There are now 57 participants within the project who have been allocated to Lineage II. Of these, 36 (63%) have done some form of SNP testing (i.e. either the Big Y test, a single SNP test, or a SNP Pack test). This high level of advanced testing has allowed us to construct a "genetic family tree" for the group based on their SNP markers. This is referred to as a Mutation History Tree (MHT) in previous posts, because it is based on mutations in both the SNP markers and STR markers (the two types of DNA marker on the Y-chromosome). The Branching Structure of the Genetic Family Tree Overall, the ..read more

In the previous post I introduced the new version of the Mutation History Tree (MHT) for Lineage II (the North Tipperary Gleeson's). The previous version of the MHT for Lineage II participants was back in August 2017 (see blog post here) so let's take a look at what has changed since then, how the new version was put together, and what it tells us about the North Tipperary Gleeson's. There are now 52 members in Lineage II, an increase of 16 members since the last version of the MHT. The data used in each version of the MHT are summarised in the table below. You can see how the available ..read more

The Gleeson's of Lineage II have origins in North Tipperary and all share a common ancestor about 1000 years ago. This common ancestor presumably also came from North Tipperary and was the first person to use the Gleeson surname in that particular area. But how are all these Gleeson's related to each other? What does the family tree for this entire group look like? This is where Y-DNA comes in. We can construct a "Mutation History Tree" (MHT) for the entire group by analysing the mutations in their Y-DNA markers. This tree stretches from the present day all the way back to the origin of the su ..read more

Back in April this year, some new Y-DNA-37 results recently came back from the lab and I've been meaning to blog about them since then! The results were reviewed by me and our new Co-Administrator Lisa Little, and here is a brief summary of what they tell us. The new member (MG-9273) had 11 matches (comparing his 37 marker results to everyone else in the database) and one of them was an ungrouped Gleeson who was already in our project (PG-7861). The Genetic Distance (GD) between them was 3/37 indicating 3 steps away from an exact match. And this would predict that they share a common ancesto ..read more

The Big Y test changed to a completely new technology earlier this year. It now covers 50% more of the Y chromosome than previously. And so it is anticipated that the new test will discover additional SNP markers that the old technology did not detect. Furthermore, the new SNPs should be able to more accurately date the various branching points on the Tree of Mankind. It also gives us approximately 700 STR markers whereas the previous test only gave approximately 500 STRs. As a result, the old test is called the Big Y-500 and the new one is called the Big Y-700. Going forward, all new Big Y o ..read more

I am delighted to introduce this guest blog post by Lisa Little, a member of the Lineage II Gleeson's of North Tipperary. Lisa has done some excellent research on her own particular direct male line which has taken her on an exciting adventure into the past, full of twists and turns. Lisa started out as a Little but ended up as a Gleason! And this is not an uncommon situation - many of us will find a surname or DNA switch (SDS or NPE) somewhere along our direct male line. Lisa used an ingenious approach (combining Y-DNA and autosomal DNA data) to elaborate this family mystery and discover wher ..read more

Big Y results recently came back for project member 191141, a member of Lineage III - the Gleeson's from West Clare (specifically the area around Coore & Connolly). This is a very close-knit group with few mutations, which suggests that they all share a common ancestor shortly before 1800. The origins of this group were first discussed in a blog post from July 2016, and a subsequent blog post (June 2018) detailed the genealogical information gathered for this group thanks to the sterling efforts of Bill Gleeson. The 5 members of Lineage III The new Big Y results indicate that his "termina ..read more

There are some incredible discounts in the current FTDNA Sale which lasts from now until Nov 22nd. And there will probably be a Christmas Sale after that. So now is the time to start thinking about getting that upgrade or that extra kit. Below are the sale prices and they are the lowest I have ever seen. Y37 for just $99 ... Family Finder for just $49 ... and $100-140 off Big Y upgrades. This feels more like Crazy Eddie's Second Hand Car Deals! If you have any questions about your own particular situation, just drop me an email. Maurice GleesonNov 2018 ..read more

Since the last version of the "family tree" for the Lineage II Gleeson's of North Tipperary, there have been some additional results. For Branch B, these include two new members (G123 & G127), new STR results, and new Z255 SNP Pack results. This post assesses these new results, explores how they impact on the overall structure of Branch B, and draws conclusions about what the DNA and genealogical data in combination tell us about the members of this branch and how they are related to each other. Below is the previous configuration of Branch B (from Aug 2017). There are 5 members. All shar ..read more

This is a guest post by project member Bill Gleeson. Bill has done a lot of work on the Gleeson's of Lineage III over the years and here he shares his main genealogical findings. This posts complements an earlier post on the Lineage III Gleeson's from 2016. Since then, Bill did the L226 SNP Pack test and his results indicate that Lineage III currently has the following SNP Progression (i.e. the SNP markers that characterise each branching point on the Tree of Mankind down to where Bill currently sits): R-P312/S116 > Z290 > L21/S145 > DF13 > ZZ10 > Z253 > Z2534 > BY25450 ..read more