Will a DNA test confirm a connection to Jonathan Singletary Dunham

Question

Hi,

I have been able to trace one of my family roots back to my 6^th Great-Grandmother, Sarah Dunham (B:? and D: 1818), and I believe she might be a descendant of Jonathan (Singletary) Dunham (bef. 1639 – 1724).  WikiTree has some information about both of them. 

I can trace my Sarah Dunham to Lamington NJ in WikiTree and I noticed that Jonathan Singletary Dunham once resided only about 15 miles from there.  So, I'm thinking that a descendant of Jonathan Singletary Dunham might have been the parent of my Sarah Dunham, who later married a Jones.

WikiTree also seems to have some DNA information pertaining to Jonathan Singletary Dunham.  If I submit my DNA to WikiTree will I be able to prove if Sarah Dunham (as well as me) is or isn't connected to Jonathan (Singletary) Dunham?

Answer 1

Hi Dana - and welcome to Wikitree!

A couple of separate issues:

1) DNA matching itself is not done on Wikitree; instead, you need to submit your DNA to one of the testing firms (ancestry.com, MyHeritage, 23andme, FamilyTreeDNA, or possibly others) and see whether they match you with a Dunham there. In addition, once you have had your DNA tested there, you can upload your DNA to GEDmatch.com to look for additional matches. All the DNA information on Wikitree does is to give you leads for possible matches to look for on these other services.

2) The only DNA testing information I see on the profile for Jonathan Singletary Dunham (Singletary-40) is for a Y-DNA test performed by Perry Donham. Y-DNA is passed down from fathers to sons, but not to daughters, so that information will unfortunately not help in establishing whether Sarah Dunham is related to Jonathan Singletary Dunham.