About us
We currently have three patrilineal descendants of Nathan Tolman (1788-1844) who have taken the Big-Y 700, one is a descendant of his son Cyrus Hewitt Tolman (1820-1901) and the other two are descendants of his son Judson (1826-1916). Of the two from Judson, one is descended from his son Lamoni and the other descends from Jaren.
There are 31 SNP's that are present in all three test takers. The first of these occurred in an ancestor who lived ca. 1600 BC and they accumulated up until Nathan was born and they made his haplogroup R-FTA44848. The order in which these 31 SNP's occurred is unknown but anyone who tests positive for them must be either descended from Nathan or closely related to him. Someone who tests positive for one or more of these mutations but not all of them is related to Nathan farther back somewhere but is not descended from him.
Additionally, two novel SNP's were identified in Judson's descendants. Judson must have been the first man on earth born with them. The presence of these two SNP's changes Judson and his descendant's haplogroup to R-FTE34436. If anyone ever takes a Big-Y and tests positive for them, then they must be a descendant of Judson.
By taking Big-Y these three people have created a genetic beacon. If there ever is someone who is missing from our family, whether it be due to an adoption, non-paternal event, etc., then their Y-DNA results can tie them back to us. What was lost beyond recall can be restored to our family and more Tolman's who take Big-Y, the more unique SNP's we will be able to identify and prove were formed in certain ancestors. In other words, the more Tolmans who take Big-Y, the brighter and better this beacon will become.