New Page 0

To view the test results data go to the Charts data tables which open in a separate browser window. You can toggle back and forth between the data tables and the discussion below.

The participants in the test group are all have the surname: Cooper. Many were not selected with any design. They were just the ones who volunteered during an on-line discussion and recruitment. However, some participants were solicited after in-depth research of family history files by early participants to identified living descendants of different Cooper-lines in question to prove or disprove the veracity of current written family history. This method of verification has been effective and soliciting participants in this fashion is recommended for any Cooper-line who questions published Cooper family history not verifiable by written documentation, oral and first-hand knowledge.

Each participant has done extensive research on his Cooper ancestry. It is known that at least one pair had an expected common ancestor seven generations back, however the chain of documentation was not found. One hundred forty-eight of the participants live in the U.S. in thirty-six different states, and one from Australia, four from Canada and one from the United Kingdom. (See below) Further data are expected to test relationships presumed but not "proved," and to identify unknown relationships.

STATE	AL	AR	AK	AZ	CA	CO	CT	FL	GA	ID	IL	IN	IA	KS	KY	LA	MA	MD	MI	MO	NC	NE	NY	OH	OK	OR	PA	SC	TN	TX	UT	VA	WA	WA, DC	WV
# of Participants	5	6	1	5	11	6	3	7	8	2	2	6	2	3	2	4	1	1	3	3	5	1	2	6	10	1	1	6	6	20	2	6	4	1	1

FOREIGN COUNTRIES	AUSTRALIA	CANADA	UNITED KINGDOM
# of Participants	1	4	1

What do the tests say about the relationships of the men tested? These Y-chromosome tests don't define a relationship by themselves. Answering genealogical questions normally involves combining the lab results with traditional genealogy. The numbers in Chart 1 are the results of some standardized measurements on the man's Y-chromosome. Genealogists do not need to know how the measurements were done or even what was measured. The important thing is that the Y-chromosome is passed from father to son with rare changes.

Each of the numbers in the Chart 1 change on average approximately once in 500 generations. The numbers of 12-Marker Chart are the results of the accumulation of infrequent changes for many thousands of years. It is important to keep in mind that these changes are not according to any pattern - they just happen randomly as a sperm cell is being created. The set of 25-markers for a man is called his "haplotype," an identifier which functions somewhat like a signature. For a 25-marker haplotype, the son is identical to the father approximately 95% of the time. On average it takes about 20 (that is, 500/25) generations to make a change in a 25-marker haplotype.

Because of the slow change, the test results are most valuable as indicators of rather distant relationships. It is essential to look at the results from a statistical point of view. An important concept is that of the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) of two men. The time to MRCA is naturally expressed in generations, but one can convert to years by assuming a typical generation length (most geneticists use 25-years per generation). The analysis below is intended to reach some conclusions based on the test results with some general genealogical and historical patterns.

A man's haplotype is useful only for comparing with that of other men to get a clue to how closely they are related. Relatively closely related men have similar haplotypes and more distant relationships are indicated by larger differences between haplotypes. A genetic distance of 0 in 25 markers (a perfect match) means that about half the time the two men will have an MRCA within 7-generations. That implies that half the time the MRCA will be more than 7-generations away, with the possibility of it being many generations.

Nineteen participants are in one group. Some of the members of this group expected the matches to show their relationship, however more than one was an unexpected family connection. The same is for some of the other groups.

The conclusions above are about all that can be deduced from the Y-chromosome tests alone. Further interesting conclusions can be reached by mixing in the results of history and conventional genealogy. As a result of these tests, at least two of the participants with a genetic distance of "one" examined carefully their genealogy and found a connection which had been overlooked. They now know their MRCA. Additional analysis has not been completed on the three that matched, or the additional three pairs that matched.

There are men named Cooper scattered around the world. However, all the participants in this group are listed from the United States. Thirteen participants in this group listed the origin of their ancestors from England, two from Scotland, twenty-five as unknown. Six were left blank, pending analysis. There are twelve types, nine were blank.

The combination of a common surname, traditional genealogical research, and the Y-chromosome results lead to the conjecture that a large fraction of the people born with the Cooper surname are descendants of the Cooper's living in England. It will be very interesting to see how this conjecture holds up as more tests are done. A more detailed examination of the genealogy of the individual test participants might reveal other interesting connections.

A sampling strategy used by one group can be examined at the following URL, and is named: Why Peter and John can NOT be sons of Hans Petrus Lentz, http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gbonner/lentzdna/.

The initial portion of this project was intended to provide some experience and a database for comparison with results from an extended testing program. The results are quite encouraging in that the objectives have been met and some useful conclusions have been reached. The group has 218-participants, 208 have returned their kits. Analysis has been completed on the most of the 208 kits that have been returned which have identified 107 distinct Cooper-lines in the US, Australia, Canada and the UK.

Already the test results have provided a focus for some traditional work, has "broken through brick-walls" and identified previously unknown relatives. In addition to these specific gains, the results support the general conclusion that most men named Cooper have roots in England. Further tests can be expected to expand and refine these general conclusions.