Contents

1. FamilyTreeDNA says I’m J-M267 (J-L136, J-P58, J-Z1878). How do you know I’m J-L817 and how are these groups related?

2. I'm a member of J-L817 or its subclade. What does this tell me about ethnic origin of my paternal line?

3. What are my next steps? Does it make sense to order additional Y-DNA tests?

4. What is the optimal way for project members to protect privacy?

5. Do I need to fill in my earliest direct paternal ancestor information? How do I do this?

1. FamilyTreeDNA says I’m J-M267 (J-L136, J-P58, J-Z1878). How do you know I’m J-L817 and how are these groups related?

J-L817 clade (branch) is a descendant of haplogroup J-M267 (J1) via a number of older clades including J-L136, J-P58 and J-Z1878/CTS9721. Think of these branch designations as codenames for our direct paternal ancestors that lived at different points deep in the past. Our current estimates of time to the most recent common ancestor (TMRCA) are ~700 generations (~20,000 BC) for J-M267, ~460 generations (~12,500 BC) for J-L136, ~345 generations (~9000 BC) for J-P58 and ~330 generations (~8500 BC) for J-Z1878/CTS9721.

Your Y-DNA haplogroup prediction can be narrowed down to J-L817 with nearly 100% probability based on the analysis of Y-STR results (see myDNA > Y-DNA section of your FamilyTreeDNA profile). Members of J-L817 can be distinguished from all the other J-M267 men by the value of Y-STR marker DYS392 equal to or above 13.

A majority of currently known J-L817 persons belong to J-L816 subclade.

2. I'm a member of J-L817 or its subclade. What does this tell me about the ethnic origin of my paternal line?

Middle-Eastern origin is also the only assumption that can be reasonably made about J-S4985 (TMRCA: ~120 generations or ~1800 BC - Bronze Age / period of Amorite expansion) and J-FT308514 (TMRCA: ~28 generations ago or ~1070 AD).

Given that a majority of modern-day members of J-L816 (TMRCA: ~38 generations or ~750 AD) and J-ZS7772 (TMRCA: ~51 generations or ~330 AD) are Jewish, the ancestors of these clades were most likely Jewish as well.

It must be noted that ethnicity and genetic origin are somewhat different dimensions. Ethnicity is something we get from our parents and grandparents as they pass to us their mother tongue, traditions, beliefs and values. Your ethnicity may or may not be the same as the one of your genetic cousins. Results of autosomal DNA tests such as Family Finder are more relevant for ethnicity discussions than Y-DNA test results.

In this project, we welcome all members of J-L817 clade regardless of their ethnicity or religious beliefs.

3. What are my next steps? Does it make sense to order additional Y-DNA tests?

The only upgrade we currently recommend to all project members is Big Y-700. It allows to test most of the genealogically useful areas of Y chromosome. Big Y-700 will:

If the only Y-DNA test you have taken is National Geographic’s Geno2 and you cannot afford Big Y-700, we recommend ordering a Y-37 STR marker test. Aside from the STR values, it will provide a list of relatively close paternal line matches that can be examined for opportunities to extend your paper trail.

In other cases, there does not seem to be much value in upgrading to more Y-STR markers than you currently have. Such upgrades were supposed to provide more reliable match lists. However, even 111-marker match lists may include persons from different sub-branches of J-L816 whose common paternal ancestor lived as many as 1000 years ago (judging by SNP test results, which are far more reliable).

If you are predicted to be L816+ (subgroups from B2a to B2z99, see here), it makes no sense for you to order single SNP tests for L817, L818 and L816 as you are positive for these markers with nearly 100% probability. If you are predicted to be L816- (subgroups A, B1a or B1b), please contact J-L817 project administrator regarding feasibility of ordering single SNP tests for L817, L818 and L816.

The existing J1 – M267v3 SNP pack only includes L817, L818 and L816 SNPs and it thus does not make sense to order it (even if you are predicted to be L816- and want to confirm L817 and L818, it will be cheaper to order respective single SNP tests). Unfortunately, there is no pack for testing SNPs downstream of L816 so far.

4. What is the optimal way for project members to protect privacy?

Our group is intended to enable information sharing only between project members and administrators, so you can turn off sharing of your information on the project's DNA Results web pages. To do so, go to the drop-down menu at the top right corner of your FamilyTreeDNA profile, select “Account Settings”, go to “Project Preferences” tab, find “Group Project Profile” section and switch off “Opt in to Sharing”. After this, your information will only be visible to project administrators and persons logged in to their FamilyTreeDNA profiles.

We recommend members to keep access level for project administrators at “Limited”. We need this access level to provide support and explanations of your test results and to invite your new Y-DNA matches to the project. This is the default / recommended access level for project administrators at FamilyTreeDNA, so you do not need to do anything if you did not change it in the past.

If you changed access level for J-L817 Clade project administrators to “Minimum”, please consider setting it back to “Limited”. To do so, go to the drop-down menu at the top right corner of your FamilyTreeDNA profile, select “Account Settings”, go to “Project Preferences” tab, click on the pencil icon to the right of “J-L817 Clade”, scroll down to “Group Project Administrator Access Level Settings”, set access to “Limited” and click on “Accept project preferences”.

5. Do I need to fill in my earliest direct paternal ancestor information? How do I do this?

We strongly encourage you to fill in your direct paternal ancestor information. This will allow your matches to see if your paper trails can be connected in one way or another. To add this information, go to the drop-down menu at the top right corner of your FamilyTreeDNA profile, select “Account Settings”, go to “Genealogy” tab and then to “Earliest Known Ancestors” tab.

In the “Direct Paternal Ancestor” section, fill in the surname, birth and death dates and birth town in “Name and Birth/Death Date” box. Available space is limited, so consider ~, > and < signs instead of “about”, “after” and “before” to add as much useful information as possible.

There is a separate “Country of Origin” box, so there is no need to add a country name in “Name and Birth/Death Date” box. When adding a country name, please refer to the modern country where your ancestral town is located, not the country that was in place during your ancestor’s lifetime. E.g. if it is Lvov, please specify Ukraine rather than Austria. If your earliest known paternal ancestor was born in the New World, specifying United States, Mexico or Canada is still more informative than “Unknown Origin”.