Deep And Distant Ancestry.

Geneticists believe that all modern humans are descended from one man and one woman. Though these two individuals lived at widely different times. These do not represent two original humans, Adam and Eve, but that out of the many people around in the past it is only these two whose Y chromosome and mitochondria have survived.

The type of Y-chromosome markers measured by genealogical genetic testing labs are known as STR's. Genealogists are interested in finding connections between families on a time scale of centuries, and the mutation rate of STRs is such that they are a good choice for that kind of work. Population geneticists are interested in tracking the movements of groups of humans over time scales of 1000's or 10,000's of years. Therefore their studies usually involve a different type of Y-chromosome marker known as UEP's which have a much slower mutation rate than STRs. 

As human populations migrated from Africa, they did so in waves of migration. Groups became isolated in locations. Mutations took place. Some of these mutations were of a permanent nature. These permanent changes are evident from the markers known as UEP's or SNP's. Man's migratory patterns can be mapped from studies of these markers. The descendents with specific SNP markers can be classified into clades or Haplogroups. Haplogroups are defined by patterns seen in the values of these slowly mutating markers. Identification of your Y-chromosome haplogroup can provide an interesting glimpse into the deep ancestry of your paternal line. From an understanding of these Haplogroups a family tree of mankind has been compiled and can be plotted on a map.

Think of the Haplotypes as the leaves of a tree, and the Haplogroups as the limbs of a tree…in fact the Haplogroups are the limbs of the tree of Homo Sapien-Sapien—our unique branch of humanity.  The Haplogroups have been crafted into what is called a Philogenetic network, and the male version can be seen here:  http://www.familytreedna.com/haplotree.html. 

To know one's Haplogroup really involves testing for SNP's. However, Haplogroups are clusters of Haplotypes (expressed as exact or near exact 12 or 25 marker matches) that are in  a tight proximity to each other.  Expressed another way Haplotypes are subsets of a Haplogroup.  Knowing one's Haplotype one can make a fair estimate of the Haplogroup to which one belongs. This link takes you to a tool which enables this: https://home.comcast.net/~whitathey/predictorinstr.htm

Please note that people in different Haplogroups cannot be related within many thousands of years, and that each male test result provides a prediction of the Haplogroup currently about 90% of the time.  In general the following rule of thumb may be used:

Haplogroup                  Designation

R1b                              Western Europe

R1a                              Eastern Europe

I                                   Nordic

J2                                 Semitic

E3b                              Semitic

Q3                                Native American

NB: it would appear that the Blackstones and Atkinsons belong to R1b the commonest Haplogroup in Western Europe and associated with the Aurignacian culture

In Sept 2005 John McEwan completed an analysis of over 15,000 individuals with a full 37 marker result. This has enabled the Blackstone study R1b results to be allocated to subclusters. This has potential for the further location/analysis of early ancestry. I would recommend readers look at his results at http://www.geocities.com/mcewanjc/p3analysis.htm . It doesn't help the Atkinson study as they do not have the full 37 FTDNA markers, having tested with Relative Genetics.

David Blakiston, Michael Blakeston (& Christopher Blackstone results in since the study) can see their results in group one. They are found to belong to R1bSTR10.

Roger Blakiston can see his results in group two. His ancestry belongs to R1bSTR22 also known as Ken Nordvelt's "Frisian" cluster.

Jim Blackstone can see his results, on the tree, in group four: R1bSTR37.

Daniel Blackstone (and hence Bob & Roy) can see their result in group four: R1bSTR42. However, he was incorrectly entered as haplogroup J. This has been amended but this resulted in a change of id from 3BY9E to S5HTC.

Peter & Max have yet to be entered into the study. Their full 37 results having returned since the studies completion.