Hi Harry,
Great to hear from you.
Any YDNA test will only work father to son, that’s the design. Unless I misunderstood ( then I apologize for stating this) using YDNA will only work IF you have an Edwards you strongly believe is connected to your Edwards ancestor, father to son.
For example, I am not a male
Edwards. My YDNA would not do anything to help me figure out the my Edwards brick wall.
I know that Morgan Edwards, 1752, is as far as I go for sure without making possible guesses, so I needed a male I know goes back to Morgan, father to son. I do have cousins that would have worked, but my Uncle is a generation closer to Morgan, so I thought that wise.
So I knew without a doubt that my Uncle’s line is:
Morgan>Daniel>Nicholas Stone>Bolivar Eugene>Clarence Earl> my uncle.
No doubt.
So if you don’t know an Edwards that you know is Truly an a paternal ancestor, no doubt, to your Edwards, YDNA to answer the Edwards question is a waste. The Big Y 700 is great and they do run sales. But only will help a male’s paternal line.
In regards to atDNA, as science gets better, maybe that can get this better as well. But I would not put a lot of faith in doing relying on if even if you added in GedMatch( and there are those who are going be up set with me stating this, but here is an example).
As you see, my Uncle’s Grandfather ( my Great Grandfather) was Bolivar Eugene. He married Mary Etta Barron. Through classical research 20 years ago, I found her back to Waterford, Ireland. It continues on to French nobility a thousand years earlier before they came to I Ireland. I was able to verify as far back as 5 generations with atDNA with Ancestry.
When I transferred the atDNA to the Barron Group in Family DNA, the administrators, very kind and helpful ( one a classical researcher and one a DNA expert) told me I had the wrong Barron Clan. I thought I was Clan 8 and I am Clan 2. Clan 2 were Ulster-Scots taken from their land in the 1600s and in this Clans case, moved to County Down. Exactly where from Scotland is still unknown. However, they had over 500 pages of DNA testing and history to back it up. I had atDNA and they had YDNA. My info was no match against theirs and that is fine because I want the truth.
I am connected to nobility, saints, knights, etc… legitimately verified through DNA. I just want the truth because the truth might be more interesting that what you currently see in a line.
So, YDNA would help if you had a legitimate male Edwards in your line. Again, I apologize if you already knew this. Otherwise, there are pitfalls using atDNA. It’s helpful if not going to far back, like 3 generations, Even with Gedmatch, you’re getting into algorithms how good. Is the information from research of others.
You could do YDNA for Crerar
It’s fun but can be very frustrating, especially if dealing Edwards 1690-1780
Cheers, Jeff