Canton Family History

It has been interesting and good for me to take a test. As you will realise, as I’m female, it isn’t a Y-DNA test but, rather a test of my mitochondrial DNA, passed to me by my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and so on through aeons.  

FTDNA received my request on 10 May and the kit arrived yesterday, 22 May, which is good going for the mail services involved. I fitted in the three separate scrapings of inside my cheek, each 3-4 hours apart, and the phials into which the brushes had to be put will be posted back today.  

So, obviously interesting, and good for the project administrator to go through the procedure - I can say from personal experience that it is quite painless, with good detailed instructions to be read before you start.

I am really looking forward to the results. As I have two daughters, one of whom also has a daughter, it will represent their mtDNA too, and the same applies to my sisters and nieces. Really I am taking the test for two main reasons: 1. because I believe that the more people who do so the better: there are many mysteries to be solved about our early ancestors. 2. time is flying and it is way of leaving something of oneself for descendants.

I am not really expecting to find a distant relation through this means, for when I work back through the generations on paper, my maternal line has mainly just one daughter (from whom I am descended) per generation. On the other hand, hope springs eternal …

CONTACTS WANTED

I wrote a few days ago about some of my latest emails bouncing, addresses clearly out of date. Thanks for the help offered - I’m glad to say I have heard from Jan now.

Apologies for the very long break in writing this blog. I have an illness which is dragging on. When the medication works well, I try to spend time at my laptop, doing family history-related things. So it has been very frustrating that this blog disappeared into thin air several weeks ago and it has taken until now for it to be resurrected. In an attempt to overcome the problem, I set up a different blog temporarily, so apologies also to those who feel confused by yet another change. If this one carries on working, I will be sticking with it. I am still working on how to allow known individuals to comment or ask questions. In the meantime, please contact me at the one-name.org address.

There are several items of news:

The latest resultswere received in April. The participant is a descendant of one of the two Canton brothers who left Reynalton, Pembs, for New Zealand. This is a large line nowadays. Please visit this site to see the results and to compare how close they are to others who have tested - I will write more about this later:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/CantonSurnameProject/

We have two new members registered with the Canton Surname Project - both about 10 days ago, so there is still a wait for the kits to arrive and be returned.

One is a member of another large line of Cantons, descended (yet again) from Henry of Martletwy (d.1763), through Thomas (b. 1798 ) who went to Kent about 1830.

The other is ‘the present writer’, as I have ordered a mitochondrial (mt) DNA test. Not actually of any use to the Y-DNA Project, but if a few others do the same, we may have useful information about deep female ancestry. My own female line (mother’s mother’s mother’s mother, and so on) is deeply South Pembrokeshire. Anyway, I am looking forward to the results.

New Members are still needed! Do write and enquire if you are thinking about it but not quite sure.

Daily Mail article

I have just received the following, which seems worth publishing here in full, from Max Blankfeld, Vice-President, Operations and Marketing, http://www.FamilyTreeDNA.com “History Unearthed Daily” max@familytreedna.com 713-868-1438

‘This week an article was published in the UK newspaper Daily Mail, quoting Ancestors Magazine, under the title: ”£200-a-time ancestral DNA test kits are a rip off, say experts”, by Andrew Levy.‘The article was based on tests by the following companies: Oxford Ancestors, Ancestry DNA, and International Biosciences.‘Family Tree DNA was not contacted for testing purposes, nor mentioned in that article. Having tested over 350,000 individuals (over 100,000 of our direct customers and 250,000 participants in National Geographic’s Genographic Project) we could supply anyone who asks us with thousands of examples that prove the opposite of what the article stated. ‘Unfortunately, the journalist’s conclusion is based on opportunist companies who noted our success and jumped into Genetic Genealogy to get a piece of it, but who did not have the science or the database that would allow for a serious work. Again, note that Family Tree DNA was NOT one of the companies that the journalist approached.‘About 2 years ago, Oxford Ancestors announced to the world that they found a descendant of Genghis Khan living in Florida - a Caucasian accountant. Family Tree DNA proved that Oxford Ancestors was wrong. Tom Robinson, the person in question, recounts the entire story in his blog at http://trrobinson.com/2006/06/16/genghis-khan-or-not–that-is-the-question.aspx#comment-56635. The Associated Press later distributed the news: “Robinson, an associate accounting professor at the University of Miami, canceled a planned trip to Mongolia after learning of the new results. He said he never sought publicity on his ancestry. “The results that Family Tree DNA gave me are pretty conclusive,” he said. “I’m certainly not going to look for any more tests on Genghis Khan.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13467247/ )‘Family Tree DNA is proud to have the largest database of its kind in the world (more than all other companies combined), to adhere to the best science in the field, and to be the expert source for journalists from the New York Times and Los Angeles Times, among others. National Geographic would not tarnish their century-old reputation by partnering with us.‘That article, in the end, demonstrates the following:

- While Family Tree DNA prices are in line with other companies, price is not the only thing that matters when choosing a DNA testing company

- Science and database size are important factors when choosing a testing company.

‘You are welcome to share this e-mail with whomever you feel necessary, and we make ourselves available to anyone with questions about our work.

‘E-mail me anytime!

‘Max Blankfeld’