This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: ksaxe Surnames: McConnell, McDaniel, McDonald Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/surnames.mcconnell/2478/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Learning about them from the project tables and relationship trees Currently, there are 19 McConnell men with results posted on the charts of the Clan Donald DNA project. Most of them, 13 in all, have been classified as members of the R1b Yellow, or R1b unclassified group. This is a group for R1b men in the project who don't clearly fit into any other subgroup. Some of these men will be classified into other groups as new results come in. It looks to me like the 13 men on the table so far represent no more than 10 different families. How many families one counts depends on how closely related 2 men must be for you to classify them as members of one family. For instance, the first McConnell listed on the Yellow table is J. L. McConnell. His closest matches are with McDaniel and McDonald men, and some of those men have been classified into the Magenta and Pale Violet groups. A more distant match of his is a D. E. McConnell. This D. E. McConnell does not have as many matches as J. L. McConnell, and J. L. is D. E.'s closest match with an estimated Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) of 28 generations. That figure suggests the possibility that their common ancestor did not have a surname. So maybe these two should be counted as members of two different family groups. One way to look at these family relationships is to check out the Relationship Trees generated by Doug McDonald. He used computer software to generate these family tree diagrams which include all R1b men in the project whose results were available at the time. These family trees don't just look at the matches for one man at a time; they fit lines together assuming the smallest number of mutations possible. Doug generated trees for 25 and 37 marker results, and they both show J. L. McConnell and D. E. McConnell more closely related to each other than to any of the men in the Magenta group with results on the trees. So maybe it is no coincidence that J. L. and D. E. share the McConnell surname after all. You can see the relationship trees at http://dna-project.clan-donald-usa.org/R1b37treewrapper.htm and http://dna-project.clan-donald-usa.org/R1b25treewrapper.htm Recent results have begun to add other family groups to the R1b Yellow table. In some cases, these individuals are known cousins of men already on the tables. This is the case with M. F. McConnell and R. H. McConnell, whose estimated TMRCA is 5 generations. J. C. McConnell and R. A. McConnell are also known cousins, with an estimated TMRCA of 14 generations. S. C. McConnell and S. W. McConnell appear to be another family group with a TMRCA estimate of 9 generations. I have not been in touch with the contact or contacts for either of these last 2 men, so I don't know whether they have a paper trail linking them or not. One member of each of these family groups may be found on the relationship trees. Results for the others are not found on the trees because their testing was done recently. It is fun to explore the relationship trees. Members of three of the four family groups mentioned here share common branches on both trees, indicating a common ancestor in the distant past. You can use their Clan Donald codes to find them on the the trees. Here are the Clan Donald codes for some McConnell men on the R1b Relationship Trees: J. L. &UT3VS D. E. &IEVHU R. H. &PBLXR S. W. &GDXCF R. A. &LVCKG C. W. &TTDDW K. &29AJK Once you find these men on the relationship trees, it is easy to identify their neighbors by clicking on their dots to obtain their Clan Donald codes, which you can then look up on the project tables. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.