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How closely related are two people whose y-dna match on 15 of 16 markers with the only difference being that one has a value of 21 on marker 446 while the other has a value of 19? They're both G2a3b1a haplotypes.
There are some formulas for calculating this but a 16 marker set really isn't enough to establish close kinship. From what I understand 25+ marker tests are required. Ancestry.com has three individuals with 3 mismatches each (all different) from my 37 marker test as between 16 and 19 generations removed before MRCA. In a 12 marker test, two of those individuals are exact matches.
It appears you and the person you matched need to upgrade your test to more markers, as DC said. Have you compared family trees with the matching person?
One of the matching persons is a 1,300 year old skeleton and the other is living today. The scientists could only identify 16 markers for the skeleton from a femur bone. The living person has taken the full range of tests (96 markers?), but that doesn't seem to matter since he can only be compared to the skeleton's 16. We have no knowledge of whose skeleton it is as the grave was robbed at some point in the impending time period. It just seems odd that there would be a match between these two individuals after all that time unless the living person's lineage just happened to mutate into a similar dna profile as the skeleton's. Would it be safe to assume the living person and the skeleton were descended from a common ancestor in the last 5,000 years?
One of the matching persons is a 1,300 year old skeleton and the other is living today. The scientists could only identify 16 markers for the skeleton from a femur bone. The living person has taken the full range of tests (96 markers?), but that doesn't seem to matter since he can only be compared to the skeleton's 16. We have no knowledge of whose skeleton it is as the grave was robbed at some point in the impending time period. It just seems odd that there would be a match between these two individuals after all that time unless the living person's lineage just happened to mutate into a similar dna profile as the skeleton's. Would it be safe to assume the living person and the skeleton were descended from a common ancestor in the last 5,000 years?
I understand your problem better. The chances of DNA convergence is so small that I would neglect it. If your living individual and the deceased share 15/16 common markers, there is a historic relationship in the family, but it would take a professional to tell you statistically how many generations ago that is. It's likely to be a very broad range of generations since you have so few markers. Why not assume that there is a kinship and try to establish from historical records what it is.
This study was done with mitochondrial DNA, but still interesting.
Hunters found the remains in a melting glacier in British Columbia, and scientists believe he died roughly 200-300 years ago, possibly longer.
The headline calling him "ancient" seems a bit of an exaggeration. Technically the 1,300 year old skeleton isn't ancient either since he died a couple of hundred years after 476AD.
I understand your problem better. The chances of DNA convergence is so small that I would neglect it. If your living individual and the deceased share 15/16 common markers, there is a historic relationship in the family, but it would take a professional to tell you statistically how many generations ago that is. It's likely to be a very broad range of generations since you have so few markers. Why not assume that there is a kinship and try to establish from historical records what it is.
From the other remains found nearby he appears to have been a knight killed in battle probably far from where his family lived so that's going to be difficult. Thanks for the insight though on the DNA. My experience with it so far has only been tracing currently living people back to a common ancestor, generally with benefit of common last names and physical records. This one's really thrown me.
From the other remains found nearby he appears to have been a knight killed in battle probably far from where his family lived so that's going to be difficult. Thanks for the insight though on the DNA. My experience with it so far has only been tracing currently living people back to a common ancestor, generally with benefit of common last names and physical records. This one's really thrown me.
Interesting problem. Why is there a suspicion that this is an ancestor? 1300 years is a long time.
Interesting problem. Why is there a suspicion that this is an ancestor? 1300 years is a long time.
I don't think there's any suspicion of that. However, I think they may have a common ancestor and the question is how far back before the skeleton guy that common ancestor lived. The living individual is the only one found in the world's various dna databases who matched the skeleton that closely. It's a relatively rare haplotype, a sub-group of G2a that apparently also included the bourbon kings of France.
What makes this even stranger is the living individual is my cousin with whom I share a last name and a common patrilineal ancestor a little over 200 years back. We've matched up our family records, before the extraction of the skeleton's dna. My dna is actually one value on one marker off of this cousin's on the 12 point test (marker 389ii) so apparently my line mutated slightly over the past 200 years. However, it doesn't seem to have mutated much more than that over the 1,100 years before that (2 values on one marker), assuming the skeleton is related to us.
Last edited by CAVA1990; 03-08-2011 at 11:41 AM..
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