Need HELP understanding of the full uses contained in my YDNA-111 Certificate (R-M269), under Kit No. 920533.

Question

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I’m a retired super senior and old-style genealogist with very limited understanding of the full uses contained in my YDNA-111 Certificate (R-M269), under Kit No. 920533.

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I respectfully seek assistance to look at my Certificates and advise me how to better use of these materials to link from my 3rd grandfather, James Milton Davis (Davis - 33201) from King & Queen Co., Virginia to those Unknown Davis that came before him. His 1880 Census for the same County, indicated his both Parents were born in Virginia. It should also noted, my research efforts have been shortened due to The Clerk’s Offices of King and Queen County, Virginia having several fires during and after the Civil War.

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Answer 1

Hi Calvin:

Since you tested at FamilyTreeDNA, you should (once logged in there) look at https://www.familytreedna.com/my/y-dna-matches to see if there are any test-takers with Davis last names who match you at 111 markers - these are your best bet to be related to you within the last 500 years or so.

You may also want to join the Davis family project there (https://www.familytreedna.com/my/group-join?group=Davis&). They have more than 1100 descendants of Davises who have shared their Y-DNA data and ancestry, and they will probably be best placed to tell you which ancestral line is most similar to your Y-DNA results.

Note that "R-M269" in itself is not very informative - a very large percentage of Western Europeans are in that haplogroup (around 110 million men living today, according to Wikipedia). What is key here are the details in your 111 STR markers, and how they match up to other Davises within the R-M269 haplogroup.

Comments

Thanks for your comment! What can I do to close in on possiblr Virginia relations?

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The Y-DNA test will be of little use for 19th-century Virginia ancestors (unless you happen to have an extremely close match). For the purpose of getting past your King and Queen Co. brickwall, your autosomal DNA test at ancestry.com will probably be more useful - have you had any Davis DNA matches at ancestry.com who also come from that part of Virginia?

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Thanks for your valuable time to answer my question. It back to the basics!