Skip to main content

Building a family subclade using Y DNA, and why you should test

 Using top level Y DNA testing on Crow/Crowe descendants, we are able to follow genetic variations along the male Y Chromosome, otherwise known as "SNP''s. (single nucleotide polymorphisms) These SNP's happen at random among men. This top level test allows us to recreate the modern family tree. My fascination with using Y DNA is partly because the paper genealogy is near minimal for any branch of the family prior to 1800. The other reason is the amount of incorrect information attached to thousands of trees on all the genealogical sites. It is just too easy to assume that James is the father of John, when hundreds of trees say so. This is where we apply Y DNA, by finding out exactly which Crows are related to who. For instance, in early Spartanburgh, there are three unrelated Crow families living side by side. The Gold, Red and Teal families identified by color in our Y DNA Project. Some of these families could have been the result of adoption or some other event that happened in this town. Without Y DNA testing, any person could have made the assumption that the families were related. Which some did and still do. We have identified at least 24 unrelated Crow families worldwide. The power of the test speaks for itself, as its an enormous help to the average family researcher interested in historical truth on their Crow line 

When we first started using the top level dna test, the BigY700 on FTDNA, we discovered the SNP that every Gold colored Crow carries, I-F22033. This was a branch off the common Haplogroup I-M253. Which was formed thousands of years ago in our male ancestor. We can estimate that every Gold Crow in America share a common ancestor from between 1400-1600. It is possible this could even be a little later into the 1700's. We will discover more as more  further distant cousins take this test, as it will continue to refine the date. Another discovery was the connection to the Bender/Penner family that were from the Switzerland/Germany area prior to arrival in America. In the example below, captured from the Haplotree, or the tree of mankind, you can see SNP FTA48 is the sibling group to our F22033. FTA48 is assigned to the Bender family, so this tells us our family came from that area of Europe as well several hundred years ago. BY50388 is the parent group to our Crows and to the Bender family. Formed 1-2k thousand years ago potentially. (It should be noted that the Red group, are connected to a German family, the Steineckers/Stalneckers. This supports the idea that these families in early Spartanburg, were from the same ethnic background, and all migrated together in a community)


Of the 110 Gold Crow men tested in our Project, we will be nearing 40 completed BigY700 kits from them. This is a staggering number for a one name study. Which has helped create 10 SNPs under I-F22033. So now we are building genetic subclades under our ancestor who lived between 1400-1600. We are nearing the point in the Project, that if any Crow descendant takes the BigY, they will be assigned into a sublade or branch, which could tell them which 18th century man they descend from. Essentially rebuilding the family tree using genetic mutations. We have many subgroups under the Gold family. Using the top level test it became clear that many early Crow men were not descendants from other men. One of these men was John Crow b1760s who married Elizabeth Clark. They are my 4th great grandparents, who are the progenitors of hundreds of thousands of Crow descendants in this country. We discovered that a genetic variation was created in John himself when he was born. I-FT225611. This was determined by looking at and testing specific Crow lines who all had different ancestors in the 1700's. This theory was put to the test recently with the testing of a man who descends from John's son, Stephen. This man tested positive for FT225611, confirming the paper trail and with genetic variations. (See kit#943098 below) 


I have mentioned before, Abraham Crowe (see above)  was genetically determined to be the grandson of John and Eliza. Because of a recent test result this group will create a new variation under the FT225611. So this haplogroup assignment will change in the coming days. The descendants of Abraham, will now have their own genetic signature, created much more recent in their tree. And this will be their terminal or end haplogroup, until future descendants of the test takers take the BigY. 

This family study lays out a strong case for any Crow to take a YDNA test. There is just too much bad information on our families and not enough good coming from the paper trail. Our early 18th century family were likely a large extended family. YDNA is sorting all this out and proving if people connect and how closely. A BigY700 DNA test should be in your family research tool box. Test, then leave the interpretation of the data up to Phil and I. The Project's administrators. 

If you would like to contribute to help further the Project, you could always donate to the general fund on the homepage. We are always on the hunt for new lines to test and to help others get their current kits upgraded to the BigY

https://www.familytreedna.com/my/dashboardv2


Michael C. Crow 

Gold kit# B269069

mikec1120@comcast.net 





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Background on the Gold Crows. Origins, Objectives and DNA Evidence

The Crow surname project on FTDNA has been around  for about 20 years. With 600+ members,  that puts the project into the top 100 of the 50,000 surname projects on FTDNA. There are 20 unique Crow lines identified that are unrelated in the surname era. The largest identified group is the Gold colored group. There are 106 testers. Of whom 10  have tested all the way to to the BigY700. This test reads STR and SNP markers along the y-chromosome. 60 men have tested at 37 STR markers and above , while the rest sit at 12 and 25 STR markers. All the BigY testers tested positive for the SNP, I-F22033. This SNP was formed approximately around the year 426AD/CE. The only testers in FTDNA that have this SNP are Gold Colored Crows.  Of the 106 testers, only 3 have a surname other than Crow. These 3 men had an NPE (non paternal event) occur somewhere in their lines and are all likely related to the others within the last 250-500 years. We can decipher genetic distance between testers by using the TI

Gold Crow SNP Path

 To date, there are 58 Crow testers that fall under haplogroup I-F22033. FTDNA estimates this man was born around 1750, but we know based on the paper trail for all the Crows the more likely birth of this man was before 1720CE. It's possible this man was born in Europe or was the son of our immigrant ancestor.  https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/I-F22033/story There were several Crow men living in Spartanburg, SC in the mid to late 1700s. The paper trail is near impossible to determine how each are connected. The goal was to Y-DNA test direct male descendants of each man to try to find genetic mutations called SNPs to build a genetic family tree. Some testers would confirm to be a Gold Crow and test I-F22033+, but their lines would not show any more elaborate genetic branching we would hope for to decipher relationships between individuals. We know that  most of these individuals were closely related, but I  cannot say what the relationship was exactly. The good news is that

Update on Gold Y Testing

We recently hit a giant milestone in our Y-DNA Project. We have 40 completed BigY700 DNA kits out of 110 testers. That is nearing 40 percent of all testers!  The BigY reads 40 million areas of the Y chromosome and is the best DNA kit to determine genetic distance between family members. The 40 kits have resulted in several families being branched off from one another in the last 270 years. Our extensive testing has revealed that our Y chromosome is mutating slower than the average family, resulting in less defined family branches. This has been frustrating as the genetic family tree has not given some of us the answers we were looking for. This has been furthered aggravated by a paper trail that does not exist between 1700-1750, the crucial years we are looking to piece back together. But we have made many discoveries and the effort has been rewarding. There are two kinds of Y tests. STR (short tandem repeats) and SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) are genetic mutations found along