Estimated Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor for R1b-U106 now only 381 years ago

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Elizabeth W Knowlton

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Dec 11, 2021, 6:01:16 PM12/11/21

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So, we not only have our surname, but now we have proof from Big Y-700 testers that our matches are within the 400 years back to the Knowltons of Uxbridge. There is apparently a sale on the Y-700 test that my brother has taken; I hope some of you may take it too.

Season’s Greetings from the R1b-U106 Project!

A recent FTDNA blog post estimates that the median Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor for R1b-U106 Big Y-700 testers is now only 381 years before the present. Consequently, R1b-U106 Big Y testers have an excellent chance to create a family haplogroup, or even branch your patrilineal family tree, whenever two or more surname STR matches have upgraded to Big Y-700.

The FTDNA Holiday Sale is now under way through December 31, so this is an excellent time to upgrade your FTDNA kit to Big Y-700, and try to persuade any surname STR matches you might have to do likewise, so that you can reap the potential benefits, including getting your family haplogroup placed on to the FTDNA Y-DNA Haplotree. If you don’t happen to have a surname STR match, you can create a family haplogroup with any patrilineal relative if you both order Big Y-700. Further, if you and one of your most distant surname STR matches upgrade to Big Y-700, that will create the family haplogroup; and then if one of your closest surname STR matches also upgrades to Big Y-700, that will likely create a branch within the family. At the very least, upgrading to Big Y-700 will put you in position for an unknown patrilineal cousin to come along and order Big Y-700 at any point going forward. To date, the 6,700 members of the R1b-U106 Project have ordered 3,500 Big Y tests.

It should be noted that the Y-DNA tree is a Descendant tree coming forward out of the ancient past, through the Dark Ages, and into the Surname and Traditional Genealogy timeframes in many cases, as evidenced by FTDNA’s TMRCA estimate, above. Whereas our traditional genealogy efforts are based on records reaching backwards through time. As a result of the advances achieved with Big Y-700 testing, there is potential to overlap the Y-DNA Tree coming forward with traditional family trees reaching backward. In some cases, Big Y-700 testers can determine that a specific Big Y-700 Haplogroup-defining SNP mutation must have occurred in a specific known ancestor from their traditional genealogy work.

R1b-U106 currently has about 4,600 descendant haplogroups, or branches on the FTDNA Haplotree, which represents 9.2% of the total Haplotree. With respect to our larger branches, there are now about 600 branches of Z18, over 900 branches of Z156, with about 300 branches of DF98, and about 400 branches of DF96, including over 100 branches of L1. L48 has over 2,200 descendant haplogroups. There are now over 400 branches of L47, and over 350 branches of Z326, as well as over 1,000 branches of Z30, including over 670 branches of Z8. Those of you who have never upgraded to Big Y have been missing out on all of this steady progress in recent years, and thus missing out on the benefits of your project membership, which otherwise doesn’t accomplish much.

Another significant benefit of upgrading to Big Y-700 is that this test helps those not living in their long ago home European country, to gain an idea of where their families are from. The Big Y Block Tree, as well as the FTDNA Public Haplotree include Country Reports for every haplogroup on the tree, going all the way back up the tree. Consequently, a Big Y-700 test will show what countries on the ancestral branches behind you on the tree other testers on your branch are from, which helps to give you a clue about your own origins.

There are links to the FTDNA blog post cited above, the FTDNA Public Tree, and other helpful resources, via the left-side menu at the R1b-U106 Project pages, accessible via the projects list on your FTDNA kit page. There is also a link there to our Y-DNA Warehouse, where you can upload your Big Y test results for inclusion in our free ongoing analysis, including migration paths, and dating of the branches.

It is definitely helpful to us for the members to go into your FTDNA page, click on the upper right corner, and update your Account Settings with your Direct Paternal Ancestor info, via the Genealogy tab, then Earliest Known Ancestor, including where he lived, and the Country of his origin, as well as the Paternal Ancestral Location. Also helpful to us is to click on the Project Preferences tab, then the pencil symbol beside the R U106 Project, and make sure the Admins have at least Limited Access, or preferably Advanced.

Ask Santa or Mrs Claus, or the Elves, for a Big Y-700 upgrade for Christmas, or play Santa for another family member or cousin, so you can benefit from all the progress we’ve made.

Best Wishes for a safe holiday season and a Happy New Year in 2022!

Charles Moore

R1b-U106 Project Administrator

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