The Raeburn Surname DNA Project will analyze a Y-chromosome test on any male descendant with the Raeburn surname. Women may participate by recruiting a brother, father, or other male relative with the Raeburn surname. The results will be maintained to match future Raeburn participants. Current participants' results and genealogies can be viewed on this website.

FamilyTreeDNA provides a group discount for its registered surname projects. We recommend at least the 37 marker Y-DNA test. This test through the project is $189 plus postage, a $70 savings over the regular price of $259.

Confidentiality is an important part of this study. Only the participant providing the DNA sample will know his results, unless he decides he would like to share his information.

1. Determine if two people with your surname are related (and descend from the same ancestor).
2. Identify your ancestry when traditional documentary genealogical research methods have failed (provide clues or solve brick walls).
3. Identify where to focus and pursue additional traditional documentary genealogical research.
4. Verify that your traditional documentary genealogical work is accurate and scientifically verified (confirm a family tree).
5. Determine if other surnames are variants of your surname
6. Be an early participant in a state-of-the-art project that is contributing to the world knowledge base for this new and exciting field, genealogy by genetics.

DNA Analysis

How does DNA analysis indicate whether two individuals are related within the time period of present day genealogy?

Testing the Y-Chromosome

The Y-Chromosome has definable segments of DNA with known genetic characteristics. These segments are known as Markers. These markers occur at an identifiable physical location on a chromosome known as a Locus. Each marker is designated by a number (known as DYS#), according to international conventions. You will often find the terms Marker and Locus used interchangeably, but technically the Marker is what is tested and the Locus is where the marker is located on the chromosome.

Although there are several types of markers used in DNA studies, the Y-Chromosome test uses only one type. The marker used is called a Short Tandem Repeat (STR). STRs are short sequences of DNA, (usually 2, 3, 4, or 5 base pairs long), that are repeated numerous times in a head-tail manner. The 16 base pair sequence of "gatagatagatagata" would represent 4 repeats of the sequence "gata". These repeats are referred to as Allele. The variation of the number of repeats of each marker enables discrimination between individuals.

Reading the Test Results

The table below is a short version of the actual table used to show our DNA test results. It shows 12 of the most commonly tested markers.

The numbers (1-12) across the top of the table are the marker numbers. They have no significance other than as an easy way to refer to the marker. Note: FamilyTree DNA refers to these numbers as Locus. The second set of numbers across the top of the matrix are DYS# (the actual marker names). 

The numbers down the left side of the table identify the Testing Kit # in the DNA project.

The rest of the numbers are the Allele (the number repeats) for each participant at the specified marker. 

What Does it Mean

An individual's test results have little meaning on their own. You cannot take these numbers, plug them into some formula and find out who your ancestors are. The value of the test results depends on how your results compare to other test results. When you match someone else, it will only indicate that you and the person you match share a common ancestor. Depending on the number of markers tested and the number of matches, it will indicate with a degree of probability how long ago this common ancestor existed. It will not show exactly who this ancestor is.

As discussed above, the Y-Chromosome is passed from father to son. The vast majority of the time the father passes an exact copy of his Y-Chromosome to his son. This means that the markers of the son are identical to those of his father. However on rare occasion there is a mutation or change in one of the markers.

Mutations occur at random. This means it is possible for two distant cousins to match exactly on all markers while two brothers might not match exactly. Because of the random nature of mutations we must use statistics and probability to estimate the Time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA). The actual calculations of TMRCA are mathematically complex and depend on knowing the rate of mutation and the true number of mutations. At this time there is not enough data to accurately determine either of these factors so certain assumptions have to be made. The discussion of these assumptions and the actual calculations are beyond the scope of this webpage.