Wheelock DNA Project - Frequently Asked Questions Page

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What do these tests reveal?
How do the tests work?
How are the samples obtained?
Who can participate?
Who does the testing?
I have my results. How do I contribute them to the Wheelock DNA Project web site?
Why use an alias instead of the name of the test subject on the Results Page?
I tried to read the charts on the Results Page, but what in the world is a Haplogroup, and what do all those numbers and letters mean?

To understand Y-chromosome DNA marker test results...
To understand Mitochondrial DNA marker test results...

On the Results Page, why are some of the Y-chromosome chart headings red rather than black?
Is there any financial aid available for the testing, or is there a way to help sponsor someone else's test?

What do these tests reveal? These types of DNA tests are basically designed to reveal the likelihood that individuals share (or do not share) a common ancestor during the period since surnames came into use.

How do the tests work? The tests focus on portions of DNA that are passed down essentially unchanged generation after generation. Occasionally in the line of descent, a random mutation (change) occurs that is then passed down to future generations. By studying large numbers of samples, scientists are able to estimate the rate at which these changes tend to crop up, which can in turn be used to yield a rough estimate of how close or how far removed (in generations) the common ancestor is likely to be.

How are the samples obtained? By painlessly brushing a swab against the inside of the cheek.

Who can participate? Because only males inherit the Y-chromosome from their fathers, a male test subject is needed for the Y-DNA tests that provide the backbone of surname DNA studies such as ours. The subject needs to be a direct paternal descendant—in other words, for our project, his father’s father’s father... (anywhere along the all-male ancestral line) needs to have been a Wheelock. Because most of the time surnames, like Y-chromosomes, are passed from father to son to son..., most of the time the test subject himself will also be a Wheelock, but of course there could be exceptions in cases where, somewhere along the line, for whatever reason, a son did not carry his father’s surname. Females can participate by recruiting male relatives who are direct paternal descendants of their Wheelock lines. Alternatively, another type of DNA, called mitochondrial DNA, is always inherited (by both males and females) from the mother. In other words, it comes from the mother’s mother’s mother... along the direct maternal (all-female) ancestral line. Tests are available to both males and females for testing the mitochondrial DNA. In certain instances, one might use this test to attempt to place unlinked Wheelock females into their proper Wheelock families, but another direct maternal descendant (along the all-female ancestral line) of the suspected mother would also need to be recruited for comparison who is documented to be descended from her. Mitochondrial tests could also be used to reveal deep ancestral origins (on the direct maternal line) of the wife of a particular Wheelock ancestor, which might be of interest to others descended from that particular couple but would not be as useful to Wheelock genealogists in general.

Who does the testing? Several companies provide services for genealogy-type DNA testing. Each of them has its own policies, prices, and test offerings, and you can research these on the internet. You will need to choose which one you think best meets your needs. The most direct way to coordinate your testing with the Wheelock DNA Project is by joining the Wheelock Surname Project through Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), because that will automatically provide our volunteer project administrator with your results and contact information. (It also makes you eligible for FTDNA’s group discount rate.) You can click on the links below to go to the relevant FTDNA web pages:

If you choose a company that asks you to pick which specific DNA markers to test, be sure to check our Results page beforehand to see which markers have been tested for other individuals, so that you will have something against which you can compare your results.

I have my results. How do I contribute them to the Wheelock DNA Project web site? Contact our volunteer Wheelock DNA Project administrator through our Contact Us page. (To reach the Contact Us page, click on the Contact Us link button at the top of the page, or click on the words “Contact Us” at the bottom of the page.) Include in your E-mail to our administrator: 1) your permission to post the results on the Wheelock DNA Project web site; 2) an outline of the known direct paternal line (all-male) ancestry (in the case of Y-DNA testing) or known direct maternal line (all-female) ancestry (in the case of mitochondrial DNA testing) of the test subject, including any dates and places of residence, with suppositions clearly labeled as such; and 3) an indication of whether or not you wish for your E-mail address to appear on our web site in association with your chosen alias, so that people can contact you directly with questions or further information. In addition, if you did not order your kit through the Wheelock Surname Project at Family Tree DNA, please include your test marker results.

Why use an alias instead of the name of the test subject on the Results page? The purpose of the alias is to protect the identity and privacy of the test subject, while still providing a convenient way to refer to a specific set of results.

I tried to read the charts on the Results page, but what in the world is a Haplogroup, and what do all those numbers and letters mean? The Haplogroup simply tells to which major branch of the human family tree an ancestral line belongs. This is a “deep ancestral” grouping—in other words, it refers to the ancestral father (for Y-DNA tests) or mother (for mitochondrial DNA tests) from thousands of years ago, long before surnames came into use.

To understand Y-Chromosome DNA marker test results… consider the following rough analogy to genealogy. The entire Y-chromosome is “populated” with many ”households” (called markers). Think of the Y-DNA test as a census of just a few of those households. The numbers and number-letter combinations across the top of the chart (called DYS numbers) can be thought of as the “addresses” (called loci) of those few individual households. The numerical result (called the allele value) for each address refers to the number of “persons” residing in the particular household at that address. In actuality, the “persons” are repetitions of genetic code (called Short Tandem Repeats). If this explanation still seems confusing, try reading it again while ignoring the blue technical terms in parentheses.
To understand Mitochondrial DNA marker test results… think of the mitochondrial DNA as a chain made of links. In 1981, a mitochondrial DNA sample was sequenced (the “links” of the “chain” were classified) and became the industry standard to which subsequent samples would be compared. This sequence is called the Cambridge Reference Sequence (CRS). Two areas of mitochondrial DNA are considered especially useful for genealogical genetic analysis, because mutations (changes) in the inherited sequence tend to occur more frequently there. These areas are known as HyperVariable Region 1 and HyperVariable Region 2. Only differences from the Cambridge Reference Sequence are reported in the Results chart. A number in the result refers to a specific link along the DNA chain. A letter represents the specific chemical component of which that particular link is composed. Each link is composed of one of four possible chemical components: adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G), or cytosine (C). “Extra” links in the chain (those not present in the Cambridge Reference Sequence) are referenced by the previous link number followed by a decimal point, another number telling whether it is the first or second or third… link inserted at that point in the chain, and the letter corresponding to the link’s chemical component. “Deleted” links from the chain (those that occur in the Cambridge Reference Sequence but not in the test sample) are indicated by the link number followed by a minus sign (-).

On the Results page, why are some of the Y-chromosome chart headings red rather than black? The red headings indicate locations on the Y-chromosome where the rate of mutation (change) tends to be higher. In other words, a difference in the results between people who are closely related would tend to be more likely under a red heading than under a black one.

Is there any financial aid available for the testing, or is there a way to help sponsor someone else’s test? Possibly. For more information on this topic, see our “Wish List” page, which is accessible by clicking the “Wish List” button at the top of the page or by clicking on the words “Wish List” at the bottom of the page.

To find out more about the Project and its progress, click on the link buttons along the top of each web page or on the words at the bottom:

Home - Results - Wish List - Contact Us