This is a numbers problem. More markers tested means more comparisons, which improves chances of useful information.

So when DNA Heritage offered a 15 marker upgrade we want to try to take advantage of it. I have upgraded my results and we have a comparison test in the pipeline. My results are in. You can see them with this document;

As I told the group on Yahoo, this single result so far means nothing. We must have comparisons. If a variation is found we will encourage the other participants to upgrade. If not, then we may pursue the more expansive, but expensive, tests at Family Tree DNA.

Once we have a comparison test, I will link this document from the result_all pdf, and the results page on the blog.

jSS

7 out of the 9 relevant results are identical on 43 markers.

While this shows a marked relatedness, it does not distinguish descendants of William closer than:
that all 7 appear to be descendants of one of the sons of John Sturdevant II, grandson of William, b. Ridgefield and d. Brookfield/Danbury, m. Keziah Abbott. These sons are Rev. Samuel, John Sturdevant III m. Mary Sanford, and James Sturdevant the First.

It would be extremely helpful to be able to determine/verify which of the grandsons a sample came down from. This would require finding a marker, or markers, that shows a variation between the lines. This would enable people such as C3 know not only that they are descendants of William, but the how of that descent.

The only way to do that is to try testing different markers (locations).

So we are beginning that process. C11 and I (C1) are adding the additional 15 markers DNA Heritage is making available. C11 is believed to be down from James I, and I am down from John III. Hopefully a variation between the two samples will appear.

If not, I have made the offer that I will make a 67 marker sample through Family Tree DNA’s program available if somebody would like to match it.

Stay tuned for the results.
All above information is based on and appears in 3 different documents:
The Results All PDF
Marker Comparison
DE lines as DNA

jSS

Lots of Activity on the 6th Anniversary of our Project

• C11 carries the DE spelling is a descendant of William through great grandson James Sturdevant I b. ~1736 CT. He is through Caleb, son of James, and the results are, as expected, identical to those of C10, another descendant of James through Azor.
• Updated Results All pdf With this new result I have updated the Results All pdf. This will be the last update to be a one page view.
• Updated DE spelling Tree A new DE spelling result requires the family tree to be updated.
• FTDNA results found! Thanks to an alert participant, additional St*r**v*nt results have been found at World Families.net. The document linked here provides a comparison of these Family Tree DNA results with those of this project. There is one 67 marker result, surname variation not identified, and two 12 marker results with the DI spelling variation. None of these 3 matches any in our project

Another result in the pipeline

A TE spelling result, A5, is coming.
Stay Tuned!

jSS

As part of that request I have updated the ySTR marker comparison document with a new one. I had expected a lot of change in the offerings. But really not much. EthnoAncestry dropped the 45 markers in favor of a high price 22 marker test. DNA Heritage is in process of making 15 new markers available. FTDNA still has the gold standard of 67 markers tested and Ancestry still has its 33 and 44 marker tests available.

You can access this document here: ySTR marker and company comparison

It is a pdf document as usual, 3 pages of the new info plus a 4th page that is the results_all document.

I will be blogging about the new result soon.

Thanks,

jSS

Within here are some nice distribution maps:
I1 - The DE spelling
R1b - TE/TI/DI spelling
R1a - Our Stardevant Participant

jSS

Along with it was the link to all the results pdf. all results

I would have been remiss not to include the TE spelling participants as diagrammed by Paul, with the relation back to England.

It is here: TE/TI spelling graphical tree

We do not have a similar diagram for the DI spelling participants. Anybody with an interest in those results is welcome to try their hand. I will post it to the website.

By the way, please, if there is anything you think should be added to the project website or files please let me know. We have lots of room to post things.

All pdf documents can be found here: All PDF

Please be aware there is some wrong assumptions in some of these documents so please ask to confirm anything.

I have found the easiest way to prepare these diagrams is to use Excel. Draw and arrange text boxes, format them and connect them by drawing lines. (use the cell outlines to draw tidy boxes of same size, then hide the cell lines when publishing or printing. ) You can export directly to PDF. If you do not have adobe, I believe there is a free plug in on Microsoft office site.

jSS

Happy 2010, twentyTen, 2k10! Another decade starts.

There has been a St*r**v*nt Genetic Project for 6 years in March.

There has been some discussion started by me in the Sturdevant Group on Yahoo! (as Cavuto says constantly - if you dont have it, get it!) that involves the free DNA testing and inclusion in Sorenson Database offered by the Sorenson Molecular Genetic Foundation (SMGF.org).

I came across a reference to the SturDEvant & Patten shipbuilders of the 1850s in a book available on ebay. I was curious as to the spelling, so of course I posted a question about it to the group. As usual, great response, as to correct spelling should beTE, and this SturTEvant was a descendant from Samuel (1640 MA) through grandson Moses.

Those of you who have been following the AJ SturTEvant discussion will immediately pickup on the connection to Sorenson with mention of Moses. There has been a submission to the Sorenson Database of a sample from a documented descendant of Samuel through Moses. Essentially this is an attempt to resolve the appearance of a differing DNA result in the Sorenson database. Since we do not know who submitted the sample we had to confirm this result. Again, a volunteer stepped up from the Sturdevant Group on Yahoo! (grin) and had her brother submit a sample. Thank you again! Unfortunately, it has now been over a year since her sample was submitted. Last update of results in the database was December. Last month.

As a check of results with DNA  Heritage, I submitted a sample to Sorenson as well. I received notice of this sumission in February of last year. This is the problem with a free, totally anonymous DNA database.

Results will come. But When?

So what ?! John Stephan Sturdevant

Well, lets see what other options there are out there and take a tour of the companies and their offerings. It has been a while, posts have been few, recent results have so far been nil. Check out the Resuts All PDF , always available through the Results Link at the top of every page. What needs to be done? What does this page tell you and What Questions does it bring up. What holes can we fill?

Premieres Sunday August 30 on National Geographic Channel

Spencer Wells swabs the cheeks of people from a single street in Queens, New York and runs their DNA. Human Family Home Page.

I hear the story may surprise you. According to Joanne Ostrow, television columnist for the Denver Post newspaper, the city is Queens, NY and this “thoroughly engaging film narrated by Kevin Bacon, proves we’re all only six or so degrees separated from each other.” She notes that the swabs found from that single street carried “genetic markers for virtually all the major human migrations that eventually spread across the continents.” Aritcle

Spencer Wells, of course, is the one who popularized DNA testing through his association with National Geographic and the Journey of Man series, now DVD,  and the Genographic Project, links to which may be found on the Human Family Home Page listed above. According to Ostrow, one of Spencer’s conclusions in this video is

“…probably as few as 2,000 people were alive 70,00 years ago.”

Not sure I will get to watch it tomorrow, (NO Tivo), but looks like I can work my way through it on the website. I will try to comment on it after its airing. Would appreciate any comments or questions that can be addressed from you all as well. Enjoy!

In a nutshell, there was a DNA result for a descendant of AJ SturTEvant found in the Sorenson y-Chromosome database. While the genealogy was a fit to a descendant of Moses, grandson of Samuel, the DNA was not. The values given do not match the other descendants of grandsons of Samuel in this project.

Because the Sorenson database, as a free test, is totally anonymous, we cannot contact this individual to help settle the situation.

How firm is the genealogy? Do we have a non-paternal event somewhere, and if so where?

As the St*r**v*nt Genetic Project does not have a descendant of Samuel’s grandson Moses, we have asked for a volunteer, a known descendant of Moses, to participate through Sorenson as a confirmation of the DNA results. (We have contacted, but not as yet had an offer from another known descendant of AJ SturTEvant to participate in dna testing.)

That volunteer has stepped up, and contributed her brother’s dna to Sorenson. Since Sorenson is not a paid service, does their testing in batches, and verifies pedigrees submitted, it can be a long process for the results to be published. Indeed, they do not even nofify the individual when the results have been published. The only way to find them is to keep searching for them. Which I have been doing on a weekly basis since the sample was returned the middle of September.

The search is simple. Go Here, click to fill the radio buttons for Search by Surname and Approximate, then fill in Sturtevant or Sturdevant for the surname. Scroll down and Hit Search. You should at least see the results for the original submission. It will have STURTEVANT[USA-California], STURTEVANT[USA-Maine] on the right, below the results. Click on the Pedigree button to the left to see the genealogy submitted with this result.

So that is where we stand on this subject. I will continue to let you know when we have something. This is a long term project and I encourage any and all interested in one of the variants of our surname to participate either through the free service at Sorenson or the paid services such as DNA Heritage, Family Tree DNA, or Ancestry.com.
Thanks!
jSS

We are dealing here with results thruogh Ancestry.com/dna and the Sorenson y-chromosome database.

I have kept this document at 1 page, small file size, (just over 200kb), for a reason. If you print it, it will print at 94%, and you can see the big picture of dna testing. It does not matter so much what the individual values are, what matters is whether they are the same value at same location or not. The colored groups represent individual family lines, descendants of Samuel of MA, John of VA, and William of CT. You can see that within these groups there are only 1 or 2 mismatches out of over 100 locations. Within these groups, the individuals are very closely related.

Keep the printed version on your desk, then use the online version to zoom the document to 100 or 125% to read the notes and follow the links to the individual surname lists. The Andrew Judson Sturtevant link (U1), takes you to the Sorenson search results where this result was found. (had to use a tiny url). If you click on the Pedigree button on that page you can see the genealogy this individual submitted with the result. To recap, this genealogy agrees with RHS. However, the dna does not. There are more than 10 mismatches with the proven results of descendants of Samuel. We do not know, and cannot contact, the individual that submitted this result. Is their genealogy wrong or is there a non paternal event?

F1 is the SturDEVAN result through Ancestry.com. Follow that link to see what is known about this spelling. It is in yellow on the results all pdf because Surprisingly, there is no genetic link to either of the 3 major american spellings, and specifically within the R1b population group representatives (the TE/TI and DI spellings).

We have discussed recently in the Sturdevant Group on Yahoo! that so far there is no close match to this result in any of the other databases, representing about 80,000 individuals.
Help us find that match…

jSS