Scotland or Not ....

was the question I recently asked a group of our R1b participants. They are, by far, the largest group of individuals represented in the Clendenin/Glendinning Y-DNA project. A study, including additional single nucleotide polymorphism testing, was conducted, to determine an answer to this question.

Introduction:

The Clendenin Y-DNA project was conceived and implemented at Family Tree DNA early in 2004. The initial intent was to determine what, if any, blood connections existed between various men of this surname in support of written family histories. As the project expanded over the next 18-24 months it was determined that there were, indeed, blood connections but they were not always as the family histories stated or suggested. Most everyone believed their ancestry included a William Glendonning who was baptized at Langholm, Dumfriesshire, Scotland in 1680. Some thought his descendants had immigrated to America directly from Scotland while others believed that there had been an immigration to County Down, Ireland prior to the move to America. Still others felt that the family had probably originated in Ireland. The published family histories did little to resolve this issue and in fact cast more doubt upon the immigration trail.

The largest numbers of participants were classified as R1b by FTDNA (Family Tree DNA). However, it was also stipulated that this particular haplogroup was the largest in the world among men of western European descent. Further testing by a new company, EthnoAncestry, owned and operated by learned men including a world-renown geneticist, was determined to most likely be a key to resolving this issue.

Methodology:

1. I identified all the R1b participants to determine a representative sample. I then contacted John McEwan, an avid genetic genealogist living in New Zealand, and asked him to take a look at the DNA results at this website. His response was as follows:

"... I took the R1bs and deleted the 12 STR haplotype and checked the rest out...It would pay to take ONE person from this big group and do a full R1b deep clade SNP test on it at Ethnoancestry (include S21 and S28) because nobody to date has done that for this cluster and obviously it would be definitive for this group. My guess is R1b1c* or R1b1c10 (S28+) for the group. ...

Of the other individuals, 17713 is clearly R1bSTR19Irish aka M222+ (highest frequency Ireland then Scotland via Dal Riadic migration). 23265 is probably R1bSTR22Frisian aka S21+ (highest frequency where Angles/Saxons and Frisians were BUT there is a smattering of it around suggesting it got into British Isles in pre roman times as well. The other 4 (includes the 2 - 25 marker profiles) cannot be easily assigned as belonging to any group"

2. The sample was then reduced to the following individuals participating in our project: 22071 [William L. Clendenin], 24782 [John Robert Clendenin], 11729 [William H. Clendenin], 9583 [Donald E. Clendenin], 26612 [Harold Clendenon], 22475 [Nicholas J. Clendenin], 30075 [Peter C. Clendenin], 29348 [William J. Clendenin], 20591 [Ron Clendennen], 29347 [John Clendinning], 51120 [Robert W. Glendenning], 19240 [Michael J. Glendening], 29644 [Carter H. Glendenning], 49038 [Philip Clendaniel], 49137[Jerry Clendenen], 12573 [George M. Clendenin], 17820 [Randal Q. Clendenin] , 36614 [James W. Drew], 18568 [John M. Clendening], 31267 [Charles Clendenen], and 47804 [Joseph R. Curray]. The testing results will apply to each member of this group whether they participated or not.

Selection:

I sent out an email to this group and asked if they would like to participate in this study. There was a fee involved as the testing had to be done at EthnoAncestry and therefore, required a new sample. I asked for a sampling volunteer and donations split as evenly as possible across the board for those who wanted to be included.

The next thing I had to do was determine which of the volunteers would be asked to submit the sample. After much perusal I decided that William Forrest Clendenin would be my choice. I chose him because he is one of three known descendants of William Clendenin who immigrated to America, arriving in North Carolina in/about 1764. It is also highly suspected that this William Clendenin was the son of a William Clendening and Rose Fisher who were married in Co. Down, IRE.

Background/Genetic Distances:

William does not have a perfect 37/37 match even with his distant cousins. However, there are the following comparisons which can be made:

Genetic Distance - 1: George M. Clendenin, a known cousin - 36/37

Genetic Distance - 2: James W. Drew (a non-paternity event) and Randal Q. Clendenin, another known cousin - 35/37

Genetic Distance - 3: John R. Clendenen - 34/37

Genetic Distance - 4: Robert W. Glendinning, John Clendinning, Carter H. Glendenning, Charles Clendenen, William J. Glendenning, Nicholas J. Clendenin, William H. Clendenin, Douglas Clendenin, William L. Clendenin, Michael J. Glendening, Donald E. Clendenin, and Ron Clendennen. - 33/37

Note: These numbers do not reflect matches between individuals within each subgroup. For example, Donald E. and William H. are cousins and they have a perfect 37/37 match. But they are four away from William.

FTDNA Explanation of Genetic Distance

36/37: Tightly related You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only one 'point' at only one marker--a 36/37 match. It's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on a previous Y-DNA test and your mismatch will be found within DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb. Very few people achieve this close level of a match. Your mismatch is within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

35/37: Related You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only two 'points' --a 35/37 match. It's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on previous Y-DNA tests and your mismatch will be found within DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2, from our first panel of 12 markers, or from within the second panel at DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. Your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

34/37: Related You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by three 'points' --a 34/37 match. Because of the volatility within some of the markers this is slightly tighter then being 11/12 or 23/25 and it's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on previous Y-DNA tests. Your mismatch will most often be found within DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2 from our first panel of 12 markers, or within the second panel: DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. Your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

33/37: Probably related You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by four 'points' --a 33/37 match. Because of the volatility within some of the markers this is about the same as being 11/12 and it's most likely that you matched 23/25 or 24/25 on previous Y-DNA tests. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. If several or many generations have passed it is likely that these two lines are related through other family members. That would require that each line had passed a mutation and one person would have experienced at least 2 mutations. The only way to confirm is to test additional family lines and find where the mutations took place. Only by testing additional family members can you find the person in between each of you...this 'in betweener' becomes essential for you to find, and without him the possibility of a match exists, but further evidence must be pursued. If you test additional individuals you will most likely find that their DNA falls in-between the persons who are 4 apart demonstrating relatedness within this family cluster or haplotype.

SNPs Tested:

EthnoAncestry has a battery of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) they test to determine exactly which subclade a person's haplotype fits. By doing a comparison of stated family origins and backgrounds, these are grouped in such a way as to identify a general geographic area a person's paternal ancestors resided. This is considered deep ancestry and most likely occurred prior to the existence of surnames. In the general R1b haplogroup, the following SNPs can be tested for determination of subclade:

R M207 (UTY2), M306 (S1), S4, S8, S9

• R* -

• R1 M173

• • R1* -

• • R1a SRY10831.2 (SRY1532)

• • • R1a* -

• • • R1a1 M17, M198

• • • • R1a1* -

• • • • R1a1a M56

• • • • R1a1b M157

• • • • R1a1c M64.2, M87, M204

• • R1b M343

• • • R1b* -

• • • R1b1 P25 (positive +)

• • • • R1b1* -

• • • • R1b1a M18

• • • • R1b1b M73

• • • • R1b1c M269 (positive +)

• • • • • R1b1c* (Final determination)

• • • • • R1b1c1 M37 (negative - )

• • • • • R1b1c2 M65 (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c3 M126 (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c4 M153 (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c5 M160 (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c6 SRY2627 (M167) (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c7 M222 (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c8 P66 (negative - )

• • • • • R1b1c9 S21 (added) (negative - )

• • • • • • R1b1c9* -

• • • • • • R1b1c9a L1 (S26) (added) (negative -)

• • • • • • R1b1c9b S29 (added) (negative -)

• • • • • R1b1c10 S28 (added) (negative - )

• • • • R1b1d M335

• R2 M124

 

Reference: International Society of Genetic Genealogy (2006). Y-DNA Haplogroup Tree 2006, Version: 1.19, Date: 9 October 2006, http://www.isogg.org/ytree/ Accessed 12 October 2006. This is a more up-to-date version of the Y-DNA Haplogroup Chart which appears at the FTDNA website and reflects recent SNPs discovered by research at EA (EthnoAncestry). The SNPS which are marked as "added" are not tested by FTDNA.

Designation of Results:

Any SNP that is tested will either be plus (derived, i.e., you have that mutation) or minus (ancestral, i.e., you do not have that mutation). The plus at P25 means that we hit the first subclade division and instead of being just R1b, we are R1b1. The plus at M269 puts us into a further division of sub-clade, R1b1c.

The complete set of results was received from EthnoAncestry 11 Oct 2006. I have reflected the positive/negative results in the diagram shown above. I went back to McEwan to confirm my interpretation of the results:

"Your summary is correct."

" This group has a reasonably high prevalence in R1b in Scotland and is the third most prevalent group 6% (14/241) after R1bSTR47Scots (21%), R1bSTR19Irish (9%)...this group also makes a strong case for originating in Britain ... and ...may well be localised to a certain part of (lowland?) Scotland.

Conclusion:

 As a group (the R1bs involved in this study) we need to continue our search for the documentation which will move our family trees back to Europe. The statement given just above is not as conflicting as it may seem. The border between England and Scotland, and, in fact, Scotland itself was disputed for generations. A family might never move and one generation would be considered to be living in Scotland and the next generation may have been considered to have lived in England.

I located a website, http://www.nwlink.com/~scotlass/border.htm, dealing with the Border Reivers, explaining who and what the border reivers were, and some of the turbulent history of this disputed region. With the House of Parton with the Laird of the Glendennings/Glendinnings (etc.) being in Kirkcudbrightshire and with other known Glendonning/Glendinning families located in Dumfriesshire, the statement that the haplogroup's origins being in the lowlands of Scotland seems most plausible.