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The Library

Ian Clennel and Niven's connection and what it means to the project.

When the military is trying to determine the location of someone broadcasting radio signals, they do what’s called vectoring. They try to get the direction of the signal from at least two different points. Three points is more accurate than two, four more accurate than 3 and so on. But unless you have at least two, you can’t tell much about where the signal is coming from. The same is true with DNA. One participant with a good documents trail doesn’t tell us much. But when we find a match to that person with another who has good documents, we’ve really achieved something. This is what happened with Niven and Ian. Niven has reliable documents that lead back to the 1^st Earl of Caithness and Ian has good documents back to the 1600's and a family tradition back to the 1st Earl. This DNA match makes the documents research of both an absolute certainty.

Documents research is always open to debate. While you say you connect to someone, all you can really prove is that you are going down the same lines. You can't pinpoint with absolute certainty who was the most recent common ancestor (MRCA) unless it's very recent.

A genetic distance of 3 means that Niven and Ian don't share a common ancestor in the last 200 or 300 years. That's pretty certain. And their documents research proves they DO share a common ancestor no earlier than the 1st Earl of Caithness. So, sometime in between those two times, they have a common grandfather.

Documents comparisons will shortly clear up who that MRCA is. What’s very unlikely is that they connect before that time period. The fact that two independent documents researchers have "vectored" in to the same line and now have lined up using DNA makes it nearly impossible that both their documents research are wrong. There is only ONE correct line of documents research. There are THOUSANDS of wrong possibilities.

This lineage has become the oldest documented connection in our project and, I suspect, one of the older ones in any family project anywhere.

In looking closely at the exact markers that have mutated (the genetic distance of 3) you'll note that all of these are red numbers. Click here to see the results. This means they're alleles that are known to mutate faster than the norm. The point it, this genetic distance of 3 could mean they share a MRCA in less than 400 years. Again, a documents comparison will clear this up.

For the project as a whole --
What this all means is a very important point for our project. Ian's line has been factually traced back to the mid 1600's, however family legend, passed to Ian from an aunt, stated that the line went back to the 1st Earl of Caithness. This shared common ancestor with Niven in the 1400’s helps us understand what a genetic distance of 3 means in this project. This is the power of DNA when paired with good documents research. Understanding this timing is a very important discovery for the project as a whole as I’ve seen no research on the subject of genetic distances beyond 2 and how far back in time they might point.

The prevailing attitude on the Family Tree DNA website is that if you’re not a genetic distance of two or less, you’re likely not related. This has rubbed me the wrong way since we began this project. I suspected that families as old as ours are rare in the Family Tree DNA database. For families that know they go back only to the 1700’s, it makes sense that they look at a genetic distance of 2. But for families that go back as far as ours, it makes much more sense to look at genetic distances of 3, 4 and 5.

The Ireland connections
The fact that Ian’s line went to Ireland at the time of Charles II (1660-1685) is interesting in that Ian is not connecting to the other known lines of Sinclairs there. Clearly, there were many sources of our family in Ireland. We now have 3 that are genetically very distant from one another, yet all living in Ireland at some time. I believe we’re seeing evidence of the same thing in Scotland – several families there that will only join up once back in Normandy or Norway.

For the rest of us in the project
Enough with the 'genetic distance of two' arguments. We were trying to be responsible and follow the norm in DNA research. But we're not a normal family (stop snickering). Our website will soon change to include anyone connecting at a genetic distance of 4 into a full lineage. We are an ancient family, and connections for us must be viewed differently than other testing groups. When you see how many of you connect at a genetic distance of 4 and 5, you'll be amazed. I've already worked it out and can tell you, it's amazing. Watch for this on the site soon.