We have established a "standard" set of STR markers for the main line of Mangums in the U.S. which we believe represents the common ancestor of these Mangums. Except for a few scattered mutations from these standard markers (as expected), all the main line of Mangums have these markers.

We have a participant from the puzzling Jacob Mangum line and his results are identical with the main line of U.S. Mangums. A family tradition is that Jacob himself was an immigrant from Ireland. Since Jacob is 2 or 3 generations later than our supposed immigrant ancestor, the separate immigration from Ireland seems doubtful, although maybe not impossible. There are other group members with an Irish-origin tradition, as well. We do not know the origin of our immigrant ancestor John Mangum, but the "English" theory is still considered by some to be the most likely.

Currently, we have 15 participants who have taken the Big Y test. The advent of the Group Time Tree, which provides a “visual representation of the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) for members of a group project” who have taken the Big Y test, is extremely helpful. You can find our Group Time Tree under the DNA results tab.

The sheer level of detail in the Big Y tests is tremendously instrumental in refining the relationships between various Mangum descendants. One advantage of the Big Y test (SNPs) is that the relationships found via the SNP mutations are essentially absolute because re-mutations almost never occur. The standard STR tests (12, 25, 37, 67, 111) have frequent mutations and re-mutations, which make the possible relationships more tentative, based on statistical analysis. We encourage all group project members to test at as high a level as they can afford!