Finally an 11/12 match for our paternal yDNA line

A match has been a long time coming and still not quite here but in July FT DNA now has published an 11/12 match for our Blake yDNA line. The surname isn't Blake it is Messner and at 37 markers it is 30/37 so not a match in terms of any genealogical time frame. It raises my suspicion though that the haplogroup administrators for the I-L161 project have called this one correctly. This is an haplogroup that arose in southern Europe on the eastern side and traveled northwards very very early (likely 8000 to 10 000 years ago following the last glacial maximum). I should imagine that some members of the group simply stopped in places along the way where it suited them and this line is probably indicative of that. My own line continued on with that early group but likely stopped about where they would remain for the next 8000 years in southern England (Andover  Hampshire area) whilst the remaining group continued on into southern Ireland where this haplogroup is found most commonly in the British Isles.

Within this study group in the Blake yDNA study there are now five members. Two of them match 12/12 and the other three are 8/12 (my line), 7/12 and 5/12. The 7/12 I may yet assign to another subgroup because DYS459 is 10-10 instead of the usual 8-10 for this group. Is genetic drift at play here between my family result and the other three?

In terms of the 11/12 match I am able to look at it because it is part of the I-L161 project and the difference is DYS389I. But as mentioned the match is 30/37 so not related in a genealogical time frame and not in several thousand years probably. Interesting though to finally find someone who is such a close match after nine years.

The naming of my particular grouping for my paternal line at the I-L161 project is:

L161+ L1498+ S2703+ S2742+ A1514- CTS4122+ B4

The other two members of our group at Blake are placed in:

L161+ L1498+ S2703+ S2742- A1514- B2a

I must admit to being curious if members of this group (B2a) will test CTS4122 and be ancestral or dervied for that one.