Albea DNA Update

     A little while back I was contacted via email by a family researching the Albey family of Vermont. They were interested in finding out more about my Albea/Alby DNA Project and how it could help them trace their Albey line.  Although our families didn't connect on paper and didn't live in the same areas, they both spelled their name "Alby" at some point in time.  It's an uncommon name that isn't spelled the way is sounds, which leads to many variations (Albea is pronounced ALL-bee).  Surely we were related?  Or could the name have multiple origins?

     We recently got our results back and they weren't what I was expecting.

     What was I expecting? A clear cut result where we either matched through the 37 markers that we tested or no relationship at all.

     What were the results? A twelve marker match with a distance of One. According to Family Tree DNA, this relationship indicates that we have a "Possible Relationship"

"You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only one 'point' on only one marker. For most closely related or same surnamed individuals, the mismatch markers are either DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2. To ensure that the match is authentic you should utilize additional markers.

     As you can see here, our mismatch is at DYS385 B. My Uncle has a 15 and they have a 14.

     At the 25 marker level, we have 8 mismatches. These are at DYS markers such as "458, 459a, 459b, 449, 464 a-d, which have shown themselves to move most rapidly".

     At the same time, the Tip Report gives a 75% chance that we are related within 28 generations. I could be wrong about this, but from what I understand, that is 28 generations between the two testors, not from them to the common ancestor. So there's about a 75% chance that we are related about 14 generations back.

     So from all this, I believe that our two Albea/Alby/Albey families are related - but at such a distance that we will be unlikely to find our common ancestor (both lines are currently stuck in the 1700s).  We're both looking for other folks to test who have paper trails on our specific family lines.

     Are there any DNA savvy folks who would like to comment?