August 2015 Quarterly Report

The Iowa DNA Project was formed at the end of November 2014 and this August has reached 285 members.  The project is ‘geographical’ in nature, and designed for those who have direct ancestors who lived in Iowa, or those who have collateral lines that lived in Iowa. Our focus is on autosomal, aka Family Finder results, but we also have members who have or are in the process of having their mtDNA and YDNA tested.

Key Figures

• Total Iowa DNA Project Members: 285
• Family Finder Tests Completed: 234
• Highest number of database wide matches per member: 3000
• Lowest number of database wide matches per member: 1
• Average Number of Database Matches: 234
• Inter-Project Matches: 170
• 94 of 99 Iowa Counties Represented by members
• Multi-Generational Family and Extended Family Testers

Nuts and Bolts

The Iowa DNA Project Surname Index can be found here.  Surnames associated with specific counties can be found here.  If you have not yet added your surname, family tree, and most distant ancestor details, please consider doing so.  You never know which piece of information may be the one to help you make the connection you need. Now that FTDNA has a SEARCH feature, locating your family lines is even easier.  Also, surnames are again auto-populated when you upload your Gedcom to FTDNA.  You no longer need to enter them manually.

• Total Iowa Surnames: 592
• Members with Family Trees:212
• Members with listed Surnames: 231
• Members with listed Most Distant Ancestors: 210

Haplogroups

Project YDNA: As expected, the most common Y haplogroup is R and its subclades, with I and its subclades the second most common.  Currently, 16 project members have completed the Big Y test.

• R-M269: 47
• R (excluding R-M269): 31
• I: 20
• G: 3
• E: 2
• J: 2
• N: 2

More information on the project’s patriarchs and YDNA results can be found here.

Project mtDNA:  The most common mtDNA continues to be H and its subclades with a variety of other haplogroups also represented. Currently, 80 project members have completed Full Mitochondrial Sequencing.

Member Haplogroups:

• H: 57
• K: 14
• J: 11
• T: 10
• U:10
• I: 3
• W: 2
• V: 1

Complete information on our project’s mtDNA matriarchs, statistics and mutations can be found here.

Declared Countries of YDNA and mtDNA Origin

MyOrigins Leaderboard

Based on percentage points per member, the Iowa DNA Project populations are listed below in order of frequency.  Descriptions of each population cluster can be found here.  Additional admixture tools can be found at Gedmatch.

• British Isles 9929
• Western and Central Europe 5525
• Scandinavia 5448
• Southern Europe 1276
• Eastern Europe 1186
• Finland and Northern Siberia 212
• Asia Minor 157
• (Blended Population Cluster) Eastern, Western and Central European 100
• Central Asia 67
• West Africa 94
• Ashkenazi Diaspora 66
• Northeast Asia 65
• Eastern Middle East 65
• Native American 34
• North Africa 13
• (Blended Population Cluster) British Isles and Western and Central Europe 1
• East Central Africa 4
• South-Central Africa 2

As a matter of admixture interest, there are a handful of project members who are reported as having a single MyOrigins population:

• 100% British Isles 2 members
• 100% Western and Central Europe 1 member
• 100% Scandinavian 1 member
• 100% Eastern, Western and Central Europe 1 member

Coming Results:

We are all aware of the delays in test results at FTDNA.  In a previous post, I examined the project’s backlog at FTDNA.  I am happy to report the tests referenced in the previous post have long since completed, as well as several Family Finders which were ordered after the post and completed in the expected amount of time.

As you can see, project members are active in the genetic testing arena. Currently, we are waiting for:

• CTS9940 Batch 629
• G SNP Pack Batch 631
• Big Y Batch 635
• R1b-M343 Backbone SNP Pack Batch 635
• mtFull Sequence Batch 636
• Y-DNA111 Batch 636
• R1b-M343 Backbone SNP Pack Batch 634
• Family Finder Batch 636
• Y-DNA67 Batch 632
• Family Finder Batch 633 (DELAYED)
• Y-DNA111 Batch 633
• Y-DNA67 Batch 625 (DELAYED)
• mtFull Sequence Batch 636
• mtFull Sequence Batch 635
• Big Y Batch 633
• BY250, BY251, CTS1039, CTS2791, CTS8563 Batch 632

 Do You have Iowan Roots?

I would once again like to thank the project members for their many efforts over the previous nine months, and especially their patience when I moved house over the summer and was without internet for a time.  If you would like to join the Iowa DNA Project, please visit our homepage here.  The project has converted to MyGroups and has activated its Activity Feed to encourage collaboration. The Feed may be accessed after joining and of course our links section is available to all.