Adam's DNA

(diagram source: National Geographic Society https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/lan/en/signposts.html )

Mutations: A little bit of information regarding mutations. Mutations are simply small changes in the DNA sequence. They are natural occurrences and take place at random intervals.  If there were never any mutations then every male in the world would have the same Y-DNA signature and that would be of little value to us.  It is the differences that are helpful. There are two different types of mutations used in genetic genealogy, SNP mutations (associated with haplo-groups)  and STR mutations (associated with haplo-types). 

SNP Mutations and Haplo-Groups:  These are “Single Nucleotide Polymorphism” - or SNP pronounced Snip.  They refer to a single small genetic change that randomly occurs within a DNA sequence when a single base, such as A, replaces one of the other base letters; G, C, or T. For example the sequence AGTGAAG may substitute  A for G at one location yielding AGTAAAG. Such changes occur so infrequently that they are used to track the lines of descent over thousands of generations, dividing mankind into clusters called Haplo-groups. These are Groups of individuals that all carry the same single mutation at a specific marker location.  These are changes that occur not within genealogical times but within archeological time spans. They permit tracing the migrations of humans out of Africa to populate the world as will be described when we discuss the haplogroup E1b1b (previously designated E3b) that includes all the Adam Brouwer descendants. Note that if two individuals differ in their haplogroup, they can not be related within genealogical time spans, instead any common ancestor would be a particular individual that lived tens of thousands of years ago.

STR Mutations and Haplo-Types: Every once in a while the copy made of the father’s DNA ends up a  little longer, as shown for example in the haplotypes of Paul and Perry Brewer (Kit # 75657 and Kit# 81173) with 14 repeats instead of the original 13 at a marker named DYS# 439 (listed at location, or Locus, 9 of the 37 signature positions), or a little shorter with 18 repeats instead of the original 19 as in Isaac’s haplotype (Kit# 50688) at the marker named DYS #570 at the 33rd position in the 37 listed. These changes are random STR mutations, and each of the markers mutate (change) at a different rate (the change per each father to son transmission of the Y chromosome) but overall, they are estimated to occur once every 500 generations per marker. It is generally more than twice as likely that the change will result in an increase in repeats than a decrease. 

Such mutations can sometimes be valuable in identifying branches of a family tree.  Such changes in the Haplotype signature  after multiple generations show differences in the genetic markers that can often be traced back to the source of the mutation if the documented genealogy can provide the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) between descendants that follow three or more different lines of descent from that common ancestor and whose DNA markers differ at a single location.  If two or more of the ancestors sons have descendants with identical haplotypes, it is trivial to deduce the haplotype of the common  ancestor. But with only two lines of descent if the descendants differ in haplotype due to a mutation, the signature of the ancestor is indeterminate -- it could be that represented by either of the descendants. What is needed is a third independent line to act as a tie breaker, providing a consensus haplotype that uses a “majority” rule to decide.  This will be made clearer when we discuss deducing the ancestral signature of Adam Brouwer in the next section, which utilizes the majority rule method.

Ancestral Haplotype: Deducing the Adam Brouwer Ancestral Signature and its utility:  

Many researchers in the past have knowingly or unknowingly published mistaken claims of lines of descent from Adam Brouwer Berckhoven that are now being perpetuated on the internet and incorporated into far too many pedigrees today. In researching your own family history it is important to be able to separate out the false from the valid relationships.

How can you or I be sure that a relationship claim is true or false, and how can we prove it?  In order to determine if you and Adam (or any other person) are, or are not, related using DNA methods, we must be able to compare their Y-DNA genetic signatures.  We do not have access to a time machine enabling us go back to the 1620’s to collect a cheek swab of DNA cells from young Adam,wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing -- to be able to go back and nail down all the genealogical questions regarding our ancestors?  So, given that constraint --how can we compare their DNA signatures?

Even though we don’t have access to a time machine, we do have something almost as good. The great benefit offered by the male Y- chromosome is that a very accurate copy of Adam’s Y-DNA was gifted to their present day male descendants, handed down from father to son virtually unchanged for centuries.  It is a unique, historic, family record that our ancestors have handed down to us in our male genes. It is written in a code that for the first time in history can be read. By using modern genetic tools (available to us only in the last 10 years or so), looking at specific locations (Loci) along the DNA chain the lab can identify a unique set of numbers, the numbers that we referred to above that represent your genetic signature (your haplotype). 

Each of the people now listed under the Adam Brouwer line in the Brewer surname study have sent in a sample of their DNA to be analyzed.  For each of you, after waiting for several weeks, the moment arrived and you received your test results --- and you were staring at a bunch of numbers in a sequence that looked something like the people listed under the Adam Brouwer line. Numbers like 13 - 24- 13 - 10 - 16 - 19 - 11 - 12- etc. 

So now what?  The cluster of numbers is your haplotype (genetic signature). The first level of analysis is to compare your own results with the other participants.  If you are descended from Adam you will soon see that you, like all of participants in the Adam Brouwer group match very closely.  If your numbers match 34 out of 37 markers then, Yes, you do share a common ancestor somewhere along the line of descent.   Here are the criteria for relatedness given us by FTDNA:

37 MARKERS

Distance: 0 - Very Tightly Related

37/37 Your perfect match means you share a common male ancestor with a person who shares your surname (or variant). Your relatedness is extremely close with the common ancestor predicted, 50% of the time, in 5 generations or less and over a 90% probability within 8 generations. Very few people achieve this close level of a match. All confidence levels are well within the time frame that surnames were adopted in Western Europe.

Distance: 1 - Tightly Related

36/37 You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only one 'point' at only one marker--a 36/37 match. It's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on a previous Y-DNA test and your mismatch will be found within DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb. Very few people achieve this close level of a match. Your mismatch is within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

Distance: 2 - Related

35/37 You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by only two 'points' --a 35/37 match. It's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on previous Y-DNA tests and your mismatch will be found within DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2, from our first panel of 12 markers, or from within the second panel at DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. Your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

Distance: 3 - Related

34/37 You share the same surname (or a variant) with another male and you mismatch by three 'points' --a 34/37 match. Because of the volatility within some of the markers this is slightly tighter then being 11/12 or 23/25 and it's most likely that you matched 24/25 or 25/25 on previous Y-DNA tests. Your mismatch will most often be found within DYS 439 or DYS 385 A, 385 B,389-1 and 389-2 from our first panel of 12 markers, or within the second panel: DYS #'s 458, 459 a, 459b, 449, or within 464 a-d. If you matched exactly on previous tests you probably have a mismatch at DYS 576, 570, CDYa or CDYb in our newest panel of markers. Your mismatch is likely within the range of most well established surname lineages in Western Europe.

DEFINING  ADAM'S ANCESTRAL HAPLOTYPE SIGNATURE

All those listed under the Adam Brouwer line find that they match one another very closely and share a common ancestor.  On the other hand, if you are not related, it will be clear that your numbers and the numbers in the other signatures do not match very well at all. That was one way I assigned people to different patriarchal lines within the Brewer surname project-- by grouping closely matching signatures together.  Well, that has helped you to identify potential cousins.  But how do we determine what the signature of Adam was back in 1620 or for that matter, the patriarch of another set of tested descendants who may be claiming to be related to Adam? Their signatures are called the “Ancestral Haplotype” of the line, and it is this pair of signatures that we need to determine so we can compare them to see if the two groups of descendants are related. 

How do we establish Adam’s original haplotype from today’s descendants?  Fortunately, we have available the tested haplotypes of three separate lines of descent from Adam. On the “Pedigrees” page, we have used traditional genealogical data to create sub-groups of closely related participants that we based on the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) that can be documented.  We have available Steve Brewer Kit# 30185  that shows a line of descent from Adam’s son Pieter Adamsz Brouwer; David Almy Brewer Kit# 161350 has a line of descent from Adam’s son Abraham Brouwer; and Paul Brewer Kit#  75657 is descended from Adam’s son Nicholae Adams Brouwer.  These three haplotypes agree on all markers except DYS# 439 where Paul has a 14 in place of the 13 that the other two display at that marker and at DYS# CDY-b where David Almy has a 35 and the other two have a 36.  

Because all three reach back to Adam Brouwer as their Most Recent Common Ancestor, we are able to use their signatures to deduce just what value Adam carried.   Obviously, on all the markers where the three agree, there is no dispute and the value for a particular marker in Adam’s ancestral signature is a no-brainer, and defines what Adam carried. Looking at the locations where there exists a difference we must choose which value should represent Adam’s.  Now since two separate lines show a 13 at DYS#439 it can reasonably be decided that the 14 occurring in Paul’s line represents a random mutation that occurred within Adam’s son Nicholae’s line. The fact that two of the three share a common value (13) and since mutations are random in nature, it is far more likely that the odd man out is a mutation (rather than having to assume the unlikely case that two separate random mutations occurred in two separate lines of descent and both changing a 14 to 13).  That deduction represents the “majority rules” theme and indicates that Adam logically had a 13 at DYS#439. 

Another benefit of this analysis is the fact that another descendent of Nicholae, Perry Brewer Kit#81173, also carries a value of 14 at DYS#439 and this supports the inference that a mutation occurred in Nocholae’s line. Can we determine approximately where? Yes. Because Perry and Paul have a MRCA in Adolphus Brouwer (1725), and then the two lines diverge, we can infer that the mutation occurred either in Niclolae (1672), his son Adolphus (1693, or his grandson Adolphus (1725) and that this mutation helps define a family group.  This is useful in trying to place “Jeremiah Brower” (See Pedigree Sub-group 4) where Jeremiah is considered to be a grandson of Nicholas Brouwer (above) and although absolute genealogical evidence is still lacking, the Y-DNA mutation (13-> 14) in common with the other descendants of Nicholae mentioned above (Sub-Group 2 on the Pedigrees page) supports this interpretation. 

The same analysis and arguments apply to determining that the value at DYS# CDY-b where David Almy has a 35 and the other two have a 36 implies that Adam Bourwer’s ancestral signature is 36 at that marker.  Thus, we have been able to determine the values at each DYS number in the ancestral signature of Adam from three documented descendants of Adam. 

When we look at all the signatures in the chart from all the participants, Each DYS locus has a column of numbers under it that shows how many repeats each man has at that locus. We can see which number turns up most frequently in each column, the modal number or value. The“Modal Value”agrees with the ancestral signature obtained by direct logical analysis lending confidence in the claim we have made for Adam Brouwer’s Ancestral Haplotype.