Interesting Conjectures

I was just looking at the various Berry 'families' that have shown up so far in our testing.   We have (maybe) eight and they can be seen here at the FTDNA Berry website.   My reason for looking was to see if I could estimate what additional testing and by which members would best advance the knowledge base for that family.   As you can see from the table, various of the 'families' have varying numbers of markers tested by their members.   Once we get all in a family to the same level a cladogram can be run for that whole group.   The higher that level is, the more interesting and informative that cladogram will be.

Probably the most interesting of the 'families' is the five member 'Culpeper Co. (aqua) Berry' family, two of whom I can only classify as 'possible' because they have only tested 12 markers.   I say they are probably the most interesting simply because none of the group are able to trace their male line back to a common ancestor with any of the others.   If the two 12 marker members brought their markers up to 25 they could determine 'relatedness'.   If all brought their markers up to 37 or 67 I would expect some very interesting results from a cladogram but I must confess, it's such a new tool that I couldn't guess what those interesting results might be.
News Flash!   Harold's (#62) 37 marker results just finished coming in.   Now there's only one 'possible', and his upgrade to 37 markers is awaiting shipment to the lab!

Another interesting group, although small, is the 'possibly' related two member 'English' (lt. blue) Berry family.   Interesting because one of them is from England and one from Canada.   They should each bring their markers up to 25 to verify 'relatedness' but until additional members show up I'm not sure how much value additional markers might be.

The same observation could be made for the other two member family, the 'Spartanburg Co., SC (green) Berry family.   I have them marked as 'verified' although that really should only be a 'possible' since one of them has only tested 12 markers and they have no paper trail connection.   His should be brought up to 25 to confirm relatedness, or more awaiting additional members.

Except for finding the connection for #21, the Berry Plain (blue) Berrys can probably only benefit from additional markers by comparing 67 marker cladograms to see what discrimination there may be between the lines.

We've already seen a 37 marker cladogram for four of the five members of the Orange Co., NC (red) Berry family.   That was already showing some interesting distinctions.   Get all those folks up to 67 markers (including #44) and we might learn something about differences between lines where the common ancestor is only five to seven generations back.

Four of the seven members of the Benton Co. (gold) Berrys have tested to 37 markers, the rest 25.   Problem is that these four are so closely related (father, 2 sons and a grandfather) as to essentially be one for comparison purposes.   Again, all have paper trails back to a common ancestor varying from five to seven generations in length.   It might take 67 markers here, also, to show anything really interesting.

Of the 13 members of the Augusta/Washington (purple) Berrys, seven have tested to 37 markers, four to 25 markers and one to 12.   The 37 marker cladograms [Augusta/Washington County Berrys Relationships] were interesting enough that several have expressed an intention to go to 67 markers once there is some indication that these additional markers do indeed add the discrimination to the haplotype that one would expect they should.   Just bringing the other five members to 37 markers would be an interesting giant step in itself.

Last, but not least, are the three members of the Faires (fuscia) Berrys who, in addition to the interrelationships between their own lines, have a connection to the Augusta/Washington Berrys.   The daughter of a 'Faires Berry', Lucinda, married John D. Berry, of the Hawkins Co. branch of the Augusta/Washington Berrys.   Two of the members of this family have tested to 25 markers, and one 'possible' to 12.   Since the yAncestry for the 'possible' extends back 50 years beyond the other two, refining all these tests to 37 markers, or perhaps even 67, could help unravel these relationships.