Crow DNA Project

 My work in the Crow Project has focused on the use of Y-DNA. This specialized test is different than the at home commercial DNA test you have surely heard of. Both tests are extremely useful. Y-DNA is wonderful for matching just the male Y chromosome to others in terms of thousands of years. The autosomal DNA test looks at the 22 autosomes and is great for family matching going back six or so generations. This test is the one where you receive an ethnicity reading of all your family lines.  Many have tested their Y chromosome with our Crow Y-DNA Project at Family Tree DNA. The issue many of you have is that you do not have a male relative that carries the the surname Crow for Y-DNA testing. Or that the cost of the more expensive Y-DNA test is out of your financial reach. This is where the autosomal test can help our study. On sale, the autosomal test typical runs between 59.00 and 79.00 US dollars. The next big sale runs in November. Even if a family member has already tested, it is s

We recently hit a giant milestone in our Y-DNA Project. We have 40 completed BigY700 DNA kits out of 110 testers. That is nearing 40 percent of all testers!  The BigY reads 40 million areas of the Y chromosome and is the best DNA kit to determine genetic distance between family members. The 40 kits have resulted in several families being branched off from one another in the last 270 years. Our extensive testing has revealed that our Y chromosome is mutating slower than the average family, resulting in less defined family branches. This has been frustrating as the genetic family tree has not given some of us the answers we were looking for. This has been furthered aggravated by a paper trail that does not exist between 1700-1750, the crucial years we are looking to piece back together. But we have made many discoveries and the effort has been rewarding. There are two kinds of Y tests. STR (short tandem repeats) and SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) are genetic mutations found along

 Using top level Y DNA testing on Crow/Crowe descendants, we are able to follow genetic variations along the male Y Chromosome, otherwise known as "SNP''s. (single nucleotide polymorphisms) These SNP's happen at random among men. This top level test allows us to recreate the modern family tree. My fascination with using Y DNA is partly because the paper genealogy is near minimal for any branch of the family prior to 1800. The other reason is the amount of incorrect information attached to thousands of trees on all the genealogical sites. It is just too easy to assume that James is the father of John, when hundreds of trees say so. This is where we apply Y DNA, by finding out exactly which Crows are related to who. For instance, in early Spartanburgh, there are three unrelated Crow families living side by side. The Gold, Red and Teal families identified by color in our Y DNA Project. Some of these families could have been the result of adoption or some other event that