Tracing Annie Hibbitt's Deep Ancestral Roots Through Her Dad's Y-DNA

Page Contents:
Introduction
Dad's Z36747 Subclade
Annie's Rutland Ancestry
Annie's Editorial Note
From 'Adam' to R1b
Tracking Dad's Patrilineal Ancestors Through his R1b Haplogroup - (M343, P297, M269, L23, L51, P312, L21 haplogroups)
Younger Branches - (L21, DF13, DF21, S424, CTS2187/S190, Z36747)
Recent Generations - (from the early 18th century onwards)
Please Consider DNA Testing - (...if you are a male called Hibbitt or any variants of this name.)
Z36747 Men Who Have Already Tested (...please contact me.)

NEWSFLASH: February 2018 - After obtaining a basic haplogroup from two other Hibbitt/Hibbit DNA tests, it looks likely that my family has a NPE (non-paternal event) or misattributed parentage. My dad's haplogroup remains at R1b-Z36747 but it seems that the Hibbitt (plus other name variants) family may have a distant haplogroup of R1b-Z2534. Read more about this here.
 

Introduction

The Y chromosome can be used to study a man's patrilineal (direct male) line because this particular chromosome passes only from fathers to their sons almost intact. Because females don't have a Y chromosome, Annie's dad has taken the Y37 DNA test at FamilyTreeDNA (which is an STR test) and has since upgraded to Y111 (111 markers). He's also undertaken the Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) test called Big Y at FTDNA.

The Y STR test looks at people who match dad within a recent time frame, although this can still be many centuries ago. As at January 2018, dad only has three matches at the 67 marker level and no matches at the 111 level.

The Big Y test is more concerned with deep ancestry although some people have been fortunate that their terminal SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) dates within the time of documented evidence. It's the Big Y test that this article relates to.

Dad's Z36747 Subclade

Dad's larger haplogroup is P312 with L21 below it and his subclade is R-Z36747. A more comprehensive way of expressing this is:

R1b-M343 > P297 > M269 > L23 > L51 > P312 > Z290/S461 > L21 > DF13 > DF21 > S3058 > S424 > S426 > CTS2187/S190 > Z36747

Another way of describing Dad's subclade is: R1b1a1a2a1a2c1a5a2a1a2

[Note: the R-S424 subclade is also known as The Little Scottish Cluster because many men, but not all, in the S424 project at FTDNA trace their ancestry to southern Scotland where their common ancestor is believed to have lived centuries ago.]

After receiving dad's Big Y results, I submitted his file to Y-Full for further analysis. His test is labelled id: YF10457 and can be seen under Z36747 on the YTree.

Partial Screenshot of the R-S424 Subclade showing Annie's dad's position on the YTree (as at October 2017)
 

You will notice the Hibbitt kit is placed with a kit numbered YF01492. This person's ancestor was called Doggart.

Dad's kit also appears on Alex Williamson's 'The Big Tree'. His kit was initially placed with Doggart until January 2018 when Doggart formed a new subclade below Z36747 with a newer kit called Chism. Dad now sits alone at Z36747 until any closer matches appear.

Z36747 men on Alex Williamson's 'The Big Tree' (as at January 2018)

Presumably Chism hasn't submitted his kit to YFull otherwise Doggart would be likely to break away from dad there too.
 

Annie's Rutland Ancestry

Using traditional research I originally traced our patrilineal line (father's father's father, etc.) to John HYBIT who married three times between 1712 and 1732 in the village of Exton in Rutland in the UK. There are many variants of the surname including Hibbit, Hibbitt, Hibbet, Hibbett, Hibbits, Hibbets, Hibbitts, Hibbetts, Hybot, Hybut, Hybat, Hybit, Hybitt, Hybet, Hybett, Hybbet, Hybbett, Hybbitt, Hibbert, Ibbert, Ibbat, Ibbatt, Ibbet, Ibbett, Ibbit, Ibbot, Ibbott, Abbot, Abbott, Abbit, Abbitt, etc. and it just so happens that the spelling which came down to my branch of the family was HIBBITT.

However, more recent discoveries using DNA show that my particular line most likely has a case of misattributed parentage and so the search is on to finding out what our true surname should be and in which generation the non-paternal event occurred. It should be noted that the information tracing down to my dad's Z36747 haplogroup remains relevant as this hasn't changed.

Annie's Editorial Note

I'm very grateful to those who put their time to the study of anthropology and other natural sciences. However, before we start, I feel I should mention that science can only answer questions based on the knowledge, evidence and scientific methodology available at any given time. As with any scientific study, may I recommend you always keep an open mind regarding dates and migration patterns, etc., as do the scientists themselves. Never stop asking questions!

[NOTE: If you happen to have already read my 'Tracing Harvey Barnes' Deep Ancestral Roots Through Y-DNA' page, then please jump to this section to avoid duplication.]
 

From 'Adam' to R1b

We begin our journey 60,000 years ago with a metaphorically named 'Adam' who was born in Africa. He is the most recent common direct ancestor to most people alive today but he was not, however, the only man alive at the time. The following map shows the migration routes out of Africa over the next several thousands of years until we arrive at dad's major haplogroup, R1b.

Migration map of the major haplogroups from 'Adam'
 

Tracking Dad's Patrilineal Ancestors Through His R1b Haplogroup

Much of the information below has been obtained from the R1b haplogroup page at Eupedia (Copyright © Eupedia.com) as at the time of writing (October 2017) with a few additions from Wikipedia. Contributions towards the dating of younger branches came from Dr Iain McDonald.

Migration map of Y-haplogroup R1b from the Paleolithic (Stone Age) to the end of the Bronze Age (c. 1000 BC)
(Image: Copyright © Eupedia.com)

R1b-M343

Haplogroup R* is believed to have originated in North Asia just before the Last Glacial Maximum or Ice Age (26,500-19,000 years ago). The oldest forms of R1b (M343, P25, L389) are found dispersed at very low frequencies from Western Europe to India, a vast region where the nomadic R1b hunter-gatherers could have roamed during the Ice Age.

P297

The three main branches of R1b1 (R1b1a, R1b1b, R1b1c) all seem to have stemmed from the Middle East. The northern branch, R1b1a (P297), seems to have originated around the Caucasus, eastern Anatolia or northern Mesopotamia, then to have crossed over the Caucasus into the vast Pontic-Caspian Steppe, from where they would have invaded Europe and Central Asia. It has been hypothesized that R1b people (perhaps alongside neighbouring J2 tribes) were the first to domesticate cattle in northern Mesopotamia some 10,500 years ago. The Pontic-Caspian Steppe would have provided ideal grazing grounds for cattle. A steppe is a large area of flat unforested grassland. They then split into two factions; M73 and M269.

M269

R1b-M269 is observed most frequently in Europe, especially western Europe, but with notable frequency in southwest Asia. M269 is estimated to have arisen approximately 4,000 to 8,000 years ago in southwest Asia and to have spread into Europe from there.

M269 is closely associated with the diffusion of Indo-European languages. Modern linguists have placed the Proto-Indo-European homeland in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, a distinct geographic and archaeological region extending from the Danube estuary to the Ural mountains to the east and North Caucasus to the south.

The first clearly Proto-Indo-European cultures were the Khvalynsk (5200-4500 BC) and Sredny Stog (4600-3900 BC) cultures in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. This is when small kurgan burials (the practice of burying the dead under mounds 'kurgan') began to appear, with the distinctive posturing of the dead on the back with knees raised and orientated toward the northeast, which would be found in later steppe cultures as well. There is evidence of population blending from the variety of skull shapes. Towards the end of the 5th millennium BC an elite started to develop with cattle, horses and copper used as status symbols.

L23

It was at the turn of the Khvalynsk and Sredny Stog periods that R1b-M269's main subclade, L23, is thought to have appeared, around 4,500 BC. 99% of Indo-European R1b descends from the L23 clade.

The Yamna period (3500-2500 BC) was the most important one in the creation of Indo-European culture and society. Middle Eastern R1b-M269 people had been living and blending to some extent with the local R1a foragers and herders for over a millennium, perhaps even two or three. The close cultural contact and interactions between R1a and R1b people all over the Pontic-Caspian Steppe resulted in the creation of a common vernacular, Proto-Indo-European.

During the Yamna period, cattle and sheep herders adopted wagons to transport their food and tents, which allowed them to move deeper into the steppe, giving rise to a new mobile lifestyle that would eventually lead to the great Indo-European migrations. The Yamna horizon was not a single, unified culture. The northern branch would evolve into the Corded Ware culture and disperse around the Baltic, Poland, Germany and Scandinavia.

The Corded Ware culture comprised a broad Indo-European archaeological horizon of Europe between c. 2900 BC – c. 2350 BC, thus from the late Neolithic, through the Copper Age, and ending in the early Bronze Age. Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the Rhine on the west to the Volga in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe, Central Europe and Eastern Europe.
Features of the culture were...

• A mobile pastoral economy relying mostly on cattle and occasional cereal cultivation.
• Regular use of horses and ox-drawn wagons. Presence of copper and bronze artefacts as well as stone battle-axes.
• Coarse pottery typically decorated with twisted cord impressions and sometimes with other types of impressions or incisions. Use of beakers and cups for drinking.
• The dead were inhumed in flat graves inside a small mound. Bodies were laid on their side with bent knees. Wagons/carts and sacrificed animals were present in graves.

L51

When R1b crossed the Caucasus in the Late Neolithic, it split into two main groups. The western one, L51, is thought to have arrived in Central Europe (Hungary, Austria, Bohemia) around 2500 BC. It seems there was a large scale migration of Indo-European speakers (possibly riding on horses) to Western Europe between 2500 to 2100 BC, contributing to the replacement of the Neolithic or Chalcolithic (Copper Age) lifestyle by an inherently new Bronze Age culture, with simpler pottery, less farming, more herding, new rituals (single graves) and new values (patrilinear society, warrior heroes) that did not evolve from local predecessors.

P312

The main European subclade, R-P312/S116, only dates back to approximately 3500 to 3000 BC. It does not mean that the oldest common ancestor of this lineage arrived in Western Europe during this period, but that the first person who carried the mutation P312 lived at least 5,000 years ago, thought to be somewhere in the lower Danube valley or around the Black Sea.

L21

The Proto-Italo-Celto-Germanic R1b people had reached in what is now Germany by 2500 BC. By 2300 BC they had arrived in large numbers and founded the Unetice culture. Judging from the propagation of bronze working to Western Europe, those first Indo-Europeans reached France and the Low Countries by 2200 BC, Britain by 2100 BC and Ireland by 2000 BC, and Iberia by 1800 BC. This first wave of R1b presumably carried R1b-L21 lineages in great number (perhaps because of a founder effect), as these are found everywhere in western, northern and Central Europe. In population genetics, the founder effect is the loss of genetic variation that occurs when a new population is established by a very small number of individuals from a larger population.

The presence of R1b-L21 (DF13 and DF21 subclades) have been confirmed in Ireland around 2000 BC. Those genomes closely resembled those of the Unetice culture autosomally, but differed greatly from the earlier Neolithic Irish samples. This confirms that a direct migration of R1b-L21 from Central Europe was responsible for the introduction of the Bronze Age to Ireland.

The early split of L21 from the main Proto-Celtic branch around Germany would explain why the Q-Celtic languages (Goidelic and Hispano-Celtic) diverged so much from the P-Celtic branch (La Tène, Gaulish, Brythonic), which appears to have expanded from the later Urnfield and Hallstat cultures.

Some L21 lineages from the Netherlands and northern Germany later entered Scandinavia (from 1700 BC) along with the dominant subclade of the region, R-U106. The stronger presence of L21 in Norway and Iceland can be attributed to the Norwegian Vikings, who had colonised parts of Scotland and Ireland and taken slaves among the native Celtic populations whom they brought to their new colony of Iceland and back to Norway. Nowadays about 20% of all Icelandic male lineages are R1b-L21 of Scottish or Irish origin.

In France, R1b-L21 is mainly present in historical Brittany (including Mayenne and Vendée) and in Lower Normandy. This region was repopulated by massive immigration of insular Britons in the 5th century due to pressure from the invading Anglo-Saxons. However, it is possible that L21 was present in Armorica since the Bronze age or the Iron age given that the tribes of the Armorican Confederation of ancient Gaul already had a distinct identity from the other Gauls and had maintained close ties with the British Isles at least since the Atlantic Bronze Age.

Distribution of Haplogroup R1b-L21 (S145) in Europe
(Image: Copyright © Eupedia.com)

Younger Branches

There are numerous dates for the various haplogroups, depending on the source, so what follows is a compilation of the information which I've managed to accumulate.

• L21 - Age of clade approx.: 2934 BC (range: between 3638 BC - 2362 BC).
  

• DF13 - Age of clade approx.: 2602 BC (range: 3112 BC - 2159 BC).
  

• DF21 - Age of clade approx.: 2435 BC (range: 2984 BC - 1906 BC).
  

• S424 - Age of clade approx.: range: 1683 BC - 167 AD.
  
  Dr Jim Wilson of ScotlandsDNA originally labelled S424 the Maeatae. The Maeatae were a confederation of tribes who most likely lived beyond the Antonine Wall in Scotland after the Roman occupation. The historical sources are vague as to the exact region they inhabited, though an association is thought to be indicated in the names of two hills with fortifications. Near the summit of Dumyat hill in the Ochils, overlooking Stirling, there are remains of a fort and the name of the hill (in Gaelic Dùn Mhèad) is believed to derive from a name meaning the hill of the Maeatae. This prominent hill fort may have marked their northern boundary, while Myot Hill near Falkirk plausibly marks their southern limits.
  
  They appear to have come together as a result of treaties struck between the Roman Empire and the various frontier tribes in the 180s AD under the governorship of Ulpius Marcellus. In 210 AD they began a serious revolt against the Roman Empire, and again the following year.
  
  The Miathi, mentioned in Adomnán's Life of Columba, probably to be identified with the Southern Picts, have been posited as the same group, their identity seemingly surviving in some form as late as the 6th or 7th centuries AD.
  
  The geography fits with the theory but the ethnography is confused. Some say because the Maeatae were north of the Forth estuary, they must have been Picts. Others point out that their lands had been part of Dumnonia, the northernmost group of Strathclyde Britons. No-one currently has a better theory and the fact is that DF21 has a strong affinity with central Scotland and and its S424 subclade has a firm connection with the east end of that zone.
  

• CTS2187/S190 - Age of clade approx.: 307 AD (range: 251 BC - 744 AD).
  

• Z36747 - Age of clade approx.: 452 AD (range: 96 BC - 927 AD). YFull gives a formation date of 1850 ybp (years before present), thus approximately 167 AD.
  

Recent Generations

There was always a gap between our Z36747 ancestors and the Hibbitt lineage from Rutland that I had previously worked on, part of which is no longer applicable due to the likelihood of a NPE (non-paternal event) occurring in our direct line. This would be due to the lack of paper records dating back to the time of Z36747 and is common to all families unless their haplogroup is recent.

As additional data comes in from more Y-DNA testers, we may learn more about the Z36747 clade, and any new subclades yet to be formed below it, as well as hopefully discovering who our true ancestor was. Dad has some novel variants in his Big Y test which may tell us more in the future if another Big Y tester has the same variant(s).

Listed below were my patrilineal ancestors which I'd originally traced. To date, autosomal DNA has only confirmed that my great-grandfather (Alfred Charles Newbold Hibbitt) was definitely my blood relative due to close family members having DNA matches to descendants of his mother's grandparents who were called Pitcher. I suspect that his father, Charles Newbold Hibbitt, may yet be my ancestor. His 'parents' were married for nearly ten years before he was born and he had no other siblings. It is possible that childless Amos Hibbitt and Mahala Newbold 'adopted' him. My family appear not to have any autosomal matches to the Newbold family either.

• John Hybit (6 x Great-grandfather) - Married Sarah Peesegood in 1712, Mary Bottom in 1720 and Ann Tubbs in 1732, all in Exton, Rutland. Buried in 1763 at Exton.
   
• William Hibbit (5 x Great-grandfather) - Born: abt. 1733 in Exton. Bap: 5 July 1733 in Exton. Married to Lucy Greensmith and Elizabeth Skillet.
   
• Luke Hibbit (4 x Great-grandfather) - Born: abt. 1765 in Exton. Bap: 26 Nov 1765 in Exton. Married to Mary Leeson. Buried: 12 Feb 1809 in Exton.
   
• Amos Hibbitt (3 x Great-grandfather) - Born: abt. 1808 in Exton. Bap: 3 Aug 1808 in Exton. Married to Mahala Newbold. Occupations: agricultural labourer, farm bailiff, farmer, coachman and gardner. Died 10 Aug 1880 in Birmingham. Buried in Warstone Lane Cemetery, Birmingham, Warwickshire.
   
• Charles Newbold Hibbitt (2 x Great-grandfather) - Born: 1839 in Oakham, Rutland. Bap: 12 Jan 1840 in Exton. Married to Mary Ann Pitcher. Occupations: painter, plumber and glazier. Died 1891 in Birmingham. Buried in Warstone Lane Cemetery, Birmingham, Warwickshire. Could Charles have been the result of a NPE?
   
• Alfred Charles Newbold Hibbitt (Great-grandfather) - Born: 2 Aug 1869 in Birmingham, Warwickshire. Bap: 8 Oct 1873 in St John, Ladywood, Birmingham. Married to Alice Ridley. Occupations: painter, HM Coastguard R.N. Died 17 March 1928 in Royal Naval Hospital, Yarmouth, Great Yarmouth. Buried: 21 March 1928 in Great Yarmouth (Caister) Cemetery, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Alternatively, might Alfred not have been the son of Charles Newbold Hibbitt? DNA currently connects him to his mother's family only.
   
• Charles George Hibbitt - (Grandfather) - Born: 1 Dec 1898 in Soldier's Point, Dundalk, Ireland. Bap 24 Dec 1898. Married to Ivy Alice Dando. Occupation: Post Office Telephone Engineer and Inspector. Died 8 Oct 1972 in South Hams Hospital, Kingsbridge, Devon. Buried: 12 Oct 1972 in Drake Memorial Park, Plymouth, Devon.
   
• Annie's Dad
   
• Annie Barnes (nee Hibbitt) whose lineage this is.

Blacksmiths Lane, Exton, Rutland. c. 1900 - the street looks much the same today.
(Image: Copyright © Exton & Horn Parish Council. Published here under a Creative Commons Licence)

Please Consider DNA Testing

If you are a male called HIBBITT or any of the variants listed above, I would be most interested in any Y-DNA results you may have. Although it seems likely that I am not a Hibbitt all the way back to John Hybit (mentioned above) I am still very keen to learn in which generation the non-paternal event occurred within my family. All I know for certain at this stage is that it comes somewhere between my original 6 x great-grandfather, John Hybit of Exton, and my great-grandfather, Alfred.

It may also be possible to obtain some Y-DNA data from an autosomal test too. If you are male and have taken the AncestryDNA, 23andMe or MyHeritage test, there may be a way to extract some SNP data from this to obtain an estimated haplogroup. Although this isn't a substitute for a dedicated Y-DNA test it might be useful in pointing you in the right direction for further testing. Dad's haplogroup was reported as S190 using this method with his AncestryDNA kit before he took the Big Y test so, as you can see, we got quite a way down the Y phylogenetic tree. See this blog post for further details.

I'm also eager to hear from anyone who has taken an autosomal test and who is descended from William Hibbit (b. abt. 1733) & Elizabeth Skillet or Luke Hibbit (b. abt. 1765) & Mary Leeson.

Z36747 Men Who Have Already Tested

I welcome hearing from other Z36747 kit owners (or those who are downstream of Z36747 on the Y phylogenetic tree). Perhaps you carry my true surname! If you've already tested and are Z36747 or close to it, please get in touch as it would be good to be in contact.

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