As of 12 December 2008 we have results for 43 men, with 37 tested at FTDNA and 6 tested at Ancestry.com.
We have 1 kit at the lab with FTDNA.
You can also see the results for the Ancestry men at our O'Faolain DNA Group at Ancestry.com, you are welcome to add your results to the Ancestry.com database aswell.
(Family Lineages that have been supplied can be seen in the "Patriarchs" section.)
The Whalen-O'Faolain DNA Project has a Surname Project Forum hosted at dna-forums.org
Results, news and project info will be posted on this forum.
Project updates are also posted on Message Boards/Mailing lists at Rootsweb and Genforum for Whelan/Whalen/Phelan/Phalen.
PROJECT GROUPINGS
Whalen members are grouped by their Y-DNA Haplogroup.
R1b is the largest Y-DNA Haplogroup in the project, (and the major Y-DNA Haplogroup in Ireland ), we also have G and J Haplogroup present in small numbers.
Men of different Y-DNA Haplogroups will have no likelihood of sharing a common ancestor in the last several thousand years (NPEs are of course a reality and may be a reason why your paper trail tells a different story.)
Haplogroups are subgrouped where possible, and these will be updated as new results come in.
If members are in an Unmatched Group, they are NOT considered to be related, they are just in the same subgrouping until a match is found.
R1b Group 1;
We have one group who appear to have a common lineage, and are mainly from Co Kilkenny and Laois in Ireland.
Most of these men are all "WAMH" Matches (Western Atlantic Model Haplotype), one of the four most common R1b haplotypes in Western Europe, so have many (~500) exact matches at 12 markers.
At 37 markers all the men in this group match one another in the group at 34/37 or better. The relationship between these men appears to be quite tangled.
Of the group we can only distinguish 2 groups with very tight matches at 36/37.
I have put these 2 groups into separate Lines that may indicate possible Lineages.
R1b Group 1 Line 1 with 3 families all at 36/37 match. 55192 has a paper trail to Erill, Co Laois, Ireland. 84389 who traces back to Philadelphia PA and 136758 who traces back to Co Tipperary, Ireland.
R1b Group 1 Line 2 with 87323, N25286 at 36/37 match and then N40925 at 12 markers, who has a paper trail to a common ancestor with N25286, Solomon Whalen b 1749 and is an 12/12 match.
At 67 markers we have an excellent 65/67 match between Kits 55192 and 84389 again, and they both match 64/67 with 98399.
As 55192 and 98399 can trace family back to Co Laois, Ireland, this must give a good indication to 84389 who can only trace back to Philadelphia PA at the moment, of where their family may have come from.
Kit 83115 has a 63/67 match with 55192 and 84389, and then a 62/67 match with 98399.
Kit 116314 has a 64/67 match with 98399 and a 63/67 match with 55192 and 84389, then a 61/67 with 83115.
This group all have a distinctive marker value at DYS 413a and 413b as 16-23. The usual value for R1b is 23-23.
Kit 100127 has a 63/67 match with 98399. They have a mismatch at 413b, even though 98399 has a value of 23 and 100127 has a value of 16, this is counted as 1 mismatch as this would have happened in a single event/generation, 413a duplicating itself onto 413b.
R1b Group 1b;
We have another subgroup of "R1b Group 1". This family is descended from John Phelan of Durrow, Co Laois. Kit 99152. They match "R1b Group 1" well at 12 and 25 markers, but by 37 the match has fallen away.
At 67 markers 99152 matches closest at 61/67 with 84389 and from "R1b Group 1". Even though he has a value of 16-16 for marker 413a and b, instead of 16-23, this difference is counted a single mutation and a Genetic Distance of 1. It appears that the 413a marker has duplicated itself onto 413b. This can happen in multi-copy markers like 413a and b.
R1b Group 1c;
This is another subgroup of "R1b Group 1" with 2 men, matching at 33/37 they are "probably related'. They form a cluster associated with Rib Group 1.
Kit 107097 hails from Co Laois. Kit 128412, lineage pending. (107097 has some values that closely resembled the "Irish Cont Type IV" cluster.)
It will interesting to see if these men have the rare value of 16 at 413a/b if they upgrade to more markers.
R1b Group 2, This group has a 64/67 match with Kits 53712, Patrick Whalen b 1816 Co Tipperary and 109320, Vance.
The Whalen and Vance families are undoubtedly connected by an NPE that probably occurred between 1650 and 1750 in Ireland according to MRCA calculations (90% probability of 12 generations @ 25yrs per generation). An extremely rare but shared value of 19 at dys456 along with matches from 65/67 to 63/67 with several distinct Vance families prove the intimate relationship. No known connection has been found with confirmed paper and pen genealogy going back to the early 1800's.
We hope to find more Whalen family's for this group.
Our other men are in our Unmatched groups until they have closer matches.
We have separated these into the following groups;
Unmatched Haplogroup R1b Haplogroup, 8 men waiting on matches, Kits 114211, 83614, N40840, 132634, A00007, A00004, 50681, N2326, and N54562 .
Unmatched R1b “North West Irish/Type I”, this group comprises men who match a R1b "cluster" associated with NW Ireland and Lowland Scotland. It is also associated with "Niall of the Nine Hostages". We have one man who is a "Niall" match.
More information on this can be found at; www.familytreedna.com/public/R1b1c7/
2 members, N47148 and N16485
Unmatched R1b “South Irish/Type II”, this group comprises men who match a R1b "cluster" associated with Southern Ireland and has one member, A00005.
More information can be seen at; mysite.verizon.net/timdesmond/files/dna_southirish.htm
Unmatched R1b “Irish/Type III”, this group comprise men who match a R1b "cluster" associated with Co Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.
More information on this cluster can be found at; irishtype3dna.org/
1 member N20308.
Unmatched R1b “Leinster Type”, this group comprise men who match a R1b "cluster" associated with several historical Irish Clan names such as O’Byrne (Lagin Chieftans), Beatty, McLaughlin (a Kings of Meath sept)- a fairly small cluster or modal
Other than 15c 15c 17g 17g at 464x, other distinctive markers are;
14 13 30 at 389i 392 389ii,
18 at 448,
11 at 442
CDY a and b have high values.
It has 3 members; 105824, A00001 and 85957.
Unmatched Haplogroup G Haplogroup, has one member N8175.
Unmatched Haplogroup J Haplogroup, 2 members, N56036 and 71925.
