Collins family DNA records 

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Gary S. Collins (1944- )

My Y-DNA record agrees exactly with those of the Irish Modal Haplotype and R-M222 (formerly R1b1c7) Modal Haplotype, suggesting descent from an ancient male ancestor in northwest Ireland, possibly the near-mythological king Niall of the Nine Hostages, founder of the Uí Néill dynasties that ruled in Ireland between 400-1100 AD.  By inference, this record applies also to my earliest known direct patrilineal ancestor, Dr. Richard Collins (1725-1808) and to all of his direct male descendants, including about 75 who appear in my ancestry file and many more recent ones.  Richard Collins emigrated from Ulster Province, Ireland, to the US in about 1750.   He settled in Port Republic, on the coast of New Jersey, where he was the first medical doctor in the region.  There is an unsubstantiated report that he came from Tyrone County, and an hypothesis by Patty Luthy that he came specifically from Strabane, in Tyrone County near its western  border with Donegal County, based on naming of a farm 'Strabane' in southern New Jersey by family friends. 

• My Y-DNA record was measured at 46 STR markers by ancestry.com in December 2007.  In September 2009, marker Y-GATA H4.1, with an allele value of 22, was renamed Y-GATA H4 , with a revised allele value of 12, as recommended by ISOGG in order that establish common designations by the various companies measuring Y-DNA markers.  The original values are here and the newly revised values are here.
  
  
• The Irish Modal Haplotype (IMH) was defined as a record of 17 markers by the research group of Daniel Bradley at Trinity College, Dublin:  Laoise T. Moore et al., American Journal of Human Genetics 78, 334-338 (2006).  Moore et al. found that up to 20% of males in areas of northwestern Ireland (esp. Donegal and Tyrone Counties) have the record, with a high frequency found (coincidentally) near Strabane (see map in Fig. 1 of Moore et al., loc. cit.)   Their explanation of this anomaly is that the Y-DNA record of an unknown medieval Irish king was propagated by himself and his male progeny in a dynasty (a sort of Irish Genghis Khan).  A figure who might fit this picture is Niall of the Nine Hostages.   My record agrees exactly with the IMH record over 14 markers in common.  See also a description of the Niall record at http://www.familytreedna.com/matchniall.html.
  
  
• The R-M222 (formerly R1b1c7) Modal Haplotype (RMH) was formulated by David Wilson based on his earlier description of a Northwest Irish variety of Y-DNA Haplogroup R through statistical analysis of Y-DNA records of many individuals.   John McLaughlin has a web site with extensive information about this haplotype as well as refined modal haplotypes for surnames.  The haplotype is identified definitively by presence of the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) M222 (reference SNP identification Rs20321).  Information about the distribution of Y-DNA alleles among individuals having the haplotype can be found at the R-M222 Haplogroup Project.  About 370 individual records have been sorted in a table titled "R1b1c7 Haplotypes with Colorized Mutations from Modal Values" by David Wilson that is no longer current on the web but can be viewed via the web archive here (view using IE or Firefox plus the add-on IE-Tab).  My Collins record agrees exactly with the RMH record over 34 markers in common (entry Z1003 in the table).  An alternative tabulation by John McLaughlin can be found here.   For the broader context, an overview of haplogroup R1b and its subclades is given here.
  

• Evolving subclade designatiosn by ISOGG (International Society of Genetic Genealogy).   Designations change as new SNP's are identified and relationships among SNP's are clarified.  Here are end-of-year designations in ISOGG's annual Y-DNA Haplogroup Trees for SNP M222.:
• R1b1c7:  2006, 2007.
• R1b1b2a1b6b: 2008.  Also R1b1b2e (http://www.genome.org/cgi/content/abstract/gr.7172008, April 2008) and R1b1b2a2e (May 2008).
  
• R1b1b2a1a2f2: 2009.
  

• Conversion table between different marker standards.  Y-DNA records analyzed in different laboratories are reported using different protocols, so that some STR alleles (repeat numbers) must be converted prior to comparison.  A table showing required conversions valid up to until Sept. 2009 is given on the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation site here.  I used the table to convert repeat numbers from my ancestry.com record prior to comparison with records at web sites using different standards.  However, efforts to increase uniformity of reporting repeat numbers among different testing sources have led and will continue to lead to changes.  For example, ancestry.com has changes reporting of  the Y-GATA H4 marker in Sept. 2009.
  
  
• Y-DNA record databases on the web.  One can search for "matches" of records.   My personal Y-STR record has been entered in the following databases and tables:
• http://www.ysearch.org database, ID 82BRB.  Ysearch's label for the 'Niall' haplogroup is R1b1b2e instead of R1b1c7.  My record can be compared here with records for the IMH (entered by me as ID FAW2E) and the RMH (entered by David Wilson as User ID M5UKQ).   Or search by  haplogroup R1b1b2e.
  
• http://www.ybase.org/ database, ID NT9ZG.  
  
• R1b1c7 haplogroup table by David Wilson (view using IE or Firefox plus add-on IE-Tab)  ID Z1003, located about ten lines above the MODAL entry marked by a golden color.
• R1b1c7 haplogroup table by John McLaughlin (view using IE or Firefox plus add-on IE-tab).  Modal entry is 26917 Mackenzie, which agrees with my 46 marker record..
  
• Collins DNA project, Worldfamilies.net,  ID CX-5 in table of Y-DNA results for persons having the Collins surname (no close matches yet).
  


• Males known to have or have had the "Niall" Y-DNA record;  estimated to number three million living.  My "brothers" are believed to include the following famous persons:
  
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Professor, Harvard U., Director of the W.E.B. du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
• John Wayne, Movie Actor (suggested by David Wilson). 
• Sam Houston, President of the Republic of Texas, and Governor of  Tennessee and Texas (suggested by David Wilson).
  
• Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844), founder of the Latter Day Saint movement (Mormonism).  DNA evidence is here. 
  

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Jessie Woodson James (1847-1882)    

Analysis of remains showed that he had mitochondrial DNA haplogroup T2, including mtDNA sequences 16126C, 16274A, 16294T, 16296T, 16304C (from dnaancestryproject).

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DNA data archives

• www.ysearch.org  Supported by FamilyTreeDNA.  Searchable database for Y-STR matches with an entered and storable 42-marker record.
• www.ybase.org  Supported by DNAHeritage.  Searchable database for Y-STR matches with an entered and storable 49-marker record.
• www.smgf.org  Sorenson Molecular Genetics Foundation (SMGF).  Searchable for Y-STR matches with an entered  43-marker record.
• www.m222.net  David Wilson's R1b1c7 Y-STR haplogroup table, giving an ordered list of individual records grouped around a proposed modal R1b1c7 record.  View using IE browser only.  (A record can be emailed to Wilson for possible inclusion in the table.)
  
• www.yhrd.org  Y-chromosome Haplotype Reference Database, with a forensic orientation.  Gives (a) numbers of matches to an entered 9-marker STR record; (b) mutation rates determined from father-son DNA comparisons; (c) the 20 most frequent records at specified geographical locations. 
  
• www.snp-y.org  Site for validation and application of Y-SNPs.
• isogg.org/tree/  International Society of Genetic Genealogy.  "Official" haplogroup tree based on Y-SNP's.
  
• www.genetree.com  SMGF site allowing comparison of mtDNA records and encouraging information integration of pedigree files and mtDNA records

A free Y-DNA test is available at www.smgf.org, provided that you can supply a pedigree back to great-grandparents.  For more information, go here. 

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  DNA Genealogy Links

• Excellent primer on molecular genealogy by Nancy Custer:  http://www.contexo.info/DNA_Basics/
  
• The Genetic Genealogist blog:  http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/ (by Blaine Bettinger)
• How to interpret results of DNA tests:  http://www.thegeneticgenealogist.com/wp-content/uploads/InterpretingTheResultsofGeneticGenealogyTests.PDF
  
• Basic information from DNA Heritage:  http://www.dnaheritage.com/masterclass.asp
• Big list of DNA resources from SMGF:  http://www.smgf.org/pages/dna_links.jspx
• Tutorial information about molecular genetics:  http://www.smgf.org/pages/educators_program.jspx (animations, DNA of some famous people)
• Wikipedia:
• Genealogical DNA tests:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test
• List of Y-DNA STR markers (with mutation rates): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DYS_markers
• Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1b_(Y-DNA)
  
• Genetic Genealogy, big list by Ron Scott:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ncscotts/
• Milestones in the history of DNA Genealogy:  http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gkbopp/DNA/DNAtimeline.htm
• Haplogroup predictor:  https://home.comcast.net/~hapest5/hapest5b/hapest5.htm
• List of haplogroups with descriptions by L. David Roper:  http://www.roperld.com/YBiallelicHaplogroups.htm
  
• Tables of modal haplotypes by John McEwan:  http://www.geocities.com/mcewanjc/p3modal.htm#_R1b_haplogroup:_subcluster_modal_ha
• Haplogroup Maps by J.D. McDonald:  http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps.pdf
• European haplogroups (maps, percentages by country): http://www.eupedia.com/europe/origins_haplogroups_europe.shtml
• Families connected with the R1b1c7 haplotype:
• McLaughlin Clan (John McLaughlin):  http://clanmaclochlainn.com/
• Ewing family (John McEwan):  http://www.geocities.com/mcewanjc/ewing.htm
• Irish Heritage DNA Project--R1b1c7:  http://homepage.eircom.net/~ihdp/ihdp/focus-r1b1c7.htm
• McGrew DNA Project:  http://mcgrewgenealogy.org/report.aspx
• UlsterHeritage.com test results:  http://ulsterheritagedna.ulsterheritage.com/testresults.htm 
  
• Haplogroups and clusters close to R1b1c7:
  
• Irish type III cluster (Dennis Wright):   http://www.irishtype3dna.org/ ;  STR table:- http://www.irishtype3dna.org/STRMarkersResults.pdf
• "Where did European Men Come From?", Kalevi Wiik: http://www.jogg.info/41/Wiik.pdf  A great synthesis of genetic and linguistic research, with  maps.
  

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30 November  2009, Gary S. Collins.  My main ancestry page is http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~garyscottcollins/.