We hope to persuade you to get involved with Y-DNA testing. This will establish your personal Y-DNA profile and help both you and the rest of us, better understand the Jam?son family groupings. This type of genetic testing is the perfect way to bring our individual and larger Jam?son families together.

Finding our ancestors using DNA requires the comparison of data from many people. Given enough data, we will be able to work our way back in time to ever more distant ancestors. Even if you already know your own personal Jam?son family ancestry, your individual DNA data is important to the larger group effort. Our knowledge of all Jam?son families will grow as more people participate.

Getting a Y-DNA test done is a simple matter. Basically, you go on line, fill out an order form, pay some money, wait for a 'kit' to arrive by mail, execute a simple cheek swab, return the kit by mail, and wait for your results.

Results usually take from six to eight weeks and come back in the form of a confusing series of numbers, filled in to an appropriate data area of your online account.

Most people are expecting some sort of life changing event when these results are finally in. The truth is almost nothing happens. Basically, all you get for all that money and time, is a series of numbers that collectively is your Y-DNA fingerprint. The individual series of numbers are essentially the equivalent of individual squiggles within a fingerprint, and the overall series of numbers are the equivalent of the entire fingerprint. The larger and more expensive the test, the better detailed the fingerprint. We feel a 37 marker test is the best value for most people.

However, unlike fingerprints, your particular Y-DNA version is not uniquely different than everybody else's. In fact the more it is identical to someone else's, the better it is for you. When in comes to Y-DNA testing, if you match someone else you are related, if you don't, you're not. Y-DNA testing when used with genealogy is mostly about comparative analysis. Your test results, compared against someone else's test, or perhaps to some well established norms, is where Y-DNA results becomes most useful.

"All the hullabaloo, and this is all you get?" Well, not exactly. Yes, you get your Y-DNA profile, and if you match other people already in our databases, you may end up as part of a much larger family you may not have even known about. If you don't match anyone yet, you eventually will, when more people test. You will also discover your Haplogroup, from which you will then know a lot more about your basic patriarchal ancestral history. If you sign up as part of a 'project,' which we strongly recommend you do, you become part of a group which studies and promotes a like minded collection of other people with your Y-DNA interests, be it a surname or perhaps other special interests. And you get free, life time notifications of new "matches" and other Y-DNA news.

We recommend you use the FTDNA organization for Y-DNA testing. They seem to be well organized and have a large and active database of already tested people from all around the world. They also have a large group of surname and other specialty projects. Including the Jamieson family DNA project, with which we belong. If you join starting from the Jamieson Project itself you automatically become part of the project with no further effort and can sometimes take advantage of special offers of discount prices, offered several times each year.

- to join the Jamieson Family YDNA Project and order your Y-DNA test - we recommend the Y-DNA37 test.

Or you can contact us for more information and help.