20 March 2025
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DNA testing has become one of the most powerful tools in family history research, helping genealogists break through brick walls and uncover long-lost connections. In this interview, genetic genealogist John Cleary shares how he first got started with DNA testing, his favourite aspects of working with DNA, and advice for anyone wanting to use DNA to solve family mysteries.
How did you first get into DNA?
Someone suggested I take a Y-67 test many years ago as I was interested in surname history. I was sceptical then, but the results were fascinating, and since then I have done all the tests.
What do you really enjoy about DNA?
Solving mysteries and puzzles over how people are related.
John will be speaking at this year's DNA Discoveries online event!
BanyanDNA: a power tool for solving genealogical problems
Date & Time: 24th March, 6:30 PM
Speaker: John Cleary
Details: Join us for John Cleary’s presentation which will guide Banyan beginners in building complex trees and solving the relationship between clusters of matches
Tickets: Buy Individual Ticket - £12 | Buy Bundle
Can you recall a lightbulb moment when using DNA?
The release of the original WATO calculator back around 2017, showing how we could crack mysteries by crunching results from multiple DNA tests together.
What’s your top tip you’d like to share for people using DNA for family history?
Always have a particular family mystery you want to solve, and use all the evidence you can, like documentary research and family knowledge, alongside the DNA tests you do.
Tell us about the DNA education activities you’re involved in
I have just been working with the other authors on the new edition of DNA – A Guide for Family Historians, published by Pen & Sword.
Tell us about any DNA projects or organisations that you’re involved with
I am involved in surname projects for my own surname (in its Irish form) Ó Cléirigh, Kemp (my mother’s surname), and Cummings—partly because I have been researching the history of the Scottish Comyn and Cumming families. I also assist with the big geographical Scottish DNA Project, and I advise a US-based lineage society for the descendants of an English Puritan-era settler, Isaac Cummings, on their DNA research.
Find out more about John Cleary’s specialisms at: www.qualifiedgenealogists.org/profiles/cleary and at: https://researchportal.hw.ac.uk/en/persons/john-cleary
