DNA

Update 25/5/2012

There are 3 basic types of DNA Test used for Genealogy.

1. Y-DNA which is passed Father to Son to Grandson, etc. and hence follows the Surname. With Y-DNA testing you can identify your ancestors and Haplogroup going back more than 40 generations.The 37 marker test cost $149. A 37/37 match indicates with a 90% probability that you share a Common Ancestor within the past 5 generations

2. Mitochondrial DNA (MtDNA) which follows the maternal line, Mother, Grandmother, etc. Mitochondrial DNA is not passed from Males to their children. The Full Sequence MtDNA Test cost $299.

3. The Family Finder Test offered by Family Tree DNA can identify related participants of the maternal and paternal line going back 5 generations. This Test cost $289. Since it has only been offered for a few years the number of participants in the database is much less than the Y-DNA and MtDNA databases.Summary: For Female Kelly descendants I recommend tracking  down and sponsoring a Male Kelly descendant from your Kelly line. FTDNA has made provision for the payer of the Test Kit and the recipient to be different people. A large number of the Members of the Kelly Surname Study are female Kelly’s who have sponsored a Male Kelly of their line and are the primary contact for information exchange.There is a lot of useful information at the bottom of our FTDNA Kelly Surname Kit Order Page.
Click here.

There is a link there to the most Frequently Asked Questions.
Best Regards,
Raymond Kelly

Poem For A Genealogist
Your tombstone stands among the rest; neglected and alone.
The name and date are chiseled out on polished marbled stone.
It reaches out to all who care, It is too late to mourn...
You did not know that I exist You died before I was born...
yet each of us are cells of you, In flesh, in blood, in bone...
Our blood contracts and beats a pulse, entirely not our own.
Dear ancestor, the place you filled one hundred years ago,
spreads out among the ones you left, who would have loved you so...
I wonder if you knew that someday I would find this spot...
and come to visit you...
Author Unknown.

If you go to Kelly Research! it will bring you into the DNA project, you never know you might see someone you recognize.
Matt Kelly’s story is very interesting.

Start your family research by visiting our friends at Family Tree DNA

Note on developments since joining the Kelly D.N.A. Project at Family Tree
DNA [ FTDNA ]-------by Matt Kelly.
I joined the project in February 2008 at the suggestion of Joe Kelly, having reached
the almost inevitable " brick wall " in my researches here in Ireland. I traced back to
1806 and possible 1780. In April 2010 I signed up to the new Family Finder service
offered by FTDNA and this has proved to be the most successful and interesting
outcome of my membership of the project.
Background Information :
Since joining FTDNA I have been advised of the following matches ; 1211 exact 12
markers, 24 X 12-GD1 markers, 4 exact 25 markers, 16 X 25-GD1 markers, 108 X
25-GD2 markers, 1 X 67-GD6 marker and 3 X 67-GD7 markers. I still regularly
receive information from them on additional markers being found.
So far from the Family Finder project I have been advised of the discovery of 111 "
cousins ". Two of these are identified as third cousins, eight as fourth cousins and
the remaining 101 as fourth to remote cousins.
Contacts :
My actual first contact with any other participant in the project was in August 2008
from a gentleman in Missouri whose ancestors went to the US in 1750 with a
Quacker led group of emigrants. They came from Timahoe in County Kildare. My
Kelly ancestors came from Ballymore Eustace, also in County Kildare and only
around 12 to 15 miles away from Timahoe. Yet while we both share the same
surname we have not established a blood relationship, but we have become close
friends and share books and music.
On July 1st 2010 I received an e-mail from a lady in Maryland telling me that Family
Finder had identified her and I as most likely fourth cousins. As she had been
adopted at birth she had no knowledge of her roots and I was the first blood relation
she had found and discovering that I was Irish and therefore she also had some
Irish blood was a major event for her. We have become very close friends and she
and her new husband came to Dublin last May and met my family and spent time
[ at my suggestion ] in Connemara which they loved and are determined to come
back. I have been teaching her Irish and translated her wedding vows into Irish for
her and through the miracle of Skype taught her how to say them. A miniature
tricolour tops her Christmas tree. It came from a kind lady in the Glenmalure Inn.
Amazingly she has become fascinated with Ireland and would love to move here.
Then in May of this year a young lady from California contacted me as Family
Finder had identified her and her father and I as third cousins and also told me that
she was about to fulfill a long held ambition to come to Ireland. We arranged to
meet up, which we did and spent the day touring Wicklow. Over lunch she told me
about her family in California and the interesting news that her father was, for many
years a member of the " Beach Boys " pop group. Since she returned home I have
received a considerable amount of Beach Boys memorability and the whole family
hopes to come to Ireland next year when we will meet. She is very determined to
establish our exact links.
Also in May of this year a lady from Oregon made contact to advise that she was
her family's genealogist and that her son and I have been identified as fourth
cousins. We have been in regular contact since and she is working very hard to
establish our links. She is a very interesting lady to talk to as she has deep
connections with native American people and their culture. She and members of
her family have been to Italy, Austria and Germany and are now hopeful of visiting
Ireland.
In conclusion I can say that the last eighteen months have been very interesting
and thanks to Family Finder I have met and become friends with relations I was
never aware of and have standing invitations to visit, Missouri, California, Maryland
and Oregon and who knows what the next year will bring.
Matt Kelly
04-12-2011