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Ordering Single SNPs by Steve St. Clair
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News and notice by Craig Sinclair
Just a reminder to keep using the Y-DNA results to the left to see which lineage, geographic group or haplogroup you belong. Also, there are recommendations to which SNP or SNP Packs you should consider upgrading to in order to further define your group or lineage.
I have also updated the information in the ancestral groups: A1 Herdmanston, now includes reference to their titles: "barony and later Lords Sinclair"; A2 Orkney and Caithness, now includes reference to "Roslin".
2017 brought about the discovery of a new genetic Argyll lineage, specifically from Islay, who at first glance might appear to be R-P311>S21/U106>Z2 but were in fact a subclade of R-L21>L513 and are now defined by the CTS3087 SNP. Which really does show the value of SNP testing. Other lineages like the main Z2 (-Z7) Argyll group, who are now defined by the Y20215 SNP, and our Exeter Hampshire lineage, who are now defined by the FGC10125 SNP, have a made great strides forward through pioneering SNP testers. Others still, who don't belong to the larger lineages, have also had major breakthroughs or simply got closer to uncovering their personal ancestral journeys through upgrading to SNP Packs or the Big Y.
We try to spend equal time on every lineage, geographic group or haplogroup in the Sinclair Study. However, we do still need members to drive things forward and greatly appreciated their efforts when they take a punt on a specific SNP or SNP Pack. Hopefully 2018 will bring about many new discoveries and enthusiastic genetic explorers into the Study. Key objectives include identifying defining SNPs for each lineage within or closer to the middle ages or genealogical timeframe. Some lineages have already reached this key target and gone a long way to uncovering their pre Conquest origins through our Origin Groups: S2O suggests a Frankish Germanic origin. However, there is still much to learn.
Our Affinity Family group was created to examine whether there was a patrilineal relationship between families found in the historical narrative of the medieval St Clairs of England, Scotland and Clan Sinclair. So far no links have been found either within the Study or the wider database. It is all dependent on modern individuals sharing the DNA of their proposed medieval ancestors. Thus far, our Herdmanston lineage - the family were the earliest known St Clair family in Scotland by 100 years in 1160AD - can prove their DNA was St Clair in the latter part of the 15th century; with our Roslin, Orkney and Caithness lineage, their defining SNP dates to the latter part of the 14th century. As you can see from our Y-DNA results the two lineages last share a SNP (P311) which dates to approximately 6,000ybp.
One of the difficult things to establish is what was the probable DNA of the Saint Clairs found in 11th century Normandy and England. Would they have a Northern Germanic DNA or classic Norse? But it's not as simple as that. Many pre Norman families of Northern France and the surrounding region became absorbed into the Norman culture, so this makes pinpointing a definitive DNA type incredibly difficult. I would personally think quite impossible without a-DNA, ancient DNA samples. However, this is where the Affinity Family may have its place if patrilineal relationships were evident within the St Clair narrative. Although it is just as likely to be matrilineal or through other ancestral ties. The Affinity Family Study will be looking for shared SNPs within the genealogical timeframe of the St Clair narrative.
Finally, just a notice to those who have tested out to the Big Y or might be considering it. Once your Big Y results are in and raw data available to download and upload, you can then send it to a number of resources to be analysed and grouped with your closest matches. These include YFull, FGC - both which include a fee - and finally Alex Williamson's Big Tree. The process for the latter has changed and the instructions are at this link below: http://haplogroup-r.org/submit_data.php
The data helps Iain MacDonald (Jb Man) to estimate the ages of SNPs, like below:
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/~mcdonald/genetics/p312/table.html
And to group Big Y matches together:
http://www.ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=1600
News for Our Exeter Lineage…Finally
Any takers, please contact Steve or Craig.
The Importance of Bequeathing Your DNA Kit
2017 Plans for the Sinclair DNA Study
It’s been an incredible couple years, especially with the Big Y test coming out and so many of our family members testing with it.
Our friend Craig Sinclair has completed his work on re-organizing our DNA results page using the latest SNP testing, especially the Big Y results + Yfull analysis. Click here to see the results.
The really big thing about Craig’s work is it shows our participants where the target is… what they should be aiming to do in order to add more data to each of our lineages and to their place within their lineage. The Herdmanston, Caithness, Shetland, and Alexander Sinkler lineages are beginning to show the value of this.
Big Y and Yfull have been used to get to an extreme point of clarity in each lineage.
First, it proves they are who we thought / hoped they were. They are distinct lineages and - with a ton of work on our part - will eventually get back further to connect with their medieval narrative (That’s a phrase you’ll hear more and more during 2017).
Second, it proves the limits of what we now know: None of our lineages can claim to get back before their Yfull predictions: A1. Ancestral St Clairs of Herdmanston TMRCA (time of most recent common ancestor) dating to approximately 500-375ybp, so 1517-1642 A.D.; A2. Ancestral Sinclairs of Orkney and Shetland (and Caithness) R-S5246 SNP dating to the latter part of the 14th century. Although these estimates will be amended should earlier matches test out to the Big Y.
The addition of Rondo’s & Gerry’s book, The Enigmatic Sinclairs, to our resources adds extremely factual evidence to the narrative. There are other resources out there which point to a deeper family narrative before the 14th century. Now it’s the job of our DNA study to find which of our lineages connect with which families within the narrative to prove them more accurate or false. For example, when we found the Herdmanstons connected to the Forresters in an interesting time frame we knew this could prove very useful. The Forresters fit into the narrative of the family. There are many more connections to be made out there, and none of our lineages will be left out of this chapter of the study. Your lineage matters greatly.
Much is yet to be learned.
In fact, I’ll say more is yet to be learned than is yet known.
The 2017 To Do List:
Affinity family testing
If you’ve seen me working over the past 4 years, you know I’ve been obsessing with what I’ve been calling SuperFamilies, otherwise known as Affinity Groups. Rondo, Craig, Gregg and I all feel this is an important step in getting the answers to the older brick walls we all face or will eventually run into. Testing affinity groups will require identification of these groups and testing them using an important “shortcut” method which will be clarified soon.
While we’ll continue to add affinity folks to our Sinclair DNA page, as Craig has got it working nicely, we’ve also decided to launch a few new study pages with FTDNA which will be dedicated to the affinity groups we’re seeing. This way, these other families can feel a part of the study of affinity relationships. This is a relatively new idea in DNA / genealogy testing and will provide a lot more clarity for all who participate.
Revise and revamp the StClairResearch.com website.
I wrote much of the website many years ago based on what we knew at the time, but tons of clarity and new information has been added thanks to SNP testing, Big Y, and new research by Rondo and Gerry. The entire website will be revised in 2017,and it will be re-published in a format that will make it easier to do rapid updates.
Completion of Big Y + Yfull analysis of each Lineage
We need at least 2 Big Y test subjects from each lineage. We’re close now on the Exeter Lineage. We need help on the Argyle Lineage.
Shortcut Testing
SNP packs
If you’re new to SNP testing, then we recommend SNP packs. They are recommended both in the FTDNA account homepage (see your “mydashboard” section) and in the Sinclair surname Y-DNA results page. These packs were designed following the first round of the ultimate FTDNA Y product, the Big Y. At $99-$119 they are incredibly good value. Ask for our advice before ordering.
Shortcut to Big Y matching
Big Y is very expensive. There’s no way around it for at least 2 of the members of every lineage. These intrepid early Big Y testers will make it possible for all who follow them to use a shortcut test using primers - for SNPs estimated to date within the target period from the early medieval to the genealogical timeframe - which we can have designed for each of our family lineages.
In this method, we will work with experts to identify these “shortcut” tests for haplogroups awaiting SNP Packs; for example, newly discovered haplogroups such as R-P310>A8055. This will lower the cost of testing for the Big-Y-identified SNPs which members will be able test at an infinitesimal fraction of the cost of Big Y. In the interest of fairness, this must be a group effort moving forward. Everyone in a lineage will benefit from this, and we need to find a way to help defray the cost of such testing. Big Y is incredibly expensive, but the new “shortcut”approach won’t be anywhere near as much.
More information. More clarity. More publishing.
While DNA testing has become more interesting for those who understand it, the process of getting there has grown more complex. The complexity has led to great understanding, but only for those who have the time to keep up with it.
We’re going to go further to making this all more understandable. The videos I’ve put up on YouTube over the past 13 years have a huge number of views, clearly far more views than our project has members. The highest is currently showing15,080 views. Another on Big Y shows 5,658 views. One from 5 years ago on early results from our SNP testing shows 3,372 views. To me this clarifies the lack of answers out there and the demand for such information. We can help.
We have the brainpower among the friends of the Sinclair DNA study to help many other families get this done for themselves, and those within our family to understand the value of further testing. For many of our family, the end of testing is already here. There will likely be nothing further than Big Y + Yfull.
Higher publishing standards
Moving forward, I’ve asked Rondo BB Me and Craig Sinclair to check whatever I publish and to publish on the website themselves. If others in the family have a particular area of expertise – Antonia Sinclair comes to mind – then I’ll ask you to contribute your wisdom if your time allows.
If you have questions, email Steve St. Clair at SaintClair1398@gmail.com
As always, thanks for participating. You make it all possible.
Updating paternal ancestry information
Finally, a message from Craig Sinclair: "many of us joined Family Tree DNA at different stages in our ancestral odyssey, so the information we gave for our earliest paternal ancestor may now have been superseded or just clarified further. Therefore, could you please update your "Genealogy" information in your "Account Settings" with the most accurate known information for your ancestor such as place of birth and/or death. It will allow you, at the very least, to grouped by geography. Geographical groupings are an important tool to use when separating lineages, or just to map the early migration of Sinclair families. Please keep visiting the results page to see where you are placed or which tests are recommended. Thank you, Craig."