DNA Relatives

Our second goal in DNA testing is to locate families that are unknown to us but are related to us in some way. We hope we can learn where Ralph Leigh came from when he settled in Wales. We are having success with this goal. We have located a distant relative in England in a Brookings line, and we have located more recent relatives in the United States. This page describes these relatives. If future research in genealogical documents verifies our relationship to the genealogical lines in this section, the families will be removed from this section and placed in an appropriate section of the website. This section lists the lines and explains why we accept them as lines related to us. Because they are more recent, the relatives in the United States are discussed first, and the distant relative in England is discussed afterwards.

Lee Lines in the Eastern United States

There is a family group at ancestry.com called Lee DNA Genealogy Project, and 14 members of that group, who live in the United States and were tested by Ancestry for 46 markers, have a close DNA match with the great grandson of Samuel Leigh. For 13 of the men, the Genetic Distance is 1. The Genetic Distance for the 14th person is 2. A Genetic Distance of 1 indicates there is a tight connection between the 13 persons who were tested by Ancestry and the great grandson of Samuel Leigh. A Genetic Distance of 12 indicates there is a connection. Because of this, we have accepted the 14 men as being related to our Leigh line.Two of the men are descended from David Lee, so there are 13 unique ancestors plus our ancestor, Samuel Leigh.

FamilyTree does not test for 46 markers, and I am using their probability table for 37 markers to get an idea how far back our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) is for these people. Here is the statement from FamilyTree about a Genetic Distance of 1 and 37 markers. Since the Ancestry test was for 46 markers, the results are slightly better than those described in the statement.

Genetic Distance of 1. Tightly related.

36/37 You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only one 'point' at only one marker--a 36/37 match. It's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on a previous Y-DNA test and your mismatch will be found within DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb. Very few people achieve this close level of a match. Your mismatch is within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

The estimated time in generations to the MRCA connecting the Lee lines and our Leigh line is taken from the table given in Y-DNA Tests for 36 of 37 markers, as follows.

50%
Probability 90% 95%

4 8 10

That range of generations is within the scope of the traditional genealogical research that is reported in this site. Four generations from us is the generation of Samuel Leigh's father, Daniel Leigh. Ten generations back is the generation of Ralph Leigh, who currently is our oldest known ancestor in Wales. Since Samuel Leigh immigrated directly from Wales to Utah, his descendants are not in the direct lines of the Lee families in the eastern United States. Thus, our search for a common ancestor involves one or more immigrations from the British Isles by male relatives of Samuel Leigh. The first immigration would probably have been after the Pilgrims arrived in 1620 and not later than the birth of the oldest known ancestor of the 14 men. That ancestor is Needham Lee, who is believed to be have been born in c1746 in North Carolina. The search for subsequent immigrations should go until 1858, the year Thomas Green(e) Lee was born in Mississippi. Thomas Green(e) is the youngest known ancestor of the 14 men. This gives a date-range for the search for immigrations to be 1620-1858, However, if I were doing the research, I would extend the search from 1600 to 1870 to allow for unknown conditions that might affect the results.

There are a number of places in the Leigh lines reported in the Leigh Descendancy Chart where collateral lines could have formed and furnished the immigrant(s) who came to the United States. The Possible Immigrants page lists the persons who might have formed such lines, and we hope this information will be helpful to those doing research to discover the connections between their ancestors in the United States and the British Isles.

To locate the 14 men in the Lee DNA Genealogy Project, do the following. This procedure is valid as of 9/8/2009 and may change if the web site is changed.

Go to http://www.ancestry.com and click the DNA button.
In the Search Our Database by Last Name field, enter Lee and click the Go! button.
Scroll down to the Lee DNA Genealogy Project and click the link.
The guest Username and Password are given for the project. Log into the project using the Sign In button at the top of the page. You will be returned to the page that gives the Username and Password.
Click the Home button at the top of the page (in the green bar, to the right) to go to the home page for the project. If you don't see a Home button, click the Dashboard button at the top-left of the page. The Dashboard page will list two Lee projects. Click the Lee DNA Genealogy Project, and you will be taken to the home page of the project.
Click the Compare DNA button that is in the navigation bar at the top of the page.
Scroll down to the entry for Closely related to Desc of Randaulph Lee
Find the entry for Desc of Samuel Leigh and click that name. Click the scroll (down) arrow to the left of the Desc of Samuel Leigh name and select Make this the Reference Person.
Click the scroll (down) arrow to the left of the Closely related to Desc of Randaulph Lee and click the Sort by Distance entry.
You will find the 14 men listed immediately below the descendant of Samuel Leigh.

These men are listed in the Clearing House for Leigh/Lee Lines of the I-Haplogroup.

Brookings Line in England

A member of a Brookings family in England had his Y-DNA tested for 67 markers by FamilyTree. His markers are listed with an ID of SR-1 in the Brookings web site. The results indicate he has a Genetic Distance of 5 with the great grandson of Samuel Leigh, and that Genetic Distance for 67 markers indicates there is a distant connection between the two persons who were tested. Because of this, we have accepted the Brookings line as being related to our Leigh line even though we don't have a paper trail giving a connection to the Brookings line. Here is the statement from FamilyTree about a Genetic Distance of 5 and 67 markers.

Genetic Distance of 5-6. Connection is Related.

61-62 of 67 markers matched. You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by five or six 'points'. Because of the volatility within some of the markers this is slightly tighter than being 11/12, 23/25, or 33/37, and it's most likely that you matched closely on previous Y-DNA tests. It's most likely that you matched 24/25, 36/37 or 37/37 on previous Y-DNA tests and your mismatch will be found within the second panel at DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d, or at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our third panel of markers. Your common ancestor is not very recent, but your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe. [Bold added for emphasis]

In addition to the test of 67 markers, a test of 37 markers was performed, and the Genetic Distance was 3. That value of Genetic Distance for 37 markers indicates that a relationship exists.

Genetic Distance of 3. Connection is Related.

34/37 You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by three 'points' --a 34/37 match. Because of the volatility within some of the markers this is slightly tighter then being 11/12 or 23/25 and it's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on previous Y-DNA tests. Your mismatch will most often be found within DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2 from our first panel of 12 markers, or within the second panel: DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. Your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

The time in generations to the MRCA connecting the Brookings and Leigh lines was calculated by FamilyTree to be the following.

In comparing 67 markers, the probability that --------- and --------- shared a common ancestor within the last...

4 generations is 23.08%
8 generations is 67.86%
12 generations is 90.72%
16 generations is 97.84%
20 generations is 99.56%
24 generations is 99.92%

It is thus likely that our connection with this Brookings family came through a common ancestor who lived up to 16 - 20 generations ago. Ralph Leigh, who currently is our earliest Leigh ancestor in Wales is 10 generations from us. This means that our common ancestor with the Brookings family could have lived up to 6 - 10 generations before Ralph Leigh, putting that ancestor in the late 1300s or 1400s, and this could have been before surnames became common in the British Isles; the two branches could have later adopted different surnames. Another reason for the different surnames could be if an adopted or illegitimate male child was the common ancestor. Of course these comments are speculation, and the number of generations and probabilities given above are just calculated estimates that give the earliest time that the common ancestor likely lived. The common ancestor could have actually lived closer to Ralph Leigh, although the Genetic Distance of 5 implies that the common ancestor is a distant connection. Confirmation that the MRCA for the Brookings relative is a distant relative is that the male Brookings line has a good paper trail going back to the 16th century with no mention of a connection to our Leigh line, and our Leigh line has a good paper trail going back to the 16th century with no mention of a connection to the Brookings line.

To discuss the DNA tests and interpretations of the data, or to be added to the Leigh email list for occasional announcements, please contact