The best way that you can help is to invest some spend time in getting up to speed as much as possible. By being more knowledgeable about YDNA, you will better understand what you are ordering and if any recommendations suggested really fits your personal research goals. See the link "Understanding DNA" in the header for more infomation. Please listen to advice from the L226 leadership for additional testing. We spend a tremendous amount of time providing free consultation that you should take advantage of. We will not always get it perfect but we can guarantee that we are making serious progress towards our common goals.

You can also greatly assist by joining the appropriate surname and haplogroup projects. Since many projects are becoming private or other adminiistrators may not request that you change the your new default setting from private, many submissions will not be included in our analysis since we are not aware of your testing. The more that information is available for research, the more more accurate analysis becomes and the less that total testing costs will be. If you tested positive for L226 or any of its descendants, please join the L226 haplogroup project where data can be accessed frequently. If you know somebody that is predicted to be L226 positive, please lobby them test for L226 or test the L226 SNP pack test. It is very easy to see if you (or somebody else is predicted L226 positive) by using my L21 YSNP predictor (which includes L226). Just click on the link "L226 SNP Predictor" and enter your 67 YSTR markers and it will tell if you are predicted to be L226 positive. To date, this tool has been 100 % accurate for L226 due to our very unique L226 signature. If you have tested positive for L226 (or any L226 descendant), please join the L226 haplogroup project by hitting the Join Button on the top right after using the link below:

Join the FTDNA L226 Project

CHANGING YOUR PRIVACY DEFAULT SETTING

Around the beginning of 2015, FTDNA created a new default for the privacy setting for all new YDNA testers from Everyone (public) to Project Only (private). Before this change in the default, all new submissions had a default setting of Everyone (public). Although this sounds like a good idea, the dramatically increases the overall costs to the genetic genealogy community as data has much more restricted access than before. Most leading edge research is done via YSNP testing and this requires a lot of data across hundreds of projects. By leaving your privacy setting at "private," your submission is not seen by the people that can help you the most giving you assistance.

Here are the steps to change your privacy setting to Anyone (public):

1) Log onto to the FTDNA website using your FTDNA ID and password.

2) On the left side of the screen under the "Profile," select the link, "Manage Personal Information."

3) Under Account Settings, select the last link on the right "Privacy & Sharing."

4) Under My DNA Results and to the right of "Who can view my my DNA results?", select the link "Project Members."

5) Under "My DNA Results," select the radio button "Make my mtDNA & Y-DNA data public."

6) Select the "Save" button.

You can also help with this mission to increase the accessiblity of your YDNA data by lobbying FTDNA project admins to change their privacy settings from Project Only (private) to Everyone (public) for each project that you belong to. Both the YSTR report and the YSNP report have separate privacy settings, both should be changed to public. This restrictive privacy choice reminds me of the days of genealogists hording a photocopy of a family Bible that contains vital information that should be shared. If your testing information is kept private, your test results will not be seen by haplogroup researchers. If your data can not be accessed, it will not be analyzed by haplogroup researchers. This not only increases overall testing costs for everyone but your submission will not be analyzed by haplogroup researchers because they are not aware of your testing since it is not publicly posted.

UPDATING YOUR OLDEST PROVEN ANCESTOR

You can also help by entering your genealogical information into your FTDNA profile. In your FTDNA profile, be sure to enter your oldest proven ancestor and your earliest geograhic origin. Do not speculate, only use well proven information in these fields. Information about your oldest proven male ancestor and the geographical origin of your ancestor is used in genetic analysis, If your surname project publishes pedigrees of their all male ancestors, please send them a brief summary of your all-male ancestry. Please be sure clearly point out speculation of ancestry from your well proven ancestry when you provide information to your surname project admins. You do not want propagate questionable genealogical information that will corrupt the genetic analysis. Surnames is a very important piece of information that is used in genetic analysis. FTDNA also now allows you to upload your GEDCOM files that should include your pedigree.

SPONSOR TESTING OF OTHER RELATED RESEARCHERS

Both haplogroup researchers and genealogists are too biased with the spending of their limited funds on their own YDNA tests. All researchers have a tendency to only test their own submissions while expecting others to test their submissions. Unfortunately, the reality is that others are not going to share your enthusiasm about your testing interests and your genetic goals will suffer due to a lack of planned spending that returns the maximum return for your investment. It is human nature to want to understand everything that there is to know about your own submission - but genetic testing is taken to a such a point that it becomes wasteful of research funds. For any kind of genetic research, it is always much more cost effective in the long run to test what the project needs vs. over-testing your own submission with every test that is possible. Please use a portion of your funds to test closer matches to your line or sponsor critical testing to haplogroup research by helping out others that either do not have the same ecomonic means to test or just do not understand the importance of your requests for testing.

SETTING GOALS AND TESTING PRIORITIES

One of my favorite Chinese proverbs states "a person without goals can take any path since they have no destination in mind". With any project, you really need to think about what you want from participating in genetic research. There are too many competing goals to cover them all, but there are two major forks in the road with respect to defining your goals for your genetic testing. You may be extremely interested in developing a very robust L226 haplotree that all L226 researchers would benefit from. We should all have this goal to some degree but you do need to prioritize how important making the L226 the envy of others is important to you. Discovering your own major branch is like discovering and naming a star that will last for a very long time. Of course, you have to settle for names like DC69, Y6913, A6097 or FGC12290. I like the DC label as this refers to our Dal Cais origins and L226 has the more Dal Cais names than any other haplogroup (but not all the Dal Cais were L226). We have Dennis Wright to thank for that creative and descriptive label.

Another valid goal is to concentrate on breaking down the surname brick wall of your L226 ancestor. This goal may require that you test for a major branch first if your part of L226 is not well tested. If you are really interested in discovering genealogical time frame branches, your primary options are more NGS testing or testing of known private YSNPs of your closest matching NGS tester. There are now several branches under L226 that are genealogical in nature since several L226 branches now have over 50 % of submissions with one surname (including variant spellings). With this high of a percentage of just one surname, this kind of branch probably has one common male ancestor with the same surname. L226 is definitely Irish and most Irish surnames originated around 1,000 years. After 1,000 years, or 40 generations, that is enough time for a lot of NPE events that add a lot of other surnames your cluster that really only has one common ancestor with the same surname.

So the fork in the road is concentrating on helping develop a robust L226 haplotree that maximizes impact for all L226 researcher (deep ancestry research) or the recently new option to focus on your own genetic cluster (close YSTR matches) for a true genealogical research. Of course, true genealogical research is not always an option as someone that is genetically close to you must first blazed that new trail by taking that first NGS test in your genetic cluster. If no person is genetically close you (you have no gentic matches), you need to concentrate on building your surname cluster. You encourage your distant cousins to test different sons or grandsons of your common male ancestor. If you think another person is probably related, encourage them to test to confirm that they are indeed closely related. If your surname cluster is already developed, the most genealogically oriented next step is a NGS test so that the cluster can start testing the private YSNPs that you discover. Thanks to Dennis Wright, he encouraged others to join together and pay for one "Walk the Y" test which was the first low coverage YDNA discovery test. This test resulted in the discovery of L226 and we now have 26 branches today.

It is probably best allocate some time/funds to both options (deep ancestry that helps the L226 project and genealogical that breaks down surname brick walls). This "L226 Private" project will primarily focus on our genealogical goals but also contains a lot of deep ancestry goals as well. Remember, if genealogical goals are your primary interest, you first have to identify and build a surname cluster first. Once a surname cluster is developed, the next step is that somebody has to be the first to order the first NGS test in your cluster that will provide private YSNPs to test. Then everyone has to methodically test these private YSNPs to discover genealogical branches. After all the private YSNPs are tested, you will need more NGS tests - preferably some being high resolution NGS tests from Full Genomes Corporation which will discover 30 % more private YSNPs.

Since Dennis Wright already does an excellent job of analyzing NGS tests, this project will concentrate on analyzing individual YSNP testing and tracking pack/panel YSNP testing. I assist Dennis is his analysis to a limited degree but Dennis does the heavy lifting for the actual NGS analysis. This project will also attempt to create reasonably accurate descendant charts that includes as many submissions as possible. My first pass has created a chart that already includes aroun 50 % of all 67 marker submissions that tested or predicted to be L226 positive. Over the next few months, I should be able to create a reasonably accurate L226 descendant that includes 80 to 90 % of all 67 marker L226 submissions. This will assist Dennis and myself to recommend which test to take: another NGS test, a high resolution NGS test, the FTDNA Z253 SNP pack test, the YSEQ Z253 SNP panel test or individual YSNP testing (primarily from YSEQ due to their willingness to test private YSNPs and their cost being less than 50 % of FTDNA's cost).

DEEP ANCESTRY L226 BRANCH RESEARCHERS

There is a strong tendency of only using NGS tests for to discover major new branches. This strategy does produce the most new major branches but testing private YSNPs can also produce many new branches as well. The NGS tests do build a wealth of private YSNPs that will benefit future L226 research but the NGS only approach does not discover new branches in a very cost effective manner. For every newly discovered L226 branch via only NGS testing, the average cost is around $1,400 per new branch discovered. With a minimal amount of analysis of YSTR signatures, selected tests of individual YSNPs tests are revealing new branches for around $140 per branch discovered. However, NGS tests continue to create a larger pool of untested private YSNPs and L226 now has over 300 private YSNPs that could be future branches. Additionally, YSNP pack testing (FTDNA) and YSNP panel testing (YSEQ) will rarely reveal any new branches under L226 since they are testing only known branches under L226. However, these YSNP bundled offerings produce a lot more genetic information about L226 that is used to determine the best testing recommendations and dramatically help in building the L226 descendant chart which will greatly lower costs over time as we understand where and what to test based on these descendant charts.

NGS tests are somewhat better suited for disovering older major branches but individual YSNP testing of private YSNPs tends to discover more recent branches at a lower costs. Individual YSNP testing can also discover major branches but costs can escalate rapidly if there is no genetic isolation from the rest of L226. FGC5647 and FGC5639 were new branches that were quite easy to discover since this cluster is very genetically isolated from other L226 submissions. However, DC69 is genetically diverse and the genetic distance between DC69 submissions is signficantly higher. This is why only one branch has been discovered even though all six private YSNPs of the NGS tester have been tested by individual testing by three submissions to date (including the original NGS tester).

L226 has two very significant genetic bottlenecks that require special testing methodologies. The first L226 genetic bottleneck is defined by the large number of L226 equivalents that indiciate that L226 barely made it though in the Dark Ages. During this "dark" era, crop failures (due to lack of rain from colder temperatures) and massive loss of life from diseases that were rampant. The first five or ten generations after the creation of L226, saw only a handful of surviving males which are very genetically diverse. L226 positive and FGC5660 negative is the earliest branch of L226 and represents less than five percent of L226 descendants today. Extensive NGS and individual YSNP testing will be required for this earliest branch to understand the origins of L226. The extensive testing of these early branches will allow us to determine the actual haplotype of L226 which will be quite different from the modal or signature of L226. The haplotype is the actual marker values of our ancestor that had the L226 mutation. The modal and signature of L226 is quite different. It includes YSTR mutations just before and just after our L226 ancestor. Signatures and modals allow us to predict which YSTR submissions that will be L226 positive but it will never reflect the haplotype of our L226 ancestor. We all need to help fund testing in this critical earliest branch of L226 since nailing down the L226 haplotype benefits all L226 researchers in a very significant way. Those stuck with FGC5660 STAR (the second oldest branch under L226) will benefit the most since we really do not know the early evolution of YSTR values without knowing the marker values of L226 haplotype.

The second major bottleneck is along the trunk of the L226 haplotree. Around 30 % of all L226 submissions belong to these three branches out of the twenty-six branches of L226 (using only stable branches). This second bottleneck includes people whose terminal YSNP is FGC5660, FGC5628 or FGC5659 (those testing positive for these YSNPs but negative for all downstream YSNPs). Thirteen out of forty-nine (27 %) of the NGS testers belong to these three branches. 91 out of 306 (30 %) private YSNPs belong to the FGC5660 branch as well. A different testing strategy is required for this area of the L226 haplotree. A few of these testers should use higher resolution FGC Y Elite 2.1 where 30 % more coverage should reveal more branches between these branches in the trunk of the tree. Also, higher levels of testing by individual YSNPs would peel off smaller branches which would reduce the size of this major bottleneck. There is no one-sized fits all strategy that works all across the L226 haplotree. It is very helpful if the entire L226 community pitched in to solve these two major bottlenecks that affects so many L226 testers.

GENEALOGICAL RESEARCHERS

Most genealogists are not aware just how much progress has been made by the discovery of several branches in the genealogical time frame. The DC1 branch is dominated by O'Briens (the most common L226 surname) while FGC5647 and DC69 now includes all the Casey submissions under L226 (the second most common L226 surname). FGC12290 positive and FGC12296 negative is now dominated McCraw and variants. Other genealogical branches probably exist or will be discovered in the near future. With the number of private YSNPs approaching the number YSTR testers at 67 markers, we will soon have enough YSNPs to have one YSNP for each 67 marker YSTR submission. Unfortunately, most of the private YSNPs will remain private to just the NGS tester or will be equivalents of each other.

During the first phase of genetic surname cluster research, most of the progress can be made by testing YSNPs individually at much lower costs. But once you get an understanding how the YSNPs define branches, no further progress can be made without more NGS tests to provide more private YSNPs to analyze and test. By NGS testing different parts of the surname cluster, new private YSNPs for their part of the surname cluster will be revealed (think in terms of only two or three new private YSNPs per NGS test since they share so much common ancestry). Another approach employs higher resolution tests from Full Genomes Corporation that discovers around 30 % more private YSNPs than the Big Y but also costs around 30 % more.

So how can you help with this topic ? Determine which approach better fits your needs or develop a hybrid approach. Knowing why you are ordering all these tests really helps you picking which of the myriad of testing options best fits your goals and pocket book.

NEAR TERM BOTTLENECK OF CURRENT TESTING

For now, we will be able to economically find genealogical branches with individual YSNP testing and a lot more NGS tests within the surname cluster for the next year or two. However, YDNA researchers are becoming concerned that continued NGS tests will eventually only discover one YSNP and sometimes no new private YSNPs. Higher resolution will help some, but many are beginning the realize that we will probably have to start looking at even more YSTRs. Upgrading from 67 markers to 111 markers will help some, but we will probably need include more of the 400 YSTRs being reported by NGS tests. But this genetic limitation is still one or two years out for most.

One of the largest surname clusters in the world is already struggling with NGS tests. The Irwin project has well over 150 67 marker submissions in their primary cluster. The majority of Irwins actually descend from one man with the surname of Irwin and their genetic cluster is very genetically isolated. They have also extensively upgraded to 111 markers as well. NGS testing and individual YSNP testing are clarifying several branches but not near enough to break up their brick wall. Any surname cluster (no matter how prolific their descendancy), still only have 1,000 years or so to mutate, and there just is not time to get enough genetic diversity with our current 111 markers and YSNPs discovered by NGS tests to identify and connect all of the various lines that have not been connected to date. So the Irwin project is already hitting this technology barrier of our current genetic testing strategy (but this is a unique scenario to date). The only remaining viable option is to investigate more YSTRs. But there is nowhere to test these except via NGS tests. Current NGS tests can reveal 90 to 95 % of the 111 markers since several YSTRs are too long read by read lengths associate with current NGS technologies. However, in the next year or two, read lengths will increase so that all 111 YSTR markers will become available with future NGS tests.

There are two approaches that companies that provide YSTRs to select: 1) a mixture of primarily slow mutating with a few medium and a few faster mutating markers (this FTDNA's approach to date); 2) GENETREE offered a short-lived alternative that included a special of very fast mutating markers. Unfortunately, GENETREE, a Sorenson company, was shut down after the acquistion of Ancestry.com. Both of these approaches would require a lot more submissions to be tested to eliminate dramatically increased numbers of parallel and backwards mutations. With so many YSTR mutations to sort out, we would have to have to depend on tree building software as manually constructing charts would extemely labor intensive. But this is a year or two out before we hit this new genetic brick wall.

So how does this topic affect you can help. By understanding some about the fast moving technology changes, your expectations will not be set to high or too low. By understanding the need for a lot of different kinds of testing approaches, you will better understand why so many options are available and will be more likely to remain interested longer. The more that you understand the changing landscape of testing options and limitations of current technology, the more likely that you will remain engaged in genetic research. Also, remember the long road to discover your ancestry was not solved by one major research trip but each trip (which cost a lot) got you one step closer to meeting your goals. The same is true about genetic testing, there needs to be a continual commitment to genetic testing to make steady progress. Also, you also need to trust the advice of your L226 leadership as these testing options are changing daily and may require more time/effort than you can invest.

DEVELOPING THE L226 DESCENDANT CHART

With a lot more YSNP information to accompany YSTR information and lot more known branches under L226 discovered, very accurate descendant charts can now be created for the first time under L226. These charts will not initially cover all of L226 submissions as we just do not have enough branches to date and there is not enough testing of these new branches to date. The more genetic isolation that exists, the younger the branch is and the availablity of more tested YSNPs, the higher the accuracy of these descendant charts. Most of the major branches of L226 fit this category can now produce reasonably accurate descendant charts. The branches along the trunk of L226 will be the most challenging due very little divergence from the original L226 modal and extensive parallel mutations under these four branches. These areas will require much more extensive testing of NGS tests, high resolution NGS tests, significant SNP pack/panel testing and extensive individual YSNP testing. The major trunk branches (L226, FGC5660, FGC5628 and FGC5659) will also be more of a challenge to chart and will the last to eventually get their portion of their descendant chart filled out.

With reasonably accurrate visual charts, it will become obvious where more NGS testing is needed, where more high resolution NGS testing is needed and where more individual YSNP testing would produce better results. With the evolution of reasonably accurate charts, there will be a great improvement in determining which testing strategy would be best for each part of the L226 haplotree. Previous tree generation software did extremely poor when only based on only YSTR mutations. There are just too many parallel and backwards mutations within the L226 haplogroup. But with 26 branches under L226 (stable only) and a significant amount of YSNP testing, accuracy is vastly improving daily. Also, there is new exciting charting tool that shows great promise in the generation and validation of the L226 haplotree charts. This new tool is called SAPP and already assisted me greatly. It still is in the beta stage of development and its primary issue is that the program time outs at around 100 submissions due to ISP providers breaking what they perceive to be inactive sessions that need to be flushed.

You can dramatically help in expanding the accuracy and scope of the charts. First, if you are not sure about where you belong in the L226 haplotree, ordering the FTDNA Z253 SNP pack or the YSEQ Z253 SNP panel will increase the amount about YSNP testing. The higher the percentage of L226 submissions tested with comprehensive YSNP testing, the quicker we will get more complete and more accurate charts. We will always need more and more NGS tests to discover more major branches. If you have the means, support the L226 project by discovering your new branch and building the number of private YSNPs that can be tested. However, if you still want to contribute with smaller economic impact on your wallet, please use the web site to directly test your branch at much lower costs or know which private YSNPs to order to discover new possible branches at a fraction of the cost of NGS testing.

HELP BY DONATING FUNDS TO THE L226 PROJECT

L226 researchers are really fortunate to have leadership that are both highly skilled and willing to help with the extensive analysis that is required. I highly recommend that you trust some of your budget to these individuals to conduct testing that is planned and will have the maximum return on our investment. The best way to show that you support your L226 leadership is to make donations to the L226 project. Fortunately, FTDNA has made it quite easy to donate funds to your favorite project

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Make a Donation to the L226 Project