If you do not want to shake any family skeletons out of the cupboard, don’t do genealogy and certainly do not do genetic genealogy.
I ended my last post with this phase and I like it. That may be so, but in terms of DNA studies, this is another hurdle that may have to be faced. What do you do if you find that a whole supposedly Ellis line is not? In most studies, I suppose, you could discretely drop the line from you study and only the tested person and you need to know the facts. What happens when someone else from that same line insist that their family should be included in the study? What if I find that I am not really an Ellis? Scary.
One of the objectives of a Single Name yDNA study is to understand how families existed over time. Things like what were the effects of the Industrial Revolution on families. Did whole families move to the cities or was the eldest brother and his family required to remain and look after the family ‘riches’ whilst his siblings left? What was the effect of families after the survivors of wars returned. My father upped and left for Africa with his new bride and lost contact with his family, was that quite common?
The current high profile DNA studies are researching data over a much longer period to determine human expansion and history; the Single Name yDNA study looks much closer in time. The effect of these studies combined will give us a much better view of the history of our species.
Cheers