Developing a SNP Path to Discover our Ancestors

The Haplotree, or Tree of Mankind now consists over 65,000 branches, thanks in large part to commercial Y-DNA testing. The Tree has exploded with growth in just the last five years. This has given the average genetic genealogist like myself  the opportunity to develop surname projects using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). When new SNPS are discovered along the Y chromosome they are placed on the Haplotree, allowing us to see when exactly each man branches off from one another. The male only Y-DNA test looks at the Y chromosome which passes from  father to son relatively unchanged. There are only occasional mutations that occur, resulting in the formation of haplogroups. A haplogroup is a genetic population of people who descend from the same man. 

The first Cryan BigY700 tester tested positive for SNP R-A6925. This man was born around 750CE, somewhere in the west of Ireland. My second Cryan tester was sure to add new SNPs, FTDNA requires at least two testers to confirm a new SNP. Pictured here is R-A6925s journey out of Africa. As seen below the line is confirmed to have been Ireland for several thousand years years. Once our second testers results came in, a new SNP downstream or "younger" SNP was discovered  (R-FTD61432). It is important for several Cryan men in this subclade to test, because all the unnamed SNPs need to be named to be placed on the tree. This will develop your families genetic subclade as best as possible. With the current level of testing for this particular Cryan family, the surname has been carried for at least 300 years. 


http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/snpTracker.html

R-FTD61432 has not been added to the Haplotree yet, that process takes a few weeks, but by looking at the results of the two Cryan tests I can see that R-FTD61432 was born sometime in the 1700s. By comparing the trees of the two and not being able to find a connection, it was obvious the connection predates the paper trail. This YDNA confirms that Martin b1819 from Carrowreagh, Sligo was a relative of Michael Cryan b1780ish from Boyle, Roscommon. And it gives the time to the most recent common ancestor to around 1750. Given the close proximity of both men, they likely knew one another as family on some level. Looking at the autosomal DNA of these Cryan families, there was no connection to be seen. This is not unusual because autosomal DNA is generally only good for 2-300 years in DNA tests. The male line only Y test permitted us to make a connection before the paper trail and the use of regular autosomal DNA.  As more testers come in, we can see exact branching off points between everyone and put a general age for surname use for this particular sept. 

FTDNA offers several Y DNA tests. 37 and 111 marker kits, which only looks at STRs ( short tandem repeats) and the BigY700, which will read STRs and SNPs. The BigY is a whole genome test and will take a few months to complete. The SNPs found in this test are far more reliable than STRs, although the 37 and 111 marker kits are great if you are on a budget. FTDNA stores a sample of your DNA, so you could eventually upgrade when the time is right for you. 

https://www.familytreedna.com/


Michael Crow

Cryan Project administrator

mikec1120@comcast.net  

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