New Results from "BigY" Tests

We present below draft phylogenetic trees for BigY results for our R1a and R1b testees.

The R1a "Norse" Groups

We first present data for the R1a participants represented in our results pages (other than Yellow and Orange groups) R1a groups.The data for these trees comes from Big Y tests taken at Family Tree DNA, as well as sequencing done by Full Genomes Corp.

As discussed elsewhere on the web site DNA tests classify people in two ways. One is on a large scale, into things called "Haplogroups". These are arranged in an hierarchical manner. Your basal haplogroup is shown at FTDNA under your tab "Haplotree and SNPs". Everyone discussed here should be either R-L448 or downstream. The big charts on our web pages that contain all our people show long lists of "STR" numbers. The chart on this page is not based on the STRs but on newly discovered SNPs. Our chart here corresponds to the chart in FTDNA's "Haplotree and SNPs" , and is a larger version of the expandable tree seen on their BigY page.. Each darker tan box stretching across the page from left to right represents a Haplogroup, for example R-CTS4179, R-FGC11904, R-L176.1, R- YP280, etc.. The lighter tan boxes below these represent the individual people who did the BigY or Full Genomes test. The long numbers like 2891073 or 17761211 in the tan boxes give the location on the Y chromosome of the newly discovered SNPs. The exact position on the chromosome is meaningless; you can just consider these numbers are alternate names for the new SNPs. Some of these have been given formal names by various groups (FGC by the Full Genomes company,  and CLD for ones discovered by our project). We have named only ones that have particular importance for us.

As you go from top to bottom in this figure, time increases. L448 itself occurred roughly 3200 years ago in Scandinavia, and essentially corresponds in our main data lists which list "STRs", not "SNPs" to the transition from YCAII = 19,23 to YCAII = 19,21. The mutations CTS4179 and YP355 happened 100 to 300 years later than L448. The mutation YP280 occurred about 550 A.D.. Evidence has accumulated from these BigY test takers as well as results (not shown) from the Z284 SNP Pack Test and individual SNP tests at Yseq.net that Somerled himself was quite certainly FGC11896 positive and almost certainly YP326 positive, but that YP327 and YP328 occurred in the generations just before him. We have no DNA evidence at all as to when the break in the traditional Celtic (and thus not R1a) line happened. It could have been in Gillebride, or generations before him. This evidence comes from the traditional associations of men named McEacharn, Alexander (McAllister), McDougal, and McKane with various generations in the Somerled line. CLD56 and CLD57 (bottom very wide dark tan box) occurred about 1200 A.D. according to the DNA. The most likely person, according to the known Clan genealogy, in whom the mutations CLD56 and CLD57 occurred is John, first Lord of the Isles, died 1386, though it could have been his father, Angus Og. The difference between 1200 and say 1360 (when he would have been having his sons) is well within the usual error of the DNA estimates.

The labels at the bottom of the chart, in the colored areas, represent our best guess as to the historical or genetic event that corresponds to the founding of that haplogroup. Note that these colors do not correspond with the colors of the groups on our Y-STR pages.

The lines below the Clan Donald codes show the particular Clan Donald subgroup to which the testees believe they belong. Certain SNPs definitely show that a person belongs to a certain group. Being CLD12+ shows that a man is either Clanranald or Glengarry. Being CLD12- show that he is not Clanranald or Glengarry. Being CLD50+ shows that he is Clanranald or a subgroup of that. CLD51+ means he descends from the 6th of Clanranald. YP6398+ is Glengarry. Being CLD18+ shows that he is Sleat. Being CLD18- likely shows that he is not in Sleat, but is not yet absolute proof. CLD27+ people descend from a person in the Sleat line no later than Donald Gruamach, 4th of Sleat. From numerous matches through Family Finder (autosomal DNA) we believe that CLD100 (also known as FGCLR601) and FGCLR579 are indicative of Dunnyveg and the Glens. Attempts are being made to prove this by finding more paper trails. There is a tradition that one person who has tested positive for CLD25 is from Clan Donald South, which is related to Dunnyveg. It is important in each case to understand what does or does not determine definitive evidence of being from a particular Clan subgroup.

We urge all of you in the R1a Magenta, Red-Black, Green or Orange groups to test for SNPs. Particularly recommended is the "BigY-700" from FTDNA (and even more so when on sale) . Contact us for more information.

Persons on our R1a chart whose Clan Donald Codes are followed by a check mark have a full paper trail back to Somerled which is shown on our After Somerled page.

This data is now in Build 38, as now used by Familytreedna.com. A few markers are sometimes added or removed due to improvements in "calling" software. As both of these charts are now composed of mixtures of BigY500 and BigY700 data, they cannot be used to accurately determine group ages. A very rough estimate is 100 to 130 years per SNP.

The R1b Results

Included here are the people in our R1b groups who have submitted BigY raw data to us. This group extends vastly farther back in time than does our R1a group above. Highland Scots, whom most of our men are descended from, come mostly from a very few sections of R1b. Because of this our R1b chart has much longer vertical columns of SNPs. One may view a much broader view of R1b at Alex Williamson's ytree.net. That is a much larger and in fact dauntingly larger tree.

The code for the above illustrations was designed by Alex Williamson, whom we greatly thank.

Comments and questions are always welcome.

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