Finding Your Family History by Robert Cox , MVHA Vice President
Tracing Your Paternal Line With Y-DNA Testing
Most people who have taken DNA test from a popular testing service like Ancestry , MyHeritage , or 23 & Me have taken an autosomal DNA test . This kind of test matches all a person ’ s chromosomes with others who have taken the same test and have repeated sequences of DNA in common on one of more chromosomes . Such tests are relatively inexpensive and are good at identifying people who have a common ancestor within the last 4-6 generations . If you are stuck advancing past a brick wall on some ancestral line , finding a DNA cousin who shares a common ancestor with you on that line and has records that document it can help you make new progress .
But is there any hope of getting back past those 4-6 generations on any family line ? For males there is ! This is because each male has a Y-chromosome which is passed down generally unchanged from his father to him . But every couple hundred years or so , there is a mutation in that Y-chromosome . Genetic genealogists have tracked these mutations and used them to construct migration maps . By taking a Y-DNA test and matching the result these migration maps , you can determine what path your paternal ancestors took out of East Africa ( the birthplace of genetic ADAM ) to their more recent homelands .
Here is the migration map for my paternal line . It starts in East Africa , goes through the Middle East , and the passes through what is now Turkey into Europe .
Personalized migration maps are provided by Family Tree DNA for those who take one of their Y-DNA tests . These tests are somewhat more expensive than the common autosomal tests , usually about $ 119 . Family Tree DNA also supports DNA projects for people with specific or similar surnames . The Cox group has 1145 members who share each other ’ s DNA tests to find common ancestors .
Note that females can also find their paternal migration maps if their brother , paternal uncle , or paternal grandfather will take a Y-DNA test .
Mountain View Family History
Spotlight
Former Mayor Ronit ( Shamgar ) Bryant ’ s family history is filled with international travel , punctuated with moments of tragedy . Ronit ’ s father ’ s family lived in the
Ukraine and Rumania . Like many Europeans of Jewish descent , Ronit ’ s paternal grandparents were victims of the Holocaust , dying in German concentration camps .
In the 1930s , Ronit ’ s father and mother both immigrated to what is now Israel , but at the time was the British mandate in Palestine . Ronit ’ s father had a gift for foreign languages , a gift Ronit inherited . As a young man in World War II , he enlisted in the British navy and became a British liaison officer on an Italian ship . Once Israel became an independent state , he joined the Israeli army and later served in the Israeli foreign service .
Ronit was born in Jerusalem in 1951 . When she was a young girl , her family lived in many countries , including Poland , France , Israel , Brazil , and Italy . Ronit remembers her time in Rome , Italy , as one of the bright spots of her youth .
Ronit met her future husband Cliff Bryant while Cliff was teaching English in Israel . Cliff was Ronit ’ s first and only great love . The couple came to the Bay Area when Cliff decided to pursue a career in computing . Ronit and Cliff raised their three children , Yonatan , Astra , and Kira here in Mountain View . The children now live in the Chicago and Seattle areas .
On almost any day of the week , you can see Cliff and Ronit together , walking their dog along the streets of Old Mountain View . While many retire from public life after being mayor , Ronit has continued to serve our city on the Parks and Recreation Commission , advocating for parks , open space , and the preservation of our heritage trees . I continue to be inspired by one of the bumper stickers on Ronit ’ s car , which proclaims “ Democracy is not a spectator sport .” Above all , Ronit has been a community leader who has lived her values .
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