Category Archives: STR (Short Tandem Repeat)

Sixteen Unique Trees at FamilyTreeDNA: How and When to Use Each

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I love all the various trees at FamilyTreeDNA – and I’m not referring just to traditional genealogy trees with people, names, and dates. I’m talking about phylogenetic or haplogroup trees – the ones you use to understand your Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups, origins – and more. These trees tell you ABOUT your ancestors, those people in the more traditional genealogy tree, and the combination of both is powerful.

This article introduces the various trees available at FamilyTreeDNA, when and where you’ll find them, and what they can do for you.

Haplogroup Trees

Phylogenetic, or haplogroup trees, provide a genetic path from you, or the tester, today, back in time to Y-Line Adam, or Mitochondrial Eve – the first two humans who lived AND have descendants today.

Let’s start by explaining about Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), their inheritance path, and what they mean to you.

Y-DNA

Only men have a Y-chromosome, so only biological males can test their Y-DNA.

Y-Line Adam, Y-DNA haplogroup A-PR2921, lived about 232,000 BCE, or 234,000 years ago.

Is it possible that one day someone will test whose results push that date back somewhat? Yes, of course, as we are always learning, and many testers split branches.

Today, all 711,000+ modern descendants who have tested carry the mutation named A-PR2921 as their oldest SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism), or haplogroup-defining mutation in their Y-DNA. That’s because we all descend from that one man.

If you’re a male, Y-DNA testing tells you about your direct paternal line by matching with other men who have also taken a Y-DNA test, and by revealing valuable information from before the adoption of surnames. There’s no other way to reach that far back in time.

If you’re a female, you can recruit males in your family to test.

The Big Y-700 test provides the deepest-reaching and most refined Y-DNA test available, which is essential for both genealogy and tree-building.

Mitochondrial DNA

All people have mitochondrial DNA, inherited from their mother directly through her matrilineal line – meaning her mother, her mother, her mother, and so forth – directly up your tree through all mothers.

Everyone inherits their mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from their mother, but only females pass it on. Both males and females in the current generation, meaning you, can (and should) test their mitochondrial DNA.

Mitochondrial Eve, mitochondrial DNA haplogroup L, lived about 141,000 BCE, or about 143,000 years ago. All 315,000 testers descend from this one woman.

Like with Y-Line Adam, one day the results of future testers may push this date further back in time. A full sequence mitochondrial DNA test, mtFull, is necessary to test all 16,569 mitochondrial locations.

Test Types

FamilyTreeDNA has been in business for more than 25 years. Technology has advanced dramatically during that time. While they continue to offer new tests and products, they strive to maintain value for their original testers.

Even though some early testers may have joined their ancestors, matching with their test results is still beneficial to us.

Present-day DNA testers can still derive value by matching the earlier, lower-level, lower-resolution tests. Not as much value as if the original tester had taken a higher-level test, but those tests may not have been available at that time.

Matches, surnames, genealogy, locations, and haplogroups provide us with valuable information. The more people who test, the larger the pool becomes, and the better our chances of discovering something that refines our understanding of our ancestors – and identifies who they are.

Before we look at the trees available, let’s take a look at where haplogroups come from. Differet level tests assign different levels of haplogroups, based on how much is tested.

Let’s answer two common questions:

  1. Where can you find your haplogroup, and what does it mean?
  2. How can haplogroups be different for people who descend from the same ancestor?

Where Do Haplogroups Come From?

Since the beginning, FamilyTreeDNA has always provided their customers with haplogroup information. Haplogroups are very genealogically useful today, but initially, 25 years ago, they were only able to provide essentially continental-level origin information for your particular line. That too was useful, and helped to identify and eliminate common lineages – just not as ueful as today.

Science and testing have both come a long way. Present-day testers still match with people who only tested at a lower level. You never know what you might find at that level – a match to someone who has not taken the current tests, but is still very relevant because they share your ancestor. In fact, they may be the only tester who does.

For Y-DNA testers, you’ll notice several match categories that reflect different testing levels – along with the number of matches at each level. At one time, you could purchase each one of these tests individually, then later upgrade to higher-level tests. Today, only the 37 and 111 marker tests, and the Big Y-700, which scans the entire gold-standard region of the Y chromosome, are available. Higher level tests include the lower-level tests.

Click any image to enlarge

Different types of tests provide either a predicted or a confirmed haplogroup which shows on your match list.

Without getting all sciency on you – the 12-111 marker tests test targeted STRs, or short tandem repeats, which can’t be used for haplogroup assignment and confirmation. They can and are used to compare to other testers for matching because the number of repeats, or stutters, are inherited on the Y chromosome. The Big Y test scans the Y chromosome for SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphisms, which are stable mutations that define haplogroups. I wrote about this in the article, STRs vs SNPs, Multiple DNA Personalities.

Some haplogroups are much further down the tree, or more current, than others. Your most current haplogroup, only available with the Big Y-700 test, is the best because it brings you the closest to current in time, often placing you within family branches. The Big Y-700 scans about 23 million locations on the Y chromosome, revealing both known and unknown mutations, not just a few markers, making it the most refined and relevant test genealogically.

Each higher-level test includes the lower-level tests. You can see what tests your matches have taken by looking beneath their names on your match list. In this case, these Estes men who match my cousin have taken the Family Finder (or uploaded an autosomal transfer), and taken the mtFull test. One match initially took the Big Y-500 but has since upgraded to the Big Y-700, and the other originally tested at the 111 marker level, and has since upgraded as well.

The Big Y-700 includes all lower-level tests, such as the Big Y-500 (now obsolete), the 111, 67, 37, 25, and 12 marker STR tests. You still match with people who only tested at those levels, plus everyone else who ordered a more refined test.

The haplogroup you receive is more or less refined, based on the test level you take.

Y-DNA Test Type Haplogroup Provided Relevance Upgradable
Y-DNA STR 12-111 marker tests (only 37 and 111 are available today – the rest are obsolete) Predicted based on STRs – very reliable at the level predicted Predicted (not confirmed) haplogroup that was generally formed a couple thousand years ago, or earlier Yes, if enough quality DNA remains. Only 37, 111, and the Big Y-700 tests are available today. Recommend the upgrade to Big Y-700.
Individual SNP test (now obsolete) Confirms a predicted haplogroup or tests a single SNP to confirm a closer haplogroup Relevant at the level tested – either positive or negative result was reported Individual SNP tests have now been replaced by Big Y-700, which covers all individual SNPs that were available to test, plus much more.
Big Y-500 test (now obsolete) Confirmed haplogroup within range of that test’s ability, replaced by much more granular Big Y-700 Big Y-700 is more refined and moves the tester towards more current haplogroups, so more genealogically significant Yes, upgrade to Big Y-700 if enough DNA remains, or tester can re-swab
Big Y-700 – scans the entire gold-standard region of the Y chromosome – approximately 23 million base pairs Top-of-the-line SNP-confirmed test, most granular and refined. Scans for known and previously unknown mutations. Extremely accurate. Generally advances the tester into a genealogical timeframe, and often divides testers into multiple lineages descended from a known common ancestor No more advanced test is available.
Family Finder autosomal test or transfer Confirmed to mid-range level if possible. Not all transfer files have Y-DNA or mtDNA SNPs so you get what you get. Useful in autosomal matching for locating people you may be related to you with that surname. Ask the match if they are willing to take a Y-DNA test, if relevant, or sponsor a testing scholarship for them.

Family Finder haplogroups are relatively new at FamilyTreeDNA. Each chip level that FamilyTreeDNA has used for testing over the years, and the chips that other vendors have used, contain different SNPs (or none at all on the Ancestry test) that can be measured for some level of haplogroup. Other vendors generally don’t quality-control for either Y-DNA or mtDNA SNPs because they don’t use them. This is a “you get what you get” freebie.

That said, most Family Finder haplogroups are closer in time, or “better” than the predicted R-M269, the most common haplogroup in Europe, often reported with STR testing.

Not everyone with a transfer kit receives a haplogroup. Due to quality and reliability issues, you cannot see haplogroups on your autosomal match list for those who only have a haplogroup through an autosomal transfer.

Using our male Estes testers as an example, we find the following haplogroup results at the various testing levels:

Haplogroup Haplogroup Formation Date Ancestor or Haplogroup Formation Location Haplogroup Source
R-M269 4450 BCE (6450 years ago) Between Ukraine and Kazakhstan, north of the Black and Caspian Seas Predicted from 12-111 STR marker tests
R-BY487 700 CE (1300 years ago) UK, Scotland/England Family Finder DNA SNP Confirmed
R-BY482 1550 CE Robert Eastye b 1555 Ringwould, Kent, England Big Y-700
R-BY490 1700 CE Silvester Eastye b 1596 Kent, England Big Y-700
R-ZS3700 1750 CE Moses Estes 1711 VA Big Y-700
R-BY154784 1850 CE Joseph Estes b c 1790 VA or TN Big Y-700

All of these are valid and accurate haplogroups – some are just closer in time and much more useful than others. All of these men have R-M269, because it is a parent haplogroup of all of those downstream haplogroups. The Big-Y tested men beginning with R-BY482 don’t share the haplogroups below them, because they don’t have those mutations that are downstream on the tree. However, the men at the bottom with R-BY154784 have all of the SNPs above them.

Note that all haplogroup formation dates are ranges. I’m showing the midpoint here.

When upgrading, if the original tester is deceased, select the highest-level test available, as there may not be enough DNA to run more than one test. When I offer scholarships now, I always just offer the Big Y-700 test to avoid future issues.

If the tester you need is no longer available, consider the possibility that other people, family members perhaps, might be available to test to represent this same line.

Next, let’s look at mitochondrial test levels and haplogroups.

Mitochondrial DNA Test Type Haplogroup Provided Relevance Upgradable
HVR1 & HVR2 tests (no longer available) Predicted based on around 1000 markers – very reliable at the level predicted Predicted haplogroup, not confirmed, generally formed a couple thousand years ago or earlier Yes, if enough quality DNA remains. Only the mtFull test is available today.
mtFull, full sequence test Tests all 16,569 SNP locations in the entire mitochondria. Most granular and refined. Extremely accurate. Often brings tester into genealogical timeframe, especially with the new Mitotree. Divides testers into multiple haplotype lineages, sometimes descended from known common ancestor. No upgrade needed to receive new Mitotree and mtDNA Discover benefits.
Family Finder autosomal test or transfer Coming soon. Will be the same criteria and caveats as Y-DNA SNPs. May be able to find a similar or upstream haplogroup that might point to a common ancestor. Ask autosomal match if they are willing to take a mtFull test, if relevant, or sponsor a scholarship for them.

Ok, now that we understand more about haplogroups, how they are determined, and where yours came from, let’s look at all of the trees at FamilyTreeDNA.

Trees Within Your Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA Account

Let’s start with trees found within your personal account, so sign in.

Each tree has a different purpose and unique benefits.

Tree #1 – Your Matches Genealogy Trees

Each of your matches may have provided links to genealogical trees. They may show trees in multiple places too; at MyHeritage, an archived tree at FamilyTreeDNA, and a WikiTree link. I makes notes about their trees in the comments field, and I also keep a spreadsheet to look for commonalities.

Tree #2 – Haplogroups and SNPs for Y-DNA Testers

Next, for Y-DNA testers, click on the Y-DNA Results and Tools.

You’ll see the Haplotree & SNPs tile on the dashboard.

The Haplotree and SNPs link takes you to a phylogenetic tree that defaults to your haplogroup, where you can view:

  • Variants – SNP mutations that define your haplogroup
  • Surnames with this haplogroup – so long as there are multiple public testers
  • Countries – self-reported for earliest known ancestors (EKA)
  • Recommended Projects – haplogroup projects only – others such as surname projects are found in Discover under Suggested Projects

Tree #3 – The Block Tree for Big Y Testers

People who have taken the Big Y-700 test have a separate section that includes tools for the Big-Y test that aren’t relevant for the 12-111 STR marker tests.

Big Y testers will see the Block Tree tile on their dashboard.

The block tree is an alternative way of displaying matches on a phylogenetic tree. While the Discover Time Tree is viewed left to right, this tree is displayed top to bottom, with each mutation being represented by one grey bar on the scale at left. Each mutation corresponds to approximately 100 years, which is a rough average for the frequency of Y-chromosomal mutations.

People with 30 mutations or fewer are shown as matches, with the goal of reaching back about 1500 years.

Each large block shows the mutation for which the haplogroup is named, such as R-BY482, at the top. The mutations, known as variants, shown below that haplogroup name, are found in the results of each person in that haplogroup, but in the future, people without those mutations, or with additional mutations, will form a new branching haplogroup.

The green “Private Variants” at the bottom of the branches display the average number of mutations of people within that group awaiting another tester to have the same mutations, so a new branch can be formed. I view Private Mutations as “haplogroups in waiting.”

Discover

In addition to the haplogroup trees shown in your account at FamilyTreeDNA, there are several additional trees in Discover for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA. Discover, updated weekly, is a suite of tools for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA that, cumulatively, provides a book about your haplogroup results.

Discover comes in two flavors:

  • The publicly available free version with limited functionality
  • Your private version with expanded functionality available from within your account

You can access Discover, here if you’d like to follow along.

Discover is a publicly available free tool introduced in the fall of 2023 that provides more than a dozen reports, enabling a deeper understanding of all haplogroups.

Just select Y-DNA or mtDNA and enter your haplogroup of choice.

Think of these menu choices, in the sidebar, as chapters in your personal book. Every chapter has something interesting to tell you. Please read them – don’t just scan.

In addition to the free version, if you have taken a Big-Y or mitochondrial DNA full sequence test at FamilyTreeDNA, you’ll have additional information available.

For mitochondrial DNA results, just click on the pink Discover tile.

For Y-DNA results, click on the blue Discover tile.

Within Discover, you’ll find three distinct trees.

Trees #4 and #5 – Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA Time Trees

The Time Tree shows your Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA haplogroup displayed on a timeline, along with:

  • A self-reported ancestral country indicator for every person’s DNA in that haplogroup
  • Haplotype groupings indicating exact matches between everyone in that haplotype.

A haplotype is a grouping of people whose DNA matches exactly, including unstable or hypervariable locations too unreliable to use for haplogroup formation. However, those mutations may be relevant for genealogical matching.

I wrote about haplogroups and haplotypes here and here.

Tree #6 and #7 – Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA Class Tree View

The Classic Tree is available for both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA.

On the Classic Mitotree View, you can display and filter the tree, including haplotypes, in seven ways, as shown in the dropdown “Display Options.”

Tree #8 and #9 – Y-DNA and Mitochondrial DNA Tree Branch Comparison

Have you ever seen two haplogroups and wondered how closely they are related? Compare provides that answer.

Here, I’m comparing my haplogroup to that of a family member. Everyone is related, but how long ago are we related on our matrilineal lines?

Haplogroup J1c2f compared with haplogroup V216a shows that our common ancestor lived a VERY long time ago – about 55,000 years in the past, someplace in the fertile crescent.

For either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA, you can compare two haplogroups. This provides specific information about those two branches of the tree, and where they intersect. To view more about the common ancestor, just pop R+10398 into Discover and learn more about when and where that ancestor lived.

Trees #10 and #11 – Match Time Trees

Match Time Trees are one of the most useful Discover features.

In addition to the Time Trees and Classic Trees provided for everyone in Discover, test takers will also have a Match Time Tree that shows all of your matches, organized genetically.

For mtFull testers, your matches are organized by haplotype cluster. People in your haplotype cluster are your exact matches.

I have over 100 full sequence matches, so I’m only showing the first few in this screenshot. In addition to the match’s name, their EKA (earliest known ancestor) is shown, if provided.

On the Y-DNA Match Time Tree, links are provided to genealogical trees of the tester, which could be an archived FamilyTreeDNA tree, a MyHeritage tree, WikiTree, or some combination.

You can actually see your matches’ WikiTree tree on your Match Time Tree by enabling another feature.

Trees #12 and #13 – WikiTree Tree Integration

While you’re still on the Match Time Tree page for either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA, click on Display Options, above the Time Tree, and enable WikiTree Connections. Unfortunately, the default for this great feature is “off.”

I’ve enabled “Share Mode” at the top to obfuscate the names of the testers, and I’ve adjusted the vertical spacing so you can see more in my examples. You’ll notice the grey lines with dots inside circles. I think of these as beads or maybe knots on a rope, but they actually represent a line of ancestors.

Each tester with one of those grey dot bars has connected themselves to their ancestors at WikiTree, a public one-world tree. Living people are not shown, hence the dash marks to the immediate left of the tester’s name.

By mousing over any of the dots, aka ancestors, you can view information about this ancestor of this Estes tester at WikiTree. Ancestors appear in genealogical order in their relevant place on the Time Tree. How cool is that!!!

WikiTree, like any tree, public or private, can have errors. Always verify any tree using original source documents.

As far as I’m concerned, the Match Time Tree is one of the very best features of both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA testing and matching. There are so many options to select from, so take some time to look around.

Your Personal Version of Discover is Best

Y-DNA Discover and mtDNA Discover can both be useful for any level of haplogroup, but the best results are obtained when clicking through from the tester’s FamilyTreeDNA account. Big Y and full sequence mitochondrial DNA customers receive additional information, not available in the free, public version of Discover, including

  • The Match Time Tree
    • Including WikiTree integration
  • Globetrekker (Y-DNA, mtDNA coming eventually)
  • Up to 30 Ancient Connections, as compared to 3 in the free version
  • Up to 30 Notable Connections, as compared to 3 in the free version

Tree #14 – Group Time Trees

I absolutely love Group Time Trees. They are similar to Match Time Trees, but unlike Match Time Trees, are publicly viewable for Group Projects if the volunteer project administrators have enabled this feature for the project.

There are two ways to access Group Time Trees – through publicly accessible Discover or directly through any project.

In Discover, select Group Project in the dropdown.

Then type the name of the surname project you’re seeking. You’ll be presented with a menu if the surname you’ve entered is found in multiple projects, or administrators have listed it as “of interest” in their project.

I clicked on the Estes project.

Viewing the Estes DNA Project, under DNA Results, you can see the various options.

Selecting Y-DNA Results Overview displays the project results by administrator-defined group. The teal groups all descend through Abraham Estes through various sons.

However, by clicking the Group Time Tree instead, you can view all these testers and their results in a Match Time Tree format, arranged genetically.

Clicking on the Group Time Tree link takes you to the Group Time Tree for this project. A menu is displayed at left, based on how the administrator has grouped the project.

I’ve selected several groups that I know descend from the original Estes ancestor from Kent, England. Testers who have joined the Estes project and granted permission for their results to be displayed publicly are automatically grouped genetically, at right, with their surname and EKA (earliest known ancestor), assuming they have entered that information.

Earliest Known Ancestors (EKA)

You’ve probably noticed that earliest known ancestors, along with their locations, are used in many places.

Please enter both your direct paternal (father, father, to father’s line) and direct matrilineal (mother, mother, to mother’s line) earliest known ancestors, along with their locations. I wrote about how to do that in “Earliest Known Ancestors” at FamilyTreeDNA in 3 Easy Steps, here.

Trees #15 and #16 – Public Trees

In addition to trees within testers’ accounts, Discover trees, Group Time Trees, and WikiTree tree integration, FamilyTreeDNA provides two additional public trees.

FamilyTreeDNA made the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA haplogroup trees freely available years ago, at the bottom of their main company public page – without signing in.

These trees are still actively maintained today and are free for everyone to use.

To find these trees, scroll all the way to the very bottom of the page, in the footer, to the Community section. Yes, I know, it’s a bit like a scavenger hunt!

You can select to view either the Y-DNA or mtDNA tree. I love this tree, because it shows how many SNP-confirmed people have been tested. That number does not include the thousands of academic and public samples that may be utilized to help define haplogroups, and that you’ll sometimes see in your Ancient and Notable Connections.

So, if you receive a new haplogroup, but you don’t see a new match on your list or on the Block Tree, it’s probably because you match a high-quality academic sample.

The trees display from the root, meaning the oldest haplogroup is shown at the top. In the Y-DNA tree, above, haplogroup A-PR2921 is “Y-Adam”.

You can select any haplogroup on the bar across the top, search by country, or select a specific branch name to view.

The tree itself is viewable by country, as shown above, or by variant, meaning the haplogroup-defining mutations, shown below.

Additionally, for the Y-DNA tree, you can choose to display by surname, so long as there are two or more testers with that identically spelled surname who share this haplogroup and who have given permission for public display.

Please note that these people are all SNP-tested and confirmed at the level reported, but they are NOT all Big-Y testers.

This feature alone can be genealogy-changing because they may be surnames associated with your ancestors in records, or they may just be neighbors. Or maybe you thought they were “just neighbors,” but they are actually related.

At one time, customers could order an individual SNP test for R-M269 to confirm their predicted haplogroup. That test is no longer available, but anyone who took that test to confirm R-M269 and never tested or received results (like Family Finder) at a more granular level will be reported at R-M269. Note that 687 is the number of distinct surnames shown, not the total number of testers.

The three “hamburger dots” on the right side provide options for a user-reported Country Report based on the location of their earliest known ancestor, and a Surname Report. The surname report for R-M269 shows a total of 2448 testers who share those 687 surnames.

It’s a Whole Forest

Who knew there were 16 unique trees available at FamilyTreeDNA!

Each tree has a unique purpose and provides information not available elsewhere.

Take a look and see what kind of information is waiting for you – and don’t forget to check back often.

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A Forest of Fathers: FamilyTreeDNA’s Y-DNA Tree Tops 100,000 Branches

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Congratulations to FamilyTreeDNA and all of their customers who contributed to this absolutely monumental milestone. The Y-DNA tree has now reached 100,000 branches.

Chart courtest of FamilyTreeDNA

I knew they were getting close because the official January numbers were 99,777.

Congratulations to the entire team, but especially to Michael Sager, Senior Phylogeneticist, who has been the chief architect of the tree “forever.” This is definitely his baby.

Here’s Michael in 2020 at RootsTech discussing the Y-DNA tree construction methodology.

The Y-DNA tree is built using the results of 698,000 individual Y-DNA testers, plus thousands of both academic and ancient results.

These 100,000 tree branches are built from 857,000 variants, known as SNP mutations. Think of those as a huge 857,000-piece puzzle that Michael Sager has spent the past decade assembling into the Y-DNA tree of mankind, reaching all the way back to Y-DNA Adam.

In the tree today, haplogroup A-PR2021, named for variant or SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) PR2921, is Y-DNA Adam, who lived in Africa about 234,000 years ago.

Click on any image to enlarge

FamilyTreeDNA has made their entire Y-DNA tree public and free, and that’s in addition to the baker’s dozen reports available through Discover for each haplogroup.

Let’s take a look!

The Public Y-DNA Tree by Country

You can view the public Y-DNA tree, here, and can select to view the tree by:

  • Variants (mutations) that define each haplogroup
  • Country
  • Surname

For example, here is the oldest, or top portion of the tree, using “by Country,” the first of three options.

Notice two things at far right:

  • There may be a “+” when there are too many countries to display
  • The 3 dots

Clicking on the three dots provides you with the option for a “Country Report” or “Surname Report” for that specific haplogroup.

The Country Report shows the number of haplogroup members from each country. Remember that countries are self-reported by the testers. The country should be the location where the tester’s earliest known paternal ancestor (EKA) was living or from.

You can see how many people are members of this specific branch, and in the next column, how many people are members of this branch plus all “son” or downstream branches. One column excludes new haplogroup letters (when a different base haplogroup is formed), and the other includes all downstream haplogroups, even if the beginning branch letter changes. The final “Distribution” column shows the percentage of people in that haplogroup who originated from each country.

In this case, 43% are from the US, which probably means that they are brick-walled here, given that the only people originally “from” the United States were Native Americans who fall into specific subclades of haplogroups C and Q.

If you’d like more information about A-V148, or any other haplogroup, you can go to Discover and enter a haplogroup name. I always check the Ancient Connections because archaeological remains anchor haplogroups in a particular place at a particular time. We’ll cover more about Discover in a minute.

The Public Y-DNA Tree by Variant

This haplotree view “by Variant” shows the variants, or SNP mutations, that identify each haplogroup.

You can see that Haplogroup A-PR2921, the granddaddy of the tree, is based on only one mutation, PR2921, which is also the haplogroup name. This means two things:

  • Every haplogroup beneath this branch on the tree also has the mutation, PR2921, which is how we know it’s the “original” founding mutation
  • This haplogroup cannot be split further, because there are no additional variants

For example, look at the branch, A-L1090, the first “child haplogroup” of A-PR2921. A-L1090 has the 26 mutations displayed, plus more, for a total of 695.

This means that as more men test, there are literally more than 695 opportunities for various men to match on a unique subset of those mutations, plus new mutations never discovered before, forming new haplogroups.

Some lines have died out over time, and others may be quite rare. This is the perfect example of why it’s important for every male to take the Big Y test, aside from genealogy.

Looking on down the tree to the next haplogroup “generation,” we can see that haplogroup A-V148 has 21 descendant haplogroups, but its sibling subclade, A-V168 has 99,967 – essentially the rest of the tree.

The Public Y-DNA Tree by Surname

Viewing the tree “by Surname” can be very useful. Surnames are shown beside their haplogroup if there are two or more individuals:

  • With the same spelling of the surname who are assigned to this haplogroup
  • Who are members of a public DNA Group Project
  • Who have given permission for their information to be displayed publicly within the project

You can see that haplogroup A-V148 has one surname showing – Goddard.

Haplogroup A-M31 shows four: Bass, Johnson, Evans and Cruise.

Clicking on the three dots shows the Surname Report.

This report reveals that there are seven men with the Goddard surname and no other surnames are currently lissted for this haplogroup.

You might be a member of this haplogroup even if your surname isn’t Goddard. Surnames were only adopted in the past few hundred years, and many have changed during that time for a wide variety of reasons, including spelling variations. Not everyone who is in the matching database has joined a project, so they may show up on your match list, but not be visible here.

Since we know that several Goddard men are in some project, how do we figure out which project or projects they have joined?

Discover’s Suggested Projects

Go to Discover and enter the haplogroup. Click the big orange “Search” button, which will display the Haplogroup Story page for that haplogroup.  .

From the Discover menu at left, select “Suggested Projects”.

For haplogroup A-V148, 10 projects are listed based on which projects members of this haplogroup have joined or on project administrator settings. Those projects alone may provide ancestral hints. Many people, if not most, join multiple projects, such as haplogroup projects, surname projects, and geographic or ethnic projects.

You can click through to any of the projects listed for any haplogroup to take a look. I use my browser search function to search for specific surnames on project pages.

You may find that someone who descends from your ancestor has tested and is waiting for you to match them – plus other genealogical hints as well.

Is Your Surname in the Database?

How can you tell whether your surname is in the database? That’s a great question!

In the public tree, there’s a “Search by Surname” feature. I searched for Estes, and discovered that Estes appears on 8 different branches of haplogroup R. Next, I need to click on haplogroup R, which is directly beneath the search box.

This doesn’t mean there are only 8 men who have tested, but that they are found on 8 different tree branches.

Remember that men who obtain a Family Finder haplogroup are also included on the free Public Tree, so I’ll probably find some Estes men on higher branches of the tree than they would appear if they had taken a Big Y-700 DNA test. Hopefully, they will upgrade, which will help them and all Estes descendants by piecing together our Estes lineages.

Sure enough, using my browser search to search for “Estes”, I discovered the name included with 500 other surnames in haplogroup R-L21, in R-DF49, in R-1690, and then the goldmine – four haplogroups that have ONLY the surname Estes listed.

These are our Estes twigs on the haplotree’s branches, and define four lines that begin with Silvester Estes born in 1522 in Kent, England. These haplogroups are how we proved where our line originated, and how we place testers who are uncertain about their genealogy on their correct tree branches today.

Don’t forget about both the surname and country reports available to the right when searching by surname in the Public Tree. You can also navigate to Discover to learn more about any of these haplogroups in which your surname appears.

Iff you’re an Estes male, you may or may not land in one of these haplogroups. You might even be a member of a different lineage altogether. The only way you’ll know is to take the Big Y-700 test, or minimally, the introductory 37 and 111 marker tests to view your matches. These entry-level tests provide a predicted haplogroup based on STR markers, but you’ll only be placed in your proper place in the tree with the definitive Big Y-700 test. I wrote about the difference between STRs and SNPs here.

Obviously, Y-DNA is only applicable to biologically male testers who have a Y chromosome, and you’ll only see surnames on the tree if multiple people with that exact surname have tested and joined projects, but there’s one more place to look if you want to see how many people with your surname have tested at FamilyTreeDNA.

Group Projects Search

In the footer of every FamilyTreeDNA page, under Community, you’ll find “Group Projects.” No, I don’t know why they buried this tool here, because I find it very useful, and you’ll never find it if you don’t know where to look. But now you do!

Enter the surname you are seeking and click “Search.”

You’ll see at the bottom of the search results page that 391 people whose surname is spelled exactly “Estes” have taken a DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA.

Clearly, some will be males, and others female, and they may have:

  • Taken the autosomal Family Finder test
  • Uploaded an autosomal test from another vendor
  • Taken the mitochondrial DNA direct matrilineal test (your mother’s mother’s mother’s direct line through all females)
  • Taken a Y-DNA test (males only) for the direct patrilineal (surname) line

Lots of people in the database will be descended from Estes ancestors, but won’t carry the surname. This search is an invaluable resource for genealogists seeking their ancestors’ surnames and lineages. Check it out by entering the surnames of your four grandparents and see what’s there!

I use this search tool, combined with projects to find actual testers who represent my ancestral lines and their haplogroups. Then I search the public tree and use Discover to learn about my ancestors. Which brings me back to why this milestone is so important.

Congratulations on a HUGE Milestone for Mankind

The trip to 100,000 haplotree branches was a long and sometimes challenging road. What an amazing accomplishment! Today, the tree is growing at warp speed, but it began with “horses and buggies” in 2003.

  • In 2003, the YCC Consortium published a paper defining the structure of the Y-DNA tree which, then, consisted of 153 branches based only on 243 SNPs. That’s all that had been discovered in academia at the time. But citizen science was coming into its own and many more haplogroup discoveries would soon follow, thanks to our testing pioneers.
  • In 2006, ISOGG committed to developing and maintaining a public, manually curated haplotree based on SNPs discovered at different labs. The ISOGG tree was published annually, with the final version released in July 2020.
  • In 2006, there were about 250 branches on the Y-DNA tree and SNP discoveries were rare events. Today, with the Big Y-700, new SNP discoveries occur at the rate of several hundred per week, thanks to the testing public.
  • In 2010, the YCC consortium released its final tree that included only 440 branches.
  • In 2013, FamilyTreeDNA introduced the Big Y test, which used the newer NGS (next generation sequencing) scanning technique instead of targeting specific locations on the Y-chromosome. The Big Y-700 test scans millions of locations in the gold standard region of the Y chromosome. It reads known Y-DNA SNP locations for haplogroup placement, but also identifies mutations not previously discovered that are often lineage-specific. That’s the key to identifying new haplogroups. Haplogroups are literally named after their SNP.
  • 2018 was a banner year. There were 17,966 branches on the tree.
  • By 2018, the haplotree was benefiting from what was termed a “SNP tsunami,” which rapidly expanded the tree. In June, 2018, FamilyTreeDNA named their 100,000th SNP. That too was a huge milestone, which I wrote about, here. Not every SNP discovered becomes its own haplogroup, of course, but they all must be placed appropriately on the tree.
  • In September of 2018, FamilyTreeDNA introduced their Public Tree.
  • That avalanche of SNP discovery meant that the volunteer-maintained ISOGG tree was struggling mightily to keep up with the onslaught, publishing one final tree in 2020. The landscape had changed. A yearly, independent tree that compiled information from multiple sources was no longer necessary. Haplogroup and SNP discoveries were being made almost exclusively at FamilyTreeDNA, who publishes and maintains their Y-DNA tree organically as SNPs are discovered and added to the tree.
  • In December 2021, the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA haplotree reached 50,000 branches. I wrote about that milestone, here.
  • In just over four years, that has doubled at a rate of about about 1000 new branches per month. That’s mind-boggling!
  • On February 5, 2026, the haplotree reached 100,000 branches! I checked earlier today (Feb. 6th) and there are already 39 more haplogroups. No moss growing under their feet. They’ve reached for the treetops and gone beyond!

Reaching 100,000 branches on the Y-DNA tree is an absolutely amazing achievement, both scientifically and genealogically. Perhaps best of all, reconstructing the lineage and paths of our ancestors is the only way we can reach indefinitely back in time. Beyond surnames and far beyond what autosomal DNA can touch.

Based on that, we can add genetic anthropology to the fields that have benefited immensely from the achievements of the tree. Conversely, genetic anthropology has contributed to the construction of the tree with the sequencing of ancient DNA results, allowing thousands of ancient samples to be incorporated.

Every contemporary haplogroup descends from Y-DNA Adam. Given that Adam lived at least 234,000 years ago, that represents about 9,360 direct-line ancestors (at 25 years per generation) for each one of us. At 20 years per generation, we have 11,700. Wouldn’t Y-line Adam be utterly dumbstruck to learn that he has 8 billion descendants, of which slightly more than half are males who still carry his defining haplogroup mutation, A-PR2021!

Thanks to the FamilyTreeDNA public Y-DNA tree and searches, plus the amazing Discover tools, we can now peel back the curtain of time on both recent and distant ancestors by walking our haplogroups back one at a time until we meet our earliest ancestor of all – Adam

Want to Meet Adam? Here’s How You Can Participate

You can participate in building the Y-DNA tree of humankind and meet Adam by taking a Big Y-700 DNA test, which you can order here. If you’re a female, you can sponsor a Y-DNA test for a male relative, such as a father, uncle, or brother who represents one of your surname lines. But don’t stop with your own paternal line – reach out and make those same discoveries for all of your ancestral lines! Your ancestors are waiting to meet you!!

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The Big Y-700 Test Marries Science to Genealogy

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Recently, one of my long-time friends and project co-administrators asked me a simple question.

  • What do the FamilyTreeDNA Big Y-700 test and the Time Tree tell us when we have genealogy trees provided by testers?
  • What does the Discover Time Tree tell us that’s different, and how do we reconcile the Time Tree and genealogy?

Those are great questions.

Sometimes, I get so buried in the details of genetic genealogy that I neglect the obvious, so I’m writing this article for my co-admin and anyone else with the same questions.

Time Tree Versus Genealogy Question

Of course, as a genealogist, my first answer would be that we always need to be cautious about user-provided trees. Even when the genealogy is accurate, that’s no guarantee there wasn’t a biological disruption that caused the genetic line not to be the same as the surname line.

Almost every lineage has examples of people whose genealogy was “off” or misattributed paternity occurred someplace upstream, meaning that someone carries the surname but does not descend from that biological lineage.

However, relative to DNA projects, the Big Y-700 tests provide one very important feature that STR testing does not and cannot do.

The Big Y-700 test creates a genetic tree, in conjunction with other testers, which provides scientifically calculated dates when branches of the genetic tree were formed.

The genetic tree should align, at least closely, with testers’ genealogical trees.

In other words, if their genealogy is accurate, testers “should” fit in (or at least near) the appropriate places on the branches of the genetic tree.

Furthermore, for people trying to sort out their actual branch in the tree, the Big Y-700 test is MUCH MORE reliable than the earlier STR (short tandem repeat) tests that are prone to random and back mutations. At one time, STR tests were all that was available, but now,  SNPs have been added to our arsenal. SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) are extremely stable and reliable mutations.

I’m getting ready to record a new Y-DNA webinar, and I’m giving you a sneak peek of a couple of my slides here. I’ll publish an announcement when the webinar is available.

STRs Versus SNPs

Historic Y-DNA testing tested only a limited number of STR locations. That test reported the number of repeats at a specific genetic location on the Y chromosome. Today, the 37, 67, and 111 marker STR tests are still available to purchase.

What are the major differences between the two types of tests, and why would someone purchase one over the other?

If you purchase one of the STR tests, you purchase testing at a specific number of locations, such as 37, 67, and 111. The Big Y-700 test includes at least 700 STR locations, but the specificity of the Big Y-700 SNP testing replaces most of the STR test results in terms of lineage definition.

SNP mutations, when discovered in more than one man in a particular haplogroup lineage, are then named as haplogroups. That mutation is then found in each directly descended male in that line.

STR – 37, 67, 111 Big Y-700 (STRs & SNPs)
Tests A limited number of repeat STR markers – Big Y guarantees 700+ NGS scan targets ~ 25 million locations
Focus Comparatively short genealogy timeframe All-inclusive – recent genealogy plus older to ancient
Includes Can upgrade to Big Y-700 Includes STR tests, separate matching, Globetrekker, Discover, and more
Tree Genealogy, customer provided Genetic Tree – Group Time Tree coordinates with genealogy if provided
Tools STR tools STR tools plus SNP tools & robust Discover
Haplogroup Estimated based on STR values Confirmed to the most granular level possible – evergreen
Useful When Exclusion testing, less costly, entry-level Discover provides lineage, ancient DNA, TMRCA, and more
Matching STRs only STR plus Big Y – both can be useful
Trees Customer provided genealogy Time Tree, Group Time Tree, Block Tree, Classic Tree + 1 more soon

Put simply, the STR tests are now entry-level. Once you see what the Big Y-700 provides, you’ll absolutely want to upgrade to that test. Most of the time, if I know I’m testing someone from the correct line, I just purchase the Big Y-700 out the gate. If I’m not sure I’m testing the correct lineage, I’ll purchase the STR test first to make sure they match the correct lineage before upgrading to the Big Y-700.

Discover

The Discover tool was introduced to provide additional information to Big Y testers and others seeking haplogroup information. STR results can only predict a relatively high-level haplogroup, usually a few thousand years ago, while the Big Y-700 provides testers with an extremely granular haplogroup – usually decades to a few hundred years ago. Often, living men that span 2 or 3 descendant generations (grandfather, father, sons) discover that they have their own haplogroup branch on the tree of mankind!

However, if no one else from your line has tested in hundreds of years, Discover can only work with available information.

Let’s take a quick look at the Estes Group Time Tree.

Estes Project Group Time Trees

Group projects have Group Time Trees. You can view the Estes surname project, here. You can find a project for any surname by either googling “<surname> DNA Project” or scrolling to the VERY bottom of the FamilyTreeDNA main page.

If you’re signed into FamilyTreeDNA, you can also find projects in the top banner.

Once you’re on the project page, you’ll see an option for DNA Results (assuming the administrators have not made the project entirely private.)

Click on the DNA Results link and select Y-DNA.

Next, you’ll see “Group Time Tree.”

Group Time Tree Display

What appears next depends on how the project administrators have grouped the project participants.

I’ve grouped the Estes project by genealogical line, with the exception of a couple of people who carry the Estes surname but have experienced an adoption or other unknown parental event in their Estes lineage.

In some cases, there are simply two same-name lineages that were never from the same biological line. Unfortunately, occasionally they settle in the same place, making the genealogy difficult. Even worse, until Y-DNA testing came along, there was often no way to know they were two different families.

This situation is actually where the Big Y-700 test shines.

 

The Group Time Tree shows the genetic tree scientifically constructed from the SNP results of the Big Y-test results of the testers, at left. At right you’ll see the surnames of the testers along with their Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) if they have entered that information.

Initially, you don’t even realize you’re actually looking at two types of information merged together. This display allows testers to see the genetic branching tree structure, at left, which is reflective of their actual genealogy, at right.

You can see that the birth year of Sylvester Estes, entered by a tester with haplogroup R-BY482, is 1622. Please note, there’s a typo. Sylvester was born in 1522, NOT 1622. This is a perfect example of what I meant by tree information sometimes being inaccurate and it’s very important when trying to correlate the genetic tree and the user-provided genealogy.

We discovered that R-BY482 (red profile above, at left) is an Estes “signature” haplogroup for the Estes line originating in Deal, England, with three other haplogroups that formed in descendant generations. We know this because every descendant from this line has this mutation.

R-BY490 was formed between Sylvester’s son Robert Estes, born about 1555, and his son, born about 1600, also named Sylvester. We know this because all of the descendants of Sylvester (born circa 1600) carry this mutation, but Robert’s son, Robert, born in 1603, does not.

The genealogy portion of the Group Time Tree, above, doesn’t reveal that information because testers either don’t know their genealogy that far back or perhaps listed an earlier known ancestor, such as Nicholas, born in 1495.

Click to enlarge

I created a spreadsheet tracking the Big Y-700 testers of the descendants of Nicholas Estes, along with their descendant haplogroups.

We know that Robert, born in 1555, carries R-BY490 because both of his sons, Abraham and Richard, inherited that mutation, seen with green arrows.

However, this calls into question the associated genealogy because if Robert, born in 1603, descended from Robert, born in 1555, he too would have the mutation R-BY490 since Robert’s other two sons do. Note that the user-provided birth year typo of 1622 which should be 1522 is a century off – enough to be within the genetic band haplogroup birth band – but impossible for the genealogy table.

There is one other possibility: kit 166011, the descendant of Robert born in 1603, could have taken the earlier Big Y-500 test and never upgraded to the more powerful Big Y-700. That’s too much detail for this article, but the discrepancy between the genetic tree and the genealogy tree alerts us that additional research is warranted. The genealogy submitted for tester 166011 confirms that, indeed, 1622 is a typo.

There are no other descendants of known sons of Nicholas or Sylvester born in 1522 to test, but perhaps another will surface one day.

You can see that the more testers in any particular line, the more granularity we can achieve.

The Genetic Tree

How close is the genetic tree to the genealogical tree that has been confirmed?

We know that Sylvester was born in 1522, and his father Nicholas in about 1496. The scientifically calculated creation date of R-BY482 is 1493, just 3 years before the birth of Nicholas. Based on this, there’s a good chance that this mutation occurred between Nicholas’s unknown father and him, or perhaps between Nicholas and Sylvester.

You can view the scientific details of any haplogroup in Discover.

Discover’s BY-482 scientific details page shows its creation date range.

Marriage

You can see that the scientifically created tree and the genealogy information are both important.

In fact, the combination of both allowed us to identify the correct branch of a Wilbur man who matches Estes men but doesn’t know where he fits in the tree.

His haplogroup placed him definitively on the more recent R-BY154784 branch, and his autosomal results then confirmed his specific path of descent because he matches descendants of three generations of Estes men’s wives, showing that his branch descends from Joseph Estes and his wife Ritty Lee, through son Chism, on down to our tester. In this case, autosomal DNA results provided a boost-assist to the genealogy, which helped identify the generation that the Y-DNA haplogroup R-BY154784 actually formed.

This also informs us that Joseph Estes, born in 1780, carried haplogroup R-BY154784 because both of his sons have it. If Joseph hadn’t had that mutation, then both of his sons couldn’t have inherited it.

Therefore, the mutation that formed haplogroup R-BY154784 had to occur between Moses, born in 1711, and John, born in 1732. We know that because Moses’s other son’s descendants do not have that haplogroup.

The more descendants of any ancestor that test, the more specific and accurate the descendant haplogroup formation dates will be.

The marriage of genetic trees and genealogy is powerful indeed.

More Information

For those seeking more information, 70 pages of my new book, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA is devoted to Y-DNA results.

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Great News – Both e-Pub and Print Version of “The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA” Now Available Worldwide  

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  • Anyone, anyplace, can order the full-color, searchable, e-pub version of The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA from the publisher, Genealogical.com, here.
  • Customers within the US can order the black and white print book from the publisher, here.
  • Customers outside the US can order the print book from their country’s Amazon website. The publisher does not ship print books outside the US due to customs, shipping costs, and associated delays. They arranged to have the book printed by an international printer so that it can be shipped directly to Amazon for order fulfillment without international customers incurring additional expenses and delays. If you ordered the book previously from Amazon and a long delivery time was projected, that should be resolved now and your book should be arriving soon.

Comprehensive

This book is truly comprehensive and includes:

  • 247 pages
  • More than 267 images
  • 288 footnotes
  • 12 charts
  • 68 tips
  • Plus, an 18-page glossary

To view the table of contents, click here. To order, click here.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience and your support.

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Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA Released in Hardcopy

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Just what many of you have been waiting for! The hardcopy print version of the Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA has just been released.

As shown in the table of contents below, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA contains lots of logically organized information! It includes basic education about genetic genealogy and how it works, instructions on using the FamilyTreeDNA tests and tools, plus an extensive glossary.

Enjoy!

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Announcing: The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA; Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA

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I’m so very pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Complete Guide to FamilyTreeDNA – Y-DNA, Mitochondrial, Autosomal and X-DNA.

For the first time, the publisher, Genealogical.com, is making the full-color, searchable e-book version available before the hardcopy print version, here. The e-book version can be read using your favorite e-book reader such as Kindle or iBooks.

Update: The hardcopy version was released at the end of May and is available from the publisher in the US and from Amazon internationally.

This book is about more than how to use the FamilyTreeDNA products and interpreting their genealogical meaning, it’s also a primer on the four different types of DNA used for genealogy and how they work:

  • Autosomal DNA
  • Mitochondrial DNA
  • Y-DNA
  • X-DNA

There’s a LOT here, as shown by the table of contents, below

This book is chocked full of great information in one place. As an added bonus, the DNA glossary is 18 pages long.

I really hope you enjoy my new book, in whatever format you prefer.

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Why Don’t Our Y-DNA Haplogroups Match?

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I’ve been asked this question several times recently, and the answer is resoundingly, “it depends.” There are several reasons why Y-DNA haplogroups might not match and most of them aren’t “bad.”

How Haplogroups Work

Haplogroups are the 79,000+ branches of the Y-DNA phylogenetic tree which you can view here, along with countries where those haplogroups are found. You can think of haplogroups as genetic clans of either closely or distantly related men. Major haplogroup branches have unique letters assigned. Downstream or younger haplogroups are designated by a letter-number sequence that is always preceded by the main haplogroup letter.

Image courtesy FamilyTreeDNA

Major haplogroups were formed tens of thousands of years ago, with more recent haplogroups added as they’ve been discovered. Haplogroups are discovered and added every day thanks to the Big Y-700 test. You can read more about that process, here.

As you look at the pie chart above, you’ll notice that haplogroup R represents about half the men who have tested and has several major subbranches. Every haplogroup R man belongs to all of the branches above his own that lead back to the root of haplogroup R.

Using haplogroup R, which is R-M207, its identifying SNP, as an example, it immediately splits into two branches: R-M173, which has 37,000+ more branches, and R-M479, which has 313 branches. My Estes men fall into a haplogroup several steps beneath R-M173, but they are still members of haplogroups R-M173 and R-M207, even though their descendant haplogroup is R-BY490, which was formed by a mutation that occurred 20,000 years later.

Haplogroup R-M173, then, in turn, leads back to Y-Adam, the first man to have lived and has descendants today.

As we approach the question of why haplogroups of two men might differ, we will review tools to use and how to interpret your findings to reach the appropriate answer for your situation.

What is Your Goal?

You may be looking for a very specific answer, or this may be a more general question.

  • If you’re evaluating closely related men who have different haplogroup assignments, not matching can be very disconcerting. Breathe. There are several perfectly legitimate reasons why they may not match, and we have easy, free analysis tools.
  • If you’re looking at your Y-DNA match list at FamilyTreeDNA, you may or may not match other men closely, but you do “match” at some level if they are on your match list. You may see several different haplogroups in your match list. How closely you match those men is a different question.
  • If you’re looking at autosomal results at FamilyTreeDNA, you may see haplogroups listed for males. You may or may not “match” the haplogroup of men with the same surname. What does this mean, and why don’t you match? Your autosomal match may have nothing to do with your paternal line, or it may be because of your paternal line.

We will cover all of these scenarios.

Where Did You Both Test?

  • Are you comparing apples and apples?
  • Did you both test at the same company?
  • Did you both take the same type or level of test?

These factors all make a difference.

Which Test Did You Take?

There are four types of tests that will provide males with some level of Y-DNA haplogroup.

Autosomal Tests – Some companies include a few Y-DNA location probes in their autosomal test, meaning that they test a few haplogroup-specific Y-DNA locations. LivingDNA, 23andMe, and FamilyTreeDNA’s Family Finder test provide a mid-level Y-DNA haplogroup to customers. The haplogroup that can be determined from these tests depends on a variety of factors, including the vendor, the probes they selected for their chip, the test version, and if that location is successfully read in the test.

Note that FamilyTreeDNA supports autosomal uploads from MyHeritage and Ancestry who do not provide Y-DNA haplogroups to customers, but who do test some Y-DNA locations. Therefore you can upload your autosomal test from those companies to FamilyTreeDNA for free and receive at least a cursory Y-DNA haplogroup.

FamilyTreeDNA is currently processing all of its Family Finder tests, followed by tests uploaded from other vendors, to provide all genetic male testers with a Y-DNA haplogroup at some level. Different vendors and test versions test different Y-DNA SNPs, so your mileage may vary. Y-DNA haplogroups are a free benefit at FamilyTreeDNA.

STR Tests – At FamilyTreeDNA, you can purchase both Y-37 and Y-111 STR (short tandem repeat) Y-DNA tests that provide matching at the number of locations you purchased, plus a predicted haplogroup based on those results. These haplogroup predictions are accurate but are often relatively far back in time.

If you match someone on STR tests, your match may be very recent or before the advent of surnames. For a more specific haplogroup, you need to purchase the Big Y-700 test, which provides at least 700 STR match locations but, more importantly, sequences the entire gold-standard region of the Y-chromosome for the most precise haplogroup and matching possible.

  • When viewing matches of two men who ONLY took STR tests, STR marker matches are more important for genealogy than haplogroups because the haplogroups were formed thousands of years ago.
  • When viewing matches on the Big Y-700 test, haplogroup matching is much more specific and reliable than STR matches because the mutations (SNPs – single nucleotide polymorphisms) that form haplogroups are much more stable than STRs which mutate unpredictably, including back mutations.

SNP Confirmation Tests – Historically, FamilyTreeDNA customers could purchase individual SNPs to confirm a haplogroup, or SNP packs or bundles to do the same for a group of SNPs. With the advent of both the Family Finder haplogroup assignments, and the Big Y-700, these individual tests are no longer necessary or advantageous and are being discontinued.

Big Y-700 Test – At FamilyTreeDNA, the Big Y-700 test provides the most granular and specific haplogroup possible, most often well within a genealogical timeframe. You may be able to tell, based on previously undiscovered mutations, that two people are brothers or father and son, or, depending on who else has tested and when mutations formed, testers may match further back in time. Here’s an example of using the results from multiple testers in the Estes DNA Surname Project.

You can also match men who took the Big Y-500 test which is less specific than the Big Y-700. In the now-obsolete Big Y-500 test, a smaller portion of the Y chromosome was sequenced and testers only received about 500 STR locations. The Big Y-700 test has been enriched to provide a wider range of more specific information. Men who originally took the Big Y-500, then upgraded to the Big Y-700, will very probably have a new haplogroup assignment based on the expanded coverage and increased resolution of the Big Y-700 test. The Big Y-700 ferrets out lineages that the Big Y-500 simply could not, and continues to provide additional value as more men test, which facilitates the formation of new haplogroups.

What Do You Mean by Match?

Matching doesn’t mean you have to have the exact same haplogroup. A perfectly valid match can have a different haplogroup because one haplogroup is more specific or refined than the other. Matching exactly as a result of a predicted STR haplogroup is much less useful than matching closely on a much more recent Big Y-700 haplogroup.

Not all haplogroups are created equal.

I know this is a bit confusing, so let’s look at real-life examples to clarify.

STR to STR or Autosomal to Autosomal Haplogroup Match

Two males might match exactly on a mid-range Family Finder autosomal haplogroup or on a STR-predicted haplogroup like R-M269, which is about 6350 years old.

This haplogroup “match,” even though it might be exact, does not confirm a close match and really only serves to eliminate some other haplogroups and confirm that a closer match is possible. For example, R-M269 men don’t match someone in haplogroup J or E. You may or may not share a surname. You may or may not still “match” if you both upgrade to the Big Y-700.

In this case, a father/son pair would match exactly, as would two men with different surnames whose common ancestor lived 6000 years ago.

Note that if you’re comparing autosomal-derived haplogroups across different vendor platforms, or even different DNA testing chip versions on the same platform, you may see two different haplogroups. Different vendors test different locations. Please note that second cousins and closer will always match on autosomal DNA, but relationships further back than that may not. Y-DNA very reliably reaches far beyond the capabilities of autosomal DNA due to the fact that it is never mixed with the DNA of the other parent – so it never divides or is watered down in time. When comparing two autosomally-generated haplogroups of men who are supposed to be closely related, always check their autosomal match results too.

Use the free Discover Tool to find various categories of information about any haplogroup, including its age. Take a look at R-M269 here.

Using Discover to Compare Haplogroups

You can always use the Discover tool to compare two haplogroups.

Go to Discover (or click through if you’re signed on to your FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA page), then enter the first haplogroup you’d like to compare.

Click search to view information about that haplogroup.

On the menu bar, at left, click on Compare.

Add the second haplogroup.

I’m selecting E-M35, a completely different branch of the phylogenetic tree.

R-M269 was formed about 6350 years ago, while E-M35 was formed about 25,000 years ago. Their common ancestor was formed about 65,000 years ago. Clearly, these two paternal lineages are not related in anything close to a genealogical timeframe.

These two men would never match on an STR test, but could easily match on an autosomal test on any line OTHER than their direct paternal line.

Now let’s compare two haplogroups that are more closely related.

Haplogroup R-M222 is very common in Ireland, so let’s see how closely related it is to R-M269 which is very common in western Europe.

We see that R-M222 descends from R-M269, so there is no “other haplogroup” involved.

R-M222 was formed about 2100 years ago, around 4250 years after R-M269 was formed.

There are 17 steps between R-M222 and R-M269.

The bottom block shows the lineage from R-M269 back to Y-Adam.

How cool is this??!!

Big Y-700 to Autosomal or STR Haplogroup Comparison

Joe took the Big Y-700 test and discovered that he’s haplogroup R-BY177080.

Joe noticed that his son, who had initially taken an STR test, had been assigned haplogroup R-M269. Then, his son took a Family Finder test and his haplogroup changed to R-FGC8601.

Joe was confused about why he and his son’s haplogroups didn’t match.

First, let’s check Family Finder to confirm the parent/child relationship. Joe’s son is clearly his son.

So why doesn’t Joe’s son’s haplogroup match Joe’s haplogroup? And why did Joe’s son’s haplogroup change?

Joe’s son had not taken a Big Y-700 DNA test, so Joe’s son’s R-M269 haplogroup was initially predicted from his STR test.

Joe’s son’s updated haplogroup, R-FGC8601 was generated by the Family Finder test. Think of this as a bonus. If you’re a male and haven’t yet, you’ll soon receive an email telling you that you’ve received a Family Finder Y-DNA haplogroup. It’s your lucky day!

Family Finder haplogroups always replace STR predicted haplogroups since they are always more specific than predicted STR haplogroups. Big Y-700 haplogroups always replace STR-generated haplogroup predictions and Family Finder haplogroups because they are the most specific.

Let’s compare these results using Discover.

Joe’s son’s original predicted haplogroup was R-M269.

Discover Compare shows us that Joe’s Big Y-700 Haplogroup, R-BY177080, is a descendant of R-M269.

So, they actually do “match,” just several branches further up the tree

Joe’s son’s more precise Family Finder haplogroup was assigned as R-FGC8601.

Discover Compare shows us that Joe’s Big Y-700 haplogroup also descends from R-FGC8601.

You can see that the haplogroup generated by Family Finder is more precise by about 4700 years and improves that comparison.

R-M269 was formed about 6350 years ago, but R-FGC8601 was formed about 1700 years ago.

Joe’s Big Y-700 haplogroup, R-BY177080 was formed about the year 1900, improving the family haplogroup by another 1600 years or so.

Joe’s son’s Family Finder haplogroup moved down the haplotree 21 branches and 4650 years, for free! If Joe’s son were to upgrade to the Big Y-700, they might very well be assigned a new haplogroup that, for the time being, only they share.

Of course, Family Finder doesn’t provide Y-DNA matching so you still need the Y-DNA tests for that important aspect of genealogy.

Big Y to Big Y Comparison

In our next example, a group of men, including a father and son or other very close relative may take the Big Y-700 test and have different haplogroups. If you’re saying, “Whoa Nelly,” hear me out.

George took a Big Y-700 test and discovered that he is haplogroup R-FGC43597. His son and grandsons tested, and they are haplogroup R-FTC50269. What happened? Shouldn’t they all match George?

On George’s Big Y-700 block tree, you can see that a mutation, R-FTC50269, occurred between George and his son. George doesn’t have it, but his son does.

A haplogroup isn’t “named” until there are two men with the same mutation in the same lineage. Therefore, when George’s son initially tested, he would have been assigned to the same haplogroup as George, R-FGC43697, but with one extra variant, or mutation.

Of course, that extra mutation was passed from George’s son to both of his grandsons, so when the first grandson tested, the new haplogroup, R-FTC50269 was assigned as a result of that mutation. Now, George has one haplogroup and his son and grandsons have a different haplogroup, one branch downstream.

Using Discover to check the haplogroup ages and path, we find that indeed, these haplogroups are only one step apart.

Checking Family Finder results can always verify that the match is close or as close as you expected.

Haplogroup Assignments

Haplogroup assignments range from good to better to best.

Good Better Best
STR predicted Yes – but further back in time
SNP Packs (now obsolete) Between good and better
Family Finder autosomal Yes – generally midrange between STR predicted and the Big Y-700
Big Y-500 (need to upgrade) Usually between better and best
Big Y-700 The best – usually within a genealogically relevant timeframe unless your DNA is rare

Where Are You?

Older haplogroups, such as the STR-predicted haplogroups are useful for:

  • Eliminating some potential matches
  • Identifying where that haplogroup originated at that specific point in time. In other words, where your ancestor lived when that haplogroup was born.

If your Y-DNA matches another Y-DNA tester at FamilyTreeDNA, your haplogroups will fall someplace on the same haplogroup branch, although they may be thousands of years apart. STR-predicted haplogroups are “older,” meaning they range in age from about 6500 years to tens of thousands of years ago. They can tell you where the haplogroup originated at that time.

Autosomal haplogroups will be newer, or more recent, than STR-predicted haplogroups, but still (sometimes significantly) older than the Big Y-700 haplogroups..

FamilyTreeDNA provides Y-DNA haplogroups for free for every biological male who either takes the FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder test or uploads an autosomal result from either Ancestry or MyHeritage. Soon, 23andMe uploads will be resumed as well. This means that you will be able to view other men with a similar surname in your Family Finder results and:

  • Rule them out as a paternal line match.
  • Check your STR matches if they have taken a Y-DNA test
  • Check your Big Y-700 test for matches if both men have taken a Big Y test.
  • Encourage your matches to take a Big Y-700 test so you can see how closely you match on your paternal line.
  • Use the Discover Compare and other tools to reveal more information.

Family Finder haplogroups are relatively new, so currently, all new Family Finder testers are receiving haplogroups. Older Family Finder tests are being processed and will be followed by autosomal tests uploaded from other vendors. Haplogroups from autosomal tests are confirmed and will be newer, or more recent, than STR-predicted haplogroups.

The only test that can bring your haplogroup to current, meaning the most refined, recent, personal haplogroup, is the Big Y-700 test. Without taking the Big Y-700 test, you’ll forever be stuck with an older, less informative haplogroup branch. The Big Y-700 allows us to reliably sort families into lineages based on branching mutations.

The Big Y-700 haplogroup is:

  • The most detailed and granular possible.
  • Determined by sequencing the Y chromosome.
  • A test of discovery that continues to provide additional value as more men test and new haplogroups are formed.

Big Y-700 haplogroups generally fall into a genealogically useful timeframe and can be very recent.

The Discover tool and Time Tree provide a wealth of information about your ancestors, including locations, migration paths, ancient DNA, and more.

You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know

Now that you understand how to compare and interpret haplogroup matches, what additional information can you learn?

I always encourage Y-DNA matches to upgrade to the Big Y-700. Why? You don’t know what you don’t know. The article, Bennett Greenspan: Meet My Extended Family & Discover Extraordinary Deep Heritage illustrates the benefits of the Big Y-700 for all matches. Upgrading 12-marker matches is exactly how he made his big breakthrough.

The Big Y-700 test answers many questions beyond simply matching by using Discover and the Group Time Tree.

  • Where were your ancestors?
  • Who do you match, and who were their ancestors?
  • Genetically and genealogically, how do your surname matches fit together?
  • Where were your matches’ ancestors, and when?
  • Which ancient DNA results do you match, and where were they located?
  • What is the history of locations where your ancestors were found along their journey?
  • How closely or distantly are you related to other Big Y-700 matches?
  • Can your matches’ information break down your paternal line brick wall, or at least move it back a few generations?

Where are your Y-DNA results along the spectrum of useful haplogroup information? Do you or your matches need to upgrade? Click here to upgrade or order a Big Y-700 test.

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Bennett Greenspan: Meet My Extended Family & Discover Extraordinary Deep Heritage

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24

“My ancestors are in my soul. I can’t get them out of my mind.”

Bennett Greenspan

“And yes, I brake for cemeteries.”

Bennett Greenspan gave an incredibly interesting presentation at the 15th International Genetic Genealogy Conference held by FamilyTreeDNA in November 2023. Since his retirement in January 2021, he has been able to focus on his genealogy. Once a genealogist, always a genealogist.

Bennett said some things I hadn’t thought about, and now I’m viewing Y-DNA matches with a different perspective – based on how he’s using his results.

Ever since I met him, Bennett’s focus has been to use genetics to unravel his complex Jewish heritage.

The questions that drive Bennett are the same ones that motivate most genealogists:

  1. Who are we?
  2. Where did we come from?
  3. Where were we before we were there?
  4. How did my ancestors get there?

Bennett “lost his family lines” before the mid-1800s due to his Jewish heritage, exacerbated in the 1930s by the devastation wrought by the Holocaust. Families were either killed or scattered to survive. It has been through Y-DNA in particular that he has been able to establish unquestionable and confirmed connections with other Greenspan men, sometimes by similar but different surnames, like Green, and sometimes with other surnames entirely.

When Bennett first started down this path, he tested more than 62 men before actually finding one a decade later that matched his Y-DNA. Bennet commented that it was “a little frustrating.”

Persistence is the key, and sometimes, genealogy is a waiting game, but that’s small comfort to genealogists during that unproductive waiting period.

Eventually, Bennett reassembled his family, at least somewhat, but it was a long journey. Here’s Bennett’s incredible story, including surprises, as he tells it.

Bennett discovered genealogy at age 12 and, like many genealogists, created a pedigree chart by talking to his family.

I love the mark-outs. How many of us still have our first chart with its edits?

This is the young Bennett Greenspan, whose interest in genealogy would one day unlock secrets for all of us!

It was a long way from a decade with no matches to finding his genetic kin in Ukraine.

The Big Y-700 Time Tree shows Bennett’s lineage in Ukraine, but stepping back in time, some descendants of his ancestors are found in adjacent locations.

Bennett was passionately discussing his matches on the time tree and in the Greenspan project, so I visited the Greenspan DNA Project, where the earliest known ancestors of Bennett’s Big Y matches are shown on the Group Time Tree.

Bennett’s closest matches are shown as descendants of haplogroup J-ZS1718. He has additional matches who are not in the Greenspan project. Since this is the Group Time Tree, it only displays the people in that project, along with their earliest known ancestors, Isaac and Usher Greenspan.

12-Marker Matches

Bennett never fails to amaze me. He said something very important and profound about 12-marker matches that I really hadn’t thought about – at least not this way.

As a community, we are often guilty of discounting 12-marker matches, those that don’t match us at 25-markers or above, or with different surnames, as “too far back in time” or otherwise irrelevant. I always look at the names and earliest known ancestors of 12-marker matches, because that person may have tested back in the day when fewer markers were available. But if I don’t recognize something, I move on.

However, Bennett said that, ”Y-12 matches reach back to a common ancestor. 12-marker matches are not a quirk. They are related to you, just further back in time. You share a common ancestor with them, someplace. They may be more distant, but they are still your close matches.”

I’ve been in too much of a hurry for a quick win, and ignoring the (apparently not so) obvious.

Determining when and where their ancestors lived also paves the way to discover yours. Your Y-DNA and theirs were in the same place at the same time.

Of Bennett’s 171 12-marker matches, 107 have upgraded to the Big Y, probably mostly due to his encouragement. This benefits both them and Bennett by fleshing out the history of that entire group of men, including how they got to where they are found in the first available records. The Time Tree shows when Big Y testers shared a common ancestor, and based on Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) locations, where. This provides further information about the lives of ancestors before contemporary records – in other words – people that we can never identify by name. It’s a window into ancestors before surnames.

Bennett notes that testers need to know their ancestral village or location to be most useful within the project, and of course, they need to enter their EKA information. Location information is how the Migration Map, Matches Map, and Discover tools, including the Time Tree, are built.

What Happened in Spain?

Bennett’s ancestors and those of his 12-marker matches are found in Spain, and as Bennett says, “One son stayed and one left about the year 296.”

While we have no idea of their names, based on the Time Tree combined with the cluster of earliest known ancestors, we know that they were in Spain, and when.

Their family story is revealed in the bifurcation of the tree found beneath haplogroup J-L823, formed about 296 CE. One line stayed in Spain, and Bennett’s line migrated to eastern Europe where that man’s descendants, including Bennett’s family, are found in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, and other eastern European locations. The closer to you in the tree and in time, the more relevant to your more recent ancestral story.

However, Bennett’s deeper ancestry, the migration of his ancestors to Spain, was only revealed by testing those more distantly related men. Those same men could well have been ignored entirely because they only matched at 12 markers.

According to Bennett, “Y-12 markers are important because these are the men most closely related to you in a database of 1 million men.”

How incredibly profound. How much have I been cavalierly overlooking?

How does this actually apply to Bennett’s results?

Bennett’s Spanish Matches

Bennett has the following STR panel matches who indicate that their EKA are from Spain. You can see that they match Bennett on a variety of panels.

  • X = yes, match
  • No = no match
  • Blank = not tested at that level.

In the Big Y GD column, the genetic distance (GD) is displayed as 15/660 where 15 is the number of mismatches, or the cumulative genetic distance ABOVE the 111 panel, and 660 is the number of STR markers above 111 with results.

The Big Y-500 test guaranteed a minimum of 500 total STR markers, and the Big Y-700 guarantees a minimum of 700 total STR markers, plus multiple scans of the balance of the Y chromosome for SNP mutations that define haplogroups. Testers don’t receive the same number of markers because the scan technology sometimes doesn’t read a specific location.

Tester 12 25 37 67 111 Big Y Test Big Y GD Big Y Match Haplogroup
AA X X X No No Yes 15/660 No J-FTD8826
DT X X No No X Yes 17/664 No J-FTE50318
JG X X No No
AR No No X X No No
ELR X X X No No
EL X X Yes 17/666 No J-FTE50318
GC X X X X No No
JC X No No
JLG X X No No No Yes 14/662 No J-FTE23540
MF X X No X No Yes 15/665 No J-FTD91126
MT X X X X No No
BE X X X X X Yes 20/664 No J-BY1795
DR X X X X X Yes 16/660 No J-FTC87344
EC X X X X X Yes 15/665 No J-FTC87344
GM X X No No No Yes 16/650 No J-FTD28153
GM X X X X No Yes 17/664 No J-FTD11019
LS X X No No No Yes 18/666 No J-FTD28153
NE X X X X X Yes 23/597 No J-BY1795
NC X No No
RR X X X No X Yes 22/659 No J-BY1795
TT X X X X X Yes 16/647 No J-FTC87344
XG X X X No No Yes 17/523 No J-BY167283
JA X X No No No Yes 15/646 No J-FTD11019

Of those 23 Spanish matches, sixteen have upgraded to Big Y tests, 14 of which are Big Y-700s, resulting in nine different haplogroups, all of which are descendants of Haplogroup J-L823. How cool is that?

The “Nos” in the Big Y Match Column aren’t mistakes. That’s right – none of these men match Bennett on the Big Y test, meaning they had more than a 30 mutation difference between them and Bennett on the Big Y test.

At first glance, you’d think that Bennett would have been disappointed, but that’s not the case at all! In fact, it was the information provided by these distant Spanish matches that provided Bennett with the information that his line had split sometime around the year 296 CE, with one branch remaining in Spain and his branch migrating to Eastern Europe, where he has lots of matches.

DNA Plus History

What was happening in Spain or the Iberian peninsula that involved the Jewish people about that time? Historical records exist of Jews living in that region before the fall of the Second Temple in about 70 CE, including records of Jews being expelled from Rome in 139 for their “corrupting influence.”

Furthermore, the Ancient DNA Connections for haplogroup J-L823, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) for all of those branches, includes connections to multiple burials from:

  • Lebanon
  • Iran
  • Rome (from 1-400 CE)
  • Turkey
  • Jordan

Clearly, Bennett’s ancestor was in the Iberian peninsula around or before 296 CE. One branch stayed, winding up in Spain, and one headed for Europe.

Without these matches, some who didn’t match above the 12 or 25 marker level, how would Bennett have EVER known that his Jewish ancestors left the Middle East for Spain in the early years? How would he have known they migrated from Spain to Eastern Europe, and how would he have known that his line did not migrate directly from the Levant to Eastern Europe in the 9th century?

Big Y matches are typically within about 1500 years, but non-matches are still INCREDIBLY valuable. Without them, you can’t completely assemble your family story.

I noticed on the Time Tree that in Bennett’s Eastern European line, one of his ancestor’s brother lineages includes the Katzenellenbogen Rabbinic Lineage derived from ancient DNA samples.

Bennett’s successes have resulted from contacting his matches and encouraging upgrades. So how did he do it? What’s the magic sauce?

Contacting Matches

How to contact matches successfully is a question I see often. In fact, FamilyTreeDNA recently wrote about that in an article, here.

Bennett’s methodology for contacting his matches to encourage an upgrade is that he sends an email explaining why he’s encouraging them to upgrade, followed by a 2nd email three days later.

Bennett tells the recipient that we are at an inflection point in time. “It’s winter, the wind is blowing hard, and many of the leaves are gone.”

In other words, we need to cast the net wider and capture what we can, while we can. Unfortunately, many early testers have died, and with them, chapters of history are perishing.

Collaboration is key. In addition to encouraging upgrades, Bennett also offers Zoom calls to these groups of men to explain the results if they are interested.

What a GREAT idea! I need to begin offering that as well.

Upgrade Request

Bennett reaches out to his matches at various levels, but he expects his closer STR matches, meaning at the 67 and 111 marker level with the fewest mismatches, to match him on a Big Y-700 test and connect someplace between 300-600 years ago, which helps everyone flesh out their tree.

Bennett’s email:

Hello <name>,

Since you have already made a sizable investment in your Y-DNA, you now know that we come from the dominant male Middle Eastern group (Haplogroup J) of men who <subject here>.

What’s really neat is that our Y-DNA has recently been found in an archaeological site in Northwestern Jordan dated to about 4200 years ago. I know this because I upgraded to the Big Y, which tests SNPs, looking at several million locations on the Y chromosome of each man.

One academic customer recently compared this new technology as the difference between looking into space with binoculars versus the Hubble Telescope.

I don’t know if you are familiar with your list of matches at the highest level you’ve tested for, either Y-67 or Y-111. If you are, you should recognize my name and the names of others who have taken the Big Y test.

You’ll see what you’ll gain by letting me upgrade your test for you and determining whether you are related to my line – probably between about 200 years and 500 years.

This might be the second time that I have written to you on this matter; can I presume if I don’t hear from you that you’re not really interested in the Y-DNA subject anymore?

Can I run the test so that I can see how closely we are related – at my expense? (Of course, you get to see how closely related we are, too).

Please reply to me and say “yes.” You don’t even have to put a 🙂 if you don’t want to.

I started this company and this industry over 20 years ago. I predict that you will be happy with the history of YOU that this upgrade will uncover.

Best,

Bennett Greenspan

As you can see, this email can easily be personalized further and adapted to matches at the 37, 25, and 12 marker levels – or even Family Finder matches, now that intermediate-range haplogroups are being reported.

What’s Next?

I’m going back to every one of the kits I sponsored or that represent descendants of one of my ancestors to review their matches again – focusing not just on the closest matches with common surnames, but also on locations – and specifically at lower matching levels. I’ll also be checking their Family Finder matches for male surname matches, or similar surnames.

As is evident from Bennett’s tests, an entire mine of diamonds is out there, just waiting to be unearthed by a Big Y test.

And to think that some people have been advising people to ignore 12-marker matches out-of-hand because they are “entirely irrelevant.” They aren’t – for two reasons.

  1. First, some early testers only tested to that level
  2. Second, because of the deeper history that Big Y tests from those matches will uncover

You can view your Y-DNA matches, upgrade your own Y-DNA test, or order a Big Y-700 test if you haven’t yet tested by clicking here. What’s your next step?

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FamilyTreeDNA 2023 Update – Past, Present and Future

Posted on by
14

At the FamilyTreeDNA International Conference on Genetic Genealogy, held November 3-5 in Houston for group project administrators, product and feature updates were scattered across both days in various presentations.

I’ve combined the updates from FamilyTreeDNA into one article.

I’ve already written two articles that pertain to the conference.

FamilyTreeDNA has already begun rolling the new Y DNA haplogroups from Family Finder autosomal tests, which I wrote about here:

I still have at least two more articles to publish from this conference that was chocked full of wonderful information from a wide range of talented speakers.

Past, Present, and Future with Katy Rowe-Schurwanz

Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, FamilyTreeDNA’s Product Manager, provided an update on what has been accomplished in the four and a half years since the last conference, what’s underway now, and her wish list for 2024.

Please note the word “wish list.” Wish list items are NOT commitments.

Recent Milestones

A lot has been happening at FamilyTreeDNA since the last conference.

Acquisition and Wellness Bundles

As everyone is aware, at the end of 2020, myDNA acquired Gene by Gene, the parent company of FamilyTreeDNA, which included the lab. As a result, the FamilyTreeDNA product menu has expanded, and wellness bundles are now available for FamilyTreeDNA customers.

If you’re interested, you can order the Wellness product in a bundle with a Family Finder test, here.

You can add the Wellness product for $39 if you’ve already tested.

New TIP (Time Prediction) STR Report

Did you notice that the old TIP report for Y DNA STR markers was replaced with an updated version several months ago?

To view the new report, sign on and select your Y DNA matches. At the far right of each match you’ll see these three icons representing a pedigree chart, notes, and the TIP (Time Predictor) report.

The updated TIP report includes wonderful new graphs and age estimates for each match category, which you can read about, here. Each category, such as 67-marker matches, has time estimates in which a common ancestor might have lived at each possible genetic distance.

Math is our friend, and thankfully, someone else has done it for us!

Please note that the Big Y SNP dates are MUCH more accurate for a variety of reasons, not limited to the instability and rapid mutation rate of STR mutations.

MyOrigins3

MyOrigins3, FamilyTreeDNA’s ethnicity offering, added over 60 new reference populations for a total of 90, plus chromosome painting. You can read about MyOrigins features here, and the white paper, here.

This is one of my favorite improvements because it allows me to identify the segment location of my population ancestries, which in turn allows me to identify people who share my minority segments such as Native American and African.

Due to a lack of records, these relationships are often exceedingly difficult to identify, and MyOrigins3 helps immensely.

Additional Releases

Additional products and features released since the last conference include:

Discover

Released in July 2022, Discover is the amazing new free product that details your ancestor’s Y DNA “story” and his walk through time and across the globe.

In the past 18 months, all of the Discover features are new, so I’m only making a brief list here. The great thing is that everyone can use Discover if you know or can discover (pardon the pun) the haplogroup of your ancestral lines. Surname projects are often beneficial for finding your lineages.

  • Haplogroup Story includes haplogroup location, ages derived from the earliest known ancestor (EKA) of your matches, and ancient DNA samples. Please be sure you’ve entered or updated your EKA, and that the information is current. You can find instructions for how to update or add your EKA here.
  • A recent addition to the haplogroup story includes Haplogroup Badges.
  • Country Frequency showing where this haplogroup is found with either a table view or an interactive map
  • Famous and infamous Notable Connections, including Mayflower passengers, Patriots from the American Revolution, US presidents, royal houses, artists, musicians, authors, pirates, sports figures, scientists, and more.

If you know of a proven connection to a notable figure, contact customer support and let them know! Notable connections are added every week.

One famous Discover connection is Ludwig von Beethoven which resulted from a joint academic study between FamilyTreeDNA and academic researchers. It’s quite a story and includes both a mystery and misattributed parentage. You can see if you match on Discover and read about the study, here.

  • Updated Migration Map, including locations of select ancient DNA sites
  • The Time Tree, probably the most popular Discover report, shows the most current version of the Y DNA phylotree, updated weekly, plus scientifically calculated ages for each branch. Tree node locations are determined by your matches and their EKA countries of origin. I wrote about the Time Tree, here.
  • Anticipated in early 2024, the EKA and block tree matches will also be shown on the Time Tree in Discover for individual Big Y testers, meaning they will need to sign in through their kits.
  • The Group Time Tree, visible through group projects, takes the Time Tree a step further by including the names of the EKA of each person on the Time Tree within a specific project. Information is only displayed for project members who have given permission to include their data. You can select specific project groupings to view, or the entire project. I wrote about the Group Time Tree here and here.
  • Globetrekker is an exclusive Big Y mapping feature discussed here, here, here, and here.
  • Ancient Connections includes more than 6,100 ancient Y DNA results from across the globe, which have been individually analyzed and added for matching in Discover. Ancient Connections serve to anchor haplogroups and provide important clues about matches, migration paths and culture. New connections are added weekly or as academic papers with adequate Y DNA coverage are released.
  • Your Ancestral Path, which lists the haplogroups through every step from the tester back to Y Adam and beyond. Additional information for each haplogroup in your path includes “Time Passed” between haplogroups, and “Immediate Descendants,” meaning haplogroups that descend from each subclade. New columns recently added include “Tested Modern Descendants” and “Ancient Connections.”
  • Suggested Projects include surname, haplogroup, and geographic projects. Katy said that people joining projects are more likely to collaborate and upgrade their tests. You can also see which projects other men with this haplogroup have joined, which may well be projects you want to join too.
  • Scientific Details provides additional information, such as each branch’s confidence intervals and equivalent variables (SNPs). You can read more here.
  • Compare Haplogroups is the most recent new feature, added just last month, which allows you to enter any two haplogroups and compare them to determine their most recent common ancestral haplogroup. You can read about Compare Haplogroups, here.

Please note that the Studies feature is coming soon, providing information about studies whose data has been included in Discover.

You can read about Discover here, here, here, and here.

If you’re interested, FamilyTreeDNA has released a one-minute introduction to Y DNA and Discover that would interest new testers, here.

Earliest Known Ancestor (EKA) Improvement

Another improvement is that the earliest known ancestor is MUCH easier to enter now, and the process has been simplified. The EKAs are critical for Discover, so PLEASE be sure you’ve entered and updated your EKA.

Under the dropdown beside your name in the upper right-hand corner of your personal page, select Account Settings, then Genealogy and Earliest Known Ancestors. Complete the information, then click on “Update Location” to find or enter the location on a map to record the coordinates.

It’s easy. Just type or drop a pin and “Save.”

Saving will take you back to the original EKA page. Save that page, too.

Recommended Projects on Haplogroups & SNPs Page

You’re probably aware that Discover suggests projects for Y DNA testers to join, but recommended haplogroup projects are available on each tester’s pages, under the Y DNA Haplotree & SNPs page, in the Y DNA STR results section.

If there isn’t a project for your immediate haplogroup, just scroll up to find the closest upstream project. You can also view this page by Variants, Surnames and Countries.

This is a super easy tool to use to view which surnames are clustered with and upstream of your haplogroup. With Family Finder haplogroups being assigned now, I check my upstream haplogroups almost daily to see what has been added.

For example, my Big Y Estes results are ten branches below R-DF49, but several men, including Estes testers, have been assigned at this level, thanks to Y DNA haplogroups from Family Finder testing. I can now look for these haplogroups in the STR and Family Finder matches lists and see if those men are receptive to Big Y testing.

Abandoned Projects

Sometimes group project administrators can no longer function in that capacity, resulting in the project becoming abandoned. FamilyTreeDNA has implemented a feature to help remedy that situation.

If you discover an abandoned project, you can adopt the project, spruce things up, and select the new project settings. Furthermore, administrators can choose to display this message to recruit co-administrators. I need to do this for several projects where I have no co-admin.

If you are looking for help with your project, you can choose to display the button
through the Project Profile page in GAP. For non-project administrators, if you’d like to help, please email the current project administrators.

New Kit Manager Feature

FamilyTreeDNA has added a “Kit Manager” feature so that an individual can designate another person as the manager of their kit.

This new setting provides an avenue for you to designate someone else as the manager of your DNA test. This alerts FamilyTreeDNA that they can share information with both of you – essentially treating your designated kit manager the same as you.

If you’re the kit manager for someone else, you NEED to be sure this is completed. If that person is unavailable for some reason, and support needs to verify that you have legitimate access to this kit, this form and the Beneficiary form are the ONLY ways they can do that.

If your family member has simply given you their kit number and password, and for some reason, a password reset is required, and their email address is the primary contact – you may be shut out of this kit if you don’t complete this form.

Beneficiary Page

Additionally, everyone needs to be sure to complete the Beneficiary page so that in the event of your demise, FamilyTreeDNA knows who you’ve designated to access and manage your DNA account in perpetuity. If you’ve inherited a kit, you need to add a beneficiary to take over in the event of your death as well.

What is FamilyTreeDNA working on now?

Currently in the Works

Katy moved on to what’s currently underway.

Privacy and Security

Clearly, the unauthorized customer data exposure breach at 23andMe has reverberated through the entire online community, not just genetic genealogy. You can read about the incident here, here, here, and here.

FamilyTreeDNA has already taken several steps, and others are in development and will be released shortly.

Clearly, in this fast-moving situation, everything is subject to change.

Here’s what has happened and is currently planned as of today:

  • Group Project Administrators will be required to reset their password soon.

Why is this necessary?

Unauthorized access was gained to 23andMe accounts by people using the same password for multiple accounts, combined with their email as their user ID. Many people use the same password for every account so that they can remember it. That means that all a hacker needs to do is breach one account, and they can use that same information to “legitimately” sign in to other accounts. There is no way for the vendor to recognize this as unauthorized since they have both your user ID and password.

That’s exactly what happened at 23andMe. In other breaches, this information was exposed, and hackers simply tried the same username and password combination at 23andMe, exposing the entire account of the person whose account they signed in “as.” This includes all of their matches, genetic tree, shared matches, matches of matches, ethnicity, and segments. They could also have downloaded both the match list and the raw DNA file of the compromised account.

At FamilyTreeDNA, project administrators can select their own username, which could be their email, so they will be required to reset their password.

Additional precautions have been put in place on an interim basis:

  • A pause in the ability to download match and segment information.
  • A pause in accepting 23andMe uploads.

Administrators will also be required to use two-factor authentication (2FA.) To date, two of the four major vendors are requiring 2FA. I would not be surprised to see it more broadly. Facebook recently required me to implement 2FA there, too, due to the “reach” of my postings, but 2FA is not required of everyone on Facebook.

Please note that if you received an email or message that is supposedly from any vendor requiring 2FA, GO DIRECTLY TO THAT VENDOR SITE AND SIGN IN.  Never click on a link in an email you weren’t expecting. Bad actors exploit everything.

Customers who are not signing in as administrators are not required to implement 2FA, nor will they be required to reset their password.

Personally, I will implement 2FA as soon as it’s available.

While 2FA is an extra step, it’s easy to get used to, and it has already literally saved one of my friends from an authorized hack on their primary and backup email accounts this week. Another friend just lost their entire account on Facebook because someone signed in as them. Their account was gone within 15 minutes.

2FA is one of those things you don’t appreciate (at all) until it saves you, and then, suddenly, you’re incredibly grateful.

At this point in time, FamilyTreeDNA users will NOT be required to do a password reset or implement 2FA. This is because customers use a kit number for sign-in and not a username or email address. I would strongly recommend changing your password to something “not easy.” Never reuse passwords between accounts.

I really, really want you to visit this link at TechRepublic and scroll down to Figure A, which shows how long it takes a hacker to crack your password. I guarantee you, it’s MUCH quicker than you’d ever expect.

Kim Komando wrote about this topic two years ago, so compare the two charts to see how much easier this has become in just two years.

Again, if you receive an email about resetting your password, don’t click on a link. Sign in independently to the vendor’s system, but DO reset your password.

FamilyTreeDNA also engages in additional security efforts, such as ongoing penetration testing.

New Permissions

Additionally, at FamilyTreeDNA, changes were already in the works to separate out at least two permissions that testers can opt-in to without granting project administrators Advanced rights.

  • Download data
  • Purchase tests

The ability to purchase tests can be very important because it allows administrators to order and pay for tests or upgrades on behalf of this tester anytime in the future.

Family Finder Haplogroups

FamilyTreeDNA has already begun releasing mid-level Y DNA haplogroups for autosomal testers in a staggered rollout of several thousand a day.

I wrote about this in the article, FamilyTreeDNA Provides Y DNA Haplogroups from Family Finder Autosomal Tests, so I’m not repeating all of that information here – just highlights.

  • The Family Finder haplogroup rollout is being staggered and began with customers on the most recent version of the testing chip, which was implemented in March of 2019.
  • Last will be transfers/uploads from third parties.
  • Haplogroups resulting from tests performed in the FTDNA labs will be visible to matches and within projects. They will also be used in both Discover and the haplotree statistics. This includes Family Finder plus MyHeritage and Vitagene uploads.
  • Both MyHeritage and Vitagene are uploaded or “transferred” via an intracompany secure link, meaning FamilyTreeDNA knows that their information is credible and has not been manipulated.
  • Haplogroups derived from tests performed elsewhere will only be visible to the user or a group administrator viewing a kit within a project. They will not be visible to matches or used in trees or for statistics.
  • Any man who has taken a Y DNA STR test will receive a SNP-confirmed, updated haplogroup from their Family Finder test that replaces their predicted haplogroup from the STR test.

Please read this article for more information.

New Discover Tools and Updates

Discover content continues to be updated, and new features are added regularly, creating an increasingly robust user experience.

Soon, group administrators will be able to view all Discover features (like Globetrekker) when viewing kits of project members who have granted an appropriate level of access.

Ancient and Notable connects are added weekly, and a new feature, Study Connections, will be added shortly.

Study Connections is a feature requested by customers that will show you which study your academic matches came from. Today, those results are used in the Y DNA tree, but the source is not detailed.

Anticipated in early 2024, the EKA and block tree matches will also be shown on the Time Tree in Discover for individual Big Y testers (not publicly).

Big Y FaceBook Group

FamilyTreeDNA has ramped up its social media presence. They launched the Big Y Facebook group in July 2023, here, which currently has just under 9000 members. Several project administrators have volunteered their time to help manage the group.

FamilyTreeDNA Blog

In addition, FamilyTreeDNA is publishing at least one blog article each week, and sometimes more. You can view or subscribe here. Some articles are written by FamilyTreeDNA staff, but project administrators and customers author other content.

Multi-Language Support

Translation of the main FamilyTreeDNA website and results pages to Spanish has begun, with more languages planned soon.

Paypal, Payments, and Gift Cards

Paypal has been added as a payment selection, along with a PayPal option that provides the ability to make payments.

Additionally, a gift card can be purchased from the main page.

Million Mito Project & Mitotree

Work on the Million Mito Project is ongoing.

The Million Mito Project was launched in 2020 as a collaborative effort between FamilyTreeDNA’s Research & Development Team and the scientific portion of the Genographic Project. I’m a team member and wrote about the Million Mito Project, here.

We’re picking up from where the Phylotree left off in 2016, analyzing 20 times more mtDNA full sequences and reimagining the mtDNA Haplotree. By examining more mtDNA data and applying the processes that allowed FamilyTreeDNA to build the world’s largest Y DNA Haplotree, we can also create the world’s largest Mitotree.

In 2022, the first update was released, authored by the Million Mito team, with the discovery of haplogroup L7. You can read about this amazing discovery rooted deep in the tree here, here, and here. (Full disclosure: I’m a co-author.)

Not only that, but “Nature Scientific Reports” selected this article as one of five named Editor’s Choice in the Mitogenomics category, here. In the science world, that’s a HUGE deal – like the genetic Emmy.

Here’s one example of the type of improvements that can be expected. Currently, the formation of haplogroup U5a2b2a reaches back to about 5000 years ago, but after reanalysis, current branches originated between 500 and 2,500 years ago, and testers are clustered more closely together.

This is SOOO exciting!!!

Just as Discover for Y DNA results was built one feature at a time, the same will be true for MitoDiscover. That’s my name, not theirs.

As the new Mitotree is rolled out, the user interface will also be updated, and matching will function somewhat differently. Specifically, it’s expected that many more haplogroups will be named, so today’s matching that requires an exact haplogroup match to be a full sequence match will no longer work. That and other matching adjustments will need to be made.

I can hardly wait. I have so many results I need to be able to view in a tree format and to place in a timeframe.

You can be included in this exciting project, learn more about your matrilineal (mother’s) line, and hopefully break down some of those brick walls by taking the full sequence mitochondrial DNA test, here.

After the new Mitotree is rolled out and the Y DNA Family Finder haplogroups are completed, Family Finder customers, where possible, will also receive at least a basic-level mitochondrial haplogroup. Not all upload files from other vendors include mtDNA SNPs in their autosomal files. The mitochondrial Family Finder haplogroup feature isn’t expected until sometime in 2025, after the new tree and MitoDiscover are complete.

The Future

What’s coming later in 2024, or is ongoing?

Privacy Laws

Most people aren’t aware of the new privacy laws in various states, each of which has to be evaluated and complied with.

The effects of these changes will be felt in various areas as they are implemented.

New Kits Opted Out of IGG

Since late August, all new FTDNA kits are automatically opted OUT of Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) by default.

Regular matching consent and IGG matching consent have been separated during onboarding.

Biobanking Separate Consent

Another consent change is to have your sample biobanked. FamilyTreeDNA has always maintained your sample for “roughly 25 years.” You could always ask to have your sample destroyed, but going forward, you will be asked initially if you want your sample to be retained (biobanked.) It’s still free.

Remember, if someone declines the biobanking option, their DNA will be disposed of after testing. They can’t order upgrades without submitting a new sample. Neither can their family after they’re gone. I ordered my mother’s Family Finder test many years after she had gone on to meet our ancestors – and I’m incredibly grateful every single day.

MyHeritage Tree Integration

An exciting change coming next year is tree integration with MyHeritage.

And no, before any rumors get started, FAMILYTREEDNA IS NOT MERGING WITH MYHERITAGE. It’s a beneficial marriage of convenience for both parties.

In essence, one of the primary focuses of MyHeritage is trees, and they do that very well. FamilyTreeDNA is focused on DNA testing and their existing trees have had issues for years. MyHeritage trees are excellent, support pedigree collapse, provide search capabilities that are NOT case sensitive, SmartMatching, and much more.

If you don’t have a MyHeritage account, creating one is free, and you will be able to either port your existing FamilyTreeDNA tree, or begin one there. If you’re already a MyHeritage member, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage are planning together for a smooth integration for you. More detailed information will be forthcoming as the integration progressed and is released to customers.

You’ll be able to connect multiple kits to your tree at MyHeritage, just like you can at FamilyTreeDNA today, which enables family matching, aka bucketing.

You can also have an unlimited number of different trees at MyHeritage on the same account. You’re not limited to one.

After you link your initial FamilyTreeDNA kit to the proper person in your MyHeritage tree, you’ll be able to relink any currently linked kits.

MyHeritage will NOT receive any DNA information or match information from FamilyTreeDNA, and yes, you’ll be able to use the same tree independently at MyHeritage for their DNA matching.

You’ll still be able to view your matches’ trees, except it will actually be the MyHeritage tree that will be opened at FamilyTreeDNA in a new tab.

To the best of my knowledge, this is a win-win-win, and customers of both companies aren’t losing anything.

One concern is that some FamilyTreeDNA testers have passed away and cannot transition their tree, so a view-only copy of their tree will remain at FamilyTreeDNA so that their matches can still see their tree.

Big Y Infrastructure

Katy mentioned that internal discussions are taking place to see what changes could be made to improve things like matching and test processing times.

No changes are planned for SNP or STR coverage, but discussions are taking place about a potential update to the Telomere to Telomere (T2T) reference. No promises about if or when this might occur. The last part of the human genome to be fully sequenced, the T2T reference model includes the notoriously messy and unreliable region of the Y chromosome with many repeats, duplications, gaps, and deletions. Some data from this region is probably salvageable but has previously been omitted due to the inherent problems.

I’m not sure this shouldn’t be in the next section, the Wishlist.

Wishlist

There are lots of good things on the Wishlist – all of which I’d love.

I’d have difficulty prioritizing, but I’d really appreciate some Family Finder features in addition to the items already discussed. I’d also like to see some GAP (administrator) tool updates.

Which items do you want to see most?

Katy said that FamilyTreeDNA is NOT planning to offer a Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) test anytime soon. So, if you’re holding your breath, please don’t. Based on what Katy did say, WGS is very clearly not a consideration in 2024 and I don’t expect to see it in 2025 either unless something changes drastically in terms of technology AND pricing.

While WGS prices have come down, those consumer tests are NOT scanned at the depth and quality required for advanced tests like the Big Y or even Family Finder. Normally consumer-grade WGS tests are scanned between 2 and 10 times, where the FamilyTreeDNA lab scans up to 30 times in order to obtain a quality read. 30X scans are in the same category as medical or clinical grade whole genome scans. Significantly higher quality scans mean significantly higher prices, too, so WGS isn’t ready for genealogy prime time yet.

Additionally, commercially available WGS tests are returned to the customer “as is,” and you’re left to extract the relevant SNPs and arrange them into files, or find someone else to do that. Not to mention, in order to preserve the integrity of their database, FamilyTreeDNA does not accept Y or mitochondrial DNA uploads.

Recently, I saw two WGS files with a 20-25% no-call rate for the autosomal SNPs required for the Family Finder test. Needless to say, that’s completely unacceptable. Some tools attempt to “fix” that mess by filling in the blanks in the format of either a 23andMe or Ancestry file so you can upload to vendors, but that means you’re receiving VERY unreliable matches.

The reason none of the major four vendors offer WGS testing for genealogists is because it’s not financially feasible nor technologically beneficial. The raw data file alone won’t fit on most home computers. WGS is just not soup yet, and it won’t be for the general consuming public, including relevant tools, for at least a few years.

I’ve had my whole genome sequenced, and trust me, I wish it were feasible now, but it just isn’t.

Suggestions Welcomed

Katy said that if you have suggestions for items NOT on the wishlist today to contact her through support.

I would add that if you wish to emphasize any specific feature or need above others, please send that feedback, politely, to support as well.

Katy ended by thanking the various teams and individuals whose joint efforts together produce the products we use and enjoy today.

Lab Update

Normally, DNA testing companies don’t provide lab updates, but this conference is focused on group project administrators, who are often the most dedicated to DNA testing.

A lab update has become a tradition over the years.

Linda Jones, Lab Manager, provided a lab update.

You may or may not know that the FamilyTreeDNA lab shifted gears and stepped up to handle Covid testing.

Supply-chain shortages interfered, but the lab ran 24×7 between 2020 and 2022.

Today, the lab continues to make improvements to processes with the goal of delivering the highest quality results in a timely manner.

On Monday, after the conference, attendees could sign up for a lab tour. You might say we are a rather geeky bunch and really enjoy the science behind the scenes.

Q&A and Thank You

At the end of the conference, the FamilyTreeDNA management team answered questions from attendees.

Left to right, Daniel Au, CTO; Linda Jones, Lab Manager; Katy Rowe-Schurwanz, Product Manager; Clayton Conder, VP Marketing; Goran Runfeldt, Head of R&D; and Andrew Gefre, Development Manager. Not pictured, Jeremy Balkin, Support Manager; Kelly Jenkins, VP of Operations; and Janine Cloud, Group Projects Manager. Janine is also responsible for conferences and events, without whom there would have been no 2023 FamilyTreeDNA conference. Janine, I can’t thank you enough!

A huge thanks to all of these people and many others, including the presenters, CSRs,  IT, and other FamilyTreeDNA team members for their support during the conference, enabling us to enjoy the conference and replenish the well of knowledge.

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Which DNA Test Should I Buy? And Why?

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Which DNA test should I buy, and why?

I receive questions like this often. As a reminder, I don’t take private clients anymore, which means I don’t provide this type of individual consulting or advice. However, I’m doing the next best thing! In this article, I’m sharing the step-by-step process that I utilize to evaluate these questions so you can use the process too.

It’s important to know what questions to ask and how to evaluate each situation to arrive at the best answer for each person.

Here’s the question I received from someone I’ll call John. I’ve modified the wording slightly and changed the names for privacy.

I’m a male, and my mother was born in Charleston, SC. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Jones and a paternal surname was Davis. The family was supposed to have been Black, Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch, and Scots-Irish…only once was I told I was 3/16 Indian, with Davis being 3/4 and Jones being full Indian.

Do I have enough reasonable information to buy a test, and which one?

Please note that it’s common for questions to arrive without all the information you need to provide a sound answer – so it’s up to you to ask those questions and obtain clarification.

Multiple Questions

There are actually multiple questions here, so let me parse this a bit.

  1. John never mentioned what his testing goal was.
  2. He also never exactly said how the paternal line of Davis was connected, so I’ve made an assumption. For educational purposes, it doesn’t matter because we’re going to walk through the evaluation process, which is the same regardless.
  3. John did not include a tree or a link to a tree, so I created a rudimentary tree to sort through this. I need the visuals and normally just sketch it out on paper quickly.
  4. Does John have enough information to purchase a test?
  5. If so, which test?

There is no “one size fits all” answer, so let’s discuss these one by one.

Easy Answers First

The answer to #4 is easy.

Anyone with any amount of information can purchase a DNA test. Adoptees do it all the time, and they have no prior information.

So, yes, John can purchase a test.

The more difficult question is which test, because that answer depends on John’s goals and whether he’s just looking for some quick information or really wants to delve into genealogy and learn. Neither approach is wrong.

Many people think they want a quick answer –  and then quickly figure out that they really want to know much more about their ancestors.

I wrote an article titled DNA Results – First Glances at Ethnicity and Matching for new testers, here.

Goals

Based on what John said, I’m going to presume his goals are probably:

  • To prove or disprove the family oral history of Black, Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch (which is actually German,) Scots-Irish, and potentially Native American.
  • John didn’t mention actual genealogy, which would include DNA matches and trees, so we will count that as something John is interested in secondarily. However, he may need genealogy records to reach his primary goal.

If you’re thinking, “The process of answering this seemingly easy question is more complex than I thought,” you’d be right.

Ethnicity in General

It sounds like John is interested in ethnicity testing. Lots of people think that “the answer” will be found there – and sometimes they are right. Often not so much. It depends.

The great news is that John really doesn’t need any information at all to take an autosomal DNA test, and it doesn’t matter if the test-taker is male or female.

To calculate each tester’s ethnicity, every testing company compiles their own reference populations, and John will receive different results at each of the major companies. Each company updates their ethnicity results from time to time as well, and they will change.

Additionally, each company provides different tools for their customers.

The ethnicity results at different companies generally won’t match each other exactly, and sometimes the populations look quite different.

Normally, DNA from a specific ancestor can be found for at least 5 or 6 generations. Of course, that means their DNA, along with the DNA from all of your other ancestors is essentially combined in a communal genetic “pot” of your chromosomes, and the DNA testing company needs to sort it out and analyze your DNA for ethnicity.

DNA descended from ancestors, and their populations, further back in people’s trees may not be discerned at all using autosomal DNA tests.

A much more specific “ethnicity” can be obtained for both the Y-DNA line, which is a direct patrilineal line for men (blue arrow,) and the mitochondrial DNA line (pink arrows,) which is a direct matrilineal line for everyone, using those specific tests.

We will discuss both of those tests after we talk about the autosomal tests available from the four major genealogy DNA testing companies. All of these tools can and should be used together.

Let’s Start with Native American

Let’s evaluate the information that John provided.

John was told that he “was 3/16 Indian, with Davis being 3/4 and Jones being full Indian.”

We need to evaluate this part of his question slightly differently.

I discussed this in the article, Ancestral DNA Percentages – How Much of Them is in You?

First, we need to convert generations to 16ths.

You have two ancestors in your parent’s generation, four in your grandparents, and so forth. You have 16 great-great-grandparents. So, if John was 3/16th Native, then three of his great-great-grandparents would have been fully Native, or an equivalent percentage. In other words, six ancestors in that generation could have been half-Native. Based on what John said, they would have come from his mother’s side of the tree. John is fortunate to have that much information to work with.

He told us enough about his tree that we can evaluate the statement that he might be 3/16ths Native.

Here’s the tree I quickly assembled in a spreadsheet based on John’s information.

His father, at left, is not part of the equation based on the information John provided.

On his mother’s side, John said that Grandfather Davis is supposed to be three-quarters Native, which translates to 12/16ths. Please note that it would be extremely beneficial to find a Y-DNA tester from his Davis line, like one of his mother’s brothers, for example.

John said that his Grandmother Jones is supposed to be 100% Native, so 16/16ths.

Added together, those sum to 28/32, which reduces down to 14/16th or 7/8th for John’s mother.

John would have received half of his autosomal DNA from his mother and half from his non-Native father. That means that if John’s father is 100% non-Native, John would be half of 14/16ths or 7/16ths, so just shy of half Native.

Of course, we know that we don’t always receive exactly 50% of each of our ancestors’ DNA (except for our parents,) but we would expect to see something in the ballpark of 40-45% Native for John if his grandmother was 100% Native and his grandfather was 75%.

Using simple logic here, for John’s grandmother to be 100% Native, she would almost assuredly have been a registered tribal member, and the same if his grandfather was 75% Native. I would think that information would be readily available and well-known to the family – so I doubt that this percentage is accurate. It would be easy to check, though, on various census records during their lifetimes where they would likely have been recorded as “Indian.” They might have been in the special “Indian Census” taken and might be living on a reservation.

It should also be relatively easy to find their parents since all family members were listed every ten years in the US beginning with the 1850 census.

The simple answer is that if John’s grandparents had as much Native as reported, he would be more than 3/16th – so both of these factoids cannot simultaneously be accurate. But that does NOT mean neither is accurate.

John could be 7/8th or 40ish%, 3/16th or 18ish%, or some other percentage. Sometimes, where there is smoke, there is fire. And that seems to be the quandary John is seeking to resolve.

Would  Ethnicity/Population Tests Show This Much Native?

Any of the four major testing companies would show Native for someone whose percentage would be in the 40% or 18% ballpark.

The easiest ethnicities to tell apart from one another are continental-level populations. John also stated that he thinks he may also have Black ancestry, plus Dutch, Pennsylvania Dutch (German), and Scots-Irish. It’s certainly possible to verify that using genealogy, but what can DNA testing alone tell us?

How far back can we expect to find ethnicities descending from particular ancestors?

In this table, you can see at each generation how many ancestors you have in that generation, plus the percentage of DNA, on average, you would inherit from each ancestor.

All of the major DNA testing companies can potentially pick up small trace percentages, but they don’t always. Sometimes one company does, and another doesn’t. So, if John has one sixth-generation Native American ancestor, he would carry about 1.56% Native DNA, if any.

  • Sometimes a specific ethnicity is not found because, thanks to random recombination, you didn’t inherit any of that DNA from those ancestors. This is why testing your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings can be very important. They share your same ancestors and may have inherited DNA that you didn’t that’s very relevant to your search.
  • Sometimes it’s not found because the reference populations and algorithms at that testing company aren’t able to detect that population or identify it accurately, especially at trace levels. Every DNA testing company establishes their own reference populations and writes internal, proprietary ethnicity analysis algorithms.
  • Sometimes it’s not found because your ancestor wasn’t Native or from that specific population.
  • Sometimes it’s there, but your population is called something you don’t expect.

For example, you may find Scandinavian when your ancestor was from England or Ireland. The Vikings raided the British Isles, so while some small amount of Scandinavian is not what you expect, that doesn’t mean it‘s wrong. However, if all of your family is from England, it’s not reasonable to have entirely Scandinavian ethnicity results.

It’s also less likely as each generation passes by that the information about their origins gets handed down accurately to following generations. Most non-genealogists don’t know the names of their great-grandparents, let alone where their ancestors were from.

Using a 25-year average generation length, by the 4th generation, shown in the chart above, you have 16 ancestors who lived approximately 100 years before your parents were born, so someplace in the mid-1800s. It’s unlikely for oral history from that time to survive intact. It’s even less likely from a century years earlier, where in the 7th generation, you have 128 total ancestors.

The best way to validate the accuracy of your ethnicity estimates is by researching your genealogy. Of course, you need to take an ethnicity test, or two, in order to have results to validate.

Ethnicity has a lot more to offer than just percentages.

Best Autosomal Tests for Native Ethnicity

Based on my experience with people who have confirmed Native ancestry, the two best tests to detect Native American ethnicity, especially in smaller percentages, are both FamilyTreeDNA and 23andMe.

Click images to enlarge

In addition to percentages, both 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA provide chromosome painting for ethnicity, along with segment information in download files. In other words, they literally paint your ethnicity results on your chromosomes.

They then provide you with a file with the “addresses” of those ethnicities on your chromosomes, which means you can figure out which ancestors contributed those ethnicity segments.

The person in the example above, a tester at FamilyTreeDNA, is highly admixed with ancestors from European regions, African regions and Native people from South America.

Trace amounts of Native American with a majority of European heritage would appear more like this.

You can use this information to paint your chromosome segments at DNAPainter, along with your matching segments to other testers where you can identify your common ancestors. This is why providing trees is critically important – DNA plus ancestor identification with our matches is how we confirm our ancestry.

This combination allows you to identify which Native (or another ethnicity) segments descended from which ancestors. I was able to determine which ancestor provided that pink Native American segment on chromosome 1 on my mother’s side.

I’ve provided instructions for painting ethnicity segments to identify their origins in specific ancestors, here.

Autosomal and Genealogy

You may have noticed that we’ve now drifted into the genealogy realm of autosomal DNA testing. Ethnicity is nice, but if you want to know who those segments came from, you’ll need:

  • Autosomal test matching to other people
  • To identify your common ancestor with as many matches as you can
  • To match at a company who provides you with segment information for each match
  • To work with DNAPainter, which is very easy

The great news is that you can do all of that using the autosomal tests you took for ethnicity, except at Ancestry who does not provide segment information.

Best Autosomal Test for Matching Other Testers

The best autosomal test for matching may be different for everyone. Let’s look at some of the differentiators and considerations.

If you’re basing a testing recommendation solely on database size, which will probably correlate to more matches, then the DNA testing vendors fall into this order:

If you’re basing that recommendation on the BEST, generally meaning the closest matches for you, there’s no way of knowing ahead of time. At each of the four DNA testing companies, I have very good matches who have not tested elsewhere. If I weren’t in all four databases, I would have missed many valuable matches.

If you’re basing that recommendation on which vendor began testing earliest, meaning they have many tests from people who are now deceased, so you won’t find their autosomal tests in other databases that don’t accept uploads, the recommended testing company order would be:

If you’re basing that recommendation on matches to people who live in other countries, the order would be:

Ancestry and 23andMe are very distant third/fourth because they did not sell widely outside the US initially and still don’t sell in as many countries as the others, meaning their testers’ geography is more limited. However, Ancestry is also prevalent in the UK.

If you’re basing that recommendation on segment information and advanced tools that allow you to triangulate and confirm your genetic link to specific ancestors, the order would be:

Ancestry does NOT provide any segment information.

If you’re basing that recommendation on unique tools provided by each vendor, every vendor has something very beneficial that the others don’t.

In other words, there’s really no clear-cut answer for which single autosomal DNA test to order. The real answer is to be sure you’re fishing in all the ponds. The fish are not the same. Unique people test at each of those companies daily who will never be found in the other databases.

Test at or upload your DNA to all four DNA testing companies, plus GEDmatch. Step-by-step instructions for downloading your raw data file and uploading it to the DNA testing companies who accept uploads can be found, here.

Test or Upload

Not all testing companies accept uploads of raw autosomal DNA data files from other companies. The good news is that some do, and it’s free to upload and receive matches.

Two major DNA testing companies DO NOT accept uploads from other companies. In other words, you have to test at that company:

Two testing companies DO accept uploads from the other three companies. Uploads and matching are free, and advanced features can be unlocked very cost effectively.

  • FamilyTreeDNA – free matching and $19 unlock for advanced features
  • MyHeritage – free matching and $29 unlock.for advanced features

I recommend testing at both 23andMe and Ancestry and uploading one of those files to both FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage, then purchasing the respective unlocks.

GEDmatch

GEDmatch is a third-party matching site, not a DNA testing company. Consider uploading to GEDmatch because you may find matches from Ancestry who have uploaded to GEDmatch, giving you access to matching segment information.

Other Types of DNA

John provided additional information that may prove to be VERY useful. Both Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA can be tested as well and may prove to be more useful than autosomal to positively identify the origins of those two specific lines.

Let’s assume that John takes an autosomal test and discovers that indeed, the 3/16th Native estimate was close. 3/16th equates to about 18% Native which would mean that three of his 16 great-great-grandparents were Native.

John told us that his Grandmother Jones was supposed to be 100% Native.

At the great-great-grandparent level, John has 16 ancestors, so eight on his mother’s side, four from maternal grandmother Jones and four from his maternal grandfather Davis.

John carries the mitochondrial DNA of his mother (red boxes and arrows,) and her mother, through a direct line of females back in time. John also carries the Y-DNA of his father (dark blue box, at left above, and blue arrows below.)

Unlike autosomal DNA which is admixed in every generation, mitochondrial DNA (red arrows) is inherited from that direct matrilineal line ONLY and never combines with the DNA of the father. Mothers give their mitochondrial DNA to both sexes of their children, but men never contribute their mitochondrial DNA to offspring. Everyone has their mother’s mitochondrial DNA.

Because it never recombines with DNA from the father, so is never “watered down,” we can “see” much further back in time, even though we can’t yet identify those ancestors.

However, more importantly, in this situation, John can test his own mitochondrial DNA that he inherited from his mother, who inherited it from her mother, to view her direct matrilineal line.

John’s mitochondrial DNA haplogroup that will be assigned during testing tells us unquestionably whether or not his direct matrilineal ancestor was Native on her mother’s line, or not. If not, it may well tell us where that specific line originated.

You can view the countries around the world where Y-DNA haplogroups are found, here, and mitochondrial haplogroups, here.

If John’s mitochondrial DNA haplogroup is Native, that confirms that one specific line is Native. If he can find other testers in his various lines to test either their Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA, John can determine if other ancestors were Native too. If not, those tests will reveal the origins of that line, separate from the rest of his genealogical lines.

Although John didn’t mention his father’s line, if he takes a Y-DNA test, especially at the Big Y-700 level, that will also reveal the origins of his direct paternal line. Y-DNA doesn’t combine with the other parent’s DNA either, so it reaches far back in time too.

Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests are laser-focused on one line each, and only one line. You don’t have to try to sort it out of the ethnicity “pot,” wondering which ancestor was or was not Native.

My Recommendation

When putting together a testing strategy, I recommend taking advantage of free uploads and inexpensive unlocks when possible.

  • To confirm Native American ancestry via ethnicity testing, I recommend testing at 23andMe and uploading to FamilyTreeDNA, then purchasing the $19 unlock. The free upload and $19 unlock are less expensive than testing there directly.
  • For matching, I recommend testing at Ancestry and uploading to MyHeritage, then unlocking the MyHeritage advanced features for $29, which is less expensive than retesting. Ancestry does not provide segment information, but MyHeritage (and the others) do.

At this point, John will have taken two DNA tests, but is now in all four databases, plus GEDmatch if he uploads there.

  • For genealogy research on John’s lines to determine whether or not his mother’s lines were Native, I recommend an Ancestry and a MyHeritage records subscription, plus using WikiTree, which is free.
  • To determine if John’s mother’s direct matrilineal female line was Native, I recommend that John order the mitochondrial DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA.
  • When ordering multiple tests, or uploading at FamilyTreeDNA, be sure to upload/order all of one person’s tests on the same DNA kit so that those results can be used in combination with each other.

Both males and females can take autosomal and mitochondrial DNA tests.

  • To discover what he doesn’t know about his direct paternal, meaning John’s surname line – I recommend the Big Y-700 test at FamilyTreeDNA.

Only males can take a Y-DNA test, so women would need to ask their father, brother, or paternal uncle, for example, to test their direct paternal line.

  • If John can find a male Davis from his mother’s line, I recommend that he purchase the Big Y-700 test at FamilyTreeDNA for that person, or check to see if someone from his Davis line may have already tested by viewing the Davis DNA Project. Like with mitochondrial DNA, the Y-DNA haplogroup will tell John the origins of his direct Davis male ancestor – plus matching of course. He will be able to determine if they were Native, and if not, discover the origins of the Davis line.
  • For assigning segments to ancestors and triangulating to confirm descent from a common ancestor, I recommend 23andMe, MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA and GEDmatch, paired with DNAPainter as a tool.

Shopping and Research List

Here are the tests and links recommended above:

More Than He Asked

I realize this answer is way more than John expected or even knew to ask. That’s because there is often no “one” or “one best” answer. There are many ways to approach the question after the goal is defined, and the first “answer” received may be a bit out of context.

For example, let’s say John has 2% Native ancestry and took a test at a vendor who didn’t detect it. John would believe he had none. But a different vendor might find that 2%. If it’s on his mother’s direct matrilineal line, mitochondrial DNA testing will confirm, or refute Native, beyond any doubt, regardless of autosomal ethnicity results – but only for that specific ancestral line.

Autosomal DNA can suggest Native across all your DNA, but Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA confirm it for each individual ancestor.

Even when autosomal testing does NOT show Native American, or African, for example, it’s certainly possible that it’s just too far back in time or has not been passed down during random recombination, but either Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA will unquestionably confirm (or refute) the ancestry in question if the right person is tested.

This is exactly why I attempt to find a cousin who descends appropriately from every ancestor and provide testing scholarships. It’s important to obtain Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA information for each ancestor.

Which Test Should I Order?

What steps will help you decide which test or tests to take?

  1. Define your testing goal.
  2. Determine if your Y-DNA or mitochondrial DNA will help answer the question.
  3. Determine if you need to find ancestors another generation or two back in time to get the most benefit from DNA testing. In our example, if John discovered that both of his grandparents were enrolled tribal members, that’s huge, and the tribe might have additional information about his family.
  4. Subscribe to Ancestry and MyHeritage records collections as appropriate to perform genealogical research. Additional information not only provides context for your family, it also provides you with the ability to confirm or better understand your ethnicity results.
  5. Extend your tree so that you can obtain the best results from the three vendors who support trees; Ancestry, FamilyTreeDNA, and MyHeritage. All three use trees combined with DNA tests to provide you with additional information.
  6. Order 23andMe and Ancestry autosomal DNA tests.
  7. Either test at or upload one of those tests to MyHeritage, FamilyTreeDNA, and GEDmatch.
  8. If a male, order the Big Y-700 DNA test. Or, find a male from your ancestral line who has taken or will take that test. I always offer a testing scholarship and, of course, share the exciting results!
  9. Order a mitochondrial DNA test for yourself and for appropriately descended family members to represent other ancestors. Remember that your father (and his siblings) all carry your paternal grandmother’s mitochondrial DNA. That’s often a good place to start after testing your own DNA.
  10. If your parents or grandparents are alive, or aunts and uncles, test their autosomal DNA too. They are (at least) one generation closer to your ancestors than you are and will carry more of your ancestors’ DNA.
  11. Your siblings will carry some of your ancestors’ DNA that you do not, so test them too if both of your parents aren’t available for testing.

Enjoy!!!

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