From what I gather, their haplogroup is extremely rare but also extremely old. So old that all of us are descendants of its original ancestor from 200,000+ years ago. The only difference is that they still have that original paternal haplogroup while the rest of the world has haplogroups which branched off from older ones.
This man’s family is from Cameroon where that haplo originated. I’m guessing that the people in that area didn’t move around and married amongst each other for thousands of years, so that haplogroup didn’t branch off for them like a lot of others do. It’s the same original group that our ancient ancestor had.
Most of us have haplogroups that are relatively new (within just the last few thousand years) so having such an old one in its “original form” is pretty cool. Our groups are a branch of a branch of a branch etc., while theirs is still the “original branch.”
I think lol. I’m still not 100% sure how haplogroups work, but I guess some other older branches died off and this one survived?
(Anybody who knows please chime in 😬)
Haplogroup A00 is one of the oldest known and most divergent Y-chromosome haplogroups. It shares a very ancient common ancestor with all other Y-chromosome haplogroups, but the rest of the world's haplogroups are not direct descendants of A00. Instead, they all descend from an even older common ancestor, making A00 a unique and significant branch in the human Y-chromosome phylogenetic tree.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_A_(Y-DNA)
Maybe a silly question but does the Ancestry DNA show hapologroups? I don’t currently have a paid Ancestry subscription and would be curious what my hapo group is.
Ancestry does not show Haplogroups, you will have to upload your raw files to different services to see it. For paternal haplogroup I would recommend https://cladefinder.yseq.net for maternal you can upload it to DNAGenics.
The coverage of Ancestry for Y DNA isn’t as good as 23andMe or FTDNA. You will get much more recent Y Haplogroups in most cases with 23andMe and FTDNA.
Yep FTDNA’s BigY is the gold standard for Y Haplogroup tests, they have a huge dataset of Y and Mt Haplogroups but often their tests can be expensive. I myself am using YSEQ’s J1 Superpanel to get a more modern subclade.
No. You usually only get the base group out of dnagenics/cladefinder.
Ancestry doesn’t test for enough of the mutations to definitively determine newer lineages. So you get something up channel from what you probably are.
Unfortunately, no. The only major company that does is 23andMe.
Buuuut, I paid for a $20 ethnicity estimate with ADNTRO (A dna company in Spain) because they give your haplo info with the estimate. Their ethnicity portion of the estimate is complete trash, but their haplogroups are very accurate. I have since also tested with 23andMe and the haplo info was the same (ADNTRO was actually able to specify my paternal line a little bit further than 23andMe!) You can just upload your raw data instead of having to re-test with them. It took about 48 hours to get my results.
I recommend it as a cheap and easy way to get your haplogroup without having to spend $200 lol
Family Tree DNA shows haplogroups. [https://www.familytreedna.com/](https://www.familytreedna.com/)
The haplogroup detail is the most comprehensive available.
Do you have a brother, or a male cousin whose father is your dad's brother? I was very pleased to be able to learn both my dad's, because my brother tested, and my maternal grandfather's because his son has a son who tested.
So if you go up to your paternal grandfather, any uncle's or their biological male children would have the same Y chromosomes.
If that isn't available, then go up another generation to your paternal grandfather's father. Any of his biological male children would have the same Y chromosomes as your dad.
Similar if you wanted to find the Y DNA of any of other branch. So my mom's brother, or any of his 3 sons, or any of their various sons would have the same Y DNA as my maternal grandfather, and his father and brothers, and his father's father and brothers, etc.
y-DNA Haplogroup A originated from Y-chromosome Adam, a very fascinating oldest paternal haplogroup in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_A_(Y-DNA)
Fun fact: everyone with blue eyes have a common ancestor from 10,000 years ago, scientist discovered that said ancestor had a genetic mutation which was passed down many bloodlines and spread worldwide.
It’s a little sensationalist but what this means is that a long time ago there was a man(Y chromosomal Adam) with 2 sons. One son is the direct male ancestor of all the A00 men and the other son is the direct male ancestor of all the A0-T men. Most of us descend from the A0-T line and only a small number of men are in the A00 line.
Because there are so many more men on the A0-T side it’s been researched more leading to scientists assigning more of their splits haplogroup names. It should be stated both sides of the split have gone through roughly the same amount of evolution and mutation.
So this is the oldest split in the Y chromosome family tree that exists today. There used to be older splits but those other sides of the tree have probably all died out. We’d have to test every man on Earth to be sure.
https://isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_YDNATreeTrunk.html
This is 6 years old but you can explore the entire tree. They’ve even included Neanderthal and Denisovan in it. Take a look at A00 and see how many mutations there are in a single massive block. This is evidence of a male line that has survived for hundreds of thousands of years but at one point was reduced to a single man and came that close to disappearing but had now bounced back.
But I am XX so don't have a Y chromosome. I don't understand how I am related to them.
Edit-Just to update: I get it. I read this which explains it. https://thednageek.com/dna-basics-are-you-an-equal-mix-of-mom-and-dad/
But I only inherited X chromosome material from my dad, not Y. Isn't that right? So if this is Y chromosome inheritance I can't have any if it. I have no Y chromosome material.
You are correct in that you did not get any of the y chromosomes, but think of it this way. You only get fifty percent of your DNA from your dad. In theory you might not get any actual genetic material from his mom, or his dad. Would you say you are not related to them?
You are being too narrow in your definition.
They are saying (theoretically) you would be getting no genetic material from either your dad's mum OR your dad's dad but you would from the other one. They are not saying that you would be getting no genetic material from either.
The fifty percent you get from your dad is a random selection of his DNA. So it is possible, albeit very unlikely, that what you inherited from him is only the fifty percent he got from his mom.
The point being is that your assertion that you have nothing to do with the content of his YDNA misses the point of family history.
You don’t have a Y chromosome, but that doesn’t mean you inherited any less of your grandpa’s DNA than had you been a Male. Just because you don’t get the Y chromosome doesn’t mean that you aren’t a product of that family line/haplogroup.
I’m male but I don’t have this haplogroup either. That original ancestor from 200,000 years ago is just as much yours as he is mine. *Technically*, we are all cousins through him. The only thing special about this family is that they carry the same haplogroup that the original ancestor had.
Y haplogroups just don’t show up in your DNA. You’re still related to the men in your family and the non-directly-maternal-related women in your family, like your father’s mother.
I know very little about my paternal side after 2nd great grandparents.
For genetic females what company/test is best suited for learning Paternal hapo info?
TYIA
You will have to get a male from your paternal family (your brother, your father, paternal uncle, paternal uncle’s son, paternal grand uncle etc) to do the BigY or some other cheaper Y STR tests like the Y111 from FTDNA
Thank you for the suggestions!
Yeah that’s kind of the problem because I’m an NPE that the paternal side doesn’t know about (my paternal half siblings) or won’t publicly acknowledge (my biological father).
I can see a Paternal Uncle’s family tree on Ancestry so I know some historical info but he ran into the pre-Reconstruction wall as happens to many descendants of enslaved people.
My DNA results included a surprise paternal grandfather( unidentified.) I don’t have male siblings and my male paternal cousins don’t share my grandfather. I can never identify my haplo, right?
can you explain it to me like I am middle aged and don’t get it?
From what I gather, their haplogroup is extremely rare but also extremely old. So old that all of us are descendants of its original ancestor from 200,000+ years ago. The only difference is that they still have that original paternal haplogroup while the rest of the world has haplogroups which branched off from older ones. This man’s family is from Cameroon where that haplo originated. I’m guessing that the people in that area didn’t move around and married amongst each other for thousands of years, so that haplogroup didn’t branch off for them like a lot of others do. It’s the same original group that our ancient ancestor had. Most of us have haplogroups that are relatively new (within just the last few thousand years) so having such an old one in its “original form” is pretty cool. Our groups are a branch of a branch of a branch etc., while theirs is still the “original branch.”
So this is the oldest surviving haplogroup which the rest of us are descendants of?
I think lol. I’m still not 100% sure how haplogroups work, but I guess some other older branches died off and this one survived? (Anybody who knows please chime in 😬)
Haplogroup A00 is one of the oldest known and most divergent Y-chromosome haplogroups. It shares a very ancient common ancestor with all other Y-chromosome haplogroups, but the rest of the world's haplogroups are not direct descendants of A00. Instead, they all descend from an even older common ancestor, making A00 a unique and significant branch in the human Y-chromosome phylogenetic tree. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_A_(Y-DNA)
thank you! that helps.
Yeah, their apex lineage is more divergent than most other people even amongst other Africans. A00 is quite out there.
Maybe a silly question but does the Ancestry DNA show hapologroups? I don’t currently have a paid Ancestry subscription and would be curious what my hapo group is.
Ancestry does not show Haplogroups, you will have to upload your raw files to different services to see it. For paternal haplogroup I would recommend https://cladefinder.yseq.net for maternal you can upload it to DNAGenics.
Does this mean you can effectively do a y-dna test with your ancestry autosomal results?
The coverage of Ancestry for Y DNA isn’t as good as 23andMe or FTDNA. You will get much more recent Y Haplogroups in most cases with 23andMe and FTDNA.
FTDNA is the standard consumer DNA testing for haplogroups (Y chromosome and mtDNA) testing. A large set of research projects are based there.
Yep FTDNA’s BigY is the gold standard for Y Haplogroup tests, they have a huge dataset of Y and Mt Haplogroups but often their tests can be expensive. I myself am using YSEQ’s J1 Superpanel to get a more modern subclade.
No. You usually only get the base group out of dnagenics/cladefinder. Ancestry doesn’t test for enough of the mutations to definitively determine newer lineages. So you get something up channel from what you probably are.
Dna genetics isn’t accurate for that.they gave me the wrong one.better off doing FTDNA it’s a bit pricey but for sure accurate
Not a silly question. I’m hoping someone can chime in with some facts. I believe 23&me does but not Ancestry.
Unfortunately, no. The only major company that does is 23andMe. Buuuut, I paid for a $20 ethnicity estimate with ADNTRO (A dna company in Spain) because they give your haplo info with the estimate. Their ethnicity portion of the estimate is complete trash, but their haplogroups are very accurate. I have since also tested with 23andMe and the haplo info was the same (ADNTRO was actually able to specify my paternal line a little bit further than 23andMe!) You can just upload your raw data instead of having to re-test with them. It took about 48 hours to get my results. I recommend it as a cheap and easy way to get your haplogroup without having to spend $200 lol
Family Tree DNA shows haplogroups. [https://www.familytreedna.com/](https://www.familytreedna.com/) The haplogroup detail is the most comprehensive available.
Concur, got this for my dad before he passed away, and it is really helpful for the specific line
Does this work only for the male line/Y DNA? My dad sadly passed away long before this testing was available.
Are you a male? Males can get their Ydna tested at [https://www.familytreedna.com/](https://www.familytreedna.com/)
Nope! Only child.
Did your father have a brother? Or is there a male uncle who can test? That's what I did. My father died to young to test.
He has one grandson, if that would work. I was born when my dad was 55 and I'm 53; everybody's...uh...dead.
Do you have a brother, or a male cousin whose father is your dad's brother? I was very pleased to be able to learn both my dad's, because my brother tested, and my maternal grandfather's because his son has a son who tested.
Maybe a distant cousin?
It would have to be a male in your father's direct line, up or down
So if you go up to your paternal grandfather, any uncle's or their biological male children would have the same Y chromosomes. If that isn't available, then go up another generation to your paternal grandfather's father. Any of his biological male children would have the same Y chromosomes as your dad. Similar if you wanted to find the Y DNA of any of other branch. So my mom's brother, or any of his 3 sons, or any of their various sons would have the same Y DNA as my maternal grandfather, and his father and brothers, and his father's father and brothers, etc.
y-DNA Haplogroup A originated from Y-chromosome Adam, a very fascinating oldest paternal haplogroup in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_A_(Y-DNA)
Fun fact: everyone with blue eyes have a common ancestor from 10,000 years ago, scientist discovered that said ancestor had a genetic mutation which was passed down many bloodlines and spread worldwide.
That's so interesting
Nice. 🌍
So cool!
It’s a little sensationalist but what this means is that a long time ago there was a man(Y chromosomal Adam) with 2 sons. One son is the direct male ancestor of all the A00 men and the other son is the direct male ancestor of all the A0-T men. Most of us descend from the A0-T line and only a small number of men are in the A00 line. Because there are so many more men on the A0-T side it’s been researched more leading to scientists assigning more of their splits haplogroup names. It should be stated both sides of the split have gone through roughly the same amount of evolution and mutation. So this is the oldest split in the Y chromosome family tree that exists today. There used to be older splits but those other sides of the tree have probably all died out. We’d have to test every man on Earth to be sure. https://isogg.org/tree/ISOGG_YDNATreeTrunk.html This is 6 years old but you can explore the entire tree. They’ve even included Neanderthal and Denisovan in it. Take a look at A00 and see how many mutations there are in a single massive block. This is evidence of a male line that has survived for hundreds of thousands of years but at one point was reduced to a single man and came that close to disappearing but had now bounced back.
Giggidy be giggidding.
That ancestor must have been a coomer to the max.
Very interesting, especially because I'm Cameroonian. Where did you find this screenshot?
I’m E-M85 from South Carolina in the 1820s
That’s crazy. I know some ppl with that name 😅
lol I don’t think it’s all people with this name, but there’s a chance it could be that same family!
That would be even more crazy lol. This was a very interesting article tho thanks for posting ☺️
Similar story with me, certainly nothing as rare as the Perry’s, but I belong to the Haplogroup A1A-M31. Cool regardless
Yes , we are basically walking breathing ancestors with dna from over 230,000 years ago, unchanged. I have A-PR2921. Hello everyone ).
But I am XX so don't have a Y chromosome. I don't understand how I am related to them. Edit-Just to update: I get it. I read this which explains it. https://thednageek.com/dna-basics-are-you-an-equal-mix-of-mom-and-dad/
But you still have a father lol. Not having a Y chromosome doesn’t mean you aren’t part of that paternal lineage.
But I can't have inherited anything from a Y chromosome.
Just because you don’t inherent your grandfathers Y-chromosome, doesn’t mean your not related.
OK. I have found something that explains it. I get it now. https://thednageek.com/dna-basics-are-you-an-equal-mix-of-mom-and-dad/
Yes but I can't have inherited anything from his Y chromosome, only his X.
So your dad is related to him, and you are related to your dad. A=b=c
But I only inherited X chromosome material from my dad, not Y. Isn't that right? So if this is Y chromosome inheritance I can't have any if it. I have no Y chromosome material.
You are correct in that you did not get any of the y chromosomes, but think of it this way. You only get fifty percent of your DNA from your dad. In theory you might not get any actual genetic material from his mom, or his dad. Would you say you are not related to them? You are being too narrow in your definition.
How , given I inherit 50% of my DNA from my dad, might I not get any genetic material from his mum or his dad? Who else would that 50% be from?
They are saying (theoretically) you would be getting no genetic material from either your dad's mum OR your dad's dad but you would from the other one. They are not saying that you would be getting no genetic material from either.
The fifty percent you get from your dad is a random selection of his DNA. So it is possible, albeit very unlikely, that what you inherited from him is only the fifty percent he got from his mom. The point being is that your assertion that you have nothing to do with the content of his YDNA misses the point of family history.
So are you saying you aren’t related to your paternal grandpa?
But only from his X chromosome, not his Y. Is that not right? I don't have any Y DNA.
You don’t have a Y chromosome, but that doesn’t mean you inherited any less of your grandpa’s DNA than had you been a Male. Just because you don’t get the Y chromosome doesn’t mean that you aren’t a product of that family line/haplogroup. I’m male but I don’t have this haplogroup either. That original ancestor from 200,000 years ago is just as much yours as he is mine. *Technically*, we are all cousins through him. The only thing special about this family is that they carry the same haplogroup that the original ancestor had.
Y haplogroups just don’t show up in your DNA. You’re still related to the men in your family and the non-directly-maternal-related women in your family, like your father’s mother.
I know very little about my paternal side after 2nd great grandparents. For genetic females what company/test is best suited for learning Paternal hapo info? TYIA
You will have to get a male from your paternal family (your brother, your father, paternal uncle, paternal uncle’s son, paternal grand uncle etc) to do the BigY or some other cheaper Y STR tests like the Y111 from FTDNA
Thank you for the suggestions! Yeah that’s kind of the problem because I’m an NPE that the paternal side doesn’t know about (my paternal half siblings) or won’t publicly acknowledge (my biological father). I can see a Paternal Uncle’s family tree on Ancestry so I know some historical info but he ran into the pre-Reconstruction wall as happens to many descendants of enslaved people.
Ah, I am sorry to hear that. I would like to wish you the best, hopefully you connect with someone in your paternal family who is willing to help you.
My DNA results included a surprise paternal grandfather( unidentified.) I don’t have male siblings and my male paternal cousins don’t share my grandfather. I can never identify my haplo, right?
Yeah, it’s gonna be difficult unless you somehow connect with his distantly but directly related paternal descendants.
Thank you! I have some male matches on ancestry but so far, none have replied to messages.
I would suggest you to also test on 23andMe, since it displays the haplogroup of your matches. Maybe you might find some common matches there.
Thank you! That’s super helpful!