February 2016 Quarterly Report

The Iowa DNA Project was formed in November 2014 and has now reached 519 members.  The project is categorized as ‘geographical’, and is designed for those who have direct ancestry in Iowa, or those researching collateral lines that lived in Iowa. Our focus is on autosomal, aka Family Finder results, but we also have numerous members interested in testing and investigating their mtDNA and YDNA origins.

Those new to DNA testing are especially welcome and their research aims are supported and encouraged  within the project.  If you have tested with another company, you may wish to transfer your results to FTDNA and join us.  Instructions on how to transfer your raw results are available here.

Key Figures

• Total Iowa DNA Project Members: 519
• Family Finder Tests Completed: 427
• Total Donations: $224  Current Balance $26
• Highest number of database wide matches per member: 3500
• Average number of database wide matches per member: 872
• Highest number of Inter-Project matches per member: 11
• Weekly Inter-Project Match Updates
• All Iowa Counties Represented

Nuts and Bolts

The Iowa DNA Project Surname Index can be found here.  Surnames associated with specific counties can be found in our FAQ here.  Current members, if you’ve not already uploaded a gedcom and entered your Surname and Most Distant Ancestor details, you are strongly encouraged to do so. You can get detailed instructions on how to complete your profile here.

• Total Iowa Surnames: 831
• Members with Family Trees: 410
• Members with listed Surnames:  459
• Members with listed Most Distant Ancestors: 396

Iowan Family Groups

The long term goal of the Iowa DNA Project is the inclusion of multiple generations and extended family members who have taken the Family Finder test.  These family groups assist in helping inter-project matches determine how they may be connected and which branch of their family trees to examine further to prove their connections.  Last October, we teamed up with Göran Runfeld of dnagen.net  to trial his ICW Tool and to map out the interconnectedness of the entire Iowa DNA project.   Below is a depiction of the current extended connections between our members. 

Using the ICW Tool gives Iowa DNA Project members easy access to a variety of additional information and charts including a tabulation of our members’ Suggested Relationships.  As you can see, our members are actively recruiting close family members to test.

Suggested Relationships

• Parent/Child: 68
• Full Siblings: 54
• Grandparent/Grandchild/Half Siblings: 28
• Aunt/Uncle/Niece/Nephew: 28
• 1^st Cousin: 40
• 2^nd Cousin: 52
• 3^rd Cousin: 100
• 4^th Cousin: 236

More can be learned about the ICW Tool’s process and results here.  Detailed information and access to charts and figures is available to project members.

 

Haplogroups

Project YDNA: As expected, the most common Y haplogroup is R and its subclades, with I and its subclades being the second most common.  To date,  28 project members have completed the Big Y test.  If you are interested in getting closer to your terminal SNP but aren’t interested in the price tag of the Big Y, there are numerous reasonably priced SNP packs available to help get you further down the phylotree*.

• R-M269: 75
• R (excluding R-M269): 52
• I: 36
• E: 5
• G: 5
• J: 4
• N: 3
• B: 1

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

*If you are unsure, check with your Haplogroup’s administrator for advice on which SNP pack is suitable for you.

Project mtDNA:  The most common mtDNA continues to be H and its subclades with a variety of other haplogroups also represented.  147 project members have completed Full Mitochondrial Sequencing.

Member Haplogroups:

• H: 81
• K: 22
• U: 27
• T: 19
• J: 14
• I: 7
• W:  4
• V: 4
• B: 2
• HV: 2
• L: 1
• HVO:1
• C: 1
• X: 1
• A: 1
• RO: 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.

On the whole, as our numbers have risen since last November, the populations seen in the project have remained at generally consistent levels with two exceptions.  Members with calculated Native American and Central Asian ancestry have increased.

• British Isles 16,755
• Scandinavia 10,093
• Western and Central Europe 8650
• Southern Europe 2577
• Eastern Europe 1931
• Finland and Northern Siberia 521
• Asia Minor 496
• West Africa 259
• Ashkenazi Diaspora 184
• Eastern Middle East 159
• Central Asia 138
• Native American 128
• (Blended Population Cluster) Eastern, Western and Central European 100
• Northeast Asia 83
• North Africa 57
• East Central Africa 8
• South-Central Africa 6

100% Club:

• 100% British Isles 5 members
• 100% Western and Central Europe 3 members
• 100% Scandinavian 1 member
• 100% Eastern, Western and Central European 1 member

Coming Results:

Currently, we are waiting for a few kits to be returned to the lab for testing: 1 Factoid, 1 YDNA 12 Marker, 1 YDNA 111 Marker, 1 Y-Hap-Backbone, 1 mtDNA Full Sequence and  1 mtDNA Plus.  We have members who are predominantly interested in haplogroups and have not yet ordered a Family Finder.  We also have 40 kits that have taken advantage of the 3^rd Party transfer offer  but are not yet unlocked.   Current members, please keep in mind you cannot be checked for inter-project matches without a completed and unlocked Family Finder test.

From the FTDNA lab, we are waiting for:  2 mtFull Sequence (1 delayed), 1 Big Y, 3 YDNA 67, 2 YDNA 111, 1 Y Haplogroup Backbone (failed quality control/delayed), 1 R1b-M222 SNP Pack, 1 R1b-Z253 SNP Pack, 1 R1b-L1065 SNP Pack, 6 individual SNPS (4 failed quality control/ delayed, 1 delayed) and 1 Family Finder (delayed).

Do You have Iowan Roots?

Many of our project members descend from families who were part of the pioneering settlement of Iowa that pushed in from the eastern seaboard, riding their prairie schooners west, until they found the bountiful farmland of Iowa. Additionally, we have descendents of more recent immigrants, some who know the names of their ancestral European villages and their immigrant family’s Scandinavian farm names.  If you have Iowan roots, you are welcome to join and encouraged to collaborate and share your family’s history and its place in the settlement of Iowa.