There are also things called SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) which occur very rarely but are used in tandem with STR markers to trace back to a patrilineal ancestor.
For history junkies, this information is highly valuable and fascinating because we can speculate who may have lived in a particular location many years ago using modern inhabitants as an example. Of course, this is not always possible as people have moved, been conquered, and died out over the ages. Moreover, a true scientist or academic would need the use of aDNA(Ancient DNA) from fossilized remains to prove their hypothesis. The unfortunate part about DNA is that it decays over time, and Y-DNA is far rarer than the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA-- more on this later).
Ancient history fascinates me and was really enthusiastic about getting my male heritage traced, so I did back in 2007. Here were my results.
This 12-marker panel of Y-DNA sequence is the standard one issued by Family Tree DNA. Additional markers can be tested for a higher cost, but the standard panel is about $120.00. I have no personal affiliation with them but I highly recommend testing with this company as they have an enormous database to compare with, are efficient, and are relatively quick with their results.
My results are fairly typical among people of Atlantic European heritage, and place me in the haplogroup R1b1b2a1b. For my specific 12-marker panel, I have some off-modal values from the Atlantic Modal Haplotype, meaning the most frequently occuring alleles for each locus.
For my panel: 13, 24, 15, 12, 11, 14, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 29 the Atlantic Modal is: 13, 24, 14, 11, 11, 14, 12, 12, 12, 13, 13, 29.
In other words, the most frequently occuring haplotype in Atlantic Europe has those values.
Well that's all for now. My next post will be about the Celts and their correlation with the Atlantic Modal Haplotype.
