testing in Scotland or in Wales, you will be much more likely to find a different pattern than if you do your testing south of London, which even differs from the east coast of England.
Because these patterns are so slow to change, especially in comparison to surnames, one will find that many surnames share the larger or broader patterns, even while the patterns maintain enough identity or similarity to permit group identification.
This will introduce another element into genealogy, the identification of groups and tribes, as opposed to surname tracing. But we must remember in doing this that we are tracing only the male line, not all of the lines. For example, the group of my male descent might trace itself back through Austria to even Turkey. But this is only a small fraction of my genetic makeup. I could probably trace some mixed male-female lines back to every group that ever existed in Europe. The techniques are not able to do this just yet.
Doug Mumma comments that the origins of the Mumma family were not certain. In the DNA study of the family, two German families matched the broader American group. (Two Estonian Mumma families did not match at all.) Depending on the history of these two German families, it might be evidence that the Mumma family did originate in Germany.
This may be a valuable technique to sort out whether members of a particular Thomas family (a family which is to be found in every nationality) are English, German, Irish, or what have you. Or the Smiths or the Durmans.
(02 Sep 02)
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.