Don DNA Report For Summer 2010

As of JULY 12, 2010, the PFAS DNA Project has 89 members and all but two test kits have been processed by FTDNA. The results from William H. Peacock showed him matching the other Cullen Peacock descendants.

There is a renewed interest in DNA testing and I am getting more questions from our members, especially from the female side. The new national television program on NBC, “Who Do You Think You Are” sponsored by Ancestry, did trigger more interest in family history genealogy. FTDNA and a company called “23 and ME” have developed new testing methods that offer a chance for males OR females to take a test that will help find matches to either your maternal or paternal family.

FTDNA calls their new test “Family Finder” and 23 and ME named theirs “Relative Finder.” Relative Finder hit the Market about 6 months ahead of Family Finder. Results in your matches depends a lot on how many testers have taken the test and are any of them your possible relatives. To learn more about this new test I decided to take it, along with Frank Tucker, one of 4 Tuckers I share matched yDNA with.

I took my original 12-marker yDNA test in December 2002, and I continued to upgrade to a higher level as a test was developed. I went from 12 to 25, to 37, to 57 and finally the top 67-marker test about 2006. I became disappointed that I wasn’t matching anyone in the PFAS except my known AL cousin, and we matched 67 to 67, and I KNEW we were proven kin.

Men from Peacock lines that I felt I was possibly kin to, just didn’t match closely.

Then in 2009 Frank Tucker called and said he matched me 67 to 67, but we didn’t know where, except for the fact that Frank’s Tucker ancestors lived close by Peacocks in the Orangeburg/Barnwell County areas of SC. We know there must be a connection and since that time I now match three other Tuckers. With the Samuel line of “Commoners” there are many matches proving that line of descent from at least Samuel Peacock One. Some other lines have just a few matches and the best way to get good results is having a lot more people tested.

From the Peacock Project I was allowed to take the Family Finder test and Frank Tucker, my 67/67 match, was also selected. Since Frank and I are perfect matches and our ancestors came from a close proximity to each other in Barnwell Co., SC, I thought this was a significant chance to breakthrough the “Brick Wall” in our families. I get questions from women who have an interest to learn more of their Peacock or other surnames DNA, but have been stonewalled because the yDNA is only passed down from males.

This new test uses 22 autosomal chromosomes that will allow aunts, uncles, grandparents, 1st cousins up to 4th cousins and possibly 5th cousins and beyond to test and see if they are kin. Most of you researchers have found people you “Think” must be your kin, but no proof can be found, but this test can get you beyond that block. This type of DNA testing has been used in identifying military remains as well as other missing persons, etc. I just read a July 8, 2010, article about this type of testing and how the Los Angeles police closed a serial killer cold case against a man based on the new “familial” type of DNA. They already had OLD DNA but nothing to match. They got a DNA hit from the suspect’s son when he was arrested and his DNA entered into a state database. They decided to try the “familial” (similar to the Family Finder type) and had a cop undercover as a waiter who got various samples from a restaurant where the father sometimes ate, and ran the test.

The CA Attorney General said it’s the first time in the U.S. that familial DNA has been used to break a case of such magnitude. It matched and they filed 10 counts of murder charges against the father. They said this was the first time this test had ever been used by a police department and they have big hopes for it.

I took my Family Finder in March and I got 5 matches immediately in the results posted in April. I now have 58 matches on the 2nd to 5th cousin range. These matches are coming from beyond my Peacock line and 5 of those are in my known surnames, but go back many years. I was disappointed by the fact that Frank Tucker and I did not show a match on the Family Finder test. This gives an indication that our 67/67 match must go back more than six generations.

His Tucker kin are getting interested and are doing more testing, so we keep hoping to find out how we match. My most interesting match is from a lady who’s father was born in or near Fort Worth, where I was born a year later, but the father was adopted from an adoption center without any known records. His adoptive parents were from Arkansas, but moved to Fort Worth for a short time. The lady said her father never knew who his real parents were and his adoptive father, years after his birth, forged a TX birth certificate that belonged to a still born girl of his adoptive mother, who was born within 2-3 days of his birth date in Dec 1931.

His adoptive parents did another legal adoption in Galveston, TX, after the mother had another stillborn child. We are shown as 2nd cousins in a 2 to 5 cousin range. This will be a difficult journey to find that match as it could have been from any of my parent’s siblings or cousins. Her father was blonde with green eyes and HAIR, while my family was mostly brown or black hair (and bald) and all but one having brown eyes. Now here is a very important point – had her father been able to take a yDNA test, passed from father to son to son, before he died in 2003, this mystery could have been much easier to solve, but alas, there is no easy DNA for them to test now.

FTDNA has had special offers lately for their various tests and I was able to get one test for a descendant of Rev. Levi Peacock, but the other test was not decided before the special ended June 30th. A special now is offering discounts on refining of yDNA tests up to and including their 67 marker tests. If any of you want to consider taking a DNA test, whether it is a yDNA, the maternal mtDNA or the new Family Finder tests, please let me know so I can contact you as soon as I learn of the discount.

The current test full prices ranges from $99 to $249 for the yDNA and $289 for the Family Finder test. The discounts have been in the $50 range but NONE for the Family Finder. The test by the 23 and ME Relative finder is higher and gets into the $400 and more range. Please contact me of you are interested in taking a DNA test.

This is the Peacock Project site where you can view our results: http://www.familytreedna.com/public/PeacockPFAS/default.aspx