Genographic Success Stories

The Genographic Project has introduced thousands to the relatively new frontier of genetics in anthropological and genealogical applications.  Along with this, comes the following success stories as a result.

Beatty Surname DNA Project:
"Through Natl Geo project a male Beatty was tested and was told about "OUR" Beatty surname project. He was contacted by the project Administrator. He gave what little he knew about his Beatty Lineage to the DNA admin. Was tested at 37 markers and through some excellent work by members of the BP2000 mailing list (the genealogical paper trail side), we found he was of the L-05 group.

So without the Natl Geo project, I would still be without a male to represent my L-05 lineage."  
(Reprinted with permission: Source)

Portugal DNA Project:
"As the project administrator of the Azores Islands, Portugal DNA Project, I realized that the participants in my project would eventually have deep ancestry matches to people from mainland Portugal, so I established the Portugal DNA Project in October 2005.  The project itself is a Genographic success in that over 90% of the participants are from the Genographic project and many live in Portugal or it's colonies.

The Portugal DNA study has an additional success story in that I began corresponding with one of the Genographic participants, and he's now a project co-administrator of the Madeira Islands, Portugal DNA Project!"
(Contributed by Katherine Borges - 9 Jan 2006) 

Speaks Surname DNA Project

"Just yesterday I got a Geno match with a new cousin who had info about the genesis of my Speaks line that, if correct, solves the question of why there appears to be a non-parental event.  It's not a non-parental event in the classic sense, it's two separate Thomas' in the same location at the same time.  Viva Geno!!  He tested because he was curious, not because he knew about FTDNA's surname projects or genealogical testing.  His father and grandfather did this genealogy work years ago."
(Reprinted with permission: Source - 13 Jan 2006)

Native American success stories: 

"Several years ago I set out to document and trace back my Native ancestry, with the help of a genealogist it was successful to a certain point, mostly in obtaining documents. It seems as though classification of Native Americans who where not removed to a reservation were somewhat clouded and they were often classified as other than Native Americans. Through the Genographic project I found that my mtDNA test indeed fell into Haplogroup A confirming my maternal line was descended from a Full blood American Indian woman of who I have her name and other documents. I am now continuing my research to find other aspects of her tribal heritage and possibly other descendants."
(Contributed by Shoshone Peguese - 17 Jan 2006) 

"I have been tested in the National Geographic Genographic project; my results have been transferred to Family Tree DNA.  I am a member of Haplogroup A.  My lineage is French/Cajun (through my mother's line); my Ancestral/Native routes are found in Nova Scotia, where a French settler, Rene Rimbault, married an Amerindian woman, known only as Anne Marie. It is through this union, that occurred in the mid-1600s, that my Native American and French lineage can be originally traced.
     I had no knowledge of my Amerindian lineage before participating in the Genographic project; I was totally knocked out of my chair when I read the results on line.
     Mind you, I NEVER knew anything about the female line of my family until my mtDNA results came in as "Native American".  This revelation caused my dad (and others) to get their DNA tested.  
     I've learned alot about my background since; and thankfully have met other folk who have helped me solve all these mysteries in my own family's background." Complete story
(Contributed by Marie Rundquist - 26 Jan 2006) 

French Heritage DNA Project

"Elise Lavoie of Montréal thought she would support the objectives of National Geographic’s Genographic Project by ordering a mitochondrial DNA test. From information on that site she learned that she had inherited her mitochondrial DNA from her mother, who had inherited it from her mother, and then from mother to mother back in time to her earliest maternal ancestor.

Little did she know that her results would exactly match the MTDNA results of Lin LaRochelle of Altadena in Southern California. Lin had taken the mtDNA test months before through the French Heritage DNA Project and had posted her direct maternal lineage to that project site - all twelve generations of it.

Since Genographic participants can join other projects through Family Tree DNA, Genographic' s testing company, Elise joined the French Heritage DNA Project. Upon review, she saw Lin’s matching results and the listing of her maternal line and discovered that they both descended from the common ancestor Françoise Garnier Grenier, spouse of  Noël Langlois.

So here were two new cousins introduced only through the results of DNA testing. They possessed the exact same mitochondrial DNA signature passed down to them from their common maternal ancestor, Françoise Garnier Grenier, 400 years before."
(Contributed by Doug Miller - 22 Jun 2007) 

If you have a Genographic success story that may be added to this page, please e-mail.

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Page created: 01/09/2006
Page last updated: 02/21/2008
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