self portrait in the mirror of history
my Y-chromosome map (specifically, an analysis of certain short tandem repeats )
I am in haplogroup R1b1b2a1a1*, most prevalent in Britain (not exactly a surprise for someone named Ashley). The Y-chromosome solely reflects the male lineage, since you get it from your father, and this map is shared by all my male ancestors for many generations. So it is also a look back at my ancient ancestors. Haplogroup R1b diverged about 20,000 years ago, probably in Western or Central Asia. My ancestors are thought to have migrated into Europe around the end of the last ice age, ending up primarily along the Atlantic coast of England, France, Spain, and Portugal, which now have populations dominated by the R1b haplogroup.
This sort of analysis has to date turned up at least 11 genetically distinct lines of Ashleys, with at least one big split between haplotypes R1b and I2c that must represent two very very distantly related lines (i.e., greater than 20,000 years ago) taking up the same surname. The neat thing is that I found an essentially perfect match with a separate Ashley line that ties back to a common ancestor, Jurden Ashley, who was born in South Carolina in 1735 (so my great great great great great greatgrandfather, 8 generations back), or possibly even Jurden's father. The available genealogical records support this, but it's always nice to get some hard scientific data to back that up. Jurden's sons were soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, fighting in the south.
self portrait in the mirror of history
my Y-chromosome map (specifically, an analysis of certain short tandem repeats )
I am in haplogroup R1b1b2a1a1*, most prevalent in Britain (not exactly a surprise for someone named Ashley). The Y-chromosome solely reflects the male lineage, since you get it from your father, and this map is shared by all my male ancestors for many generations. So it is also a look back at my ancient ancestors. Haplogroup R1b diverged about 20,000 years ago, probably in Western or Central Asia. My ancestors are thought to have migrated into Europe around the end of the last ice age, ending up primarily along the Atlantic coast of England, France, Spain, and Portugal, which now have populations dominated by the R1b haplogroup.
This sort of analysis has to date turned up at least 11 genetically distinct lines of Ashleys, with at least one big split between haplotypes R1b and I2c that must represent two very very distantly related lines (i.e., greater than 20,000 years ago) taking up the same surname. The neat thing is that I found an essentially perfect match with a separate Ashley line that ties back to a common ancestor, Jurden Ashley, who was born in South Carolina in 1735 (so my great great great great great greatgrandfather, 8 generations back), or possibly even Jurden's father. The available genealogical records support this, but it's always nice to get some hard scientific data to back that up. Jurden's sons were soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, fighting in the south.