i4gg DNA Conference in San Diego in Only 38 Days and Counting!

Now only 38 days away!:

2018 i4GG registration Now Open!
Just since our last conference the popularity and public interest in Genetic Genealogy has seen a formidable explosion. Data bases have mushroomed as Genetic Genealogy has gone from exclusive or elite, to mainstream. This begs the question; what will the next 12 months hold for Genetic Genealogy? How are the testing companies preparing for continued explosive growth? How can we stay on top of the latest advancements in this field, including the most comprehensive and most effective  techniques for the successful application of DNA testing to genealogy available now? This and so much more will be the theme of i4GG 2018.

Hosted by CeCe Moore’s DNA Detectives the i4GG 2.5 day Genetic Genealogy conference will kick off with a “company” day Friday December 7 when the major DNA testing companies will own the stage. This is followed by two full days December 8 and 9, 2018 in San Diego CA. As is i4GG tradition, the conference will cover the most cutting edge Genetic Genealogy methodologies for any genealogy application, including unknown parentage.

The talks at i4GG will be professionally video recorded and be provided free of charge to those who purchase tickets for both (2.5) days. For those who opt for one day only, the recordings will be available for purchase at $99 for all videos, or $10 for purchase of individual video recordings.

Newbie or Pro, makes no difference, at i4GG there is something for everyone. i4GG has been called “the most important DNA conference in America” and we will strive to live up to this esteemed repute.

One of my goals this year is to learn more about DNA, obviously.  But another goal is to be as comfortable as possible (I find all-day meetings like this physically excruciating, despite my interest in the subject).



© 2018 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

My Father's Estimated Maternal and Paternal Haplogroups from 23andMe

My father's maternal and paternal haplogroups, according to 23andme.  They seem to be right in line with what I know of his maternal and paternal lines.

The maternal haplogroup is H1, the earliest known ancestor on Dad's maternal line being Ragnhild Olsdotter b 1726 in Sauda, Rogaland, Norway.

According to Wikipedia, this maternal haplogroup is found in approximately 41% of native Europeans, and for subclade H1:

Projected spatial frequency distribution of haplogroup H1
H1 encompasses an important fraction of Western European mtDNA lineages, reaching its local peak among contemporary Basques (27.8%). It also occurs at high frequencies elsewhere in the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the Maghreb. The haplogroup frequency is above 10% in many other parts of Europe (France, Sardinia, parts of the British Isles, Alps, large portions of Eastern Europe), and above 5% in nearly all the continent.[1] Its subclade H1b is most common in eastern Europe and NW Siberia.[18]
So far, the highest frequency of H1 has been found among the Tuareg inhabiting the Fezzan region in Libya (61%).[19][20] The basal H1* haplogroup is found among the Tuareg inhabiting the Gossi area in Mali (4.76%).[21]
Ancient Guanche (Bimbapes) individuals excavated in Punta Azul, El Hierro, Canary Islands were all found to belong to the H1 maternal subclade. These locally born individuals were dated to the 10th century and carried the H1-16260 haplotype, which is exclusive to the Canary Islands and Algeria.[22]

The paternal haplogroup is R-L48, the earliest known ancestor on this line being Solomon Hartley b 1775 in "Pittsborough", Pennsylvania (of possible Dutch, German, or Polish ancestry).

According to a discussion on the FTDNA message board, R-L48 is largely from the Netherlands area, and also Poland, which is exactly where I'm hovering at concerning Solomon Hartley's general ethnicity anyway!



Family Tree DNA assigns my father the paternal haplogroup R-M269 instead of R-L48.  I'm not sure why the difference?  Haplogroup R-M269 is the most common European Y- chromosomal lineage, according to FTDNA.

I think this is a changing landscape, so these designations can possibly change somewhat as time goes on.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Dad Got His First Exact Y-DNA Match on 37 Markers

This TiP report is FamilyTreeDNA's time to the most recent common ancestor predictor tool. Solomon Hartley, my father's 3rd great grandfather, is our earliest known Hartley ancestor. 

And the last name is...Hogan, generally thought of as an Irish surname?

The tester didn't leave any other details as to ancestry or earliest known male ancestor, so I don't know if this represents a Hogan line or if the man was adopted?  So far this doesn't answer any questions as to my dad's Y-DNA.

What I do know is that my father was born a Hartley, his earliest known Hartley was Solomon Hartley (1775-1815), and that his haplogroup is R-M269.  I'm starting to suspect that Solomon Hartley's last name may have originally been something else.


© 2017 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

My Dad's Y-DNA Results Came Back: Haplogroup R-M269

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see my father's Y-DNA results had come in (it was predicted to come in late April/May).

So, assuming that Dad is the directly descendant of Solomon Joseph Hartley, then this is Solomon's haplogroup.  Since his origins are obscure at best, any info is good info.

Maybe I'll get his mtDNA done at some point.

According to the Family Tree DNA website:

Predicted haplogroup, I should say.  It appears I can order another test to refine further (sheesh, it's only money, people!).

I had anticipated that Dad would be either R or I haplogroup, based on his GEDmatch and FTDNA Family Finder matches who had filled in that information.

FTDNA's Y-DNA - SNP Map for haplogroup R-M269

So, now the matches so far.




He had no exact matches (at 37 markers).  Darn.





He had three matches at 25 markers (genetic distance 2):

English-type names.  Interesting.

He had 24 matches at 12 markers (genetic distance 0 - 1):

No real pattern, except that they are European.  I've blanked out the names of the testers.  Some of these seem to be from men who don't know the last name of their paternal line (or they aren't sharing).

© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

Solomon Joseph Hartley's Y-DNA: What Will It Reveal?

I'm waiting!

Last month I had my dad do the Family Tree DNA Y-DNA test (to 37 markers).  I have since received notice from the company that they had received the kit and were processing the results.

The results are expected sometime between 04/27/2016 - 05/11/2016.  It is sooo hard to wait.

I've looked high and low online, but it doesn't appear that any men with the Hartley last name who are direct descendants of Solomon Joseph Hartley (1775-1815) have made their Y-DNA results public, or even if any have done it at all.  When I went through my tree I quickly realized that there really aren't too many of those Hartley's left.  The line has daughtered out to a large degree.

My Hartley line.  Since no one else appears to have tested to discover Solomon's Y-DNA yet I will have no way of knowing if there are any non-paternal events, but I'm pretty confident this line is correct.

After watching a few Family Tree DNA videos on Y-DNA results ("Family Tree DNA Results Explained: Y-DNA Markers, Matching and Genealogy" and especially "Help, My Y-DNA Matches Have a Different Surname!") I think I will have one of the three following types of results:

1.  Most of the men my dad will match to will also have the last name Hartley.

I'm not expecting this, due to discovering that Solomon was either from Germany or Poland (according his two sons' 1880 census), and Hartley to a very large extent appears to be English or British Isles.  I suspect Solomon is Dutch, German, or Polish, and would therefore have a name reflecting that.  I think this would be the most convenient result, however, as that means I could continue researching the Hartley name.  I have signed up to the Hartley Y-DNA Project already, and will be able to see how Dad's results measure up to the others.

2.  Most of the men my dad will match to will all have a similar name to each other, but not Hartley.

I think this would point to an adoption or non-paternal event, or maybe he just adopted a new name in the US.  This kind of result would be very convenient, as then I'd know what new name to pursue.  Although this would be the most desirable result (from my research perspective), I think it is the least likely. This is because I think he may come from an ancestry that either follows Scandinavian patronymic patterns, or may even be of Jewish origin, and they didn't adopt surnames until quite recently.  Which leads me to what I think I am most likely to find when the results finally come up....

3.  The other testers will have a large variety of names with no common last names, but maybe they will tend to have an origin in a similar region in Europe (I'm assuming Dad has a European Y-DNA), like maybe all in the eastern Europe, or largely in the Netherlands, etc.

I think this is the most likely result.  Maybe I'm just being cynical, but since everything else about Solomon's ancestry has been such a battle to discover, I think it is pollyannish to think I'll get a straightforward result with the Y-DNA.

For fun, here are some successful Y-DNA stories at Family Tree DNA.




© 2016 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

X-Chromosome Matches at Family Tree DNA (webinar)

From Blaine Bettinger's The Genetic Genealogist (great blog BTW)

I'm still confused by X-chromosome matches.  I feel that I should be using that information but I have yet to figure out how.  It is more complicated that the Y-DNA results.  Women really are more complicated than men!

Here is a 3-part webinar by Elise Friedman with some explanation (this is for those with accounts at FamilyTreeDNA):

© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.

What's the Same, What is Different? My Dad's DNA Ethnicity Estimates

AncestryDNA

FTDNA

Eurogenes K13

Eurogenes EUtest V2 K15

Eurogenes K9

Eurogenes JTest

Dodecad World9

Dodecad V3

Dad is northern European, mostly Scandinavian and British Isles.

FTDNA estimates about 6% Ashkenazi Jewish, a result I don't think I'm seeing in the other ethnicity estimates.  FTDNA centers that population in Poland.  The only known Polish ancestor I have is Solomon Joseph Hartley, who I thought was probably of Dutch Mennonite extraction, but who knows, maybe he was also Jewish?  Solomon Joseph is not unheard of in English/Anglo naming, but it seems much more prevalent in Jewish names.  Just something to think about.  I've discussed Solomon in the past here, here, and here.

All the tests that include Native American as a possible group have my dad with some small (~1%) amount.  The most overt NA I've seen is in his World9 Oracle:

East Greenland?  But why?  We have neither story or paper trail evidence of this.  I seem to be in the same confusion boat as the decidedly Dutch genealogist and blogger Yvette Hoitink, as she wrote in her post "My Native American DNA. Say what?"  Or as The Legal Genealogist blogger Judy Russell's say: "Admixture: not soup yet."


I used Evernote for the screenshots.


© 2015 Copyright, Christine Manczuk, All Rights Reserved.