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.
I have been looking around at the few companies that specialize in genetic genealogy and DNA Heritage appears to be the best solution; they offer a high standard of testing, confidentiality, security, a more detailed test then anyone else and all at a fair price. I have ordered a test kit myself and I am very pleased with the results.
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 YHRD.
I am seeking help from any Mavers who are interested in contributing to this project. Unfortunately, the DNA samples can only be taken from male Mavers though as the Y chromosome (which only males carry) is the one that must be tested. The test itself is not cheap, US$138 for the simplest test and US$199 for the full-resolution (most accurate) test. I am also aware of the sensitive issues around DNA testing and I fully appreciate anyone's decision not to participate in this project. However, I personally feel that there is little personal risk in having my DNA analyzed for the purposes of genealogy and I think that there is a potential to learn a lot from it.
Note - DNA Heritage is offering a discount until March 7, 2006; only $137.77 for the full 43 marker test if you join the Maver surname project!
If you would like to learn more about the DNA test itself, please see this page or contact me.
If you would like to join this project, please follow this link.