What is the Record Number of 12-Marker Matches?

[Lost-Sheep]

What is the highest number of matches that has been obtained on a 12-marker test? I have already ordered the upgrade to 37-marker results which will eliminate most or all of the 200 matchees.

My R1b cousin's Y-DNA hit the 200 match mark this day. He matches 200 other males in the FTDNA Member Database 12 for 12! I have tested over a dozen different cousins and this is the highest number of matches by far that I have ever come across or even heard of in the short period of time that I have been involved with Y-DNA analysis.

My cousin appears to be of Irish descent. I can just picture the image of some prominant English overlord or overlord family running amuck the foothills of Ireland creating many descendants with many different women of the lower class...

[Rick]

number of matches

I have 732. This will probably be the most, since we perfectly match the 12-marker modal haplotype for R1b (the most numerous haplogroup, at least in this database). - Rick

[haplogroupc]

My R1b cousin's Y-DNA hit the 200 match mark this day. He matches 200 other males in the FTDNA Member Database 12 for 12! I have tested over a dozen different cousins and this is the highest number of matches by far that I have ever come across or even heard of in the short period of time that I have been involved with Y-DNA analysis.

My cousin appears to be of Irish descent. I can just picture the image of some prominant English overlord or overlord family running amuck the foothills of Ireland creating many descendants with many different women of the lower class...

Lost-Sheep,

Why does your R1b cousin believe he is of Irish descent? Does he have Irish ancestors that he knows about? My relative is R1b and we're trying to figure out his ancestry. Is R1b an Irish haplogroup?

[Lost-Sheep]

haplogroupc,

R1b haplotypes are not specifically Irish, but they are the largest haplogroup to populate Europe and the British Isles.

I do not know for certain that my cousin's R1b paternal ancestry is Irish. His paternal great-grandfather was born out of wedlock so I do not have a biological surname in which I can even assume an origin.

His Y-DNA RAOs are as follow:

Country (Number of Entries)
Comment
Your Matches

Africa (203)
-
1

Belgium (102)
-
2

British Isles (406)
-
3

Canada (148)
-
1

Colombia (46)
-
1

England (7814)
-
41

France (903)
-
5

Germany (3344)
-
18

Great Britain (501)
-
2

Iceland (123)
-
2

Ireland (4003)
-
72

Italy (762)
-
3

Mexico (378)
-
2

Netherlands (410)
-
2

Northern Ireland (167)
-
2

Poland (810)
-
1

Scotland (3295)
-
31

Spain (788)
-
4

Sweden (445)
-
4

United Kingdom (2603)
-
15

United States (1008)
-
5

Again, it his RAOs only make it appear that his ancestry is Irish.

Wales (603)
-
5

[wmccown]

What Is the Record Number of Matches?

Prior to reading one of the replies the highest number of 12/12 matches that I have read was 704, obviously not a record. My matches follow your general pattern. FTDNA reports 184 12/12 matches which do not consider haplogroup. My surname is both Scottish and Irish but we have always thought of it as Scottish and we are now convinced that we are of Scotch-Irish descent. I was first shown as a suggested haplogroup R1b and later this was modified to R1b1. I have read that the highest concentration of R1b's is in western Ireland and that the overwhelming majority of R1b's are actually R1b1.

My results are for the 37 marker level. My matches are 23/25 and 33/37 almost all within the R1b(1). All of those high marker matches are Irish.
The caveat comes on names such as McGuire and MacAuley which both have clan affiliations in Scotland as well as Ireland. In fact, in Ireland those two names are closely allied in Fermanagh, Cavan and Leitrim, as far back at least into the mid-1600's. The highest probability of a Most Recent Common Ancestor, so far, is with a MacAuley at 97% 24 generations ago and McGuire
and Donahoe trailing at 96%. The closest match within my surname is 8/12
but it gets worse after that.

[T E Peterman]

The more matches you have, especially at low resolution, the closer you are to the modal values of your haplogroup. My guess is that one could find several modal peaks (ie, 12 marker match combinations with a lot of matches) within a single haplogroup. These might prove to be the modal values of hitherto undesignated sub-haplogroups.

Timothy Peterman

[EBurgess]

The more matches you have, especially at low resolution, the closer you are to the modal values of your haplogroup. My guess is that one could find several modal peaks (ie, 12 marker match combinations with a lot of matches) within a single haplogroup. These might prove to be the modal values of hitherto undesignated sub-haplogroups.

I think you are right, but only when looking at a higher number of markers. I think Victor is seeing this now with his E3b project.

[cycleman]

Just to add some perspective on the other end....My results have been up for about a year and I've only had 93 YDNA 12 marker matches. Over 50% of them have scandinavian names. Given that and my I1a haplotype I guess I might be a Viking...pretty interesting for a South Ga boy!

[EBurgess]

Not another Viking!

I currently only have 45 matches at the 12 marker level.

I have noticed that it has been a dry spell lately with little or no new matches. I was expecting much more with the Genographic project coming into full swing.

Of the people with 100 or more 12-marker matches, I wonder how many 25-marker matches say at a genetic distance of 2 they would have?

[Rick]

high resolution matches

That is an interesting question. My exact matches, which since I first posted have increased by 4 to 736 on 12 markers drop to just twomatches on 25 markers.--quite a few 24/25 (17) and 23/25 (78) close matches though. I guess this is to be expected in R1b, especially at or close to the modal haplotype. Unfortunately ou surname project has a large number of R1b types, which sure gives us fits figuring whether these are true recent kin or just more among our many random R1b matches. Actually the 37 marker test has helped sort some of these questions out, and I expect the 59 marker test will do even better, assuming anyone upgrades.

[TAGull]

My 12 markers are one step away from the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype so my pattern looks similar to what Rick reports. I have 351 exact matches at 12 markers and only two at 25 markers. Both of the latter are descendants of the same man, in the same surname project, etc. Again, this is an R1B pattern so there are many matches from many locations in Europe. My own ancestor came from Germany and was born around 1725. The two 25 marker matches have a Swedish ancestor born in the early 1600s. When you extend out to 37 markers, we begin to show more significant variance (I think we match on 32 out of 37 markers in total). So we share a common ancestor more recently than most of the rest of the R1Bs share one with us, but it is still a long ways in the past. / Tom

[sterlingnotes]

Wow... I only have 18 matches at 12 markers. I guess it makes it a lot easier for me to sort through them all though.

[Lost-Sheep]

My 12 markers are one step away from the Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype so my pattern looks similar to what Rick reports. I have 351 exact matches at 12 markers and only two at 25 markers. Both of the latter are descendants of the same man, in the same surname project, etc. Again, this is an R1B pattern so there are many matches from many locations in Europe. My own ancestor came from Germany and was born around 1725. The two 25 marker matches have a Swedish ancestor born in the early 1600s. When you extend out to 37 markers, we begin to show more significant variance (I think we match on 32 out of 37 markers in total). So we share a common ancestor more recently than most of the rest of the R1Bs share one with us, but it is still a long ways in the past. / Tom

That is totally fascinating, Tom! With my own Y-DNA, I only match 36 others 12 out of 12 markers. I have a distant cousin who shares the same paternal ggg-grandfather as I and he matches me 11 out of 12 markers.

Similar to those two people who match you 25 out of 25 markers, there is only one male who matches me 24 out of 25 markers and 32 out of 37 markers. His surname is different than mine and none of his paternal ancestors migrated anywhere near the areas that my paternal ancestors resided on this side of the pond (USA) so our most recent common ancestor might have been walking the earth before the origin of surnames...