Thanks, Don! And thanks for doing so much testing.
Regarding the Big Y, here's some more info for our group at large.
First, to define SNPs one more time: Human DNA is comprised of
combinations of four chemicals abbreviated to A, C, T, and G. Our genome
has 3.2 billion of them! Every now and then, one of those "bases" flips to
one of the others. That a "single nucleotide polymorphism" or SNP. Such
mutations on the Y pass on to all sons, and they pass them on to their own
sons, along with any additional SNPs that might have occurred.
A great many ancient SNPs have been discovered by comparing test results.
Geographical regions as origins of the SNPs are determined along with
guestimate on its age.
Generally, we can group SNPs like this:
ANCIENT
-------
DEEP HISTORIC
-------------
RECENT HISTORIC
---------------
FAMILY & PERSONAL SNPs
----------------------
I've mentioned that one of the Benjamin Cooleys is testing. Their most
recent confirmed SNP is R-M269. That's an ancient SNP. The tree downstream
from it is very well developed (M269 is about seven lines down):
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stewartroyal/r1btree.jpg
The tester is having more than 10 million SNPs tested! Unless the Benjamin
clan is unique, the group stands to learn about a great many downstream
SNPs, allowing them to be well-placed on the tree.
But here's the thing. The SNPs need to be sorted out into the above four
levels. The ancient and deep historic SNPs will probably be
well-identified. The near historic (Benjamin's timeframe) and the personal
SNPS may not be so easily determined. Someone from a collateral line may
need to test. Matching SNPs between the two lines would belong to the most
recent common ancestor or upstream (older).
As far as I recall, only one SNP downstream from our own YP355, which is
ancient, has been discovered and Don tested negative for it. There is no
known vast downstream tree as for M269. Once one of us tests, there may be
more ancient SNPs found in common with other non-Cooley YP355, but there
will likely be a huge number of unidentified SNPs. We will have no idea as
to which SNPs date back to John and which are the tester's personal SNPs.
At this point two of us will need to test. In the meantime, testing for
new downstream SNPs as they come along will do.
I looked into kickstarter. It appears that we would qualify as a project.
We could start a savings account and then see if it could hooked up to a
paypal button.
Although we haven't learned much new about John's ancestry, we've come a
long way. We've proven that he's not of the Dutch Coles. We have a much
better idea as to his own family--Daniel is out and William Matthews and
Edmund are probably in. We now know Isaac N's family. Perrin Sr's family
is sorted as is the family for his son John. Although we have no leads on
John's daughter, Elizabeth Blackburn, we've learned quite a bit about
Hanna's family. There's some hope that among Hanna's descendants we'll
find a maternal lineage, from which we would learn Hanna's mother's. And I
feel we're just one DNA test away from placing Perrin C Cooley.
Happy holidays everyone!
-Michael
On Sat, December 13, 2014 17:18, Cooley wrote:
> I'm very interested in taking the Big Y test - I'm just waiting for the
> price to drop below $400 - even better under $300. At $525 it is still too
> high. However, I'll do any Y-DNA SNP test downstream from our YP355 that
> is discovered immediately. Just let me know if you hear of one.
>
> I'm a little frustrated with finding anything new about our Cooleys. I've
> had much better luck with just about every other family line -
> especially on my Mom's side. I've proven Mark Twain is my 3rd cousin, 5
> times removed. And I've found many DNA matches to cousins which has filled
> in gaps in my family tree and given me more confidence of some
> questionable ancestors.
>
> I'm about to start my 35th year at SRI International (use to be Stanford
> Research Institute) where I work as a Senior Research Physicist.
>
>
> Finally, I'd like to give Michael my special thanks for all the hard work
> he has done in uncovering the history of our Cooleys. I'm so sorry to
> hear of your health issues. I send you my best wishes.
>
> I wish all of you good health and happy holidays.
>
>
> Don Cooley
> Elmo Franklin Cooley
> Daniel Iven Cooley
> Timothy Goode "Tink" Cooley
> James Cooley
> John Cooley
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sun, Dec 7, 2014 at 6:22 PM, Michael Cooley <michael_at_newsummer.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> I certainly haven't lost sight of the grand prize: John Cooley's wife
>> and parents. But whether we will ever make that discovery is almost
>> immaterial. The journey has yielded a number of surprises (I'm thinking
>> right about John's probable son Edmund), dispelled some
>> misconceptions, and confirmed what seemed probable--Perrin Sr's
>> children, for example.
>>
>> But I don't have anything new to share at this time. The genetic
>> component seems to be stalled until one of us finds the means to take
>> the Big Y test. (If 20 of us contributed $25 we'd be there.) Also, a
>> couple of well-chosen autosomal tests might help narrow the placement of
>> Perrin C
>> Cooley. We should also be on the outlook for any matrilineal descendants
>> of the early Cooleys. Meaningful matches are rare but it's all about
>> numbers.
>>
>> One of the Benjamin Cooley descendants is waiting for Big Y results.
>> That
>> test will not, of course, have any significance for us but it will be a
>> great learning experience for me.
>>
>> Since we're in a lull and because it's the holiday season, I think it
>> would be appropriate to share anything personal going on. And I'll
>> start. :)
>>
>>
>> It's been a rough year for me. You may remember that I was in the
>> hospital last June for 100% blockage of my right coronary artery. I now
>> have five stents fortifying it. Unlike eight years ago, the chest pain
>> continued for months afterwards. but I now feel great. About the same
>> time, I broke out in a rash that covered my whole body. After six
>> months, it's clearing up. And two months ago I tweaked my back resulting
>> in debilitating sciatica. I had to drop the human genetics class at HSU
>> because I couldn't walk to campus from my car and I cancelled the
>> history seminar I was to teach for OLLI this month. It's suspected that
>> I have a herniated disk, which would
>> also be a repeat of eight years ago. I'm to call tomorrow to schedule an
>> MRI. And, finally, as you may remember, I had a rift with another
>> board member of the CFAA. I felt it was irreparable and resigned my
>> position. The CFAA is, of course, Benjamin-centric. My experience with
>> it over the last three years has convinced me that it will always be
>> that way.
>>
>> So, I've ejected a n umber of stressors from my life. I'm not to the
>> point of being bored (I can always find a project to work on) but my
>> blood pressure is down to 96/60. I'm calm and relaxed. :)
>>
>> Please remind me if there was something I promised to do that you're
>> still waiting for. I expect to start working again with ernest on the
>> book.
>>
>> I did make one small change to my page for John Cooley at
>> http://ancestraldata.com/ahnentafel/256/ . Previously I had a
>> distribution map for L448, the Y chromosome "Young Scandinavian" SNP. We
>> have confirmed that our male Cooleys have the YP355 SNP, which is
>> downstream of L448 and is, therefore, our current terminal SNP. The
>> distribution map now on the page was created last spring. Certainly,
>> many more people have since tested positive for it. Like its parent,
>> L448, its found throughout
>> Britain and Scandinavia. What we're looking for is a SNP that is
>> characteristically Scottish or British. With enough data, SNPs can be
>> dated. The SNP we want *is* there in the DNA of all male
>> Cooleys--myself,
>> Jim, Don, Jack, etc. We *will* ferret it out, and eventually population
>> geneticists will get a fix on its age. Once done, we'll have an idea on
>> what era our guy (who certainly possessed a name other than Cooley)
>> crossed the North Sea. He might have been a Viking, he might have
>> crossed in an earlier migration, and he might have crossed during the
>> modern era of trade between the two regions. (I have a British ancestor
>> who went to Sweden and served for Queen Christina. Presumably he died in
>> battle and his four orphaned children were sent to New Sweden, located
>> in what is now parts of NJ, DE and PA.)
>>
>> Surprises are on the horizon!
>>
>>
>> Happy Holidays,
>> Michael
>>
>>
>> (I didn't proof read. Sorry for any glaring typos!)
>>
>>
>> --
>> <a href="http://newsummer.com/distlist">distlist 0.9b</a>
>> See http://johncooley.net/list for list information.
>>
>>
>
--
Administrator, the Akins DNA Project
Administrator, the Ashenhurst DNA Project
Administrator, the Bishop DNA Project
Administrator, the Eldridge DNA Project
Administrator, the Fisk DNA Project
Administrator, the alt-McDowell DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the Cooley DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the McDougall DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the Pickens DNA Project
Co-Administrator, the Strother DNA Project
Instructor, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
B.A. Humboldt State University, History
Received on Sun Dec 14 2014 - 18:54:40 CST
