Firstly, a Y-DNA project was registered with FTDNA[i] for the Brimer / Brymer surnames and other variants.[ii] FTDNA was chosen as it is the major testing company currently offering Y-DNA tests, has a large and publicly available database, provides a personal matching service and supports surname projects.
Next, living males bearing the surnames were identified. Traditionally, this has been done using either electoral registers and/or telephone directories. However, neither of these are representative anymore because it has been possible for people to opt out of allowing their details to be published in the electoral register since 2002 and increasing numbers of people are ex-directory or using a mobile phone in place of a landline. It was therefore decided to use a different approach.
All males bearing the surnames born in England and Wales between 1916 and 1998 (i.e.18-100 years old) were identified from birth indexes on FreeBMD,[iii] FindMyPast[iv] and Ancestry[v] and entered onto a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. These records included the mother’s maiden name. The Scottish records for this time period had to be viewed in Scotland at a ScotlandsPeople Centre.[vi],[vii] This did however result in full details from the birth certificate being known. The process was repeated for deaths between 1916-2016 (only available online until 2013 for England and Wales). Google was used to search for obituaries online to cover the period 2013–2016 in England and Wales.
The two resulting spreadsheets were cross-referenced and a third spreadsheet made, of men born between 1916-1998 whose death in the UK had not been recorded between 1916 and present day.
Addresses were found for as many of these remaining men as possible. A variety of methods were used including the Electoral Register (2002-2014) found online at FindMyPast, Telephone Directories, Company Registers, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Planning Applications, and church newsletters. Foreign records, newspaper articles and possible name changes were assessed for any men without an electronic trace in the UK.
A letter and Participant Response Form (Appendix 1.1) was sent out to all men with identified addresses. Those who replied positively were sent a DNA kit, letter, Participant Information Sheet, Consent Form and Sample Collection Information Sheet (Appendix 1.2). If the consent form was not returned within a month a further letter was sent (Appendix 1.3). Lastly, males from any lines who had not responded were sent a second letter and a personal handwritten message added with information about their line and how few people were available to test (Appendix 1.4). All letters were accompanied by stamped addressed envelopes for the replies.
Alongside this process, family reconstruction outlined in Method – One Name Study, was taking place and the living males were placed into different lines as represented by the oldest generation identifiable from the civil registration records and census data. The aim was to obtain one DNA result from every line and up to three on larger lines with the individuals tested being 3rd cousins or greater. On lines where greater numbers of people volunteered to test a letter was sent explaining why they could not be tested as part of the study but offering them the test at a reduced price (Appendix 1.5) Communications and information exchange also took place via email.
When the DNA results were received they were downloaded into an excel spreadsheet and the Y-STR Allele Frequencies for each sample’s predicted haplogroup noted in the row below each result.[viii] They were also compared for genetic distance and TMRCA using Dean McGee’s Y-DNA Comparison Utility in FTDNA mode with the following settings and the results tabulated:[ix]
- Genetic Distance was measured using the Hybrid Mutation Model. This is a stepwise mutation model which says that each mutation is allowed to change the allele value by exactly one, so a difference of two means that two mutations occurred and a difference of three means that three mutations occurred. It is used for all alleles except DYS464 and YCA which use the alternative, Infinite Allele Model, which says that the entire difference between allele values, no matter how large, is the result of one mutation.
- Probability that the MRCA was no longer than a specified number of generations was shown at both 50% and 95%. The algorithm used by the program was taken from a paper by Bruce Walsh.[x]
- The FTDNA Mutation Rate was used which uses rate of 0.00399 for the first 12 markers, 0.00481 for markers 13 through 25, and 0.00748 for the markers 26 through 37.
- Generation time was set at 30 years.
The number of generations to the most recent common ancestor, as calculated by the FTDNA TiP tool was also shown.
A network diagram was generated using Phylogenetic Network Software,[xi] the tangent lengths indicating genetic distance.
[i] Gene by Gene Ltd. Surname and Geographical Projects https://www.familytreedna.com/projects.aspx : accessed September 2015.
[ii] Gene by Gene Ltd. BRIMER / BRYMER. https://www.familytreedna.com/public/BRIMER-BRYMER/ : accessed September 2015.
[iii] The Trustees of Free UK Genealogy. FreeBMD. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/ : accessed September 2015 – June 2016.
[iv] FindMyPast. http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ : accessed September 2015 – June 2016.
[v] Ancestry. http://ancestry.co.uk : accessed September 2015 – June 2016.
[vi] National Records of Scotland. ScotlandsPeople Centre. http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/visit-us/scotlandspeople-centre : accessed September 2015.
[vii] National Records of Scotland. Local Family History Centres. http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/local-family-history-centres : accessed September 2015.
[viii] Rootsweb. Y-STR Allele Frequencies for haplogroups listed in ysearch and public projects. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~geneticgenealogy/yfreq.htm : accessed 20 June 2016.
[ix] McGee, Dean. (2008) Y-Utility: Y-DNA Comparison Utility, FTDNA Mode. http://www.mymcgee.com/tools/yutility.html?mode=ftdna_mode : accessed May 2016.
[x] Walsh, Bruce. (2001) Estimating the Time to the Most Recent Common Ancestor for the Y Chromosome or Mitochondrial DNA for a Pair of Individuals. Genetics Society of America. 158(2), June. pp. 897-912. http://www.genetics.org/content/genetics/158/2/897.full.pdf : accessed May 2016.
[xi] Fluxus Technology Ltd. Free Phylogenetic Network Software. http://www.fluxus-engineering.com/sharenet.htm : accessed May 2016.
Brimer-Brymer database last updated at 2016-07-02 00:29:43 with 4028 census records and 2856 individuals