St Clair Sinclair DNA L193

The L193 marker has led to a great deal of understanding for one lineage of our family, the descendants of Alexander Sinkler. Alexander came over in 1698. He was born in Glasgow about 1666. This video and recent discoveries make it clear that Alexander's family likely never spent time in the highlands. Instead, we were likely in the border regions and then, further back, in England.


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Sinclair DNA Video

A quick overview of ancient DNA discoveries in the last few years.


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Recent discoveries in the field are adding new understanding to our Sinclair DNA study and, of course, many others around the world.

Sinclair DNA Exposing Some Myths

This slide show hosted on Slide Share helps to explain some of the myths of the Sinclair family. Our Sinclair DNA study is adding a bright light to many of these myths.

 

Sinclair Dna from Steve Clair

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For instance:

• There weren't Templars at Bannockburn. 
• The stone in Rosslyn Chapel which refers to William de St. Clair as a Knight Templar was put there in the 20th Century.
• The Westford Knight is difficult to see, but the sword there is very convincing.
• The Newport Tower is very convincing, but there's no evidence it was built by Sinclairs.
• The carving of "two knights on a horse" in Rosslyn is one man on a horse and one behind. I've seen it in person.
• Some Sinclairs testified against the Templars in Scotland, but some testified on their behalf.
• Our Sinclair DNA study is beginning to prove the real facts of our family.

In Praise of FTDNA

What Family Tree DNA has made available has been incredible for the St. Clair Family:

1. We've found a path towards the true history of our family. We don't all descend, as the dusty old books say, from Rollo or William the Conqueror. We have 12 distinct lineages, and a much more complex history. 
2. FTDNA's Family Finder test has helped 3 of our family members solve, or start to solve, their questions about adoption. 
3. With continued SNP testing, we're getting much closer to "connecting the branches to the leaves" as Bennet Greenspan said. In two cases, we feel there's a chance we may solve the entire history of family lines back to the very early medieval period. None of this would have been possible without the ongoing advancements of FTDNA.

That list could go on an on. When I think back to the time 10 years ago, before Stan St. Clair and I took the first tests in the family, genealogy was so inexact. People argued over competing documents and made wild claims. And no one had any certainty before the 1600s.

Now, using FTDNA and SNP research, many of us have a direction of where to look and when we might connect to much older records.

By making the complicated science of DNA easy for the masses, Family Tree DNA has truly helped genealogists overcome brick walls in their families.