DNA testing through the O'Hara DNA Project & Alternatives
Dear Webmaster,
The web page for the
O’Hara DNA project
has changed. The new link is:
Are you interested
in "Deep" ancestry?
Currently for Ireland we have
Western
Atlantic Modal Haplogroup, North West Irish (Associated with Niall of
the
nine hostages), South Irish and Irish Type III for Haplogroup R1b (the
most
common Haplogroup in Europe. Haplogroup I is probably Viking and
Haplogroup
E3b and other smaller haplogroups probably Roman. We have only one
Haplogroup I in the project the rest are R1b's. The guy with the 67
marker
test is near modal for Irish Type III; Dennis Wright used him in
determining
the modal for that group. My cousin is Northwest Irish and FTDNA gives
him
the Niall label on his page, he also tested positive for M222 which is
the
SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) associated with this group.
There are some other alternatives to DNA
testing through the O'Hara
project
at FTDNA (Family Tree DNA). National Geographic's Genographic project
is a
lower cost (and lower resolution, only 12 markers) test that can be
upgraded
into the O'Hara DNA project since FTDNA actually does the test:
Another alternative (and free) is the
SMGF (Sorenson Molecular
Genealogy
Foundation):
As a research project there is no
promise that you will ever see your
results and certainly no time commitment either! You have to do all
your own
legwork on this but the price is good! I found an O'Hara in England
with the
middle name "Hamilton" that was common in his family; it is also common
in
my family and he would not commit to pay for the regular test and did
agree
to this SMGF test. I had my cousin also do the SMGF test so they can
compare
results at some point in the future. Since SMGF uses some different
markers
from FTDNA it is impossible to compare with much confidence with tests
from
different companies. Usually in 1 to 2 years you can find all or part
of
your results in their database, I did their test in 2001 and am still
missing about 1/4 of the markers. To do the SMGF test you do have to
provide
a pedigree chart, their test is a mouthwash test and they pay postage
both
ways! Currently there are no O'Hara's in their database, I will get
excited
and start checking when the surname shows up; I already have my
cousin's
numbers programmed into a search link.
Here is a good link on DNA:
Thanks,
Gary Blakely
Fort Worth, Texas, USA