Search billions of records on Ancestry.com
   
The O'Hourihane DNA Projects

Get a DNA Test and Join the Project

DNA Project

The Hourihane DNA Project is administered through Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). If you are interested in joining the project and have not yet tested, we recommend that you test at FTDNA. If you have already tested at AncestryDNA or 23andMe you can join the Hourihane DNA project after purchasing a third party test transfer product at FTDNA. This applies to Y-DNA tests from both AncestryDNA and 23andMe and autosomal tests from 23andMe. FTDNA expects to start accepting autosomal DNA tests from AncestryDNA May 1, 2013.

Men with a surname of interest are eligible for Y-DNA test inclusion in the project. Anybody with a surname of interest anywhere in their ancestry (not just direct male line of descent) is eligible for A-DNA test inclusion in the project.

How to Join the Project

  1. Read the Questions and Answers page.

  2. Click here for Join Instructions, which includes a link for ordering your test or a transfer product.

  3. Along with your DNA test, these steps will help us support the goals of our study.

    1. 1. Share your information with your DNA matches at FTDNA and with the project administrator.

    2. 2. Fill in your list of surnames in your FTDNA account.

    3. 3. We want every participant represented on a test kit page. Submit a minimal family history that gives the geographic origin and genetic connection between the test taker and the tester's earliest known Hourihane ancestor. Living people in the family tree can be labeled anonymous. For examples of minimal family histories in various data formats, view a sample test kit page. Please join the mailing list and post your information to the list if you do not join the DNA project.

Additional Ways You Can Help the Project

  1. 1. Help us grow our DNA test base and recruit others to this project and tell your friends and relatives.

  2. 2. Upload a GEDCOM at FTDNA. It is a useful visual aid for your test matches. You can upload your GEDCOM at our sister site at World Families or on Rootsweb World Connect. A link to your GEDCOM posted elsewhere is another way to provide some documentation on your family history.

  3. 3. Subscribe to the public Rootsweb mailing list to correspond with others who are researching the O'Hourihane surname and forms of the name. These messages are publicly archived. Post your family history on the list by emailing the list. Membership on the mailing list is required if you wish to receive communications from the project administrator but do not otherwise join the DNA project.

  4. 4. Submit a family history for publication here on Rootsweb. They can be fairly short or quite extensive. For examples, see the Family Biographies on the Driscoll of Cork website.

  5. 5. Refer eligible people to this project in online genealogy forums. See Surname Forums.

  6. 6. In the course of your own research, if you have extracted surname of interest records from church resources, civil registration, Griffith's Valuation, Tithe Applotment books, or other historical materials, your contributions of such material to this website would be a welcome addition! When you have information ready, contact the administrator.

  7. 7. A monetary donation to the General Fund of the project is always appreciated. USD $55 (about €42) would pay for a 12 marker Y-DNA test plus shipping and handling. This project is a 100% volunteer effort and the project administrators do not receive any compensation nor are they employees of or earn commissions from testing laboratories. Donations enable interested project members to pool their resources together. Even occasional $5 or $10 donations may accumulate to the point where we can purchase a test kit for somebody whose lineage may be of importance to the project.

Although I may be interested in your family history, I have several DNA and Cork genealogy related projects to research and administer. My priority to responding to emails is to those who have actively assisted this project. The more help somebody gives me, the more help I try to give that person.

How DNA Testing Works

We carry 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and the 23rd pair consists of the sex chromosomes. Autosomal chromosomes and the X sex chromosomes in a female undergo recombination (a reshuffling of sorts).

A girl inherits an X from each parent; a boy inherits an X from his mother and a Y from his father. A woman's two X chromosomes recombine before she passes on an X to an offspring, so they behave like autosomes. A man does not recombine his only X chromosome before passing that on to an offspring. Nor does his Y chromosome experience recombination. The Y-DNA from the Y chromosome undergoes very little change over generations, which makes the Y-DNA test so successful.

The autosomal chromosomes works differently. For each chromosome between 1 and 22, a child has inherited a pair of chromosomes from his parents. Each parent recombines their own chromosomes to come up with one to pass to a child, so their child ends up with a pair.

The autosomal DNA test exploits the possibility of large chunks of autosomal DNA surviving recombination that get passed on to successive generations. Relatively recent relatives share these large chunks of autosomal DNA and that is what the Family Tree DNA's Family Finder and other A-DNA tests look for. Your chance of matching a third cousin who has also tested is better than 90% and fourth cousin better than 50%.

Note also that each parent contributing recombined chromosomes had parents who recombined their chromosomes, and so on further back. Therefore those autosomal DNA chunks will get diluted over successive generations, and that is why it is really good to test older generations if possible, to minimize the dilution.

For a surname project with people whose ancestry is concentrated in a particular geographic region, marriages may have been largely constrained to that area and the genetic material restricted to some degree. So there is the chance that you may autosomally match somebody in a way other than through the surname of interest, or you may match multiple ways.

Resources

Susan J. Barretta, Project Administrator

Visit the DNA page for information on DNA tests.

Copyright © 2012 - 2013 Hourihane DNA Projects

When you aren't near a hyperlink, http://tinyurl.com/HourihaneDNAProject will find us!

[ O'Hourihane DNA Project Home | Y-DNA Project | A-DNA Project | Donate | Join Instructions ]

Last updated: Tuesday, 21-May-2013 08:06:25 MDT