Donald Wayne Cooley (a descendant of James) has just gotten back his Geno
2.0 Y chromosome SNP results. They're posted here under kit #N3690.
(Remember, the Y chromosome passes from father to son only and is
essentially a clone; it changes very little from one generation to the
next.)
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Cooley/default.aspx?section=ysnp
Those of you who have looked at the Cooley Project's DNA page will be
somewhat familiar with the STR results:
http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Cooley/default.aspx?section=yresults
Each number represents the number of times a specified series of chemicals
repeat. It's generally considered that after about 15 generations of
descent too many mutations are introduced to make comparisons reliable.
It's no surprise, then, that all the testers in CF01 match so closely, as
most of us are known to be about 7 to 9 generations from John.
SNPs are entirely different. They represent specific, single mutations of
specifically located chemicals, for example, a change from A to G. The
date at which the mutation occurred can be estimated, in part, by
determining its frequency in respect to the size of a population. For
example, the mutation known as M207 encompasses such a huge portion of the
Eurasian population that it is estimated to have occurred between 19,900
and 34,300 years ago. For all those generations, that mutation has passed
from Don's ancient *patrilineal* ancestor to the present day. It's the
mutation that is used to define the mega haplogroup R.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R-M207
Don and I have both tested positive for the mutation known as L-448. This
is considered to have occurred between 1900 and 2300 years ago in Norway
and has been dubbed "Young Scandinavian." Don tested negative for the
presence of L-176.1, which is the Scottish subset of L-448. This is in
line with earlier interpretations of our STR markers: we are likely
distantly related to, not descended from, the 12th century Scottish
chieftain, Somerled.
Lying downstream from L448 and upstream from L176.1 is CTS4179. The R1a
Project reports that Don is negative for that marker but I don't see that
it was even tested. I have an email into a project admin about that.
Many of the younger markers have been recently discovered, and the
interpretations are in a state of flux. Some markers once considered to be
defining markers are now found to be specific to certain families and have
been removed from the Y tree. At present, there are very few markers that
have been verified as being "downstream" from L448. But it is my hope that
one day we can lay claim to one of these "private" markers as being
specific to our clan of Cooleys.
-Michael
Received on Tue Jun 25 2013 - 16:09:49 MDT