[Sent on behalf of William Watson, who is on the road.] Greetings! It’s been a long time since I last sent out a Hatcher update. Please accept my apologies for the delay. Since last I sent out word, I started a demanding new job and moved. I’ve recently been laid off, so have a bit more time at the moment. I have a few topics for this message: Yes, we’re still alive General website updates Updates on the DNA project: - A Y-DNA test identified a new family with over 60 members - Some very interesting news on deep background of Henrico Hatcher DNA - We’re working on expanding to autosomnal DNA and want more information - Tests are on very deep discount at FTDNA and Ancestry.com through Monday We’re working on a list of projects that others could take on Organization: Bill and I and the board members of the Hatcher Families Genealogy Association are all still involved, keeping the organization going, and the website up. James still managed state and federal forms from Virginia. Bill Schultz serves as the president of the organization. Website: The website is still up and running. We have the latest major version of the TNG software on the server. That new version added the ability to log, track, and compare DNA results Our hosting company has made some tweaks that make the site easier to manage, and uptime seems very good over the past year. We now show a total of 1274 user registrations, 52,491 individuals in the “Wm the Im” tree, 9047 in the Quaker, Dorset, and Newfoundland tree, and nearly 10,000 in our other Hatcher trees. Bill and I continue to approve new user registrations, to query new registered site users for their connections, and incorporate changes. New users often have data on their families to contribute, and many times those will lead to others, at FindAGrave, in cemetery websites, FamilySearch.org, and elsewhere. As always, you can see our most recent updates on the “What’s New” page: http://hatcherfamilyassn.com/whatsnew.php We’re considering other options for the web site, in addition to the database. One would be a blog, where we could post significant updates. Another would be a “forum” where site users could communicate and coordinate projects. We’ll let you know if we decide to add such features, and how you might use them. DNA project: The DNA project at FamilyTreeDNA.com now has 214 members. One of the latest members took a Y-DNA test, and has results that match only two others in the entire FTDNA database. This identified a disconnected family as not tied to any of our existing families. We’ll work to flesh out further details. We now have 24 project members who have upgraded to “Big Y” tests. Those descended from “William the Immigrant” match each other very well. The folks at FTDNA show the nearest matches not part of our project differ from our “Henrico County” men by at least 30 unique changes (Single Nucleide Polymorphisms or “SNPs “). The project with the most closely-related men is the McCarthy project, working on Irish genealogy, and in particular on descendants of the “Kings of Cashel” of the tenth century. The men in their family that most closely matches “Wm the Im” all carry a specific change (SNP) that our Henrico Hatchers do not. This means that Wm descended from ancestors of those Irish kings. They have a large number of project members, and have identified specific changes for different branches of their tree, and have an estimated date for their distinctive SNP. They project that it took place in about the year 1040 BC. So much for any paper trail connecting the Hatchers to the Kings of Cashel! At this point, FTDNA uses the SNP Y34483 to identify the branch of the complete Human race Y-tree for Hatcher men. All our Henrico men carry that distinct marker, and nobody else does. Mind, FTDNA lists over 30 such SNPs carried by all the Hatcher men and nobody else. So far, no kit from any man not in our project yet shows carrying of any of those “Hatcher-only” SNPs. We have no way of knowing if our Hatcher line represents a long series of lone survivors, only sons, and other bottlenecks, or if tens of thousands of other men carry some of the Hatcher SNPs, but just haven’t tested yet. For a presentation on the migration of the men leading to our branch’s arrival in the British Isles, you can check this out: http://scaledinnovation.com/gg/snpTracker.html?snp=Y34483 The link above shows the migration from about 150,000 years ago to about 1000 or so ago to the neolithic, perhaps about the time of the split from the Irish KIngs. (They place the date of the split of our Hatchers from the Kings of Cashel at only about 950 AD.) Look at the different tabs for more information, including a way to animate a marker on the timeline. You can display the tree of Y-chromosome splits down to "the Hatcher branch" at this URL: https://www.familytreedna.com/public/y-dna-haplotree/R;name=R-Y34483 You can browse the Big Tree of Y-DNA branches. The block showing the Y34483 SNP carried by the Hatcher men, and distance to three nearest related men (Armstrong, Harrington, and Hodges) appears here: https://www.ytree.net/DisplayTree.php?blockID=6 Those three men are to the right of the Hatcher men, and the Irish folks are the next block to our left. I know that all of the above may be heavy going for folks who aren’t immersed in DNA genealogy. I intend to pull together a summary presentation soon, but wanted to get this message out without waiting to finish that. Soliciting DNA information To date, our main focus in DNA testing has involved Y-DNA tests, starting all the way back in 2002, with Nel making important discoveries. We now hope to use autosomnal DNA tests to further our efforts. To that end, we would like to know: - Who has taken an autosomnal DNA test (FTDNA FamilyFinder, Ancestry.com, or 23andMe.com)? - Who has transferred their raw data to GEDmatch.com or another site? - If you have data at GEDmatch.com, will you send us your kit number? - Who has worked to look for genetic cousins, triangulated segments, analyzed clusters of matches, or otherwise gone beyond the basics with autosomnal DNA Working with autosomnal DNA looks like it will take significantly more work per kit than Y-DNA has. If you can help with the work, please let us know! Seeking volunteers / project leaders / etc. We’d like to find ways for more folks to get involved in the Hatcher project. We’re looking for both projects and project leaders. Possible projects include: - Mapping early Hatchers in England. One could start with the data in our database, or with the International Genealogical Index on FamilySearch.org, and use Google My Maps (https://www.google.com/maps/d/) or another tool to plot the locations. - Working with the 1940 census records to track our existing Hatcher families - Working with English census records to identify and connect families over there. Does anyone have any project that they’d care to lead? Please email us at hfga@googlegroups.com with any comments, questions, or concerns. Thanks! William Watson Hatcher Families Genealogy Association