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Located on the Stark Family Y-DNA Project Web Site

Description of Analysis Articles

Part 1: Y-DNA Analysis of the Descendants of Aaron Stark [1608-1685]

The male Y-chromosome is handed down from father to son relatively unchanged through the generations. A comparison of the Y-DNA of two males with the same surname can determine their relatedness to each other. Groups of males with the same surname so tested and compared can define family groups and establish a probability they have a most recent common ancestor who lived within the last 20 generations. The usage of surnames did not become common until the 13th and 14th centuries. By the year 1500, surname usage had become common practice. Considering that one generation is about 25 years or more, then the year 1500 or before would be the approximate equivalent of about 20 generations prior to the present generations.

Part II: Genetic Genealogy Analysis of the Descendants of Aaron Stark [1608-1685]

All of the male individuals discussed in Part I of this report have been found to be descendants of Aaron Stark [1608-1685] of Connecticut.  The Genetic Results Table presented in Part I suggests there is a high probability these men all have a common ancestor who lived within the previous 20 generations. The genealogy of the participants suggests all of the members share Aaron Stark [1608-1685] as a common ancestor who lived within the previous 13th  generation relative to Member 98044. Part II will analyze the genetic results of those members having 37 marker haplotypes.

Appendix 1: Defining the Ancestral Haplotype of Aaron Stark [1608-1685]

The genealogical research suggests Aaron Stark I [1608-1685] was the common ancestor of all of the members in the genetic program. Using the Genetic Results Table and the Genealogical Lineage Table, the triangulation method devised by Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. will be employed to define the P37 Ancestral Haplotype of Aaron Stark [1608-1685].

Appendix 2: Haplotype and DYS Marker Life Expectancy Calculations

Mutation Rate: The rate at which a genetic marker or haplotype mutates or changes over time; expressed as a decimal value or a percentage. Commercial DNA testing laboratories use an average haplotype mutation rate most often given as 0.002, 0.003, and 0.004. Depending on the study, these average mutations for all of the markers in a haplotype applies to the general male population as a whole.

Surname projects having genealogical research of high quality with one common ancestor identified as the progenitor  —  can have average mutation rates that do not agree with the literature.  The number of participants and the genealogy of the descendants of Aaron Stark [1608-1685] is of sufficient quality that it becomes possible to calculate the average mutation rate for various Haplotypes and DYS Markers.

Part III: Aaron Stark's (1608-1685) Ancestral Roots: A Theory

At the time this theory was prepared for publication, twenty-six men with the surname Stark or Starks have  — genetically and genealogically —  been proven to share Aaron Stark (1608-1685) as a common ancestor. Seven were a perfect 37 Marker match to each other over the H37 Haplotype (Markers 1 through 37). In Parts I & II,  the triangulation method devised by Charles F. Kerchner, Jr. was employed to define the H37 Ancestral Haplotype of Aaron Stark (1608-1685). In the genetic literature, a Modal Haplotype is composed of the most common Allele values observed at each marker over a specific haplotype. The H37 Ancestral Haplotype and the H37 Modal Haplotype of Aaron Stark's descendants has been observed to be identical. 

One descendant of Aaron Stark (Kit #N17289) has been confirmed to be a member of Haplogroup R1b1b2a1a* — this result predicting all of the descendants of Aaron genetically tested will be members of the same Haplogroup (FTDNA's shorthand notation is R-U106).[1]  The purpose of this article will be to compare the Modal Haplotype of Aaron's descendants to persons in the FTDNA database  genetically confirmed to be members of Haplogroup R-U106 — none of whom will have the surname Stark. In particular, the focus will be on participants reporting the geographical location of their earliest known ancestor in the British Isles or Western Europe. The combination of geographical information and genetic comparisons will then be analyzed to attempt to determine Aaron's ancestral roots.