U106 is a SNP that mutated about 4,500 years ago. Among the participants of the Sinclair DNA study, two particular STR markers will likely be present in those who have this SNP:

• DYS390=23
• DYS492=13

That second one only shows up if you're tested out to 67-markers.


As of this writing, we have 4 Lineages who are U106:

Our U106* Lineage - That asterisk means that no SNP is yet available for these participants to take. That will change soon with all the SNPs coming out of the Walk the Y test by FTDNA. We currently have 4 participants who have this SNP. Click here to learn more about this Lineage.

Our Z9* Earldom participant - LIke the SNP above, we don't yet have any further SNPs to test for this participant. This gentleman wishes to remain anonymous. He has a Burke's Peerage paper trail that supposedly connects him to the Earl of Caithness who came north into Caithness in the mid 1300s. Click here to learn more about this Lineage.

Our Z2 Argyle Lineage - We currently have 3 members of this group of 11 participants who have taken the SNP test. Given the close genetic distance of the other 8, there is no doubt they will all test positive for Z2. The documents work in this line has been impeccable and independently completed by several good genealogists. Click here to learn more about this Lineage.

Our Z1 Northern Scotland Lineage - This Lineage currently has 20 members. Five of these are folks of different surnames who asked to join so they can explore ancient connections. There will be further SNPs discovered downsteam of Z1 soon. Click here to learn more about this Lineage.

The U106 Lineages Illustrated

This phylogenic tree shows the relationships and path of our different members in just one part of our family based upon similarities and differences in their genetic markers.

All of the U106 members share that SNP.
Then all but 4 developed a further mutation that became defined as Z381.
All of those developed L48.
All of those developed Z9.
All of our Z9 participants except 1 developed Z2.
All of those except 11 developed Z7.
Every one of our Z7 ancestors developed the Z8 mutation.
And so far it looks like all our Z8 ancestors developed Z1.

Geography and Time

The experts who study these SNPs are attempting to pinpoint them in time and geography. All we believe all of our U106 participants were among the Germanic tribes 4,500 years ago. The question is, where did they go next and when?

Early on in our project, with a study which we began with EthnoAncestry called S21 (FTDNA later called their version L48), we were told that it was a marker that indicated ancestry from Frisia, the coastal area of the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. This claim was later realized to be the result of a statement that Ken Nordtvedt made in honor of his maternal ancestry. Likewise, there is no evidence as of yet that Z1 is of Norman origins. In fact, it seems to drop off significantly at the border between Flanders and The Netherlands.

This is a comment from an expert in the U106 (S21) STR on a Yahoo group - "I don't see U106 as common in Normandy but it definitely is as you move over into Flanders so you might consider that as well."  As you can see on this map, the U106, L48 members of the Flanders DNA study don't show ancestry living in Normandy.




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Content from here down was part of the previous page about DYS390=23, and still relevant

The Heyer study of 1997 recorded a mutation rate of zero for DYS390 and DYS393. Although the DYS390 marker has not exhibited a mutation rate as consistently low as DYS393 in other studies, the results of the Heyer study suggest that it is a relatively stable marker. As such, particular values of DYS390 may be acquired less often by random mutation, and therefore may be more likely to reflect a shared ancestry among the haplotypes that exhibit them. Because these haplotypes deviate from AMH in different ways, they suggest a variety of origins.

A.A. Foster's study 141 focused on DYS390 in four particular regions of Europe - 1. Baltic-Russian,  2. NorthSea-Baltic, 3. Alpine-South German, 4. Atlantic. And he found significant differences within the set of alleles he used for the study. 

DYS390=24 represents about 59% of the R1b DYS390 population in Europe. In Iberia and France, and in the more remote areas of the British Isles, it averages almost 70% and reaches 80%. But in the Baltic regions the density is consistently low: it averages only 33% throughout the Baltic States, about 43% in the Netherlands, and 47% in Baltic Germany. The lowest European percentage (29%) is to be found in Moscow, Russia. An even lower frequency, of 22%, can be found in Asian Khazakstan. 

Complete R1b data from the "YHRD" database, indicated that, after an earlier existence in Asian Khazakstan, all European variants of R1b shared an existence in Russia ( in the region of Kazan, on the Volga river at about 55° North and 50° East), and that, later they separated and expanded into two major migrations (a westward migration to the Russian-Baltic region, and a south-western migration to the Black Sea area and then further, westwards, to the Alpine-South German region). Eventually, a North Sea-Baltic migration evolved from the Russian-Baltic expansion; and an Atlantic migration evolved from the Alpine-South German variant.

What it means 

If we divide our project along the lines of DYS390, then we'll see discinct clusters within the Sinclair family. It's important to remember this is long before anyone took the surname St. Clair from the land they lived on in Normandy, or from a land-holder in England or Scotland. And this does not mean any one lineage is any less "Sinclair" than the other. I believe nearly all who bear the name have ancestors who arrived in Western Europe sometime after the last ice age and remained there until the time of the Conqueror, taking on the surname St. Clair from the land they inhabited or a land-holder. But their ancestors came along different paths.

"We have noted a tendency among the project members for DYS390=23 to occur at higher levels in different areas of Europe. If you look at this table you'll see the level of DYS390=23 among project levels is higher among members with central European ancestry (southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic) and to a lesser extent those with northwestern European ancestry (northern Germany, France, the Low Countries), as compared to those with Scandinavian and northeastern European ancestry. This is interesting and may indicate some sort of unknown subclade differences (perhaps the newly discovered SNP L48?), but that's unclear at this time."  143   The distribution map below seems to bear this out as well. If you're DYS390=23, your ancestors likely spent a good deal of time in southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Czech Republic. 

Summary of the Facts -  U106 Lineages

(1) We currently have 4 Lineages who are at or downstream of U106. (2) In the Sinclair study, U106 usually means DYS390=23 and DYS492=13. (2) The density of DYS390=23 in middle-southern Europe is very consistent with a Germanic tribal background and less so with Frisian ancestry (this claim was over-hyped). (3) DYS390=23 is higher among those with central European ancestry (southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic) and to a lesser extent those with northwestern European ancestry (northern Germany, France, the Low Countries) but L48 may be an exception.

Further notes - There will be further breakthroughs thanks to SNPs

AMH  |  Germany  |  DYS390=25  |  DYS390=23  |  S21-U106  |  Anglo-Saxon Visigoths  
E1b  |  I1  |  R1a  |  CCR5-Delta-32  |  Mutation Rates  |  Lineage Smugness

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