FTDNA Wolf Wilk

Greg, As you mentioned before not many have tested from your patrilineal point of origin (FRANCE) hence the lack of matches for now. Because you don’t “yet” have any close matches you have had a large number of “private” or “novel” SNPs examined and uncovered in your line that formed AFTER the unknown ancestor which FGC34165 formed in. I do not know the estimated age of that particular SNP or when that ancestor to all men positive for that SNP may have existed. However, you are fortunate that it falls under the haplogroup R1b-U106. This haplogroup has a very well managed haplogroup project where the administrators do periodically estimate ages of various levels of SNP clades. Here is a link to this project and I recommend that you join it: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/u106/about/background They also have a very active Group Email at Groups.io found here that you can join: https://groups.io/g/R1b-U106 They will mostly discuss all of U106 but very often are knowledgeable and helpful on the various sub-branches that fall underneath this clade which would be you. Big Y only reports “matches” as those men who have 30 or less non-matching variants. What this means is you would need to have another Big Y tester who has does not mismatch you on more than 30 SNPs. For now there aren’t any and you have 27 “novel” or “private” SNPs in your results that formed in your male line after the unknown ancestor that FGC34165 formed in. As more testers test Big Y if any happen to match any of your 27 newly uncovered private variants they will then form a new subclade with you under FGC34165. Say for example if your EKA Louis Wolfe (b. 1645) had other sons besides the one you descend from and if you were to target test an unbroken male descendant from one of these other sons and assuming no NPEs (non-paternity events) along either of your lines then they would match a large majority of your 27 private variants and would show up as a Big Y match. They would also show up as a Y37-Y111 match as well. Same thing for closer cousins but I don’t recommend target testing a super close cousin such as 1st-3/4th cousin because they would have a VERY similar Y chromosome to yourself. Beyond this one can also try to recruit testers of their surname that lived in proximity to their EKA such as Louis – so other WOLF men living in the area if you are able to run their genealogical descendants down. If they match then it can provide clues for further one’s genealogy. I will admit though I’m not familiar with how far back one can run a patrilineal line via genealogical paper trail in France….in my own patriline I consider it fortunate if we can track our ancestor to the late 1700s and have little hope of breaching 1600s simply because the Irish records don’t exist. Still, going back to next steps I highly recommend joining the U106 project here at FTDNA and asking questions on recommended steps and any questions you might have about FGC34165 as they would be far more experienced on the branch that I currently am. I hope some of this helps explain some things.

Hi Zack. Thanks you so much for all your clear explanations ! I’ve joined the U106 project. And I’m working again on the descendant branches from my earliest WOLF ancestor to find living WOLFs that would be interested in testing their Y-DNA. It will take long but I have time… Best regards from Paris 🙂

It is one of those things where it is difficult to determine without doing it. In the case of not being familiar on whether any known family (say descendants of the same ancestor 5-6+ generations back) hasn’t yet tested then I recommend starting low with Y37. If many close matches are generated then one can simply upgrade to higher levels after that. With a surname like Wolf/Wolfe/Woolf it tends to be multi origin (arising as a surname in many distinct lines such as names like POTTER, SMITH, BAKER, etc.). So there is always the possibility that a new Wolf tester can end up standing out there on their own with no matches for awhile. This was the case with my Wolfe relative I tested until I recruited another to test. Now they are one another’s closest matches sharing a common ancestor probably around late 1600s to early 1700s. It’s been difficult to work out the genealogy between them but it helps narrow the research somewhat.

Hi Zack. I finally did a Big-Y, I’m waiting for the results 🙂

Greg, wow, awesome. I’m thinking about upgrading my Wolfe tester to Big Y (from Y111) during this sale myself. I know though he will only have 1 other Big Y match if I do for now. I need to recruit some others I suspect will match as well from early PA.

Something tells me I should not allow myself to look into the above, because wolfs eat elks (moose). Their surnames basically have similar distribution patterns so I feel I need to look into it. Also being an Elliott, can not turn down a Robert. Those elk traveling from Poland to Berlin, by ignoring the international border they are true border reivers. https://nvk.genealogy.net/map/1890:Wolff,1890:Ewald,1890:Robert,1890:Mark https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/wild-elks-return-to-germany-a-853581.html https://abcnews.go.com/International/elks-make-dangerous-comeback-germany/story?id=17173306 https://gorrenberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/elk-elg-elch-moose-distribution-Germany.png https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/German-wolves.gif Knew I as an elk of the forest would have to face the wolf sometime. Robert Wolfe, you already know that this genealogical problem can eat me alive, because your have worked on it extensively. Lets see if the elk (moose) is eaten or gets to survive for another genealogical problem. Already made a great number of errors. Will take quite awhile to get the feel of it. Have a whole lot yet to learn.

Need to know opinion on; https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/16157381/person/28908234477/facts?_phsrc=CCj1976&_phstart=successSource Names seem to be running close.