Maver Family DNA Project
As I have been working on my Maver genealogy for these past few years, I have often wondered whether all Mavers in the world are related, if we all share some common but long forgotten ancestor. As I have not been able to track down more generations of my ancestors for a while now, I have been thinking of taking a different approach and using genetics to see how we are all related. I feel like this is oddly appropriate since my entire facination with genealogy came from a family tree assignment I have to do for my high school biology class when we were studying genetics.
Goals
My goals for this project are the following:
- Determine whether the various branches of the Maver family are related - did the surname originate independently in Scotland, Italy, Czeckoslovakia and elsewhere or do we all share a common ancestor?
- Determine how many generations back is the most recent common ancestor for Maver families that are found to be related to eachother.
- Discover whether the variations in spelling of the Maver name - Mavor, Mawer, Maor, etc. - represent distinct families or simply variations in dialect.
- See where the Maver family fits into the ancient human migration patterns by comparing our results with those in databases such as Ybase.org and ySearch.
Participate
If you are a Maver who is interested in contributing to the Maver DNA project, I may be willing to pay for some or all of the DNA testing fees. The testing process is very simple; you will be sent a swab that you will rub against the inside of your cheek before placing it in a sterile tube to send to the testing lab. You'll receive your results one or two months after the lab has received your cheek swab. The results will indicate how closely related you are to me and any other Mavers who are tested which will help determine whether or not all Mavers share a common ancestor.
My own testing was carried out by DNA Heritage, a company that I can highly recommend. However, if you would prefer to be tested by another company (such as Family Tree DNA or EthnoAncestry), the results will be compatible. If you are interested in testing your DNA and contributing to this project, please contact me.
Results
The DNA tests I have done indicate that the Maver surname is part of the R1b haplogroup. For a description of what this tells us about our ancestors, visit the Maver History page. You can view the data from my tests at ySearch and YBase. I have also had my genome sequenced by 23andMe; there isn't an easy way to share these results, but if you are interested in any of the information, please don't hesitate to contact me.