WELCOME! Please Join Our HELTON
Family Project!
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site!!
HELTON FAMILY DNA PROJECT
Setting the Public Switch at FTDNA
The
Helton Family DNA Project seeks to use DNA analysis to enable Helton families
to determine if they share a common ancestor with other Helton families. For ease of developing this page, I have
chosen my family name “Helton” to describe the project. Please be assured that this project is for
all derivatives of the name (Helton, Hilton, Heltons, Hiltons, Hylton, Hyltons,
etc.)
The
project will:
- Develop a table of
genetic patterns of all Helton Families so that Helton researchers can
determine whether their families have a common ancestor with other Helton
families
- Encourage Helton
researchers to submit DNA samples.
- Share the results with
all participants in the project and make the results publicly available on
the internet with appropriate considerations for privacy of participants
We
are a young project and we need representatives from YOUR line. Please find someone from your tree who
qualifies and submit a test as soon as you can!
The
project uses high technology DNA analysis to determine whether families share a
common ancestor. The male chromosome is
passed down virtually unchanged from father to son. So, two male Helton 7th cousins
would have virtually the same male DNA pattern.
This scientific fact is useful in genealogy when one does not have
documentary records to show a family connection despite circumstantial evidence
that suggest a family connection. If the
DNA of the descendants of the branches one is trying to connect do not have the
same DNA pattern, then one knows they are not closely related. If the pattern does match, then there is a
common ancestor at some point in the past lineage. The technology can’t pinpoint how many
generations back the ancestor is, but it can tell us if there is a common
ancestor.
Participants
joining the project are sent a lab kit in the mail. The kit includes a “Q” tip or toothbrush type
of instrument that one rubs along the inside of one’s cheek with for 30 to 60
seconds. Then the swab is placed in an
envelope and mailed to the lab. That’s
all it takes.
Within 6 to 8 weeks, results are available for the sample
submitted. When enough samples are
collected to make comparisons between branches of the family, a summary sheet
will be supplied to each participant indicating which branches were shown to
have a common ancestor.
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A
fellow researcher sent the following page that contains a list of good
resources for genealogists. If you have
a good website for that we should list here, let me know.
MY FACTS PAGE - GENEALOGY
RESOURCES
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To help the pay the costs of
donations FTDNA has funds set up for each project. If you would like to help defray the cost of
tests for other people go to http://www.familytreedna.com/contribution.html. Be sure to specify the donation is to be
given to the “Helton” project. Thank you
for your generosity!
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The Hilton and Helton names
can be traced back to the Hylton name.
The Conrad Hilton ancestors immigrated from
See AncestryUK.com (http://www.ancestryuk.com/HyltonVikings.htm)
for more information and a newsletter (http://www.ancestryuk.com/HyltonFHSNews1.htm). Hylton
Castle in England was built around 1400.
The AncestryUK.com site has a wealth of information to read. It describes the Hylton/Helton/Hilton name as
follows:
The original spelling of the family name is believed to be Hyltun, meaning "an enclosure on a hill" - "Hyl" meaning a hill and the word "tun" used originally to describe a fence, then an enclosure, a farm, and eventually it evolved into the word "town".
The earliest written record of the Helton/Hylton/Hilton name that survives occurs on a charter between Alexander de Helton and Bishop Hugh who made a convention with the Prior of Durham, England, relative to the chapel of Hylton, where Hylton Castle now stands in 1172 A.D.
With the invasion of
When King Richard II, the last
of the Plantaganet kings was deposed in 1399 and King Henry IV (house of
"Helton" became "Hylton".
The letter "y" was used instead of "i" until the beginning of the 17th century when Hylton started to be spelt "Hilton".
In the early days, the name was recorded by someone who could write, normally the local preacher, who often wrote down what he heard, and two branches of the same family are recorded as both Hylton and Hilton
Some branches of the family retained the "Helton" spelling, some the "Hylton" spelling and some adopted the "Hilton" spelling. All three spellings of the name can be seen on legal documents of the same family;
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The Helton Family DNA project
seeks to include data from the various Helton DNA projects and incorporate
their data. Family Tree DNA’s (FTDNA)
laboratory is recommended. It is affiliated
with Dr. Michael Hammer and the
Other
projects use other labs, but the results cannot be loaded into the FTDNA
database. However, if you send us the
results we will match them with the members data in this project and we will
add the results to our display.
By ordering through FTDNA you
receive project group rates, which are less expensive than standard rates. The following Y-chromosome DNA tests are
available. Please see the FTDNA
website for availability of other types of DNA testing.
The 12 marker test is best at ruling out relatedness with another participant,
but is of limited value in genealogy and is not recommended. The 25 marker test is more refined. And FTDNA is now
offering the 37 marker test. Whichever
you choose now can always be upgraded later for an additional fee.
Other kits are available for
testing Haplogroups.
By ordering the kit through our project you are agreeing to have your results incorporated with other tests and displayed on this site.
Click
here, to order a DNA Sample Kit, or email one of the administrators
for assistance. Please note, that when
you order your sample kit online you may string other email addresses in the
email contact information. Separate them
by a semicolon. For example: InterestedParty1@xxx.com;
InterestedParty2@xxx.com.
You
may include anyone you wish, such as anyone who took part in paying for your
test. When you receive the test, you will find a release form. Please complete it and return it with your
sample. This will make your results
(numbers only, no personal information) accessible in online searches of the
FTDNA database and will enable FTDNA to notify you of future matches. However, it does not make your information
available to other surname projects or Ysearch.
We strongly
encourage all participants to make their results public in the FTDNA database and in YSearch
or Mito Search (if you have done a
mitochondrial test). (Information at
this link was gratefully obtained from Phillip Hawkins on his excellent Hawkins
surname project.
Lastly, if you would email your
family tree to us, minus living people, we would really appreciate it, so we
can add it to this site. If you have
your data on a website you may send the address for that. Please let us know if you would be willing to be a
coordinator for your specific Helton line.
If you do we post your name and email address as a contact for anyone
wishing to get more information or to find other people in the tree. The time commitment should be small.
For
more information, contact the project co-administrators: Cherie Ohlsson (cherie_ohlsson@yahoo.com), Michael
Helton (rchoutmin@hughes.net), or
John Pace (jpace33467@yahoo.com).
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Regarding the Private/public
setting that participants may select: This switch, by default, is set to
private. A participant may change this to public by going to his Personal Page,
and clicking on Update Contact Information. Near the bottom of the new
page you will see - “Private
Restrict match notifications to your surname project.” If there is a
check in the box your data is being compared only to the HELTON participants.
If you uncheck the box, then you will be compared to all the “Public”
participants in the Family Tree DNA data bank. If you change to public, you are
going to see more matches. I caution that 12/12 matches to a surname other that
HELTON is probably of no significance in our highly populated R1b haplogroup,
however, if you show a 23/25 match (or higher) with a different surname, you
probably should correspond with that individual. There might be a case of one
of the ancestors being adopted or the result of a non-wedlock birth.
The following, a message
copied from GENEALOGY-DNA-L, highlights the preceding.
“66% of records have this
flag checked, so that a search for matches can only view 1/3 of the database.
The flag is set to Private by default, and I can't help but wonder if people
realize the significance of this setting. (Unchecking doesn't mean that your
results become "public" in the sense that anyone can see your record.
It means that your record will be included when the whole database is searched
for matches.)” Ann Turner GENEALOGY-DNA-L Administrator.
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Please upload your
information to Ysearch, if you have not already done so (some HELTON members
have not done this). Doing this will not
compromise any security that you desire to protect.
Family Tree DNA
participants: Go to your Personal Page
and simply click the “ysearch” link at the top, to automatically upload your
Y-DNA results to Ysearch. If you then upgrade your Y-DNA test, such as
from 25 Markers to 37 Markers, the Upload selection will reappear on your Personal
Page, as a reminder to upload the additional Markers.
Also Ysearch (http://www.ysearch.org/edit_start.asp) has been enhanced so
that the location for your most distant male ancestor can be entered using latitude
and longitude coordinates. It is important to update your Ysearch record
with this information. For
Also, you may now upload your
family file (.ged).
If you tested with Family
Tree DNA, but have not yet established a record at Ysearch.org, go to your
Personal Page, and click "Upload to Ysearch."
If you tested at another
vendor, here is the link to first create a record for your result
at Ysearch.org: http://www.ysearch.org/add_start.asp
If you have also taken a
mitochondrial test you may update your data to MitoSearch which is similar to
Ysearch. The link will appear at the top
of your personal page. Mitochondrial
markers are passed from mother to child, but are only passed along by the
daughters. Since mitochondrial tests are
maternal markers they are not associated with a surname.
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John Blair has an excellent
explanation of the DNA process on his Blair Surname Project. Basically there are 43 DNA Markers which are
passed from father to son and remain the same generation to generation with an
occasional mutation. This is why only
males can do this test. All Y-DNA tests
allow you to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroup), both
recent and far distant on your direct male descending line. Among others, you
will be able to check your Native-American or African Ancestry as
well as for the Cohanim Ancestry.
A description of Haplogroups follows this section.
A wonderful set of videos
describing DNA testing and how it can help you in your genealogy research is
provided on the Family Tree DNA website at http://www.familytreedna.com/videoaudio.html.
FTDNA also has an explanation
of the genetic distances (when the markers are different) and what it means at http://www.familytreedna.com/gdrules_12.html. Basically out of 25 markers tested, if you
mismatch on:
0 markers – you are related
1 marker – you are related
2 markers – you are probably
related
3 markers – you are probably
not related, but more tests need to be done
4. markers – you are not
related but it is vaguely possible.
5 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 2000 years ago.
6 markers – you are not
related but possibly shared an ancestor over 5000 years ago.
7 (or more) markers – you are
not possibly related.
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FTDNA Y-DNA tests allow you
to identify your ethnic and geographic origins (Haplogroups), both recent and
far distant. Among other features, this test will also be able to indicate your
Native-American Ancestry and which of the 5 major groups that settled in
the Americans you are most likely to be descended from. It can also
describe African Ancestry as well as other ethnic origins.
Y-DNA
Haplogroup Descriptions:
The
following Haplogroup Descriptions are from the FamilyTreeDNA.com website which
was the testing company used to determine the nearest Haplogroup assigment
based on the individual's haplotype results from the Y-DNA test. These verbatim
Haplogroup Descriptions and/or excerpts are copyrighted by FamilyTreeDNA.com
and all rights to these descriptions are claimed by FamilyTreeDNA.com. These
descriptions have been printed here with the permission of FamilyTreeDNA.com.
These descriptions cannot be used elsewhere without the written permission of
FamilyTreeDNA.com.
Please
note that people in different Haplogroups cannot be related within many
thousands of years, and that each male test result provides a prediction of the
Haplogroup currently about 90% of the time. If your Y-DNA matches suggest that
you belong, for example, to Haplogroup R1b, you may confirm that by ordering a
Y-DNA SNP test for the R1b clade.
In
general the following rule of thumb may be used: R1b = Western Europe, R1a =
Haplogroup
B is one of the oldest Y-chromosome lineages in humans.
Haplogroup
B is found exclusively in
Haplogroup
C is found throughout mainland
Haplogroup
C3 is believed to have originated in southeast or central
Haplogroup
D2 most likely derived from the D lineage in
Haplogroup
E3a is an
Haplogroup
E3b is believed to have evolved in the
Haplogroup
G may have originated in
Haplogroup
H is nearly completely restricted to
Haplogroups I, I1, and I1a are nearly completely restricted to northwestern
Haplogroup
I1b was derived within Viking/Scandinavian populations in northwest Europe and
has since spread down into southern
Haplogroup
J is found at highest frequencies in Middle Eastern and north African
populations where it most likely evolved. This marker has been carried by
Middle Eastern traders into Europe, central Asia,
Haplogroup
J2 originated in the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent where it later
spread throughout central Asia, the Mediterranean, and south into
Haplogroup
Q is the lineage that links Asia and the
Haplogroup
Q3 is the only lineage strictly associated with native American populations.
This haplogroup is defined by the presence of the M3 mutation (also known as
SY103). This mutation occurred on the Q lineage 8-12 thousand years ago as the
migration into the
Haplogroup
R1a is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black
and
Haplogroup
R1b is the most common Haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to
have expanded throughout
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Please join!! We are trying to find someone from the
following lines and would love to add your line to the list:
- Peter
Helton I, b. 1686 and d. bef. Sep 20, 1757 in
- John Helton, b. 1710,
- Halvor
Nilsen Hilton (b. on the Hilton farm near Klofta in
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