Sunday, August 18, 2013

British Monarchy / HAM Y-DNA Comparison Study



British Monarchy / HAM Y-DNA Comparison Study



August, 2013



  
In August, 2013 Bradley T. Larkin released his study of the “Y-DNA of the British Monarchy.” The first such study of its kind, the review attempted to identify the Y-DNA of some major branches of the British Monarchy. The main lines with Y-DNA allele values given were Mountbatten, Stuart, and Windsor. The data was composed of roughly 24 Y-DNA allele (repeat) values, and described as R1b with terminal SNP’s appearing to match either U106 or L21.
  

Whereas 24 Y-DNA marker values are notoriously insufficient for an accurate comparison analysis, it may nevertheless be interesting to see who matches within the HAM DNA Project.
  

One final cautionary note regarding possible errors could be attributed to some error in sampling assumptions by Mr. Larkin.
  

Examination of the suggested Monarchy haplotypes found that there was a distant match to the largest U106 HAM DNA Group (#2), but detailed examination showed that the closest matches in our project appear to be HAM DNA Groups 3, 6, 8, and 12. However, to compound the problem of accuracy, the matching groups generally only tested to 25 to 37 markers.
  
  


HAM DNA Project / British Monarchy Comparison


 


  
  
It appears that there were not enough markers given for the modals of U106 and L21 to provide much resolution between the two.
  

Given the above phylogenetic graph, it is immediately apparent that the area of interest is the following area:
 




 

Genetic Distance







The closest Genetic Distance overall was from HAM DNA Group #3. 
  


The next illustration shows the closest matches within the HAM DNA Project to the proposed British Monarchy:






The HAM DNA participant with the closest Genetic Distance is found to be kit 43250, but that kit has only tested to 25 markers. The number of markers, as we see later, affects the accuracy of the TMRCA.
  
  
  
TMRCA
  
   
  
HAM British Monarchy TMRCA Table 1

 

Of the closest matching groups in the current HAM DNA Project, it was found that Group #2 had a closest match to Windsor with an estimated TMRCA of 1575 Years before present (+/- 354 years).
  

Group #3 had a closest match to Stuart with an estimated TMRCA of 1150 Years before present (+/- 259 years).
  

Group #6 had a closest match to Stuart with an estimated TMRCA of 950 Years before present (+/- 214 years).
  

Group #8 had a closest match to Windsor with an estimated TMRCA of 1150 Years before present (+/- 259 years).
  

Group #12 had a closest match to Stuart with an estimated TMRCA of 1550 Years before present (+/- 349 years).

 



It would appear that given the information that we have today, kit 82227 matches the most recent connection to the Stuart British Monarchy.
  
The group with the closest Genetic Distance would be Group #3.

 

 

Sources:



Larkin, Bradley T. “Y-DNAof the British Monarchy” August, 2013

HAM DNA Project (Y-DNA results from Family Tree DNA)

Dean McGee’s Y-DNA Comparison Utility

Phylip software, Kitsch package, Fitch-Margoliash method

 







 













Wednesday, July 4, 2012

People of the British Isles - Genetic Maps


People of the British Isles

Genetic Maps

on exhibit this week

A genetic map of the British people has been produced by Oxford University researchers.

It forms the centerpiece of their display at the Royal Society's free Summer Science Exhibition, which opens July 3, 2012. The Event runs all week - Monday to Sunday inclusive, and is an annual Event. There are 19 exhibits.

















 The remarkable thing about the map is how much people sharing similar gene variations cluster geographically.

The groupings often appear to match the separate historical pasts of different areas of Britain, following ancient enmities or reflecting differences that we hold onto today about where in the country we come from.

On the genetic map of Britain, Cornish people clustered separately from those from Devon, while the Scottish and Irish tended to share the same DNA markers. Those in South Wales formed a group, while there were separate clusters in the Welsh borders and in Anglesey in North Wales. People in Orkney were different from everyone else.

In England, the majority of the South, South-East and Midlands formed one large group. Cumbria, Northumberland and the Scottish Borders seemed to share a common past. And Lancashire and Yorkshire, despite their rivalry, seemed to be as one genetically.

'We first set out to map genetic variation across the UK,' says Professor Peter Donnelly, director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and one of the scientists involved in the project. 'Our results show striking patterns of genetic clustering within different geographical regions of the UK. By comparing the different UK clusters with potential source populations from Europe we are able to learn more about the history of the people of the British Isles.'

The 'People of the British Isles' project began in 2004 with funding from the Wellcome Trust.
Oxford University researchers traveled across the British Isles collecting blood samples from more than 4,000 people whose four grandparents all came from the same area.

UK samples (The People of the British Isles), are aimed at providing a resource to the research community,
as well as providing a fine-scale genetic information on the British population.

So far, some 4000 samples have been collected, the majority of which fit the criteria of coming from a rural area and having all four grandparents from approximately the same area. Analysis of the first 3865 samples (that have been coded according to geography) indicates that 75% have a mean distance between grandparent places of birth of 37.3 km, and that about 70% of grandparent places of birth can be classed as rural.

Full article:

Medical Xpress article, July 3, 2012:

"Genetic Map of Britain goes on Display"

    http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-genetic-britain.html
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Royal Society "Science Live 2012" article:

http://sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exhibits/genetic-maps/

Links to high definition Tiff or PDF file from the Royal Society:

British Isles Genetic Maps (PDF)
British Isles Genetic Maps (tiff)
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People of the British Isles web site:

http://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/

papers on the web site:

First paper
Commentary on the paper
Newsletter

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You Tube video:

                        People of the British Isles:  
                         The Landscape of Islay:



People of the British Isles - Sir Walter Bodmer
People of the British Isles - Sir Walter Bodmer


      


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European Journal of Human Genetics (scientific article from Aug 10, 2011)

  http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v20/n2/full/ejhg2011127a.html

by Bruce Winney, et. al.
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Article by Debbie Kennett on the Cruwys Blog:

   http://cruwys.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/people-of-british-isles-project.html
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