Results:

        Members who closely match other members are assigned to subgroups that are labelled according to a proven forebear of one of the matchees.

        About one-third of the members belong to two subgroups.

        Members assigned to the subgroup labelled "Apparent Scots-Irish Descendants" are believed to descend from emigrants from the north of Ireland (now Northern Ireland). Several members have genealogic proof of their descent from a man named John Verner (born ca 1725) who is believed to have been a grandson of Samuel Verner/Vernor (born ca 1660) via his son David Verner/Varner (born ca 1695), both of whom emigrated ca 1723 from County Armagh, Ireland (now Northern Ireland). Samuel had other proven sons whose descendants have not been fully identified. The other members of that subgroup are believed to descend from Samuel or one of his close relatives.

        Members assigned to the ""Johann "Hans" Adam Werner (born 1708)"" subgroup are believed to descend from that man, who emigrated from Germany in 1732, or from one of his close relatives. His lineage has been traced backward through several generations to Hans (Heinrich?) Werner (born ca 1610 Germany). Several members have genealogic proof of their descent from those men.

        There are multiple smaller subgroups of men who have close dna matches but do not yet know exactly how they are related.

        Some members have a proven familial descent from the same forebear, but do not match genetically, which implies a non-paternity or false-paternity event in one or more lines. Such a situation can be caused by an undocumented adoption, a voluntary name change, or a child sired by a man other than his mother's husband.

The rest of the participants do not yet have close matches to anyone in the project.

Discussion:

            The Y-DNA test measures selected sites (called markers) of the male Y chromosome, which is passed unchanged from father to son, except for rare mutations. The exact mutation rates are not known for each marker, but it is estimated that the "average" rate is one mutation per marker about every 500 generations. If one considers the 25-marker set of markers (Y-DNA25 test), one might expect a mutation in that set of markers about once in every 20 generations. In the dna results chart, the markers whose titles are shown in red mutate faster than those shown in black. The measurements are listed as a series of numbers. The combination of numbers for each participant defines his genetic profile which is called a "haplotype". The haplotypes of individuals are compared to determine if the individuals might have a common male genetic ancestor in their paternal lines within a genealogical timeframe, i.e. since surnames have been used. If so, that ancestor is referred to as the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA). The probabilities of having a MRCA are calculated for various numbers of generations (not years) in the past that a MRCA might have lived. That data can then be compared with genealogical research by the matching members to see if they can correlate their research data to prove the identity of the MRCA.

            As a general guideline, in order for a close match to be significant, two participants should have a variation of the same surname and match in at least 11 of the first 12 markers, in at least 23 of the first 25 markers, and probably in at least 33 or 34 of the first 37 markers.  A greater number of mismatches suggests that the MRCA probably lived before surnames were adopted. Surnames began to be used in western Europe in the 1100s and were used by most (but not all) Europeans by 1600.

            As groups of people migrated, mutations eventually caused their haplotypes to become different from other groups, resulting in distinctive "haplogroups". In the chart the haplogroups in red are predicted from the haplotypes and from known population results, whereas the ones in green have been verified by additional testing.

            How does one use haplotypes to track back in time? If two brothers have matching haplotypes, then their haplotype is assumed to be the same as their genetic father's haplotype. Their familial father is assumed to have been their genetic father, unless there is genealogical evidence to the contrary.  If two first cousins match, then their genetic fathers' haplotypes are assumed to have been the same, which in turn implies that their genetic paternal grandfather's haplotype is/was the same as theirs. If enough descendants are tested and if there is enough genealogical information, that process can identify the probable haplotypes of distant forebears and sometimes identify sub-lines within a family, which can help to direct further genealogy research.

            Notice the use of the word "probable". It is important to remember that estimates of the frequencies of mutations are statistical probabilities, not certainties. For example, in a large population, the "average" frequency of mutations for a particular set of sites/markers might be estimated as once in every twenty generations, but that is only a statistical average, because a mutation can occur with any paternity event. Also, we can not positively identify a familial forebear by dna testing, but rather we can only state a probable forebear. For example, if two brothers match, we can say that they "probably" had the same genetic father and that he was "probably" their familial father. Why do we have to say, "probably"? If one of the brothers was sired by their familial father and the other brother was sired by the familial father's brother (or a similar relative), the haplotypes would probably be the same, and such an event would be invisible to dna testing. Families often adopted orphaned relatives, e.g. nieces, nephews, and cousins, and raised them without documentation of the adoption and often without the children even knowing about their genetic parents. If a man adopted his brother's son, the event would be invisible to dna testing. Thus, we must frequently emphasize the term "probable", and it is therefore necessary to correlate dna testing with genealogy research.

            As an aid for comparison in a subgroup with close matches, the most frequent measurement at each site/marker is sometimes used to determine an average haplotype, known as the "modal haplotype".  If there are enough participants of different lines in a subgroup, the modal haplotype can be used to develop a "hypothesized ancestral signature" haplotype for their Most Recent Common Ancestor.

            Undocumented events such as name changes, adoptions, divorce, incest, rape, out-of-wedlock conceptions, and extra-marital conceptions are called "non-paternity" or "false-paternity" events. The Family Tree DNA Learning Resources section says that they believe that the incidence of a non-paternity or false-paternity event is about 1-3% in each generation and compounds with each succeeding generation. If that is true, then a family line could expect a 10-30% chance of such an event over a ten-generation period. However, some genealogy sources estimate that, throughout the last 800 years in populations of western-European descent, as many as 15-20% of births have been the result of relationships other than between a husband and wife, except for rare groups. Thus, all of us will find breaks in the genetic line(s) of one or more of our family surnames, if we track enough surnames far enough back in time. I believe that such events are the reason for many of our genealogy "brick walls". I also believe that the familial lines are more important than the genetic lines, except in rare cases of genetic diseases or conditions, because we are who we are because of the interactions of our forebears, not because of who sired whom. However, curiosity and cultural influences usually make us want to find the source of non-paternity or false-paternity events. Correlating genetic matches with genealogy research can often do that, but one must use a lot of discretion and tact, because relatives do not always understand or accept the findings.