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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 the Y chromosome found in men. STR testing has been around for about 20 years. It is great for grouping families together but is not very useful for determining genetic distance between testers. STRs are short strings of genetic letters that repeat in the same region of the chromosome a number of times. They certainly have their place, particularly in allowing for an inexpensive, quick, and dirty way to group testers. But they live in unstable regions of the Y and are vulnerable to regular mutation. Worse, the count can go either up or down making its history very difficult to pin down. And enough markers can change in an STR panel that their usefulness often doesn't exceed fifteen generations. Generally, DNA trees based on STRs are simply not reliable. But let's look at one that happens to have some benefit to the Crow Project.

DYS437 is considered to be a slow moving mutating marker, This STR panel is believed to only  mutate every several thousand years. (David Vance p91). In this case making STR testing useful.  In the Crow Project I have grouped several testers into Subgroup N. Each of these testers have a value of 18 on STR panel DYS437. Whereas every other Crow in the Gold group has a value of 16. It comes to no surprise that many of these testers in Group N have genealogies traced back to Habersham, County, GA. All the members in Group N are more closely related to each other than the rest of the testers. Based on all the SNPs, comparing the genealogies of the testers, and using this STR panel, it is reasonable  to conclude this group has a common ancestor between 1720-1745. This unidentified ancestor or his son  moved from Spartanburgh, SC to Habersham County, Ga sometime in the mid 18th century, and left his unique genetic marker there. 


DYS437 panel with value of 18 as seen on far right in subgroup N


SNP testing has revealed recent genetic branching in our modern family tree. Each SNP mutation that occurs is thought to happen every 83 years on average. (Dr. Ian McDonald, White Paper)   All identified Gold Crows are carriers of F22033. This mutation is thought to have originated in our male ancestor sometime around the year 1700. We have since found 12 branches under F22033. This has helped us recreate our family tree using genetic markers. But as I  have mentioned, our chromosome is slow mutating in some branches, so it's been difficult to see branching be defined as we would like. Having said that, I can tell you exactly which three men in the 18th century that you do not  descend from.

If you have tested positive and assigned haplogroups FT293347, ZS1042, BY185655, FT233548, FTA51 and FT293300, then you absolutely cannot descend from;

Samuel Crow B1770s who married Susannah (BY106428)

Randolph Crow b1770s who married Barbara Stone (FT379738)

John Crow b1760s who married Eliza Clark (FT225611)

More BigY700 purchases and upgrades will be invaluable to us moving forward. I could further eliminate 18th century candidates from your tree, or maybe even add an ancestor to your tree if you tested into one of these identified groups.  

If you are already tested, and wondering how you can help more, feel free to email me

Michael C. Crow

mikec1120@comcast.net

Crow Project Administrator 


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