Can DNA Break Through a Brick Wall?

In Journey #33 I explain the largest and strongest brick wall in my genealogy research: my great grandfather Joseph Henry Lowe (see later posts to learn how this brick wall was broken down).

After several years of banging my head against this brick wall, I decided I needed a new strategy. Everyone said DNA was the way to break through. So I attended seminars and researched DNA options.

As my brick wall was my father’s father’s father, I decided that Y-DNA might be the solution. Y-DNA is passed from father to son to son and so on. The Y chromosome from a father never mixes with DNA from the mother, and is only passed to male children. As a result, it creates an unbroken line back as far as it can go. Although the Y-DNA test is much more expensive than regular DNA, called autosomal, I decided this was my best shot.

But as a woman, I can’t take a Y-DNA test since I don’t have any Y-DNA. I would need DNA from a male in that line of the family.

Although my father was long gone, I had a brother and he agreed to take the test, which was a cheek swab sent off to Family Tree DNA (the only company currently offering Y-DNA testing for genealogical use).

Six weeks later I was notified that the results were in. With great anticipation, I logged into the website and brought up the report. As Y-DNA follows the male line, and surnames are passed from father to son along with the Y chromosome, Y-DNA tests are known for being a great way to follow the ancestral line of surname.

As a result of this, I expected the report to show a list of Lowes. To my surprise (and disappointment), of the scant 111 matches, there was only one Lowe — and that was at a genetic distance of 2 using 25 markers.

I had ordered a 67 marker test, but others had chosen fewer markers as the more markers, the more expensive the test. The person who matched had chosen only 25. This meant that even though it showed a genetic distance of 2, the relationship was not close.

So where were all the Lowes who should have been in the report? And where did the other surnames in the list come from? I asked experts and although the answers made sense, they were of little help.