My name is Terry (Burnett) Barwin and I am the administrator of the Burnett YDNA Genealogy Project on Family Tree DNA. We are looking for male, Burnett surname descendants to participate in our research. This is a group of men who have tested their Y-DNA. My two brothers tested and, since they have little interest in genealogy, I manage their results. The Y-DNA test is very different from the well-known autosomal test that so many people have taken to learn their heritage and to find matching relatives in the past few generations.
The Y-DNA test is focused on deep ancestry of the male testers paternal line. The Y chromosome is passed from father to son, to son, and so on. Only men have this chromosome and they receive it only from their father so it is wonderful at helping to break a genealogical brick wall in a male surname line. This chromosome doesn’t change very rapidly over time so, unlike the common autosomal test, it is effective at identifying men with a common ancestor that could be eight or more generations into the past. The common autosomal test is not very effective beyond four or five generations.
Many of the members in our group are American and have not been able to identify their European ancestors due to the scarcity of available records between 1700 and 1850,. We are hoping to find male European Burnett’s who are willing to participate who may be able to help some of our groups to identify their European ancestors.
The Y-DNA test represents a far lesser privacy concern. It does not identify matching relatives outside your Burnett line and there is no publicly available website like GEDMatch for YDNA testers. YDNA results are maintained only on Family Tree DNA (FTDNA.com) and there is no need to make your results public.
If you are interested in participating, please contact me at terrybarwin@gmail.com.
Regards,
Terry
Terry Barwin