Look at the chart as a family tree, just like those you may be more accustomed to seeing.  Each block represents a unique Haplogroup, based on the Big Y testing of “terminal SNP’s.”  Each block also represents a unique genetic code and is associated with  whose Y-DNA changed slightly at some point in time in the past.  You members inside the box share that same genetic code as the common ancestor.  While we don’t know who that Childers or Childress ancestor may be, we can see the approximate date range when he was born.

Starting with Index 1 (the index numbers are in red and are merely a simple way to describe the more detailed terminal SNP number such as I-BY34511), we see that a Childers male who is the common ancestor was born between 1520 A.D. and 1720 A.D.  “1” may have been our Ralph Chelders, born 1545 A.D. in England, or he could be a Childers who was born as late as 1720 A.D.  Ralph Loyd, one of our members, is in this box because his Y-DNA signature is virtually the same as the "original" Childers ancestor; there have been no significant changes that would allow us to put Ralph in a group along with any other tester.

Moving on down the chart, we see box 1a and box 1b.  Once again, each of these two boxes represent a unique male Childers ancestor who was born between 1520 A.D. and 1720 A.D.  The men who these boxes represent could have been brothers born only a few years apart; they could be an uncle/nephew separated by one generation or they may have been cousins several times removed such that 1a was born in 1600 A.D. and 1b was born in 1700 A.D.  Until we “connect the dots” with individual family trees for everyone, we can only speculate.  It would have to be an absolute coincidence for 1a to represent our Abraham, b. 1613 and 1b to represent his nephew Philemon, but it’s remotely possible.

Where this really becomes interesting is when we look at 1a1, 1a2 and 1a3.  We can see by the date of birth range that 1a1 was born between 1603 A.D. and 1803 A.D. William Ted Childers, Jason Ryan Childress and (perhaps…to be confirmed with the forthcoming Big Y 700 results) Carlos St. Clair all share this common male ancestor.  Rodney Hammond and Kris Kline share a common Childers male ancestor in 1a2 who was born a bit later, between 1686 and 1886 A.D.  Later on still, Dean Bennett and Tom Childers’ common male ancestor 1a3 was born between 1769 and 1969 A.D.  Keep in mind that of these project members in 1a, 1a1, 1a2 and 1a3 share the same common male ancestor in box 1a.

Conversely, no one on the right side of the chart in 1b or any subsidiary box share a common male ancestor with any of you under 1a until you move up to box 1.

The right side of the chart works the same way as the left.  William Andre Childers and Michael Ted Childress both share a common male ancestor 1b who was born between 1520 A.D. and 1720 A.D.  Again, the five members in 1b1 share a common male ancestor born between 1603 and 1803 A.D.  They also share the same male ancestor as those in 1b.  Likewise, the four members in 1b2 share a common male ancestor born between 1686 and 1886 A.D. and they share the same common male ancestor with everyone else on the right side of the chart represented by box 1b.  Note, however, that they genetically  share the common male ancestor in box 1b1.

Lastly, in box 1b2a Samuel B. Lawson and Randy Childers share a common male ancestor born between 1769 and 1969 A.D., as well as the common male ancestor in box 1b2, 1b and 1.

All of the above nine (9) Family Groups have now been updated on our Family Group designation at our FTDNA website. All nine (9) of these Family Groups are considered "Anchor Lines" inasmuch that we have enough DNA data to insure the integrity of our proposed groupings. The remaining 70+ members (as of June 1, 2020) will be moved into these groups IF we can find irrefutable evidence in the member's Y-DNA results or IF we can find irrefutable documentation that suggests the individual ought to be placed in the Family Group without additional DNA testing.

Patrick Childress, Project Administrator
June 6, 2020