Many 37-marker matches,why?

[Padgett]

I have a year of yDNA experience and am puzzled by my step-father's results. He has 239 (yes, 239) 25-marker matches and 3 of them are exacts with the remaining at a genetic distance of only 1. Needless to say most of these matches (all but 2 in fact) are a different surname than his and are further different from one another.

At the 37-marker level, he still has a whopping 72 matches with the closest at a distance of 2. Again, most of them are all different surnames from one another.

I've never experienced anything like this. My biological father has hundreds of matches at 12-markers, but those disappear at the 25 and 37 level.

Any ideas?

[Jim Barrett]

Sure. He has a VERY common Haplotype. You didn't tell us his Haplogroup, but I'll bet he is downstream from R1b.

[dutchlines]

At the 37-marker level, he still has a whopping 72 matches with the closest at a distance of 2. Again, most of them are all different surnames from one another.

My brother, who is R1b1c (waiting for M222, but almost certainly R1b1c7), has 149 matches at the 37 marker level in the FTDNA database. One is exact, several are -1, many are -2. Not one of these has the same surname.

Terry

[Padgett]

Thanks

I guess this is the first time I've dealt with a common haplotype before. Both my husband and biological father are R1b1c* (based on deep clade tests), but theirs must be far less common than his.

My step-father is predicted to be R1b1c7 by FTDNA, his ysearch profile is ARHA6. We have not ordered a deep clade test yet (and may not).

[Alf]

With exact matches and nearly exact matches(distance of two or less) at 37 markers it does not surprise me that you find different surnames however I am wondering if you have compared notes with these matches and what you found about their family histories?

I am a distance of 2 (37 marker test) from a known distant cousin. He is 7 generations and I am 5 generations removed from our common ancestor. I am interested in whether you can estimate what kind of mutation rates the families that you mention are experiencing?

Thanks

[dutchlines]

I am wondering if you have compared notes with these matches and what you found about their family histories?

I am a distance of 2 (37 marker test) from a known distant cousin. He is 7 generations and I am 5 generations removed from our common ancestor. I am interested in whether you can estimate what kind of mutation rates the families that you mention are experiencing?

Alf:

Yes, I've compared notes with the exact match and several of the others--there is, as yet, nothing to indicate any kind of relationship, or even common county of origin in Ireland. As to estimating mutation rates, I'm afraid that's beyond my expertise!

Terry

[Arch Yeomans]

hmmm....

I have a year of yDNA experience and am puzzled by my step-father's results. He has 239 (yes, 239) 25-marker matches and 3 of them are exacts with the remaining at a genetic distance of only 1. Needless to say most of these matches (all but 2 in fact) are a different surname than his and are further different from one another.

At the 37-marker level, he still has a whopping 72 matches with the closest at a distance of 2. Again, most of them are all different surnames from one another.

I've never experienced anything like this. My biological father has hundreds of matches at 12-markers, but those disappear at the 25 and 37 level.

Any ideas?

Maybe he's related to them, or somebody at Family Tree DNA had too much egg nog and mixed the sample beakers with a bunch of other customer's DNA.

Looks like your step-father had some busy ancestors. I'd keep an eye on him.