Finding and using the Leigh & Lee DNA information in this site

This site has information about each Leigh or Lee man who has had his Y-DNA tested by Ancestry or FamilyTreeDNA and has been identified as being haplogroup I. Review the information to see if the people fit into your family tree. If one or more persons do fit into your family tree, you can accept their DNA information as pertaining to your family, although members of your family may have slightly different values for their DNA markers due to mutations. To contact the men who had their Y-DNA tested, send emails to the contact persons given in the ysearch results (FamilyTreeDNA) or to the descendants who had their DNA tested by Ancestry (as explained in the months of May and June).

Note about Ancestry: The Lee DNA Genealogy Project used to have a guest account that would allow you to view the records in the group. The login information, which is still given in the page for the group, doesn't work. You apparently will have to request a membership in the group as a researcher, or buy a kit and have your Y-DNA tested.DNA isn't a Silver Bullet
DNA can give you general information about your ancestors, but you will still need to verify that information with traditional research in genealogical documents. The information you receive from the descendants will, hopefully, give you ideas about where to look for additional genealogical documents, and your research in those documents will, hopefully, give you more detailed information about your ancestors.

If none of the people fit into your family tree, information provided by the descendants may help you locate new genealogical documents that may allow you to connect to one or more of the people.

Navigating this Site

Because this site is actually a blog, the pages of this site are organized into years and months. The links to DNA testing of individual people are placed into particular months, as follows.

• September 2009 - Introduction to this site. Links to various pages of this site

• August 2009 - Leigh lines from FamilyTree

• July 2009 - Lee lines from FamilyTree

• June 2009 - Leigh lines from Ancestry

• May 2009 - Lee lines from Ancestry

Should I join a user group or project?

There are several companies that test DNA for genealogical purposes. The two companies that are used most often are FamilyTreeDNA and Ancestry. FamilyTreeDNA was the first company to test DNA, and it has the largest database of DNA values. Both companies have groups or projects that focus on particular genealogical lines. Both companies give discounts to persons who join a group before they are tested.

User Groups

FamilyTreeDNA has two user groups or projects that focus on Lee and Leigh lines of any haplogroup and one user project that focuses on Lee and Leigh lines of haplogroup I1. If you go to FamilyTreeDNA and do a surname search for Leigh or Lee, you won't see the I1 group in the list of projects. You can, though, go directly to the website for that group. Once you are in the website, if you haven't been tested, you can click a link to join that group and, if you wish, purchase at the discount price a kit to have your DNA tested by FamilyTreeDNA. There is a special price for persons who have been tested by other labs and want to be tested by FamilyTreeDNA. If you have been tested by FamilyTreeDNA, you can click the link to join the I1 group and have that group added to your list of projects you have joined. I am the moderator of the I1 group as well as of this site.

Ancestry has several groups that focus on Lee lines, and the largest group is the Lee DNA Genealogy Project.

Official and Unofficial Members

To be an "official" member of the FamilyTreeDNA project that focuses on the I1 haplogroup, you must be tested by FamilyTreeDNA. Persons who are interested in the I1 haplogroup but were tested by another company are invited to visit the website for the I1 project and participate as "unofficial" members (email me with your request so I can welcome you into the group). Unofficial members have full activity with the group website and with this Clearing House. The only disadvantage is that their Y-DNA markers are not displayed in the group website.

Reasons for Joining a Group

People who are considering being tested or have recently been tested wonder if they should join a group. Here are ways user groups might help you.

• User groups may offer a discount for the testing.
• User groups are one way to connect with people who have similar interests and goals in genealogy. This will facilitate the sharing of information among members of the group, and they provide social relationships among genealogists.
• User groups provide access to the marker values of other members of the group.
• User groups may provide tutorial information about DNA testing.

August holds Leigh lines from FamilyTreeDNA

All Leigh lines from Ancestry are in this month. This information came from a website called ysearch.org. The site can be used by anyone for free, and it is provided by FamilyTreeDNA. ysearch was used to search for all persons with a surname of leigh and a haplogroup of I or its subgroups, and a Genetic Distance Report was created.

July holds Lee lines from FamilyTreeDNA

All Lee lines from FamilyTreeDNA are in this month. This information came from a website called ysearch.org. The site can be used by anyone for free, and it is provided by FamilyTreeDNA. ysearch was used to search for all persons with a surname of lee, and a Genetic Distance Report was created.

June holds Leigh lines from Ancestry

All Leigh lines from Ancestry are in this month.

Hopefully, people interested in the lines given in this month will contact the descendants of the Leigh men who had their Y-DNA tested. They can do this by going to the Home page of the Lee DNA Genealogy Project, clicking on the People tab, and then clicking on the entries for Desc of XXX Leigh, where XXX is the given names of the earliest known ancestors that were specified by the men being tested.

May holds Lee lines from Ancestry

All Lee lines from the Lee DNA Genealogy Project at Ancestry are in this month.

Hopefully, people interested in the lines given in this month will contact the descendants of the Lee men who had their Y-DNA tested. They can do this by going to the Home page of the Lee DNA Genealogy Project, clicking on the People tab, and then clicking on the entries for Desc of XXX Lee, where XXX is the given names of the earliest known ancestors that were specified by the men being tested.