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Thomas:
Man, am I glad you asked.
There are two major DNA labs here in the USA doing YDNA testing (only males have YDNA; the YDNA information comes from the biological father, who got it from his biological father, etc., so the YDNA follows the surname path). These two labs are FTDNA and Sorenson Genomics, who until recently marketed their products as Relative Genetics (RG). RG was recently acquired by Ancestry, the parent of ancestry.com and all that.
Anyway, these labs got the idea of hosting Surname Studies, and sure enough, some folks began some Lee studies a few years back. Now there are some 260 Lee, Leigh, Lea, and Legh males who have been tested in these Studies. I was tested in the RG/Ancestry Lee Family Study coordinated by Clint Lee of the "John Lee of Nansemond" line. I'm partial to this particular Study partly for that reason, partly because I work closely with Clint, and partly because it is the largest and IMO the best run. Clint does an excellent job of shepherding participants through the process, insuring the accuracy of submitted lineages, staying on top of communications, etc.
Over at FTDNA, Robert "Bob" Lee and Gary R. Lee of the "James and Mary Lee of MD" line run the Lee Study. And, a fellow named Dick Purser runs a separate FTDNA-based study of the Leigh family (although all 3 studies accept Leigh, Lea, Lee, and other variant surnames because of the tendency of families to morph surnames over the generations). One of the things that I do is to help coordinate and match (on a totally unofficial basis) people from one Study to those in the others. So, if someone from the Leigh FTDNA study matches someone in the RG/Ancestry Lee Study, I figure it out and get back with the respective coordinators, who then contact the participants and put them in touch with each other.
You CAN go around the Studies and get tested independently. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. First, it costs you more because the Studies offer a discount. Second, what do you gain? You now have no way for people to find your results and match up against you - isn't that the whole idea? Third, in the studies you get the benefit of working research teams ALREADY focusing on "kinship groups" - if it turns out you match the "Richmond Co Lee" profile, you'll be instantly put in touch with half a dozen top-notch researchers who are working on the same kinship group. Chances are, they know already where your line fits into the puzzle. You don't get that going alone.
So, the process goes like this. You find a Lee (or homonymic surname) male who has a known relationship to yourself. You contact Clint or Gary, depending on your choice of study, or Dick if you want the Leigh-focused study. Clint is at mclintlee@aol.com . Gary is at gary@grlee.com . Dick is at dpurser@cybermesa.com . The Coordinator will take down contact info, your ancestry info, etc. The Coordinator will explain the process, which involves you paying for the test kit, the kit being sent to the participant, the participant completing it at home and mailing it back, a couple week wait for processing, and then the notification and posting process for the results. We all strongly recommend that you get at least 30 "markers" tested. There are smaller/cheaper tests available, but they are generally wastes of money. FTDNA offers a 37- and 67-marker test; RG/Ancestry offers a 46-marker test. I generally recommend the 37 or 46, and specifically the 46 at RG/Ancestry because it is cheaper and better than the 37 at FTDNA. But, your choice: some people prefer working with FTDNA.
Once the sample is in process, the Coordinator watches over the status and notifies you when the results are available. You get an email with the results, and then they are posted on the vendor's database. I then extract the info from the vendor's database and put it into my own. If there is a match with someone from a different vendor, I let the Coordinators know and they get in touch with you / your guy and the matching participant to put them together. I and other non-Coordinators generally do not have access to contact info for participants, for privacy reasons.
So, that's the general idea. If you have more questions, feel free to email me at dennisATgazinkus.com, or one of the Coordinators at the email addresses above.
OH. It also pays to have a couple, preferably distant cousins of each other, relatives of your line tested. We have found several occasions in which people who THOUGHT they were biological kin weren't. But a couple distant cousins who match will provide a firm profile back to the earliest common ancestor, and if that profile matches one of the known "kinship groups", then it becomes an issue of figuring out how your line joins the larger family.
Good luck,
Dennis Lee
Wimberley, TX
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