The Dewhurst Family DNA Project

Project Goals:
Though many connections have been made using the traditional methods of genealogy, the Y-DNA study offers us a whole new opportunity to find others who may be releated to our lines. The testing is simple and painless, involving a cheek swab. Only a male in the direct line will have inherited the Y-DNA, so the females will need to ask a male DEWHURST relative to participate. Through this group surname project, FamilyHistoryDNA.com will give a discount on the test fees. Subsequent matched individuals can and may want to move up to more markers later on.

Allele results:

[1] In the world of DNA testing, 385 is a fast-mutating marker, so a difference there does not likely reflect as distant an event as a slow-mutating marker. It could have happened relatively recently. Further, DYS385a=13 is the most common value for that marker in haplogroup I. DYS385a=14 (which most of our project members have) is the next most-common. DYS385a=11 is rather rare, and only occurs about 1% of the time. Additionally, since this mis-match happens in the first 12 markers, while the rest of the 37 markers are a perfect match, we can conclude that the results point to a very close match to kits 94974, 43192 and 38465; suggesting that we should lean our research to connect into the descendancy line of Roger Dewhirst of Whalley, 1505!

[2] Another example of mutation, this time between a father (kit # 129745) and a son (kit# 38465), makes a crucial difference in proving a closer link than previously known between the lines of James Dewhurst of Blackburn, Lancashire, Luke Dewhirst of Sowerby, Yorkshire and Thomas Dewhurst, Gentleman of Cotton Hall, Lower Darwin, Lancashire. All these lines appear to be headed to connect with the genealogy of Roger Dewhirst of Whalley, Yorkshire, 1505 ! We simply have to prove it.

* Haplogroup I - The I, I1, and I1a lineages are nearly completely restricted to northwestern Europe. These would most likely have been common within Viking populations. One lineage of this group extends down into central Europe.The ancestors of Haplogroup I (defined by the P19 and M170 genetic markers) arrived from the Middle East 20,000 to 25,000 years ago and are associated with the Gravettian culture. Gravettian is the second subdivision of the Upper Paleolithic technological phase in western Europe (from 27,000 to 21,000 years ago). Haplogroup I is most frequent in central Eastern Europe and also occurs in Basques and Sardinians. Haplogroup I is found in Central and Eastern Europe, but also accounts for almost all the HG2s in Northern Europe and the British Isles. Gravettian culture A phase (c.28,000-23,000 ya) of the European Upper Paleolithic that is characterized by a stone-tool industry with small pointed blades used for big-game hunting (bison, horse, reindeer and mammoth). It is divided into two regional groups: the western Gravettian, mostly known from cave sites in France.

The I1a subclade of Haplogroup I is estimated to be 15,000 to 20,000 years old and confirmed by the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) known as M253. According to the Genographic Project, the founder of the I1a branch lived on the Iberian Peninsula during the Last Glacial Maximum or LGM. While many I1a members trace their ancestry to Scandinavia, others find their roots in the British Isles, Germany, and beyond.For more info, click here or join the yDNA Haplogroup I Subclade I1a group.

** DYS 464 e, according to John Chandler of Colombia University, "DNA can make copying errors on a huge scale by duplicating a long sequence or dropping one. We know that this sort of error is especially likely for DYS464 because it has happened three times already (which is why there are normally four copies of DYS464, labeled a-d). You can think of the copying process as a highly skilled typist copying a manuscript of gibberish (coded text). Errors are rare, but not impossible. For really big errors, imagine somebody opens a window, and the breeze sends a few pages flying -- when they are retrieved, a page from the "done" pile might end up on the "to do" pile or vice versa." Apparently, 464 is a very rapidly changing allele and the extra marker "e" only shows up in 1.5% of results, and has to do with repeats of the 464 marker at different locations on the Y chromosome. If as other results come in, we find that a group of our ancestors show this marker, it will be helpful in further grouping the families.

mtDNA results: