About us
The goals of the Walsh-Welch-Welsh surnames project is to help sort out the families into extended family groups and clans as is appropriate. We want to gain a deeper understanding of our origins and migrations of our male lineages, while helping you find family paternal lineages and deep ancestral origins. An important role of the project is to support DNA testing steps that will help identify where you fit within with our surnames group and for your haplogroup.
Variants of our surname include: le Waleys, Walsch, Walsh, Walshe, Welch, Welsh, Walensis, Walynus. This is NOT a project for other surnames even if they are of Welsh (country of Wales) descent There is a Wales DNA project at FTDNA
Please read this web page entirely. Below you will find:
Project Considerations and Operations
Key Steps to Take
1. You must have a test result with Family Tree DNA (FTDNA.) To read more about Y DNA testing check the DNA FAQ item in the menu above. National Genographic Project testers can easily join, but first you must transfer your test results to FTDNA by following the instructions at your National Genographic web page. Genographic customers, like all members, must order Y STRs or they will not appear on the project screens and in the Y matching system.2. To join this project click on JOIN in the graphic banner above and login with your FTDNA account ID and password.
3. Update your myFTDNA dashboard by clicking on MANAGER PERSONAL INFORMATION. This is critical to finding potential relatives and understanding origins.
3A. Make sure your privacy settings are correct for the project. Click on the tab PRIVACY & SHARING. Look under MY DNA RESULTS for the question "Who can view my DNA results in group projects?". Change to ANYONE if not already.
3B. Update your Paternal Ancestor name and origins. Click on the tab PERSONAL PROFILE tab and scroll down to update your paternal origins information from the MyFTDNA dashboard after logged into. Select MOST DISTANT ANCESTORS and complete the information for your PATERNAL DIRECT most distant (oldest) ancestor. Please enter only information that is not speculative. Enter first and last names, birth year and as specific a birth and origin location as you can in the NAME field. For example, “James Welch, b.c.1812, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland”. For the COUNTRY OF ORIGIN field, please be as specific as possible. For instance, rather than select UNITED KINGDOM please pick either ENGLAND, IRELAND, NORTHERN IRELAND, SCOTLAND OR WALES if you know the origin. Add the latitude and longitude information as well so that the automatic maps can be drawn properly. If you don't know, that is okay. Unknown may be the best answer.
4. Join the Facebook discussion group for Walsh, Welch, Welsh and variant surnames genealogy. It is at www.facebook.com/groups/walshwelchwelshfamilies
5. If you have not yet tested to 111 Y STRs (Short Tandem Repeats) please upgrade, at least as far as you can budget. It is hard to discern between subgroups and potential relatives oftentimes without 67 STRs. 111 STR testing is clearly preferable and a better deal in terms of cost per STR, but 67 is the minimum needed. To learn more, read http://www.familytreedna.com/learn/y-dna-testing/y-str/upgrading-markers-improve-information/
More STRs can help...
a) identify your signature markers, guiding you on SNP/haplogroup testing and saving money on that kind of testing,
b) provide additional and better matches on your myFTDNA matches screen, even new matches can show up,
c) improve precision for Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) estimates,
d) and going all the way to 111 Y STRs supports family tree building when you reach brick walls in your genealogy, since the 111 STR panel is estimated to have a change once every three generations.
SNPs can be ordered one at a time from FTDNA by logging into your myFTDNA account, selecting the blue UPGRADES button and then scrolling down to the ADVANCED TESTS box and the BUY NOW button. SNP Packs can also be ordered here.
6A. Big Y700 is the preferred test. It is probably the most important test you can take. It is a Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) test that discovers new SNPs by scanning over 14 million locations on the Y chromosome. The tremendous benefit in this is you will discover SNPs for just your paternal lineage as well as identify ancient SNPs that you may share with many, many other people. Big Y has the ability to discover SNPs that are pertinent to the genealogical timeframe, the last couple of hundred years. The Big Y learning web site has more details. https://www.familytreedna.com/learn/y-dna-testing/big-y/ Please read the Lewis and Clark Expedition analogy for Big Y exploration on the FAQ page. https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/Walsh/faq/
If you have a true interest in genetic genealogy and breaking beyond the brickwalls of your genealogical records, please strongly consider both Big Y to determine your haplogroup down to a very recent timeframe and 111 STRs so that you can refine your close-in family and surname mutation history tree.
7. Please consider the Facebook discussion group for Walsh, Welch, Welsh and variant surnames genealogy. It is at www.facebook.com/groups/walshwelchwelshfamilies
Project Considerations and Operations
The project administrators are volunteers and do not represent the vendors nor receive special benefits.
This is a public project. The more of us who test and share our information, the more we will all know. When you join this project, you are granting permission to place your Y SNP and STR data into the public domain, from which it can never be retrieved. We do not publish your full given name or contact info.
This is a Y DNA haplogroup project. Actively participating involves Y SNP testing. SNP testing is required to be assigned to a subgrouping.
Thank you for your consideration. Please review the Results web page. https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/walsh/about/results
If you have questions please post on the discussion group at www.facebook.com/groups/walshwelchwelshfamilies
Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) are critical as they are very stable, rarely mutating.
Many of these branches have coincidentally matching Y STRs. In other words, their branches appear to cross. This gives us false matches.This is definitely a problem with limited haplotypes of 12 and 25 STR markers. Getting up to 37 helps, but 67 is really needed and 111 is the new standard.
STRs are very useful for general guidance and for matching at the very recent family level, but they are not 100% reliable since some mutate relatively quickly and go both up and down and back to where they started from.
SNPs are much more reliable markers for our paternal lineages. Theoretically, they are permanent throughout eternity so they reliably show our branching of paternal lineages. The number of SNPs available for testing is growing as more and more advanced testing is developed. You will want to identify your terminal SNP, which is the youngest SNP mutation that you have, that is on a formal Y DNA tree. Your terminal SNP tells you where you fit from a deep ancestral perspective.
SNPs help...
a) make you more efficient by avoiding false matches when checking for potential genealogical relationships,
b) help you identify deep ancestral family, clan or historical origins,
c) show you what geographic locations might produce additional matches and pertinent genealogical or historical information and
d) benefit all people in general, as well as science, because we'll have a better understanding of how and when this lineage of men spread across Europe as rapidly and as dominantly as it did.
For additional information on SNP testing please visit http://dna-explained.com/2012/08/10/to-snp-or-not-to-snp/
Frequently Asked Questions on Y DNA are answered on this FTDNA project FAQ page
Why DNA testing at a full platform genetic genealogy company?
Why Y STRs and how are they used?
Why Y SNPs and how are they used?
Why Big Y Next Generation Sequencing?
Should I upgrade Y STRs, even if I have limited or no matches?