St. Clair Research

This marker out of all the markers seems to be pointing the way to a unique understanding of our family's ancient history.

Many of our participants are part of the Atlantic Modal Haplotype, the most successful breeders since the last ice age. And, because these folks stayed in Europe, any mutations they had make it very difficult to further refine any differences via DNA. Our DNA is all very similar. Any basic haplotype that differs from the AMH values of 14-12-24-11-13-13 by even a single mutation, on any marker, up or down in value, is still considered part of AMH. The Sinclair project shows DYS390 values of 23, 24, 25, and 26. The 23's and 24's are overwhelmingly outnumbering the others. Niven and his lineage are showing a 25.

These markers are the definition of the Atlantic Modal Haplotype. Most of us in the project fall within these markers.

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

What it means
If we divide our project along the lines of DYS390, then it's safe to say that we're viewing at least five distinct lineages 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. 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. But their ancestors came along different paths. Keep in mind, our DNA mutations point to times between 14,000 and 18,000 years ago.

This haplotype has an unusual match pattern. Half of its top ten frequencies fall in Spain, or among Hispanic samples in the U.S. Yet it also occurs in Northern Italy, Switzerland, and in a fair variety of locales in the Baltic region.

This haplotype may have originated primarily in Iberia, and spread with the diaspora of Iberian Sephardim to other parts of Europe known to have substantial Jewish settlements - such as Northern Italy, Bern, Switzerland and the greater Baltic. It likely came to Britain with the prehistoric Iberians or the Normans.

19	389i	389ii	390	391	392	393	385a	385b
14	13	30	25	11	13	13	-	-

Geographical Locale	%
Oregon [Hispanic-American]	4.76
Maryland [Hispanic-American]	3.85
Texas [European-American]	2.56
Bologna, Italy	1.96
Bern, Switzerland	1.10
Cantabria, Northern Spain	.99
Zaragoza, Aragon	.83
Leipzig, Saxony	.76
Valencia, Spain	.71
Riga, Latvia	.69
Madrid, Spain	.68
Vilnius, Lithuania	.64
Andulacia, Southern Spain	.61
Budapest, Hungary	.52
Finland	.50
Sweden	.49
Chemnitz, Saxony	.37
Sao Paulo, Brazil [European]	.22
Gdansk, Northern Poland	.18

But there is much more to be learned by looking at certain markers as this study by A.A. Foster shows --

Based on the differences and diversity of the alleles of R1b's DYS390 locus, there is evidence that there are four regional variants of the R1b sub-haplogroup in Europe. These are:

(i) Baltic-Russian. (ii) NorthSea-Baltic. (iii) Alpine-South German. (iv) Atlantic.

In Central and Western Europe, north of its great mountain ranges - The Pyrenees, Alps, and others - the major rivers flow northwest and northwards to the Atlantic, the North Sea and the Baltic. Only the Danube, which flows eastwards from the Northern Alpine regions to the Black sea, follows a different pattern. Extrapolating from data available within the online "YHRD" database (�, see below) suggested all variants of R1b in Europe, as pre-historic hunter-gatherers, entered Europe from the east, and migrated and expanded along rivers and coastlines, and across the ridgeways of high ground, eventually to reach the Baltic, North Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines.

The mean frequency for DYS390=24 within the whole of the "YHRD" European database is about 59% of the R1b DYS390 population. 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 frequency 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.

Baltic--Russian R1b:
Research showed that the greatest diversity of R1b's DYS 390 locus is within the Russian-Baltic region. The data suggested that the Russian-Baltic variant migrated/expanded from the Kazan region of Russia westwards to Moscow, and then to the Baltic States of Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia & Poland.

In this Baltic-Russian area, a sample of 159 haplotypes showed the R1b DYS390 percentages to be:

Within the North Sea-Baltic area (Northern Germany, Denmark, Netherlands and
Norway) a sample of 1,227 haplotypes showed the R1b DYS390 percentages to be:

These percentages were less diverse than in the Russian-Baltic area - supporting the likelihood of an R1b migration/expansion from east to west along the Baltic coast. The coastal parts of the North Sea-Baltic region had more R1b diversity than in Norway and in the (German) Elbe river cities, indicating a further migration - from "Greater Frisia"(�) northwards to Norway and southwards into the Saxon lands alongside the Elbe.(4) Ultimately, North Sea-Baltic R1bs invaded England and other parts of British Isles during the period 450 to 1,000AD as part of the Germanic-speaking Anglo-Saxon and Danish Viking invasion forces.

Alpine-South German R1b:
Analysis of the Yhrd data for this region indicates a migration/expansion path from Kiev (Ukraine - Russia), westwards along the River Danube (2,850 km), and north/westwards along the Rhine (1,320 km) to the North Sea. Politically, this whole region includes today's Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Switzerland, Rhineland Germany, and Southern Holland. Except for the exception given below, a sample of 1,296 haplotypes revealed the R1b percentages for this region were uniform at:

With the Alpine-South German group, a small sub-sample of 122 haplotypes in the eastern Danube area, showed only 53% DYS390 =24, and 13% for DYS 390=25. This higher diversity supported the notion of a migration path of the Alpine-South German group from the east, and its heightened DYS390=25 in the eastern Danube area suggests that this variant may well have split from the Russian-Baltic variant near to its source in central Russia.

Atlantic R1b:
This variant is found on the Atlantic coast, in Iberia, France and in the more remote parts of Ireland and Scotland. In order to obtain more accurate data on the
aboriginal/indigenous Scots/Irish, data was extracted from Capelli et al, (5) for Pitlochry and Oban in the Scots Highlands, and from Castlereigh in Central Ireland.

In the Atlantic region, R1b's DYS=390 showed the least diversity. A sample of 1,516 haplotypes showed its R1b's DYS390 percentages to be:

The origin of this sub-population is unclear, but its lack of DYS390 diversity makes it the "youngest" R1b in Europe. Some data suggested that it may have split from the Alpine-South German variant in the region of Albania, and then subsequently expanded, westwards, along the Mediterranean coast to Iberia.

The YHRD R1b sub-populations were identified by carrying out a geographic search based on the selection of DYS 392=13, within Europe. A repeat geographical selection, selecting DYS392=13 and combining it, alternatively, with DYS390=25,24,23 & 22 revealed the frequencies of each of DYS390's alleles. After analysis, these were aggregated into the four variant groups. The frequencies of DYS390=26 and 21 were so low that they could be ignored as being statistically irrelevant to this study.

If the allele DYS390=24 was the original modal value for all four R1b variants, then the Russian-Baltic group has been mutating either at least twice-as-long or twice-as-fast as the Atlantic one. About 30% of the Atlantic group's DYS390 does not have an allele of 24, while within the Russian-Baltic group this figure increases to 68%. Perhaps the Russian-Baltic variant never did have the well-known Atlantic Modal Haplotype where DYS390=24. But in either case, the difference in allele frquencies highlights that the populations are not homogenous. Differing alleles at the same locus position can be measured to show how diverse is the locus, and such increased locus diversity is a sign of a population's increased age (since its foundation or since it was isolated with a reduced amount of genetic diversity).

A simple application of the different levels of diversity of the four variants to the known archaeology of the Atlantic countries suggests that the ages of the variants, since separation from an earlier, parent type, may, approximately, be as follows:

More work needs to be done on this aspect, and on the question of where the variant R1bs may have existed during the Last Glacial Maximum.

*1* The YHRD database can be found at www.yhrd.org and it is maintained by the Institute of Legal Medicine, Charite' - University Medicine Berlin.

*2* Diversity has been calculated using Simpson's Index of Diversity, 1-D, expressed as a percentage where 100% represents complete diversity and 0% represents complete homogenity. The maximum diversity of 4 alleles, comprising a total of 100% of those occurring at a locus, cannot exceed 75%. This would be achieved when all four alleles have the same frequency of occurrence, i.e 25%.

*3* "Greater Frisia" was coined by Dr Ken Nordtvedt, during 2004, to describe the North Sea coastal region of the Northern Netherlands and Southern Denmark, after he detected that the frequency of the R1b combination DYS390=23 and DYS391=11, was unexpectedly high in this region. See, Ken Nordtvedt's R1b Sub-Clade at www.worldfamilies.net/Tools/R1b.html

*4* Data from Sweden was excluded both Baltic groups. Some of its data accords with them, but other data suggests that Sweden and Polish Gdansk may have received a later input of Central European R1bs from Bohemia. These R1bs might have been intermingled with the later inruption of R1as northwards across the Baltic.
*5* Capelli et al, A Y-Chromosome Census of the British Isles, Current Biology, Elsevier Science Ltd. 2003

DYS390 or DYS390 part 2 -- this is a large page showing the distribution of the 390's. (Note, Jerry St. Clair is of German origins.)

Geographical Locale