As of March 2013 we have results for 76 men.

(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  "A Genetic Genealogy Community"    http://eng.molgen.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.

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.

PROJECT GROUPS

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, I2 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.

Unmatched Haplogroup G, has one member N8175.

Unmatched Haplogroup I2,   has one member 221140.

Unmatched Haplogroup J, 2 members, N56036 and 71925.

R1b Group 01 (R1b L21, L144.1);

We have one group who appear to have a common lineage, and are mainly from Co Laois, Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary and Cork 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 another in the group at 33/37 or better, which is close for an overall group. 
The relationship between these men appears to be quite convoluted and it is very hard to group these men into smaller subgroups with a more recent common ancestry, especially as very few of these men have a paper trail to connect with.

The group share a unique value for markers 413a and 413b of 16/23, whilst most R1b men have results around 21/23, 22/23, or 23/23.
So far all the men in "R1b Group 01" who have tested to 67 markers have values of 16/23, 16/16 or 16/17 and 16/22 on this marker, signifying a descent from a common ancestor.
As 413 is a multicopy marker, it is able to duplicate itself from 413a to 413b in a one step mutation or in one generation.  We see this mutation occurred with results 16,16 and perhaps a 2nd mutation to have results of 16,17.

Six men in this group have tested positive for the R1b SNP L144.1 and/or L195.  These are downstream of the large R1b branch of L21.  It is expected that all the men in this group would be positive for these SNPs.  Other surnames tested positve for these SNPs, are Bracewell/Brazile, Prosser, Clark, MacLaughlin, MacAuley. 

Here is a Google Map with known UK place of origin for 413a=16 and/or L144,1 men;   http://goo.gl/maps/2hYk

The Kendall family have tested positve for L144 but as they have a totally different haplotype, and some family members are negative for L144,  it is believed they are a very recent SNP mutation and have been grouped as L144.2, they are not related to the Whalen/Bracewell L144.1

R1b Group 02  (R1b L21, L513);

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.

They R1b L513, a downstream subgroup of R1b L21,  they have distinctive results of 11 foe 406S1 and 13 for 617.

R1b Group 03 ;

We have three men in this group, 159345, 114211, and 169898.     159345 and 169898 have a 35/37 match indicating a recent common ancestor.  114211 has a more distant connection with a 32/37 match with 159345 and a 30/37 match with 169898.    We can see that they share some distinctive unusual values in DYS 390 = 21  and YCA II a = 22 and YCA II b = 23.  These men also share the distinctive values with men of other surnames, the main ones being Fitzpatricks from Co Laois/Kilkenny,  Brennan/Brannons, Brodericks and Dalton .  This indicates a more ancient relationship between thee families, possibly up to a 1000 years ago.

R1b Group 04 (Northwest Irish Type I);

This group comprises three  men all tracing back to a common ancestor, Michael Whelehan, bc 1795 in Ullard, Co Laois, Ireland.  kits 139965, 158362.and 164953.  They are part of the R1b North West Irish Type I Cluster.

R1b Group 05 (Northwest Irish Type I)

This group has 4 members,  all Whelehans,  Kit 190446, from Tipperary and 193057, N99789 and 209010 all from Co Westmeath.  They are most probably related to the Whelehans in R1b Group 04,  but further back in time

 R1b Group 6 (Irish continental Type IV);

This  group,  with three men   Kits 93207, 264003 and A00008.   We will need 93207 test to more markers,  to see if this match continues or not.  These men appear to be in a R1b cluster, the Irish/Continental Type IV,  which has the distinctive marker values of; 391 = 10,  385a = 12,  385b = 15,  426 = 13.

Our other men are in our "Unmatched" groups until they have closer matches.
We have separated these into the following groups;
 

Unmatched Haplogroup R1b  10 men waiting on matches, Kits 83614, N40840, N73937, A00011, N99127, 150256, A00007, A00004, 50681, N2326  and 212914.

 

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 often 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/
4 members,  258368 from PA,  N47148 from PA,  and N16485 from Waterford, and A00010 from Limerick.
 

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 4 members; 105824 from Limerick, 141733, and 85957 from Wexford and A00001 from Waterford,  aswell as a result tested at SMGF,  Whalan from Ireland to Kentucky

More information on the "Leinster Type" can be seen at the 464x Project  http://www.familytreedna.com/public/DYS464x%20ccgg/default.aspx

Unmatches R1b "Ely O'Carroll" Type   this groups has 1 member, N45462,  from Co Tipperary.   You can find out more about this cluster from the website  http://www.familytreedna.com/public/elycarroll/default.aspx