Whitmore Surname Project: Participants Showing Haplogroup I

Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) tells us that Haplogroup I, and its subgroups I1 and I1a are almost entirely restricted to northwestern Europe, with one line extending down into central Europe. I1b has been associated with Viking/Scandanavian populations in northwestern Europe and has spread into southern Europe, where it is present in low frequencies. As a result, Haplogroup I is sometimes called the Viking Haplogroup.

Table 3 - Haplogroup I Haplotypes

Kit #	YSearch Reference	Surname	Haplo	3 9 3	3 9 0	1 9 A	3 9 1	3 8 5 a	3 8 5 b	4 2 6	3 8 8	4 3 9	3 8 9 i	3 9 2	3 8 9 ii	4 5 8	4 5 9 a	4 5 9 b	4 5 5	4 5 4	4 4 7	4 3 7	4 4 8	4 4 9	4 6 4 a	4 6 4 b	4 6 4 c	4 6 4 d	4 6 0	G A T A H 4	Y C A a	Y C A b	4 5 6	6 0 7	5 7 6	5 7 0	C D Y a	C D Y b	4 2 4	4 3 8
Haplogroup I: Descendants of Whittamore of Hitchin, Hertfordshire
54148		Whittemore	I	13	22	15	10	13	15	11	14	11	12	11	28	17	9	9	8	11	23	16	20	28	16	16	16	16
55644	8YMMH	Whitmore	I	13	22	14	10	13	15	11	14	11	12	11	28

Although FTDNA only gives the "high confidence" assignment of I to these two probands, Kit # 54148, with 25 markers, has been further estimated as I1a. The defining motif of the I1a haplotype is a value of 8 repeats at DYS 455, a very slow moving marker, and as Kit # 55644 has not been tested for this the result of I1a has not been predicted. Nevertheless, Whit Athey's haplogroup predictor^[1] assigns both to I1A. There is a subgrouping of I1a that this called I1aAS, associated with Anglo Saxon populations. See Ken Nordtvedt's "Population Varieties within Y-Haplogroup I and their Extended Modal Haplotypes" for a further discussion.

The two probands in this table descend from the Whittamore family of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, England, probably from William Whitamore, brother of Thomas Whitamore, Senior, who is mentioned in the will of Thomas Whitamore, Senior. (The spelling of the name appears as Whitamore in the earliest parish records in the 16^th century and changes to Whittamore in later ones in the 17^th.) One man has a documented descent from Thomas Whittemore (1593-1661) who settled in the part of Charlestown in the Massachusetts Bay Colony which later became Malden. The other is English and traces his line back to Whittamores in Hitchin about 1750. We believe both men are descended from the same man, who may have been William Whitamore of Hitchin. Their relationship is shown on Figure 3, below.

While the test results indicate a genetic distance of one on twelve markers, which is not surprising with the paper trails, both men should extend their markers to 37 for a more complete evaluation. Further objectives for this line are:

• Extend both sets of markers to 37 and evaluate.
• One of these probands is 13 and the other 11 transmission events from their MRCA and it will be very important to try to recruit at least one closer cousin of each man (say a 2nd, 3rd or 4th cousin) to permit a better evaluation.