News
We've made connections that have resulted in two
new lineages - 7 & 8. We need these folks' known documents research to know what
it means.
We've added several people to known lineages.
Watch the home page news block for updates on
the new Mi'kmaq and S21 projects.
New results for --
Richard W. Sinclair
Keith George Sinclair
Jonathan Herbert Sinclair
Thomas William Sinclair
David McKenzie Sinclair
Randolph Russell Alton Sinclair
Matthew Thomas Kelty
Peter Sinclair
Andrew Sinclair
Kenneth Glidden Monahan
Margaret Stokes, FSA Scot, has joined our
team. To fully appreciate what this means and why we're so excited about it
for your own understanding of your DNA,
click here.
Shawn D. Sinclair has results in. He's from
Canada and, interestingly, doesn't closely connect to Charles A. as I thought he
might. Charles A's line goes back through Nova Scotia and on back to Breckrow
Scotland. Interestingly, Shawn is only one marker off (among black markers only)
from Alexander Malcolm Sinclair. Alexander has documents back to 1770 in
Caithness. Alexander, if you're reading this, I think I haven't received those
documents yet.
Max Richard Sinclair joins with his full
25-marker test putting him in Lineage 3 at a genetic distance of Zero from Paul
James St. Clair and Donald L. Sinclair.
The recent connection for
Niven and what it means to the project.
When the military is trying to
determine the location of someone broadcasting radio signals, they do what’s
called vectoring. They try to get the direction of the signal from at least two
different points. Three points is more accurate than two, four more accurate
than 3 and so on. But unless you have at least two, you can’t tell much about
where the signal is coming from. The same is true with DNA. One participant with
a good documents trail doesn’t tell us much. But when we find a match to that
person with another who has good documents, we’ve really achieved something.
This is what happened with Niven and Ian. Niven has reliable documents that
lead back to the 1st Earl of Caithness and Ian has good documents
back to the 1600's and a family tradition back to the 1st Earl. This DNA match
makes the documents research of both an absolute certainty.
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Documents research is always
open to debate. While you say you connect to someone, all you can really prove
is that you are going down the same lines. You can't pinpoint with absolute
certainty who was the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) unless it's very
recent.
A genetic distance of 3 means
that Niven and Ian don't share a common ancestor in the last 200 or 300 years.
That's pretty certain. And their documents research proves they DO share a
common ancestor no earlier than the 1st Earl of Caithness. So, sometime in
between those two times, they have a common grandfather.
Documents comparisons will
shortly clear up who that MRCA is. What’s very unlikely is that they connect
before that time period. The fact that two independent documents researchers
have "vectored" in to the same line and now have lined up using DNA makes it
nearly impossible that both their documents research are wrong. There is only
ONE correct line of documents research. There are THOUSANDS of wrong
possibilities.
This lineage has become the
oldest documented connection in our project and, I suspect, one of the older
ones in any family project anywhere.
In looking closely at
the exact markers that have mutated (the genetic distance of 3) you'll note that
all of these are red numbers.
Click here to see the results. This
means they're alleles that are known to mutate faster than the norm. The point
it, this genetic distance of 3 could mean they share a MRCA in less than 400
years. Again, a documents comparison will clear this up.
For the project as a
whole --
What this all means is a very important point for our
project.
Ian's line has been factually traced back to the mid 1600's,
however family legend, passed to Ian from an aunt, stated that the line went
back to the 1st Earl of Caithness. This shared common ancestor with Niven in the
1400’s helps us understand what a genetic distance of 3 means in this project.
This is the power of DNA when paired with good documents research. Understanding
this timing is a very important discovery for the project as a whole as I’ve
seen no research on the subject of genetic distances beyond 2 and how far back
in time they might point.
The prevailing attitude on the
Family Tree DNA website is that if you’re not a genetic distance of two or less,
you’re likely not related. This has rubbed me the wrong way since we began this
project. I suspected that families as old as ours are rare in the Family Tree
DNA database. For families that know they go back only to the 1700’s, it makes
sense that they look at a genetic distance of 2. But for families that go back
as far as ours, it makes much more sense to look at genetic distances of 3, 4
and 5.
The Ireland connections
The fact that Ian’s line went to Ireland at the time of Charles II
(1660-1685) is interesting in that Ian is not connecting to the other known
lines of Sinclairs there. Clearly, there were many sources of our family in
Ireland. We now have 3 that are genetically very distant from one another, yet
all living in Ireland at some time. I believe we’re seeing evidence of the same
thing in Scotland – several families there that will only join up once back in
Normandy or Norway.
For the rest of us in the
project
Enough with the 'genetic distance of two' arguments. We were trying to be
responsible and follow the norm in DNA research. But we're not a normal family
(stop snickering). Our website will soon change to include anyone connecting at
a genetic distance of 4 into a full lineage. We are an ancient family, and
connections for us must be viewed differently than other testing groups. When
you see how many of you connect at a genetic distance of 4 and 5, you'll be
amazed. I've already worked it out and can tell you, it's amazing. Watch for
this on the site soon.
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