Progress on y_mt_DNA haplogroups?

 This post was written back in March 2020.  Six months down the track, having explored many many related, and un-related rabbit holes it is time I actually published it. Not a lot of progress has been made since then!

I've finally also made time to explore the new addition to the DNAPainter tree tools, the part that allows you to input y_ and mt_ DNA haplogroups and watch them propagate through the tree to the applicable branches.
The trouble with writing progress review posts is that you realise, all over again, where the gaps are and get sidetracked onto filling them instead of finishing the post!
Here's the sneak preview:

My main reason for making the time to do this was to check where I'd got to in my unwritten aim back in 2007 when I started DNA testing in earnest, that of collecting the yDNA haplogroups for all of my 2* great grandfathers and mtDNA haplogroups for the 2* great grandmothers - and as many of the earlier generations as possible.
What better way to check than to use a very useful and colourful, new toy, umm tool.

Like most, I don't read the manual before diving in, so was pleasantly surprised that once a haplogroup was entered, it propagated up/down the tree where appropriate even where I wasn't the test taker.
I chose to enter it where the test taker's and my tree shared an ancestor, with a note to remind myself there who tested, at what level.

As I looked at the chart I even struggled to remember who all I'd cajoaled into y/mt DNA  testing way back at the beginning of my journey, and had to remind myself of some of the results.  Whilst writing this I remembered I had two more to enter!
They were fairly easy to look up as I run several projects on FTDNA, several having been started to keep track of the matches I hoped would roll in :) but few  are truly active projects:
- my private autosomal project for my relatives and those that match then, but also includes the y and BigY testing for my Henderson brickwall;
- the Fairbairn project, which is the one that has had the most success as we group up assorted lines using BigY;
- the Runciman testing which seems to have dried up after an initial flurry with surprising results grouping up 4 early lines on what is thought to be an occupational surname;
- the Wight, Sinton and Dawe surname projects have all had moderate degrees of success with spasmodic attention and upgrades to BigY.
- Familton is too sparse a name for many candidates but my line, and a candidate we hoped would match, did, and one of them was a direct female line descendant of the mother to boot, so that was a two-fer
- there a couple of others that aren't my family names but I'm helping others.
I have passed admin on to others for the Rowe and Finlayson projects

More recent tests are very targetted and mostly aimed at BigY testing for specific puzzles, family groups or surname projects but the earlier tests are the now low resolution y37 and mtDNA HVR1. Several testers are now deceased, with upgrades no longer possible, even if the samples were still viable after all this time.

Why do I want to know the haplogroups?

- to further validate the tree, and to check out hypotheses
- to get clues for the brickwalls.
- to satisfy my OCD for completeness :)

It has proved a lot harder than it sounded, with "opportunities" thrown in at all the steps
- finding the right candidates
- convincing them to test
- and waiting for the matches to roll in,

The hardest of these is to make my own luck on the latter matches by working hardest at the first, trying to find candidates for the hypotheses that have developed for the brickwall breakthroughs over the years.

Mind you it certainly hasn't been my top focus for a while, the advent of both autosomal DNA, and the BigY testing taking priority over the search for those elusive candidates for direct male line descendants for the assorted yDNA lines and any living person with the correct direct maternal lines for mtDNA.

 So how have I done?

 

 
Not too bad really on the face of it.
Although there are 4 red circles for unknown mtDNA haplogroups that's "only" 3 test takers still needed.
The bad news however is there are no possible candidates from Helen Sinton Wight's descendants, and her siblings look to be similarly in short supply of any descendants still with Helen Sinton's mtDNA.
For that line the search has to continue working down the lines of Helen Sinton's siblings.
https://www.wikitree.com/treewidget/Wight-193/890#mt
are the descendants of Helen's mother Jane Sinton nee Wight who carry her mitochondrial DNA, and are documented on WikiTree as at now (March 2020).
The report is incomplete but if you wish to contribute information on descendants, please do so, and send anyone interested in helping along to my mtDNA Tester Wanted page on WikiTree for further information.

Honor Dawe mtDNA status:

No candidates down from Honor; May yet be candidates to be found down from mother Betsy's first two daughters, or by working back a generation yet further to her aunts.  Lines where candidates look to be found are gradually being added to WikITree, where they appear both in the mtDNA Tester Wanted page and on the mtDNA carrying descendants of Patience Pike report.

Agnes Fairbairn status:

Candidates look to be in short supply down from Agnes but there may yet be some to be found descending from her siblings (mtDNA Descendant report from Agnes Robinson) although some are proving elusive to trace.

The only missing yDNA haplogroup is for a newly found line - which does indeed look to have candidates, as yet not approached, so I am hopeful that will eventually be a completed task.

At the 3*great grandparent level:

I do so hope to particularly:
- convince a candidate Chrystal descendant to test and add weight to a theory on the ancestry of Amelia Millar which remains shrouded in mystery. We know that a direct maternal line descendant of Amelia is T2e.
- resolve a yDNA discrepancy on my Henderson line between my 2* great grandfather's confirmed yDNA signature and that of his brother Archibald, but that could take some time as other line candidates are in short supply

Aim for 2020 (which year already seems to be rapidly advancing to its midpoint - now well past!):
To remember to lift my eyes from working out where all the exciting new atDNA matches "fit", even when they do look they'll crack the odd brickwall or two.

In addition to the specific puzzles above I am trying to use mt_ and y_DNA matches to corroborate hypotheses and validate the already existing haplogroups which, in the main, are from a sole tester, with some exceptions in the yDNA.

For the mtDNA hypothesis pile:

- corroboration that Sarah Parker mother of Jemima is indeed the same Sarah Parker who married James Tyrrell, descendants of whom we have atDNA matches too, albeit distant.
Candidates for that one however seem to be in very short supply - only one identified, but as yet, not located, and with a surname Wedding, web searches could be a tad difficult!.
I do have hopes that should a test eventuate they'll turn out to be the absolute first mtDNA match to any of my kits that is also close enough in timeframe to also have atDNA matches.
It will be even more satisfying that match should be to me as Sarah is my newfound 4*great grandmother on my direct maternal line.

Do you check the haplogroups of your matches?

Haplogroups can also be helpful with autosomal DNA matches.
If you know the respective haplogroups of the matches and do NOT have a haplogroup match, you can be sure which lines they do not match you on as they can only have got their haplogroups from their respective direct male or female lines as appropriate. A matching haplogroup is not proof however that the direct line is where the match is.

Where to search for matches

Although only FTDNA does y_and mt_DNA testing with matching - and a number of haplogroup projects - both 23andme and LivingDNA do provide broad haplogroups from your atDNA test which will provide the basic validation for atDNA matches.
My LivingDNA mtDNA haplogroup is identical to that provided via a full mtDNA test at FTDNA, but my 23andme one is somewhat less precise as I tested quite some years ago, and have not paid for the upgrade to the now not so new chip.

You cannot currently search LivingDNA atDNA match lists for those with a haplogroup, but can do so for 23andme.