Steve's Genealogy Blog

At the Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators, David Ewing, MD, Chancellor of Clan Ewing in America and Administrator of the Ewing Surname Y-DNA Project discussed the Ewing Surname Y-DNA Project and provided ideas that other Project Administrators can incorporate into their own projects.

The Ewing Surname Y-DNA Project has just surpassed 100 members and is an example of a successful effort to collect and share information among project members.

Dr. Ewing provided a number of links to his project and to the tools he uses in his project.

• Ewing Family Association Website
• Ewing Y-DNA Project
• Dean McGee’s Y-DNA Utility
• Modal Haplotypes

Copyright © 2009-2019 by Stephen J. Danko

On Saturday, March 14, 2009, Terry Barton delivered a presentation about WorldFamilies.net to members of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) who were present for the Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators.

Terry Barton

SOURCE: Terry Barton (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 14 March 2009.

WorldFamilies.net is a website that hosts DNA Surname projects and provides free websites for DNA Surname projects.

Project Administrators for DNA Surname projects can request a website for their project. WorldFamilies.net can assist in one of two different ways, depending on the expertise and needs of the Project Administrator.

OPTION 1: If the Project Administrator has a Group Administration Page (GAP) code at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA), WorldFamilies.net will support the Project Administrator as much or as little as desired to get the Surname Project website up and running. By supplying the GAP code, WorldFamilies.net will have access to the Surname Projects GAP pages.

OPTION 2: If the Project Administrator does not have a GAP code at FTDNA, the Project Administrator can still set up and manage a website at WorldFamilies.net. Under Option 2, the Project Administrator will be completely independent, but the Project Administrator must include links on their WorldFamilies.net Surname Project website to order DNA tests at FTDNA.

Under Option 1, WorldFamilies.net will provide basic services for administering the project, including posting results, posting pedigrees, sending Welcome emails to new members, sending emails to project members when new results or pedigrees are posted, and answering questions from project members.

As the Project Administrator becomes familiar with WorldFamilies.net and wishes to assume more of the responsibilities for managing the website, WorldFamilies.net will provide an Excel spreadsheet to use for the Results table, provide instructions for using the “Upload” feature or the editing tools on the webpage, and will also provide sample email templates for Welcome messages and updates.

Interested visitors to the Surname Project website can order a DNA test from FTDNA directly from a link on the project webpage and will automatically be enrolled in the Surname Project.

In addition to the Home Page, the Project Administrator has editing control over six additional website pages:

• Patriarchs
• Y-Results
• Join Project
• mtDNA
• Discussion
• Help

On each of these pages, the Project Administrator can use the WorldFamilies default text, create custom content using the editing tools provided, or upload a custom HTML file.

WorldFamilies.net receives commissions from Family Tree DNA for DNA test kits ordered through the Project websites. These commissions are used to underwrite the costs associated with setting up and maintaining the websites with no cost to the Project Administrator.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko

On Saturday, March 14, 2009, Roberta Estes delivered a presentation entitled “Where Have All the Indians Gone” to members of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy (ISOGG) who were present for the Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators.

Roberta Estes

SOURCE: Roberta Estes (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 14 March 2009.

In her talk, Roberta discussed the fate of Native Americans and their DNA after the arrival of Europeans in the Americas.

The Melungeons arrived in Claiborne/Hawkins Counties in about 1800. In a trial over voting rights, the Melungeon claimed they were “not Negro”, but rather Portuguese and Indian. The decision of that trial was in their favor, but recent analysis of Melungeon DNA reveals that their core DNA is European and African, with no native haplogroups. All mtDNA samples are European.

The Lost Colony was the first known prolonged contact between Europeans and Native Americans. The colonists may have survived by being assimilated into native tribes. Research into the Lost Colony has resulted in a database with over 5000 entries and a timeline of over 1000 pages.

Beringia, the exposed land between Alaska and Siberia over which man is thought to have first entered the Americas created a bottleneck at the end of the last glacial maximum. The genetic groups in the Americas became isolated, resulting in Y-DNA haplogroups of C3 (rare), Q3 and M3, and mtDNA haplogroups of A2, B2, C, D, and X2a.

Native American tribes can be grouped into language families: Iroquoian, Algonquin, Siouan, and Muskhogean (east of the Mississippi). Virginia and North Carolina included three of the four language families.

Some large Native American tribes disappeared completely. The South Carolina tribes are all gone, although the Shawnee survived. Losses were due to intertribal warfare or warfare with the colonists, disease, the emerging slave market, and alcohol.

The result was that there were not enough males to sustain the tribes, and non-native Y-DNA was introduced into native populations.

In Bolnick, D.A., D.I. Bolnick, and D.G. Smith. 2006 Asymmetric Male and Female Genetic Histories among Native Americans from Eastern North America. Mol. Biol. Evol. 23:2161-74, the authors calculated 47% non-native DNA in families believing to be no less than 75% native.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko

On Saturday, March 14, 2009, Spencer Wells, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and the scientific director of the Genographic Project, addressed the Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators.

Spencer Wells, PhD

SOURCE: Spencer Wells, PhD (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 14 March 2009.

The Genographic Project has collected 50,000 DNA samples from indigenous and traditional groups. Analysis of the DNA is underway, and the first publications are out now. The Genographic Project intends to store these DNA samples of indigenous peoples indefinitely.

296,000 members of the general public have also participated in the Genographic Project, and the project is still selling 50,000 test kits per year. These samples are scheduled to be destroyed next year.

Applications of the Genographic Project represent a variety of projects to benefit indigenous communities throughout the world and include cataloging native plants and their traditional uses, and traditional music.

Man can trace his origins to sub-Saharan Africa 200,000 years ago. Today, there are four major families of languages in Africa: Afro Asiatic in the North, Nil Saharan just to the South, Kordofanian in Central Africa/Niger, and Kosian in the South.

60,000 years ago, man left Africa. Data suggests that there may have been two separate migrations out of Africa.

The Sahara may have been more hospitable at the time of the egress. Precessions in the rotation of the earth have caused the Saharan climate to cycle between hospitable and non-hospitable climates with a periodicity of about 22,000 years.

This observation led Dr. Wells to speculate whether climate change may have been the major determinant of ancient migrations.

Y DNA Haplogroup R1b1 lived in Iberia at the time of the last glacial maximum. As they left Iberia, men and women probably didn’t follow exactly the same migration paths. In addition, a few men probably did most of the mating in a population.

The Genographic Project has recently sampled DNA from Tajikistan, Northern Afghanistan, Chad, and the Peruvian Amazon. The project has not yet received permission from ethics groups in Bolivia to sample DNA there.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko

At the recent Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators, Mark Williams and Adrian Williams of the Information Technology (IT) team at Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) discussed a new application for Project Administrators at FTDNA.

Mark Williams and Adrian Williams

SOURCE: Mark Williams and Adrian Williams (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 14 March 2009.

The IT team has developed a new set of applications for Project Administrators which are part of a freeform desktop with 16 widgets.

All projects managed by one Project Administrator will require a single set of credentials and one dashboard . A button will apply a selected layout to all projects managed by that Project Administrator.

This desktop is in beta and is now available to Project Administrators who attended this year’s Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators. All Project Administrators will need to create new credentials when they access the new desktop.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko

At last weekend’s Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators, Thomas Krahn, Technical Laboratory Manager of Family Tree DNA’s Genomics Research Center in Houston, discussed Null Alleles and also presented an update on the “Walk Through the Y” project.

Thomas Krahn and Bennett Greenspan

SOURCE: Thomas Krahn and Bennett Greenspan (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 15 March 2009.

Thomas defined null alleles as a mutant copy of a gene that completely lacks that gene’s normal function. The mutation can be an error in the promoter, or an error in transcription or translation.

At Family Tree DNA, scientists are looking for null alleles in junk DNA, rather than in genes. These null alleles represent a DNA segment of good quality, limited to the two primer pairs of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that doesn’t yield a PCR product in some biological samples, while all other samples of that kind show a clear, detectable signal with the same PCR reaction.

Described in this way, null alleles can result from a bad DNA template, a situation where the assay doesn’t work, or the detection method fails.

Occasionally null alleles are detected at one of the two laboratories (Arizona and Houston) but not the other, because the two labs use different primers.

In another case (DYS448), the primers worked, the PCR worked, but still resulted in a null allele. DYS448 had lost a whole segment of DNA. The mutation was stable and non-lethal.

In the “Walk Through the Y” project, Family Tree DNA intends to look for public and private single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) by sequencing 100 kB of the Y chromosome from selected individuals. The project is open to the public at a cost of $750. Results will have a six week turnaround time.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko

At last weekend’s Family Tree DNA 5th International Conference on Genetic Genealogy for Project Administrators, Michael Hammer, PhD presented an update on the Y chromosome tree.

Michael Hammer, PhD

SOURCE: Michael Hammer, PhD (Houston, Harris County, Texas). Photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 15 March 2009.

Over 600 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on the Y chromosome have been mapped in 20 major haplogroups (A-T). The SNPs mapped last year were mostly in haplogroup R.

New discoveries include:

• 2 new SNPs in haplogroup E;
• 7 new mutations (including 1 new defining mutation) for a total of 18 total mutations and 2 new subclades in haplogroup H;
• 5 new mutations for a total of 34 mutations and 2 new subclades in haplogoup I;
• 4 new mutations in haplogroup J2, 2 new subclades and 43 mutations total in haplogroup J;
• 1 new mutation for a total of 11 mutations in haplogroup N;
• 12 new mutations for a total of 54 mutations, and 9 new subclades in haplogroup R;
• No new mutations yet in haplogroups S and T;
• 9 new mutations and 7 new subclades are coming up.

With the large number of new mutations discovered in haplogroup R, Dr. Hammer presented a schematic showing the divergence of haplogroup R.

• Mutation M269+ (R1b1b2) entered Europe.
• Mutation P311+ (U106+) (R1b1b2a1a) split to Poland.
• Mutation U152+ (R1b1b2a1b2) split to Czechoslovakia.
• Mutation SRY2627+ (R1b1b2a1b3) split to the Iberian Peninsula.
• Mutation L21+ (R1b1b2a1b5) split to Britain, especially Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

Interestingly, Dr. Hammer stated that this entire group, R1b1b2 is difficult to predict from short tandem repeats (STRs), even at 67 markers. Deep clade testing using SNPs is necessary for this group.

Finally, Dr. Hammer discussed the pigmentation locus SLC24A5, which mutated only once. A single SNP explains 25-38% of pigmentation in Europeans. This mutation became fixed about 10,000 years ago, but the selective process began 20,000 years ago. The SLC24A5 pigmentation SNP may have expanded out of the last glacial maximum refugia during the fixation process.

Copyright © 2009 by Stephen J. Danko