– Using Science To Validate Genealogy Research –
Edward1 Wilcox, the immigrant ancestor, had two known sons, Daniel and Stephen. Most genealogy researchers maintain that both Daniel and Stephen named a son “Daniel Wilcox.”
Recent Y-DNA test results suggest that genealogy researchers have misidentified the Daniel Wilcox who is named as a son of Stephen.
Science in the form of Y-DNA testing is being relied on to help determine whether or not Stephen2 Wilcox had a son named Daniel. Wilcox family researchers are using the Big Y-700 test to help find the answers to this “Mystery from 1693.”
Learn more about Y-DNA testing
What is Y-DNA?
Y-DNA is a type of DNA that tells the direct story of your father’s surname line heritage – all the way back as far as we can go – beyond genealogy– to the man from whom we are all descended.
Y-DNA is what is called the sex chromosome “Y” that is passed from a father to his sons only –women do not receive a Y chromosome. Testing the Y chromosome allows for investigation into a male’s paternal family line and can help identify his surname lines, living relatives whose Y chromosome are similar to his, and ancient migration routes that his paternal ancestors may have taken. [Familytreedna.com]
Y-DNA Inheritance
The chart below demonstrates Y-DNA inheritance from a couple on the top row to living descendants on the bottom row. Squares represent men. Circles represent women. Navy represents those with Y-DNA inherited from the man at the top of the chart.
If a researcher is interested in learning more about the Y-DNA of the man at the top of the chart, there is only one living person who can provide a DNA sample—the man represented by the navy square on the bottom row. Although the second row indicates two sons and one daughter were born to the couple on the top row, we can see that only the son on the left side of the diagram has descendants who have inherited the Y-DNA of the man on the top row.
[https://debbiewayne.com/presentations/ydna.php]
Y-DNA is never mixed with the mother’s DNA, so the Y-DNA of the navy squares of ancestors above remains unbroken and intact and the Y-DNA is passed from father to only their male children. The Y chromosome is what makes males male, so females never inherit a Y chromosome.
More detail about Y chromosome DNA tests
From ISOGG Wiki
A Y chromosome DNA test (Y-DNA test) is a genealogical DNA test which is used to explore a man’s patrilineal or direct father’s-line ancestry. The Y chromosome, like the patrilineal surname, passes down virtually unchanged from father to son. Every now and then occasional mistakes in the copying process occur, and these mutations can be used to estimate the time frame in which the two individuals share a most recent common ancestor or MRCA. If their test results are a perfect or nearly perfect match, they are related within a genealogical time frame. Each person can then look at the other’s father-line information, typically the names of each patrilineal ancestor and his spouse, together with the dates and places of their marriage and of both spouses’ births and deaths. The two matched persons may find a common ancestor or MRCA, as well as whatever information the other already has about their joint patriline or father’s line prior to the MRCA. Y-DNA tests are typically coordinated in a surname DNA project.
Women who wish to determine their direct paternal DNA ancestry can ask their father, brother, paternal uncle, paternal grandfather, or a cousin who shares the same surname lineage (the same Y-DNA) to take a test for them. [https://isogg.org/wiki/Y_chromosome_DNA_tests]
The next step in the “Mystery from 1693” project is to locate Wilcox men who descend from Daniel2 Wilcox who would be willing to participate in the Y-DNA study. Cost of the testing is being paid in full by the Wilcox family researchers who are overseeing the project.
More information is available at A Mystery from 1693 and Wilcox Y-DNA project.
Learn more about Y-DNA testing at these links: https://dna-explained.com/y-dna-resources/