Project News
WALK THROUGH THE Y results have started to come in (8/19/09)
There are currently 21 members of the I1 Project participating in the Walk Through the Y. The Walk Through the Y tests a large section of the Y chromosome, looking for new SNPs. Many of the new SNPs will be private; others will be common to all I1. Hopefully, useful SNPs will be found to further separate I1.
Results have just started coming in. (about 8 weeks late) The first has found 2 new SNPs: L186 & L187. The kit 85047 is a I1-ASgen type (with an unusual for I1-AS, DYS511=10).
I1 lacks discovery of major downstream SNPs: Walk through the Y project.
To whomever wishes to help give our I1 haplogroup the potential of robust subclades, for everyone, I ask to please consider the 'Walk through the Y' project. It is hosted by FTDNA like any other test at http://www.familytreedna.com/walk-y-application.aspx.
One must first fill out the application to be accepted. Many applicants will be denied, but having a good selection of I1 individuals and donations toward any in I1 who are selected would be a great boon to the research like there has not been since the beginning of FTDNA for our haplogroup.
This news comes about as I have noticed in this previous month that we have received donations notated as being meant for this FTDNA project, and I have since considered the worth of contributing these funds from our project for just that. However, each individual sample has a cost of $750.00, much more than in our fund pool currently. Donations now may actually mean something at this time, so please, consider how this may be a viable step for our genetic research as never before.
_Samuel Theil
P.S. Donating means that others who become accepted applicants, due to those donations, who yield new SNPs might very well provide new tests for FTDNA made available to the donating parties themselves (for their own non-accepted or not-applied kits) that they could test for at a later date potentially, at a much reduced cost from the WTTY project itself. This means something for you as the donating party, in means of discovering what will become tests you yourself may take. These tests would likely be added to the advanced test SNP panel and to future "deep clade" test amendments.
To donate please click here & select "I" (the letter) in the first drop-down box and then "I1" (letter then numeral) in the second drop-down box, then choose your donation amount.
To clarify to some as to why we are fund-raising for a "test"; it should be considered that this is not meant to be a 'mainstay' test but rather an experiment using an exhaustive lab approach to look deep into the ancestral DNA for new branches of the Y-DNA tree that exist but are not yet found. This is the reason why only candidates who appear promising via their previous FTDNA test results (having distinguishing STR-type markers shared by a good number of others, [i.e.'haplotype'] but distinct from the whole of their own grouping [i.e. 'haplogroup'] for example) will be accepted for the test so applying is not so much asked of the hobbyist but rather asked of those interested in extending the genetic genealogy field in general. The application & test itself is a limited venture and not an indefinite permanent FTDNA test by any means. The limited time here and the scope of what can be found is the incentive for our fund-raising in this regard, for our haplogroup.
I1 project administration team revision
Aaron Hill brought it to the attention of the group a short while ago that he would like to move on from his post as head administrator, though wishing to still remain a part of the panel.
The I1 administration team has always been a cooperative unit, and our decisions have always been very mutual. Who the 'head admin' happens to be should alter very little of the inner workings of the project as long as our current permutation of co-admins, whatever role they choose to take, & advisory staff remain the same.
In Aaron's stead I have offered my service of being the de facto senior admin and I hope to continue the same tradition that has governed the group throughout its history. Others have offered to take the reins of leader as well, and this zeal for the project from the rest of us makes me glad in the feeling that such rouses. It makes me feel that our admin team continues to be very much alive.
Aaron has served and made decisions when need be and his contributions have been greatly valued; we thank him. I hope very much to follow suit and be of the same mold that he has been.
We also thank you, our members for adding your results to the pool and being part of the life of this project thus far. I am happy and enthused we can all do our part in this highly interesting, always unfolding and very historically pertinent, earnest new hobby we have all so recently found.
Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
Very best regards to everyone,
_Samuel Theil
I want to thank everyone on the I1 Project Team and, of course, every member as well. Without the thousands of people who agreed to join us, this work would be impossible. Much smarter men (and women) than I have been instrumental in working towards a better understanding of our common ancestry. Everyone who has ever helped, please know that your work is much appreciated.
We not only share some DNA, but a collective history, made by individuals and groups through the centuries. As we delve more deeply into this unknown frontier, I know exciting things are to come. It may be a bit corny, but I can feel it in my very being.
Isn't it cool to know that you are on the cutting edge? We are the new pioneers. As a member of this project, you are a part of history in the making. And because of this mammoth worldwide effort, not just limited to our little project, human history will be a little more complete.
Thanks for joining up. It has been fun. When I first requested such a group I had no idea what lay ahead. It has far exceeded my expectations. But I have a feeling we are only at the tip of something big.
This really isn't a farewell, so I will end by quoting someone else. He is much more eloquent than I.
“The present is the living sum-total of the whole past.” — Thomas Carlyle
Until next time,
Aaron
Important change in I1 nomenclature
The 2009 ISOGG tree now designates what was I1c as I1d1 (i.e. SNP mutation "P109"). The recently discovered upstream L22 is I1d. Old I1d is new I1c (P259), and now an "I1e" (SNP mutation "S79") has been added to the recognized clades. We have yet to see if the YCC follows suit.
Technical difficulties
On the 2009 new year FamilyTreeDNA unveiled a new layout which had been in the works for some time. In the months preceding, FTDNA had been working behind the scenes to change over many site functions. This included working out any bugs that resulted from the programming of their new site format. Many of these "bugs" & problems began manifesting themselves before the site even changed over to its current 2009 version, and it appears some of these problems have not yet been fully resolved.
The I1 project is still affected in regards to our results page being displayed and loading properly if at all. The project is aware of this problem and have contacted the FTDNA IT department multiple times, as well as having many e-mails which we've received from you forwarded to them.
So we ask you: if you are inconvenienced by this as we are, please contact FTDNA directly; our project staff is unable to remedy this in & of ourselves. An influx of complaints through the main FTDNA customer service routes may be the only way to get this problem noticed as a nuisance to their customers generally and that may be what it takes to get a solution expedited.
FamilyTreeDNA updates naming conventions according to YCC 2008
On May 5th 2008 FamilyTreeDNA changed many of it's Y-haplogroup designations to follow recent publications & discoveries in the field. The I1a haplogroup is now collectively the I1 haplogroup within FTDNA nomenclature. The P38 SNP which formerly defined the old I1 is now considered equivalent to just I. This puts the M253 mutation which defines our project's haplogroup as I1 in the new restructuring of the Phylogenetic Tree.
Along with this important restructuring, FTDNA added two additional SNPs for testing in the I1 haplogroup deep-clade test, as well as an "extended clade" test which includes these two SNPs for those who have already taken the I1 deep-clade test. The SNPs are P109, definitive of new I1c, and P259 which defines the new I1d subclade. The finding of these markers will help bifurcate the I1 clade in new ways as testing commences among M253 positive individuals.
FamilyTreeDNA Opens Multi-lingual Office In Europe, Launches International Website
FamilyTreeDNA has simultaneously opened its first European office and an international version of its website available in multiple languages. Headquartered in Zurich, the new office — operated by iGENEA — will offer customer support and news in Spanish, French, Italian, German and English, while providing local shipping and payment in common European currencies.
"Opening this new office is just the latest company expansion designed to improve services to our customers," FamilyTreeDNA President Bennett Greenspan said. "It solves the problem of our international clientele preferring to pay for our products in their specific country's currency or in euros and being able to write an e-mail or pick up the phone to ask a question in their own language."
Nordtvedt Research Moves To New Domain
Ken Nordtvedt's research and background on the subclade I1a has moved to a new website, http://knordtvedt.home.bresnan.net.
Note that his previous site, www.northwestanalysis.net, is no longer operational.
Company Adds Important I1a Subclade Marker
FTDNA offers DYS 462 in the Y-DNA DNA-FP panel 3. Members can find this on their personal page by clicking on "Order Tests" and then choosing the "Advanced" option.
Researchers of Haplogroup I, particularly the subclade I1a, had been gently nudging FTDNA to include the slow-mutating marker DYS 462 in one of its tests. According to Ken Nordtvedt, the marker is a clear indicator separating the Norse from the Anglo-Saxons. “It is hard to imagine a ‘I1a project’ without DYS 462. It's 12 versus 13 is about the most major indicator of I1a into Norse and ‘the rest’ of I1a,” Ken Nordtvedt wrote in an email. It is not so generally important across all haplogroups, but is within I1a, Nordtvedt said.
Project member Vince Vizachero discussed it with Bennett Greenspan via email. Greenspan said that aliing DYS 462 is "at the top" of his "high priority" list. Vizachero said that it "sounds like good news to me." Please thank FTDNA for adding DYS 462.