{"id":30122,"date":"2026-10-26T16:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jmhartley.com\/HBlog\/?p=30122"},"modified":"2026-10-26T16:52:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T16:52:51","slug":"a-butler-ydna-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jmhartley.com\/HBlog\/2026\/10\/26\/a-butler-ydna-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"A Butler YDNA Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been looking at the Whitson\/Butler YDNA Project and was interested in how the Butlers might turn out as a tree using the STR results from that project. Here is the section of the Whitson project that has Butlers:<\/p>\n

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I downloaded this to an excel spreadsheet and then took out the Butler only names and put them into a text file to use in the SAPP Program. SAPP stands for Still Another Phylogenetic Program.<\/p>\n

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For some reason, I didn’t get all the results the first time.<\/p>\n

I tried again and got all five Butler STR results:<\/p>\n

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Adjusted Genetic Distance<\/h2>\n

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The kit starting with 102 is the most distant Butler relative. That makes sense that he is further away from the last two kits who are my brother-in-law and late father-in-law.<\/p>\n

SAPP Tree<\/h2>\n

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Now STRs can be somewhat unreliable and we are comparing two 37 STR tests with three 111 STR tests. What this shows is that the INS Kit is more closely related to my brother-in-law and father-in-law and that the 319 Kit is more closely related to the 102 Kit. I believe that this makes sense, as we are thinking that the INS Kit may share a common ancestor who would be the father of known ancestor Henry Butler born about 1800 in Wexford, Ireland.<\/p>\n

Dating<\/h3>\n

There are dates on the nodes. The Group TMRCA is 1700 AD. That compares well with the more accurate BigY tessting done on the three kits that have 111 STRs.<\/p>\n

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Here the bottom three are Butlers and their common ancestor is estimated to be 1546 CE. However, there is quite a range given for this. The testers above the Butlers are Whitsons.<\/p>\n

The date on Node 8 is 1950 but that is because there is no difference in the first 37 STRs between the three testers. Here is part of the tree that I have based on autosomal testing:<\/p>\n

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The INS Kit descends from Richard Butler Born 1817 though I don’t have him on the tree. I believe that Adam Butler should be the brother of Henry Butler on my wife’s side of the family. That would make the INS tester 4th cousin once or twice removed to my wife’s father. That means that the actual Node 8 should be around the year 1775.<\/p>\n

Node #7<\/h4>\n

The date for this Node is 1800. This is possible.<\/p>\n

A New Tree<\/h3>\n

I talked to Peter who is on the list. He says there is another person not on the Whitson YDNA Project but on the Butler Project who he thinks he is more closely related to. I added this person in. He has and ancestor named Captain Butler who was dealings with South Africa. This person’s kit starts with IN129:<\/p>\n

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This person does not seem close to Peter (102) as far as genetic distance in this report. Here is the tree report:<\/p>\n

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Assuming that this is accurate, it shows that there are four branches going back to 1600. I find it interesting that adding another Kit brings the common ancestor date further back. Of course, again, this is comparing three kits with 37 STRs tested with three kits with 111 STRs tested. At this point, it appears that BigY testing from one of the two BigY untested kits in yellow row of three would be helpful.<\/p>\n

Summary and Conclusions<\/h2>\n