POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS WITH OTHER SURNAMES

 This page includes:

• a summary of some of the DNA test results on other surnames that match the results for some of the Graves/Greaves samples
• comparison of the minimal 9-locus haplotypes from this Graves/Greaves study with other haplotype databases.

It will also eventually include some discussion of haplogroups, possible pre-surname ancestry, and geographical origins.

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In the table below, the people involved in other surname DNA studies reported to me that at least one of their test results matched the results of the indicated samples in the Graves/Greaves DNA study. I don't know exactly what the significance of these matches is. It could mean that there is a common ancestor before the adoption of surnames, that there was a name change in one of the lines (caused by an adoption, non-paternal event, etc.), or from some other unknown cause (such as a series of random mutations from two different haplotypes that just happened to end up with the same result). The present consensus is that the first possibility is by far the most likely. If that is true, then it would seem that the haplotypes (tested samples) that match are the original, unmutated version of the group in which they fall. Looking at the table below and comparing it to the master results table on the Graves/Greaves DNA results page, that seems to be true for Graves/Greaves sample 1354, 1339 and 1359, but not for 1438. One possible interpretation is that 1438 is really a separate group and not part of either the green group (where it had originally been placed) or of the red group (where it has now been moved).

In this table, the McCarthy results (from Oxford Ancestors) matched 7 of 7 until the DYS 389 results were taken into account. The yellow background indicates the non-matching values. This suggests that some of the other matches will also be less complete when more than 12 markers are looked at.

Notice that if the DYS389ii value had the DYS389i value subtracted from it (to avoid having the same mutation counted twice), the McCarthy sample would have matched 1339 on 8 of 9 markers.

For more on the matching of test results between different surnames, see the Grace DNA Project at http://www.geocities.com/gracefiles/genetics.html.

Comparison With Minimal Haplotypes

A minimal haplotype is the 9-locus haplotype (set of DNA test values) that is a standard for characterizing and comparing human Y-DNA. It consists of the following DYS numbers and FTDNA loci, and the observed range of values.

 The European Y-str (short tandem repeat) database is located at http://ystr.charite.de/index_gr.html, and the U.S. Y-str database is located at http://www.ystr.org/usa/. Because both databases are small compared to the total populations, and because the samples that are included may not be very representative of the total populations, the results in the following table may not be especially meaningful. However, they were interesting, and so are presented here. They were arrived at by searching the two databases to see how many matches there were of 8766 haplotypes in the European database and 1705 in the U.S. one. If you are part of our study and your ID# is not listed here, it is probably because it exactly matches that on a sample that is listed. Only the first ID# in a set of identical results is included in this table. If the cell for U.S. matches or the cell for geographical location is blank, that means I did not check the result. You can do so by plugging your test numbers into the databases listed above.

Last updated 10 Feb. 2002