The "Accidental Admin" - Science or Snake Oil?

- continued from:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DNA-NEWBIE/message/132

The Y-DNA 12-marker results for my dad and the physicist cousin came in on my dad's birthday June 24, 2003 and the Abraham cousin's came in on July 21.

And no one matched!

The Physicist says,"Maybe the test is snake oil?"

I can't tell you how incredibly disappointed I was! How could they NOT match? I'm especially close to the Abraham cousin, and I told him, "You're also related to me through the Fullers, I'M STILL CLAIMING YOU!"

"Yeah, but that's by marriage".

"I DON'T CARE! I'm still calling you 'cousin'!"

"Um, I have some other bad news...I have prostate cancer."

I called Family Tree DNA and asked if cancer could have any effect on the results and produce a non-match. They replied that only if the person was undergoing treatment, like radiation or chemo, that may have an effect. As for my dad, the answer to that was "no".

ENTER: The Bolt Patriarch

At our September 2003 Bolt Family Reunion held in Laurens County, South Carolina, our Bolt family patriarch decides that he'll take the DNA test and he puts out a plea for two things:
1. For others to test 2. For family members to go through any
old papers they may have that could help us connect the Bolts.

You see, there were several Bolts in the 1790 Laurens Co. census: Robert Sr., Robert Jr., Abraham, and Benjamin, but it has been lost to us how they were related. My side, the Robert Jr. line thought that Abe & Rob were first cousins, and the
Abraham line thought they were brothers. We assumed that Sr. was the father, and didn't know how Benjamin fit in. We knew that the Bolts had come to SC from Virginia, because Abraham named Fauquier Co., as his birthplace in his Rev War pension, and the Bolts also appear in other documents there.

FINALLY: Some GOOD news!

October 15, 2003 - 12-marker results come in for the Patriarch, and he MATCHED my dad! The next panel results came in late October, and they were only one marker off.

(Coming next: Birth of an Admin)