The reasons for testing YSNPs depends on your goals. YSNPs discovered under L226 fall into to two broad categories: 1) broad branches that include multiple surname lines and 2) genealogical branches where one surname dominates the branch. Behind the scenes from most genealogist's view, YSNP researchers are working away diligently discovering new YSNPs and adding new branches to the L226 haplotree. Most L226 branches are being discovered via NGS testing. The analysis of the BAM files associated with the NGS tests is beyond the scope of this web site as Dennis Wright is already doing an excellent job of the research and he is very good about sharing this information at his Irish Type III web site. Behind the scenes from most YSNP researcher's view, many surname project admins and many active genetic genealogical researchers are working away building clusters of related lines that provide the vast majority of the data that L226 YSNP researchers require for their analysis. Since YSNPs are now being regularly discovered within the genealogical time frame, genealogists are starting understand the tremendous power of YDNA testing breaking the brick walls that traditional research has been unable to provide.

For broad branch research under L226, their primary goal is discover and document very broad branches on ancestry prior to surname creation. The discovery of broad L226 YSNPs have the largest impact on the maximum number of researchers. In the last year, many YSNPs are within the genealogical time frame. In this time frame, many broad YSNP researchers become less interested in these genealogical YSNPs since their breadth is limited and only have genealogical implications to only one surname. Hard core genealogists have been patiently assisting broad YSNP branches but now that genealogical YSNPs are routinely discovered, many researchers are changing their focus to these very recent mutations that have major genealogical implications. Both types of research are required and both are very dependent on each others contributions.

For genealogical researchers, discovering older branches have minimal impact on their genealogical research. When these YSNPs are over 1,000 years old, the primary usage by genealogists is that these branches can be used separate groupings of submissions into smaller and smaller groups. After all, if your ancestor does not share common ancestors 1,200 years ago, then they obviously can not share ancestors in the 200 to 400 year time frame where most genealogical research is being done. Another major usage of these earlier YSNPs is determining the rarity of DNA haplotypes. If few mutations are found between the ancient MRCA haplotype and your surname cluster MRCA haplotype, you have very common DNA values where close genetic matches may not be related. Many surname admins and genetic genealogical researchers are not aware of this troublesome characteristic of convergence where non-related haplotypes are found to be overlapping haplotypes. In L226's case, it actually the lack of divergence from the L226 that creates a lot of false matches.

Once YSNPs approach the 1,000 year time frame, these more recent YSNPs are much more important to genealogists and few genetic genealogists are aware of the power of the YSTR signature. If you compare the haplotype of your more recent haplogroup (in our case L226) to the MRCA haplotype of your genetic surname cluster, you can discover the "off-modal" mutations between the two MRCA haplotypes. These off-modal values are called YSTR signatures are a much more reliable gauge of relatedness than the number of mutations between submissions alone. For those YSNPs that originate in the genealogical time frame, recent YSNP mutations can define new branches within the genealogical surname clusters. Unlike YSTR clusters where clusters can overlap and are not well behaved, YSNPs usually provide very well defined branches. In addition to well defined branches, YSNPs also provide information on how the branches are connected and the relative time frame of each branch. Fortunately for genealogists, genealogical branches are now routinely being discovered under L226.

The YSNP research employs four very different YDNA tests: 1) YSTR tests that can mapped to YSNP mutations by analysis of signatures; 2) Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) tests that scan large portions of the Y Chromosome where each test can discover five to twenty new private YSNP mutations that are compared to other NGS testers; 3) YSNP pack/panel tests that tests the known branches that create more information of the scope of each YSNP mutation; 4) testing individual YSNPs where YSNPs are predicted for existing branches or testing private YSNPs associated with NGS tests to discover new branches under L226.