Looking Farther Back than the first McCown

As many of you know, there is more to Y-DNA testing than just finding your score on
12, 25, 37 or 67 markers or locations on the male Y chromosome. There are also groupings called haplogroups. If you match someone in all 67 markers but are in a different haplogroup you are not related by a common ancestor.

My major haplogroup is R1b but that is further divided into clades and subclades. After testing for my haplogroup, it turned out to be R1b1b2. It stayed that way even after having deep sub clade tests. But now, FTDNA and the science of DNA genealogy have discovered "new" sub clades and my DNA specimen is now being tested for the following Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP): L21, L23, L49, P310, P311 and P312. Now, if I am truly related to my highest quality matches, my new haplogroup will be R1b1b2a1b5. So, that will validate all these high quality matches.

R1b1b2a1b5 is present in several countries in Europe, Africa and Asia, but it's highest concentration per capita is in the British Isles and there, more specifically in Ayrshire, Argyll and the inner Hebrides in Scotland and in Ulster.

Not many of my best matches have been tested to this level, but those that have are
R1b1b2a1b5. The result will be known on all of the SNP's except L21 on August 19th and SNP L21 is expected on August 24th. You will see the results on the www.ulsterheritage.com website. Navigate to that page, then click on DNA Test, then on Test Results and then scroll down the left hand margin until you come to the heading Mag Uidhir II (Maguire II). Look for Lawrence McCown under that heading. There are two of us under Lawrence, mine is the first one. The tension mounts.

One last thing, you don't have to be a by-stander, during July only, FTDNA is offering good discounts to new test subjects who join under a surname group such as the McCown Surname Group. There is probably a surname group for your surname, but if not, they will help you start one and you still get the discounts. See www.familytreedna.com/ and sign up for the most markers you can afford or maybe more.