There are several new DNA results on the Wells Family Research Association
website.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wellsfam/dnaproje/results1.html
There are now 12 pages rather than the 7 as was previously the case. I
have tried to group similar patterns together and to allow more room to
expand with new results. In looking at the number of samples on pages 1
and 2 I am thinking I will have to split these shortly also. There are
quite a number of samples in progress.
You will note that some of the cells are colored. If a cell is aqua (blue)
it means this marker position differs from others in the baseline pattern
for the sample. In some cases, most commonly on DYS389i and DYS389ii, that
the adjacent value will be light green. The reason for this is that the
value of DYS389i is included in DYS389ii. If the first has a change it is
always also indicated in the second. If the difference in both cases are
the same value and in the same direction (up or down from the baseline)
then it is considered a single mutation/variation and not counted as two.
You will also see a new column to the right labelled "branch". If the
baseline and branch are the same number this generally means that we have
not been able to match the participant to a baseline family. If the
baseline is different it means the branch starts with a descendent of the
baseline family ancestor. I have done this to differentiate between the
participants in a family. Descendents looking for a specific branch will
be more interested in finding their near cousins and contacting them rather
than broadcasting email to everyone in the family.
I have not finished work on the last three pages, so please be patient. I
thought it best to get the new information up so you all can have a look
at it.
I have not finished updating the family listing page. This too will
probably be split off to a separate set of pages that are small enough to
view on a browser screen. There are nearly 300 family/branch entries now
plus some newly designated baseline families. I am sure more will be added
as we find new matches to some of the lone samples. We are seeing this
happen slowly in some of the other families where new samples match
existing samples that did not appear to be connected before. We are also
seeing some samples that appeared to be unconnected grouping together. I
am not yet sure what to make of this because we don't know how to connect
any of the members of such clusters, but the DNA is strongly hinting they
are somehow related.
Note too that some of the baseline families have had alpha characters added
for some entries. For example on page 1 some of the entries for family 15
show 15a, 15b, 15c etc. This indicates that while the DNA pattern is a
match with family 15 we do not yet know how the branch connects. I
probably have made some errors in this area. If anyone can identify how
one of the noted branches actually connects to the baseline family, please
let me know so I can revise the table.
We have come a long way, but we have a long way yet to go and many
questions that need to be answered.
I will follow up in a few days with a list of the test results since my
last update on this subject several months ago. The DNA project is still
very much underway. We need more participants to begin to make sense out
of some of what we are seeing. I am starting to feel sorry for projects
with a few dozen participants. They are surely limited in their ability to
see the bigger picture for a surname group.
If any participant does not know his (or her surrogate's) participant
number, please feel free to contact me. I may have neglected to advise
some recent participants of this number.
I also just noticed that I have an error on some of the pages with the
e-mail link. It will return you to the wrong page in some cases. It is
too late to fix this tonight, so I will leave it to the next update.
AND, some participants will find their sample has moved from where it was
before. This is because I have learned they are a closer match to another
sample or samples and moved the test results to a more appropriate
position. There were a few changes to the family numbers.
Orin R. Wells
Wells Family Research Association
P. O. Box 5427
Kent, Washington 98064-5427
<OrinWells(a)wells.org>
http://www.wells.org
Subscribe to the "Wells-L" list on RootsWeb