A Summary Of 2019

The Big Y-700 product upgrade, announced at the start of 2019, has proven to be a great success. The increase of Y-chromosome coverage has helped discover many new high-quality variants that have helped expand and refine the FamilyTreeDNA Y-DNA Haplotree at an unprecedented rate, discovering both new ancient lineages and thousands of branch points within genealogical timeframes. In addition, the in-house CLIA certified lab streamlined the NGS lab processes, improving quality control pass rates and turnaround times. Therefore, Big Y results are processing in larger quantities with decreased waiting times than before.

The FamilyTreeDNA phylogenetics team has been hard at work finding the correct placement for the newly discovered Big Y-700 SNPs. At the same time, they’ve been dealing with new lineages and branch splits from new customer results. These results are flooding in as customers have been eager to discover their exact placement on the great tree of humankind and how their paternal lines connect to other members of the database.

Team member Michael Sager surpassed his world record in human Y chromosome phylogenetic tree building with 967 branches added in October and 1,174 added in November. Building and curating the FamilyTreeDNA haplotree, the largest phylogenetic tree of humankind, is no trivial task as inspections are made with every change to avoid introducing errors.

Big Y-700 2019 Growth & Data

It was a great year for Big Y and we are excited to share with you some of the highlights from 2019.

  • Big Y results: 41% increase in total NGS results, plus many upgrades from Big Y-500 to higher coverage Big Y-700
  • 38% increase in haplotree branches (haplogroups to which you can be assigned)
  • 63% increase in haplotree variants (the building blocks of the tree)
  • Over 211K new previously undiscovered high quality Big Y-700 FT SNPs

2019 Haplotree Highlights

We’ve also made some big strides with the haplotree this year that we are happy to share with you!

  • New haplogroup D2-FT75 ancient lineage discovered and explored
  • Split of haplogroup E-M2 (ISOGG: E1b1a1)
  • Two new European R1b-P310* lineages found
  • Diversity panel of Big Y-700 upgraded test results from all major haplogroup clades
  • 20,000 haplotree branches milestone in May and 25,000 branches expected around the end of the year
  • 200,000 haplotree SNPs milestone reached in November

Future Plans For 2020

We have a lot planned for 2020 but here are a few planned updates we are ready to share.

  • Improved Big Y analysis and matching
  • Improved Block Tree display
  • Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) Age estimates

Why Test Your Y-DNA?

If you haven’t tested your Y-DNA yet, here are a few reasons why you should with FamilyTreeDNA.

  • Cost-effective high-coverage Y-chromosome testing
  • All tests run in the in-house CLIA certified Gene By Gene lab with strict quality controls
  • The largest Y-chromosome database in the world, both by STR testers and NGS testers
  • The largest phylogenetic tree of humankind
  • Access to a network of over 8,000 FamilyTreeDNA Group Projects that specialize in different haplogroups, geographical regions, and surnames
  • Wide range of testing options combining STR and SNP tests

Interested in learning how Y-DNA can help females too? Check out our post about Y-DNA testing for females.

Y-DNA Tests On Sale Now

Y-DNA tests (Y-37, Y-111, and Big Y-700) are on sale until Jan 2nd! With up to $250 off Y-DNA tests, now is the perfect time to test your Y-DNA!

GET MY Y-DNA TEST NOW