McClendon DNA Project Newsletter

Feb. 20, 2009

News Items from the 5th Annual Conference on Genetic Genealogy:

*More Markers are Coming!

    FTDNA President Bennett Greenspan announced that more Y-DNA markers will soon be available for testing, possibly extending the present limit from 67 markers to somewhere in the 90 marker range. This is great news for those Y-DNA projects with relatively stable, infrequently mutating Y-DNA (such as the McClendon DNA Project). There may be additional mutations occurring in the 67- 90 marker range that might help in sorting out the various descendant lines of a lineage.

*The Subclades are Coming, the Subclades are Coming!

    As new SNPs are discovered, you can expect to see the development of new haplogroup subclades. Over the past year, much of the research at FTDNA in this area has been devoted to the R1b (R-M269). As a result, most of the members of the McClendon DNA Project will be seeing notification on their FTDNA Personal Pages Haplogroup Page, that they qualify for new deep clade testing. One of the members (M-5) of the project has already undergone this new deep clade testing, with the result of a new haplogroup subclade designation: R1b1b2a1b, sometimes referred to as the “Pan-European Celtic”. Deep clade testing has already been ordered for a 2nd member of the McClendon Project. Hopefully, with enough new results, we can have the haplogroup subclade predictions for all of the matching McClendon Lineage I showing the new haplotype subclade predictions.

*Did I Hear this Correctly?

   FTDNA is becoming so effective at discovering new SNPs, that it may one day be possible to have a particular family haplogroup subclade (?) I am pretty sure that is what I heard being discussed at the conference. This is all the more reason to have representatives of our McClendon Lineage I undergo the new deep clade testing.

Project News:

   The McClendon DNA Project has a new Co-Administrator, William Kelly McLendon. Kelly, as he is known to most of us, will be acting as a technical advisor to the Project Administrator, Mary Lee Becker.  Many thanks to Kelly for volunteering to help.

Cool Links:

“Origins, age, spreadand ethnic associations of European haplogroups and subclades”

http://www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml

The ultimate purpose of this page is to discuss our DNA results.

• An example of what this page will look like over time is the Hodges DNA Project Discussion Page
• Feel free to discuss this project on the McClendon Family Forum
• Click here to place an order for a DNA test at Family Tree DNA.

Participating in a Surname DNA Project provides:

• A report on the participant's genetic DNA, which is very close (and sometimes identical) to the earliest known ancestor
• A classification of the participant's "deep" ancestry, which gives insight into the prehistoric origins of your surname ancestors
• A sense of camaraderie with all who participate in the Family Project, which is particularly strong for those who share a genetic ancestry
• Stimulation to family research and sharing of information
• A wider sense of identity and relationship, as we begin to realize how much we are a World Family.
• A chance to compare your genetic ancestry with those of the Surname and the Variant Spellings
• Locates the genetic matches that do not share your common surname