Whitmore Surname Project: Participants Showing Haplogroup E3b

Haplogroup E3b, FTDNA tells us, is believed to have evolved in the Middle East and expanded from there into the Mediterranean, Africa and southern Europe. The majority of those of European descent belong to a subclade, E3b1. Most of the Europeans also belong to an alpha cluster which is very common in the Balkan area (frequencies of 20-32%) declining westward across Europe (7% in Italy, 3% in France, 2.3% in Iberia and 2.6 % in northeastern Europe).^[1]

Table 2 Haplogroup E3b Haplotypes

At the time of our last report, we grouped two of our participants of Swiss ancestry, in spite of the fact that they showed a genetic distance of two on only twelve markers. Haplogroup E is an unusual haplogroup, and there was a strong indication that these two men might be related. Their paper trails we had showed no common ancestor, but they settled in the same community at close to the same time, and both were Mennonites. One is descended from John Witmer who arrived in America in 1717, probably from the Bern area of Switzerland. The other is descended from Benjamin Witmer b. 1669 in Switzerland. We have added a participant to this group, a known cousin of Kit # N5853, and are awaiting his results on 12 markers. The relationships, including two alternatives, as we understand them, are shown on Figure 2.

Figure 2 Descendants of Unknown Witmer

One possibility is that John Witmer and Ulrich Whitmer are related, but descended from an unknown common ancestor, as shown in "A," in cyan on Figure 2. This theory is based on the research of Richard W. Davis, who has a website called "MennoSearch." A second theory, "B," shown in magenta, based on ancedotal evidence in the line of John Whitmer, is that John Whitmer and Benjamin Whitmer were first cousins, both descended from sons of Ulrich Widmer, John from Ulrich's son Christian, and Benjamin from one of three other sons of Ulrich. In this case the Ulrich shown in Figure 2 is the same man, and his birth year was 1619 and not 1634.

Both men have extended their tests to 37 markers, and now show a genetic distance of seven (markers YCAa and CDYa both differ by two alleles). If we use the lineage of theory "B," there is a total of 20 transmission events. This should result in two or three mutations using a rate of 0.002 and Ann Turner's mutation rate calculator.^[2] Even allowing for faster mutation rates, seven seems excessive.

Both men were originallly estimated as Haplogroup E3b, but Kit #43729 has been SNP tested and defined as E3b1. In addition, although not reported by FTDNA, we can say that he is defined as E3b1a. This in turn has two sub-clades, E3b1a1 and E3b1a2, defined by SNPs M148 and M244). He test was negative for SNP M148, so he is not E3b1a1, but since FTDNA does not test for M244, we cannot say whether or not he belongs to E3b1a2.

As noted above, the Cruciani et al report defined four "clusters" of E3b1a defined by specific DYS allele values. the cluster they defined as alpha is characterized by what is a rare value of 9 for DYS 460 (the report uses the nomenclature A7.1) which would place both men in the alpha cluster if kit # N5853 is also E3b1a, undoubtedly the case if they share a common ancestor within the last 500-700 years.

Based on a genetic distance of seven on 37 markers, we tend to theory A, an unknown commmon ancestor. Additional results of three probands in each line would permit us to triangulate an ancestral haplotype of both John and Benjamin Whitmer and then to reconsider whether or not they could be first cousins.