Mega tsunami with 65ft waves may have wiped out Stone Age populations in Britain | The Independent
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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/mega-tsunami-stone-age-britain-b2483031.html Dan D.
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Modern humans were already in northern Europe 45,000 years ago
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Modern humans were already in northern Europe 45,000 years ago (and shortly after that in the British Isles) DNA from bones found in a cave in Germany has been identified as from Homo sapiens, showing that our species endured frigid conditions there as they expanded across the continent. Dan D.
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Scientists Are Racing to Unearth the Secrets of an Ancient Underwater World
Scientists Are Racing to Unearth the Secrets of an Ancient Underwater World Historians and divers are trying to retrieve prehistoric clues from beneath the waves¡ªbut they have to act fast. Read in Popular Mechanics: https://apple.news/A9ze1DU-bTFevOvpHt-xg3w Shared from Apple News Dan
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Name associated with a haplogroup
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Hello everyone, I ordered my Big-Y about 9 weeks ago. I was supposed to get the first results (111) about now, but something went wrong in the lab. So, they needed to re-test the sample which takes a few more weeks. Ok, I can deal with that, it happens. I originally took the Nebula Genomics DNA test prior to the FTDNA test. I got the Y-DNA haplogroup of R-A17384, which is how I became associated with the U106 group. So, I did a search on the FTDNA site to see if it came up with any info. First off it changed the R-A17384 to R-BY79404, which is fine. It says: The man who is the most recent common ancestor of this line is estimated to have been born around 1550 CE. He is the most recent paternal line ancestor of all members of this group. There are 3 DNA tested descendants, and they specified that their earliest known origins are from: Germany and 2 from unknown countries. I then called the Big-Y customer service thinking I could get a name of either the man in 1550 or one of the 3 tested with my haplogroup. Nope! No can do. Must wait for the results. Bummer. He did say I could search the haplogroup for a name but didn't say how to go about it. Any ideas? I've had this brick wall for over 20 years, searching for my 3rd GG parents on my father's side. Below is the page I was referring to. https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/R-BY79404/story Thank you, Mike
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06865-0
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Wondering if anyone has tried to look more closely at the 6 R-P310 in Neolithic Denmark in this study? I don't if they Have Bam files. Would be interesting to know what their downstream haplogroups were,if any.
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BBC NEWS: Scientists crack mystery of how MS gene spread
Scientists crack mystery of how MS gene spread The DNA of ancient cattle herders has revealed how diseases evolved in Europe over thousands of years. Read in BBC News: https://apple.news/ATpfZCi3zSLuPeWxgukagYg Dan D.
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TRYON surname group at FTDNA advice/coordination with U106
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#BigY
I'm new to this group (just got BigY results and I'm U106) and wondering about possible mutual benefits between the Tryon surname group and the U106 group (I could be naive - I'm learning). I'm co-administrator of the FTDNA Tryon surname group which is Y-DNA focused. We have 12 Tryon members who have done at least Y-37 testing and all have 3 or less mismatches with the modal values. 7 of us can document our origins back to three sons of William Tryon (1646-1711) who immigrated from England about 1665 and settled in Wethersfield, CT. 4 of us have brick walls in the mid to late 1700s but have significant circumstantial evidence leading us to believe we're also descendants of William of Wethersfield. The last member is a descendant of Benjamin Tryon who is believed to have been a separate immigration event in 1696 but of a close relative of William. His Y37 result is the same as the modal values for the group except DSY438, one of the slowest changing markers. I know of another non-member who has this same ancestor and the same mutation of DSY438. We have not been able to bridge the gap to records of the family in England. Another member of the group is a documented descendant of the only other known group of Tryons who themselves were immigrants to England in the 1500s from Flanders. He is not related to the rest of us within at least 25 generations. Research seems to indicate there were a group of Tryons in the Glocestershire area in the 16th century from whom essentially all American Tryons descended, with the vast majority of them being direct descendants of William of Wethersfield. At this point, I am the only member who has done BigY. I doubt I can convince most of them to do BigY (I'm not sure we're all still living at this point) but I'm sure I can get a few, especially if I pay for it. My question is, is it worth it? With this small but well documented group, would this better refine timing of variants? Would this potentially help resolve the 4 brick walls? Would a study like this help with others in the U106 group? Thanks Mike Tryon https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Tryon-2537
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Ancient Connection additions
New Ancient Connections have been added to FTdna's Discover tab. For my father's line it is at R-Y7378: Vor Frue Kirkeg?rd 454 1536 - 1806 CE Shared Ancestor 1050 BCE You and Vor Frue Kirkeg?rd 454 share a common paternal line ancestor who lived around this time.
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Family Finder tests entering the Y-DNA haplotree
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Hi folks, A quick note to say that overnight the first batch of Y-DNA haplogroups from Family Finder tests has entered the haplotree. Nearly 12,000 tests have been added to the haplotree in the last four weeks, the vast majority of which have appeared since yesterday and are therefore presumably these new tests. These are early stages, and we don't yet have the answers to a lot of questions. For example, we don't yet have a good idea of which haplogroups are included in this analysis. That will become clearer as we go through the results, as they are released. Charles is in the process of regrouping the tests with new results, and has told me it includes Z30 and Z326. Hopefully we will find out more soon. Cheers, Iain.
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Family Finder tests entering the tree/ not all are the same level
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Charles and all, Yesterday Charles mentioned his one example of z156 family finder results. The tester being S5520+ and FGc11662-. This is my particular SNP path. This morning my father (B573209) just had his family finder SNP results post (He is in the R-U106 project). Despite the B prefix on the kit, this is a family finder test that was completed in the last few years. His assigned haplogroup is now R-P310. He is confirmed through Nebula testing to mirror my results which are: S5520>FGC11662>FGC11672>FGC11674>FGC11685> FGC11677. I only mention all of this to demonstrate these results may not have consistent depth provided. -Robert McMillan
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Match on block tree but not listed as Big Y Match
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Hi! I have a question, please. Why is there one match in the same block on the Big Y Block Tree, but that match is not listed under Big Y Matches - Big Y Matches says "Currently no matches"? Both kits were processed years ago, so that's not the issue. Both kits did the Big Y-700 test and under the Y-match list it says the Big Y STR Differences are 5 of 605 but the match does not show up under the Big Y Matches. Thank you! Mary
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Two-factor authentication and match list/chromosome browser downloads
FTDNA have also advised group administrators of the following. On the website, we have temporarily blocked users from having the ability to download files that include matches and/or Chromosome Browser data and added the note, "The option to download your matches list and segment data is currently unavailable as we work on enhancements. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience.¡± The pages and downloads include the following: Family Finder Matches - Export CSV Chromosome Browser - Download All Segments Chromosome Browser - Download Segments (Chromosome View and Detailed Segments) mtDNA Matches - Download: CSV Y-DNA Matches - Export CSV Big Y Results - Export Matches CSV Advanced Matches - Download: CSV These downloads will remain blocked until two-factor authentication is rolled out early next year. Debbie Kennett
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Ancient connections
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Can someone explain to me what "1 in 605" means? Rare Connection 1 in 605 Only 424 customers are this closely related to Altheim 1. Thanks
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Big Y Lifetime Analysis: The Myth of the Manual Review
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A useful and informative new blog post from FamilyTreeDNA explaining how they analyse BigY results: https://blog.familytreedna.com/big-y-manual-review-lifetime-analysis/ Debbie Kennett
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FTDNA Administrators Conference 2023
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The FTDNA Admin Conferences were usually every year before the pandemic, but after 4 ? years, it was great to see old friends, now older, of course! There is a lot that is new in terms of both people and lab equipment, including robotics. It¡¯s interesting that robots are analyzing human DNA, but who is analyzing the robots¡¯ DNA? Despite the long time gap between conferences, there weren¡¯t any dramatic announcements of new tests, as sometimes would happen during the pioneering years of the previous two decades. I wrote down a few notes, but other U106 attendees should feel free to add or correct anything I¡¯m reporting here. My notes are in the order of the presentations. They are planning to increase collaboration or merging of the Customer Service and Group Projects (ie ¡°Groups¡±) support groups. From my standpoint as an Admin, this sounds a little ominous, since the Groups support has been very helpful to me over the years. But trying to send a consistent message to admins and customers is a good idea. With respect to Ancient Connections in Discover, they now have 6,100 of about 7,500 male ancient extractions in their system. 268 Big Y customers¡¯ closest match in the system is actually one of the ancient remains samples. Our own Dr Iain McDonald¡¯s name was cited in multiple presentations, and always very favorably. We all know what a tremendous asset he is to U106, and as we also know, he was very involved in helping the Discover team get the ball rolling on the age analysis of the haplogroups. For admins, there is (already I think) a place to in effect put up a Help Wanted sign on the Project Banner. Undoubtedly the worst news from the weekend, perhaps at least partly due to the recent 23andMe incident, is that a ¡°forced password reset¡± is coming soon. They will send out warnings, and the Admins access to the Admin system known as GAP, will go first. But all accounts will be forced to reset the passwords. If you manage accounts of other sample donors, living or deceased, and your own email address isn¡¯t on the account, you¡¯re going to most likely be out-of-luck ever being able to access it again. I don¡¯t understand the details, and other attendees or other computer geeks might be able to help with the discussion, and this pending nightmare should probably have its own thread here. But my simple thought is that you should try to make sure ASAP that your own current email address is on every account that you manage, because they are going to email the password reset instructions to the email address on the account, and nobody else will be allowed to reset it. You should also make sure your accounts have Beneficiary designations. They mentioned two-factor authentication as a distinct possibility in what they¡¯re planning. Another idea is that since the Fall Sale is on now, you might want to go ahead and order new tests for some of the kits you manage before the chaos begins. Some good news is that Family Finder and Transfers will be given whatever Y-DNA or mtDNA designations can be obtained from these tests, similar to what you get from Ancestry or 23andMe. It wasn¡¯t clear to me where this will be displayed? Maybe other attendees understood better, but it sounded like it would go where the current red or green haplogroup labels on the Y-haplotypes are now, EXCEPT OBVIOUSLY it won¡¯t over-write an actual Y-SNP test result, unless it¡¯s downstream from such a Y test. They have an idea to add yet another feature to Discover, along with Ancient and Notable Connections, which would be Connections to results from Academic/Scientific Studies. They are working hard to get a Mitotree up and running for mtDNA, which would be built from scratch from their mtDNA database and which will create new branches and update mtDNA haplogroup designations. Beyond that, they will also have an mtDNA Discover tool. I think people will take this next item as partly good and partly bad, but here goes. They are going to replace their traditional genealogical family tree feature with the much better one from MyHeritage. I think I understood there will be some free and hopefully not too difficult way to get your current tree into the MyHeritage system before they toss the current system overboard (for the second time). They have some Wish List ideas, including moving to whatever future T2T Reference system replaces the current ¡°Build 38¡± reference, an mtDNA Block Tree, and WGS tests if they can get the cost down. It was fun at the lab today watching the test kit vials being filled by robots instead of lab techs who can do ¡°more important things that robots can¡¯t¡±, and presumably less boring or monotonous. There are now over 100,000 Big Y tests in the system. With respect to the new owner from Down Under having a positive influence on getting more Aussies tested, they said actually Australia is one of the better tested countries. They don¡¯t currently have plans to arrange Y-DNA Transfers for a fee from other Y labs, but it didn¡¯t sound like they were opposed to it (a non-answer answer). Long-Read testing is still too expensive. There were a number of long, entertaining presentations such as a racially-mixed (and mixed-up) adoption situation, whereas the news items I¡¯ve mentioned here were spit out too fast for me to do a decent job with my notes. I probably can¡¯t answer your questions. Fortunately, there were multiple other U106ers there, so I hope they won¡¯t be shy about adding, correcting, and discussing these items with y¡¯all. Charles
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Big Y-700 Now just $119 a SAVING of $90 on top of the usual half price Big Y-700
Hello All FTDNA are now offering an extraordinary discount on Big Y-700 tests for those with Big Y-500 results. Now just $119 a SAVING of $90 on top of the usual half price Big Y-700 Remember it is not an upgrade; but a totally new test, which on average discovers 50% more SNPs than the original Big Y test. This is a major reason we are seeing so many new branches; and branch splits. BLACK FRIDAY SALE NOVEMBER 20th to NOVEMBER 30th Big Y-700 $449.00 less $70 discount while on sale = $379 from scratch Big Y-700 (new test) including upgrades to Y111 markers less another $80 = $319 for men with Y37 results less another $140 = $259 for men with Y67 results less another $170 = $229 for men with Y111 results less a huge $280 discount = $119 for men with Big Y-500 results Kind regards John
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Understanding Big Y Matches outside my Haplogroup
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When I took the Y-37 test in 2016 I had no matches at 37 STR or above. Upgraded to 111 markers, no joy. In 2019 a remote cousin appeared at 111 (6 steps) so we took the Big Y 700 test. We match on that test with 6 non-matching variants. The test established our Haplogroup R-FT201177, a little German enclave, in mostly British R-Y8604 under R-S5245. My guess is that there are at least a 10 Big Y tests in R-Y8604 but I don't match any of them. However, I do match 3 guys in other subclades under R-S5245. Why them? Did they take the original Big Y and so have fewer non matching variants to count for the map algorithm? R-U106 > R-Z2265 > R-BY30097 > R-FTT8 > R-Z381 > R-Z301 > R-L48 > R-Z9 > R-Z30 > R-Z27 > R-Z345 > R-Z2 > RZ7 > R-Z31 > R-Z8 > R-Z1 > R-Z346 > R-DF101 > R-S1726 > R-DF102 > R-FGC12975 > R-S5245 > R-Y8604 > R-FT201177 Mark
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Testing statistics and country-level bias update
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Hi folks, About November time I like to go through the haplotree, looking to see how much different branches and different countries have grown over the previous year. This helps us understand both what the country-level and haplogroup-level biases are, how they change over time, and where we might need to focus our efforts to help get the right people tested. The other reason for analysing these statistics is that it feeds back into the question of origins: where are people of particular haplogroups more or less likely to come from, hence where are specific haplogroups more likely to originate? But that's a question that's going to take me more time to answer than I have right now! Instead, see earlier messages like #5759 </g/R1b-U106/message/5759> . Thanks particularly to Ewenn who, late last year, gave me some code to speed up this process hugely. Here, I'll be comparing two time periods: Nov 2022 - Nov 2023, and Nov 2019 to Nov 2023. In general, this year continues the trend of previous years. The British Isles bias continues to get slightly worse, but this is more than counterbalanced by the extra information that new testers are bringing in. Globally, the size of the FTDNA haplotree has increased by 6.6% in the last year, which is a slower rate than the average of the last four years (8.5%). The haplotree contains information from a variety of sources, so we can't infer information about how fast FTDNA's customer base is increasing from this information. This increase has been disproportionately from people who cannot trace their origins back to Europe. The size of the European testing population has grown by only 6.1%. The British Isles bias now stands as follows: testers from the British Isles now make up 45% of European testers in the database, despite the British Isles making up only 8.6% of the comparative modern population, so we over-sample the British Isles by a factor of about 5.2 compared to the rest of Europe. It should be noted, however, that modern populations are not always indicative of historical populations. If we instead use population estimates from 1800, where the typical person's earliest-known ancestor lived, we find a British Isles bias of 5.9 instead. Some specific country or region-level modern/historical biases are: England 2.3/1.6 Scotland 0.39/0.57 Wales 1.59/1.41 N.I. 0.71/1.6 Ireland 0.25/0.84 France 11.7/24.0 Germany 5.5/6.4 Netherlands 8.3/4.9 Poland 6.8/6.0 Czechia 6.5/11.5 Austria 9.5/14.1 Denmark 4.8/3.5 Scandinavia+Finland 1.45/1.16 European former USSR 15.0/16.1 Balkans+Turkey 20.9/13.9 Meditteranean 10.8/12.9 The further down we go in the tree, the faster the increase in testing becomes. This is because we get rid of the customers and studies that have only undertaken limited testing, and are increasingly left with only BigY testers. This is therefore a better estimator of the speed at which branches relevant to us are increasing. The R-U106 testing population has increased by about 11.5% globally, by 10.9% in people with known European ancestry, and by 10.1% in the British Isles. These are very similar rates to those over the last four years, so the growth is fairly constant. These rates are faster than the growth in R-P312 (7.9% globally), but this may reflect the historical depth of testing rather than any inherent behaviour in R-U106! R-U106 testers make up 8.55% the haplotree at FTDNA. We've seen above-average increases in Northern Ireland and among the former Eastern Bloc countries, particularly the Czech Republic, but also Poland. We've seen below-average increases in Scotland, Belgium, Norway, Finland and Russia - the latter largely because FTDNA now offer sub-populations within Russia rather than because of geopolitics. We can step down further to R-Z2265, which represents almost the whole of R-U106, but ignores the ~1240 testers that have only tested as far as R-U106 with single SNP or SNP-pack testers, i.e. mostly BigY testers. There are 19692 Z2265+ entries globally (an increase of 13.2%) and 8306 in Europe (an increase of 12.1%). This rate is slightly above the average for the last four years (12.4%/11.3%). Given the increase in database size, that shows that the rate of BigY testing is still proportionally increasing. At this rate, the database size doubles about every six years meaning that an average tester will have to wait about six years to receive a match closer to them and a new haplogroup designation (obviously not true for people who have purposefully tested close relatives). Different haplogroups have grown faster than others. The reasons behind this haven't always been clear! For example, testing in R-Z18 and particularly R-L257 have been growing much faster this year (13.1%, 14.2%) than their average in the previous four years (10.2%, 9.6%). Testing in R-Z156 and particularly R-DF96 have slowed (from 13.9% to 10.8% and 12.6% to 10.3%). R-DF98 continues to out-perform other haplogroups in terms of deep testing (22.0% to 17.4%). R-L47 is below average (9.4% to 10.1%) but R-Z9 have increased testing (13.9% to 16.2%). R-FGC910 in particular has increased in size by a sizeable 20.7% on the year, and R-Z343 by 15.8%. Hopefully many of you will have seen these increases among your matches. Cheers, Iain.
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The Importance of Colmar 239
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Analysis of the DNA of ancient remains of a man believed to have been associated with the La Tene culture in Haut-Rhin, France, and known only as Colmar 239, reveal that he was descended from the common ancestor of haplogroup R-A10645. Furthermore, according to the Discover Haplogroups Report, only 42 FTDNA testers currently share that common ancestor of A10645 with Colmar 239. Understandably, this is a very small group of testers affected in comparison to many branches under Z156. However, given that the La Tene culture is thought to have been culturally Celtic, and given that these remains were found in what was then Gaul, has there been any discussion as to what this may tell us of the location of A10645? It certainly seems to counter any idea that the common ancestor of A10645 was in Britain in 1650 BCE. Ed
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