Sunday, July 05, 2015

Not Irish but Native American DNA

From KUHF Houston:

Y-DNA test reveals ‘Irish-American’ is actually Native American
6 April 2012


Amateur genealogist Steve Woodall believed that his direct male-line ancestors, and carriers of the Woodall surname, descended from Irish stock. But, despite years of research, he could not reach further back than his 3 x great-grandfather, William Wagner Woodall, born in 1818 in North Carolina.

To get past the dead end, Steve turned to DNA testing – and got an unexpected result. He told KUHF Houston Public Radio, “We got the DNA test that says that it appears that we’re Native Americans and we’re like what? We’re what?”

Steve’s European appearance gave no hint of Native American heritage, yet Family Tree DNA confirmed his Y-DNA haplogroup as Q1a3a1. This haplogroup is strictly associated with the indigenous peoples of the Americas and is defined by the genetic marker M3, which occurred on the Q lineage roughly 10-15 thousand years ago as the migration from Siberia into the Americas was in progress. Steve is now searching for Y-DNA matches with other Q1a3a1 males through FTDNA and ysearch, to enable him to track his Native American lineage before William Wagner Woodall. He has already discovered 4 other Woodalls whose markers match.

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