Well said, Jim. I found myself recently trying to explain this concept to a potential DNA donor on the phone. I wish I had your eloquence of diction and "big picture" point of view. I am going to print your examples out and use them in my explanation, next time. Thanks for making this clear. John Powell In a message dated 9/6/2012 11:58:24 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, parino@flash.net writes: If two men are from a different major Haplogroups (for example one is a R--- and one is a T---) they CAN NOT and/or DO NOT (both apply) share a common paternal ancestor. Just because two men share a common backbone Haplogroug (R1b1a2 for an example) this does not imply that they DO share a common paternal ancestor. You must compare their STR results (the more markers the better) to determine if there was a possible common paternal ancestor. To me saying they CAN not and saying they can NOT means the same thing, but I'm far from being a English expert. In both cases I mean they DO NOT. Jim Barrett - Timpson, TX Powell Surname DNA Project http://jpbdna.com/powell-surname-dna-project.htm --- On Thu, 9/6/12, mgpage@att.net <mgpage@att.net> wrote: From: mgpage@att.net <mgpage@att.net> Subject: Re: [POWELL-DNA] Haplogroup - Relationship Misunderstanding To: powell-dna@rootsweb.com Date: Thursday, September 6, 2012, 11:58 AM Jim, I'm not quite sure if you're saying they CAN not share a common ancestor (they may or may not), or they can NOT share a common ancestor (they do not)? -----Original Message----- From: powell-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:powell-dna-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Jim Barrett Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 9:04 AM To: POWELL-DNA-L Subject: [POWELL-DNA] Haplogroup - Relationship Misunderstanding I have been telling you, for a long time, that two people in different Paternal Haplogroups (tested to the same level at the same time) can not share a common paternal ancestor. I stand by that statement. What I have not said is - just because two people are in the same Paternal Haplogroups (tested to the same level at the same time) does not mean that they do share a common paternal ancestor. Look at at website. We have seven different groups that are R1b1a2. The first kit number from each of these groups 201897, 220535, 131090, 201835, 159187, 146923 and 122891. A report that I can see, but you can't, lets me check the genetic distance between different members of our project. It doesn't list anyone if the genetic distance is greater than 20 on a 37 marker compare. When I compare 201897 to the other kits listed above he is a genetic distance of 20 or more from all of them. They do not share a common paternal ancestor. When I compare 220535 to the other kits listed above he is a genetic distance of 13 or more from all of them. They do not share a common paternal ancestor. When I compare 131090 to the other kits listed above he is a genetic distance of 12 from 122891 and of 13 or more from the rest of them. They do not share a common paternal ancestor. I hope this makes my point. I keep repeating "tested to the same level at the same time" because a person can have a backbone test which tests only to the larger branches of the Haplotree. Even when two people have ordered Deep Clade tests the results need to be from the same time frame as new SNPs are being added all of the time. Jim Barrett - Timpson, TX Powell Surname DNA Project http://jpbdna.com/powell-surname-dna-project.htm ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to POWELL-DNA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message