It has been a while since I have written about my cousin Rusty’s YDNA. Rusty’s YDNA testing resulted in his finding out that a rumored adoption of I think his grandfather in Ireland was true and that the name he was accustomed to having was not the same name as his ancestors. Here is my last Blog. At that time, Rusty had not taken the BigY test. Since then he has. I see that previous results lead Rusty to believe that his paternal line was origingally McFarlane or McFarldand. Previously, Rusty was confirmed to be R-BY674.
Rusty’s New Group of R-BY38907
It sounds like a bunch of numbers, but it is really Rusty’s place in the tree of mankind. Here is Rusty’s Block Tree view of his results:
The BigY testing brought Rusty down a level to R-Y38907. There are three people in Rusty’s group with 4 variants. There is a McFarlane and a McFarland and Rusty. There are two other testers who hae split off from BY38907 to R-FT91061. If I use 100 years per variant or SNP, then McFarland are 500 years from a common ancestor and Rusty’s group are 400 years away. So a wild guess could be that these five people have a common ancestor around 450 years ago or in the 1500’s.
SNP Tracker
Let’s see what the SNP Tracker has to say about Rusty’s Haplogroup. This is a web based program.
SNP Tracker has BY38907 in Northern Ireland in Roman times. If I add in the group directly below Rusty, it brings us into modern times (1900):
I think I like my estimate better. As there is only one SNP difference between BY38907 and FT91061, I don’t know why SNP Tracker has about 1900 years between them.
BY38907 in Context
In general terms, BY38907 is a R1b Haplogroup. This is a very common European Haplogroup. The FTDNA L21 project has what is called a Tip of the Iceberg Map or Tree for L21 people. As a Hartley, I am also in this group.
L21 has been associated with people with Celtic background, but it includes more than that. Here is Rusty’s Path:
DF63 is at the top right in brown. I know that I am in L513 in the Orange. That means that Rusty and I are related back to 2600 BC. That is actually not that distant in terms of YDNA:
Also I see that the DF63 is one of the smaller early branches of L21. From there we branched off:
My group is on the left and Rusty’s is on the right. His CT6919 is still at 2100 BC.
BY674 to BY38907
This view takes Rusty’s Block Tree back to BY674 (which descends from CTS6919):
The column on the left gives a measurement of SNPs. This shows that Rusty went from about 11-14 SNPs away with BY674 to four Private Variants away with his present designation of BY38907. The other interesting thing is that there are many McFarlands under BY674. This makes me think that BY674 was around at the time of the McFarland surname. This name is a fairly early surname dating to around 1100 from my understanding. This could also help date BY674. If any of the three people in Rusty’s group get a closer relative to test, then that closer relative and that person should form a new branch.
Rusty’s Private Variants
Rusty’s Private Variants represent his line since the common ancestor he shares with his two other matches who tested positive for BY38907 (and tested negative for FT91061).
Here are Rusty’s Private Variants:
Rusty has more than average Private Variants. The average of the group is four and Rusty has nine. This is partially explained in that Rusty took the BigY 700 and the other two testers probably had the BigY 500. That means that Rusty’s test was looking at parts of the YDNA that McFarland and McFarlane did not look at. That also means that if those two were to upgrade to the BigY 700, they may match on some of Rusty’s Private Variants. Of course, this would make them no longer private. This would also either add more SNPs to the current BY38907 Block or create or create a new branch (or both).
Rusty’s Non-Matching Variants
I’ll look at those listed with Rusty’s two closesty BigY matches:
These are Variants that Rusty has and his matches don’t have. Or they may be Private Variants that Rusty’s matches have and Rusty does not have. As Rusty has more Private Variants, these should be mostly Rusty’s Variants. Rusty’s Private Variants is really what the BigY does well at finding. These should be Variants that have not been discovered in anyone else before.
Here I have highlighted Rusty’s Private Variants in his two closest matches’ results:
This means that McFarlane has one Private Variant that Rusty does not have and McFarland has two Private Variants that Rusty does not have. Add Rusty’s 9 PVs plus the three above to get 12 PVs. Divide those by three testers to get the four Private Variants shown in the Block tree below BY38907.
If Rusty was to have his son take a BigY test, that would name most or all of Rusty’s Private Variants and put Rusty and his son into a new branch. Actually, these Private Variants are all probably already named, but they would then be shown as named. If Rusty’s son takes the BigY test, it would not tell Rusty anthing more about his genealogy. It would just give his branch of the YDNA Tree a name. Instead of Rusty having a bunch of Private Variants, he would have a named branch with a bunch of SNPs in it. This is what I did by having my brother tested:
My results are on the left. After having my brother tested for BigY, my brother and I split off from A11132 to form FT225247 in a block with 7 SNPs.
A Name for Rusty’s Private Variants
In general, FTDNA keeps the Private Variants as position numbers rather than named SNPs. Once they find a match, FTDNA reveals the name and puts the SNPs on a tree. The way to find out the names of your Private Variants is to go to ybrowse.com. Let’s try Rusty’s first which is 5173895.
Put the position number here and search:
This is where the position is on the Rusty’s Y Chromosome:
Here is the name:
This SNP (or Private Variant) was discovered when Rusty had his BigY test in 2019.