DNA analysis assistance required to understand terminology used

Question

Hello, 

( Wikitree doesn’t have a “category“ to reference for help understanding, DNA terminology or analysis. I submitted under the “genealogy help” Hoping that someone would understand the terminology and the question and how it relates to genealogical research and be able to provide some level of assistance or direct me to a resource where I may find or learn the information required to resolve my question, thanks! )

I belong to a site where I was able to upload my ancestry, autosomal DNA file where the data was used in order to compare to ancient samples and current samples of other members. 

so far I’m a free member there, but I came across an unusual description and have not been able to find info on online about what it means. The only place I’ve seen reference other people were questioning the same thing and I have a screenshot couldn’t be attached for reference. 

Anybody with knowledge/education and understanding of how the DNA analysis work and who understands the terminology please share what you think this means where it refers to “Delta 10”

I have copied the text portion and pasted below in lieu of not being able to upload the screenshot.

my true ancestry.com website:

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Deep Dive Match: [Hidden - Upgrade to Caesar+]
Longest shared SNP chain: 386.0
Total Shared SNPs: 2177.0
Closest Clan: Clan Montgomery

Haplogroup: J2a1a2b2a2b2a2b
Delta: 10


Ancestral Seat: Eglinton Castle
Alexander Montgomerie 1st Lord Montgomerie (1470)
Earl of Eglinton (1508-present)
Earl of Winton (1859-present)

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IF you have any resources that can be found for free online or at the public public library that could be used to learn more about DNA and DNA analysis please share them if it’s permitted within the TOS on wiki tree. Your recommendations and knowledge that you share is greatly appreciated, Thank you!!

(Note: as soon as I am able to afford to upgrade, I intend to & I will then provide a screenshot of the information once it is no longer “”Hidden” & perhaps that will be of assistance to anyone reviewing this Topic.)

THANKS!!  

Answer 1

Rhonda, that isn't specifically a genetics or DNA term. They're using the word "delta" in it's most common meaning: a difference between two things; a change in a variable or a difference between two numbers. You'll often see it written like "delta Y" or "delta X." If it's in reference to the slope of a line in a graph, it's often written something like "delta Y over delta X."

Whatever the "10" is, it's something peculiar to MyTrueAncestry and only they would be able to tell you exactly what it means. However, if I had to offer a guess, look at the characters in red in the haplogroup. There are 10 of them. So I suspect that's what they're inferring, a difference of 10 in the haplogroup designation. But even that is difficult to evaluate because that style of haplogroup naming pretty much went away as of 2019.

And I would caution you about spending any more money at MyTrueAncestry. I believe you should seek out any of the numerous reviews--especially the ones that aren't purely glowing since you can know the commenter is probably a real person and not a shill--and decide for yourself. One clue is that you noted you uploaded your AncestryDNA raw data, and what you've displayed about the MyTrueAncestry results is a Y chromosome haplogroup...but you have no Y chromosome.

Too, they now list what is evidently a small, shared building in Freienbach, Switzerland, as their headquarters (you can Google Maps it). But they were founded in 2019 as a start-up operation owned by a company called DNACheck, LLC, registered in Delaware (see https://dnacheck.io/). The LLC was registered via a commercial company that does that sort of thing; the names of the founders/owners are not available at the State of Delaware website; and you'll note that nowhere does MyTrueAncestry ever reveal any management or employee names. You would expect a company of that nature to talk at least a little about what scientist(s) work there.

DNACheck, LLC, still exists and from all indications is still the owner of MyTrueAncestry. Which then raises the question: Why an address in Switzerland?

Caveat emptor. In my opinion they have always been, and still are, a shady operation providing essentially useless information.

I thought I remembered a previous G2G conversation about the company. Might have saved myself some typing if I'd looked for it first: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/978019/how-do-i-incorporate-this-information-in-my-tree.

Comments

Thank you for your swift response Edison!

 All of the information that you provided is very helpful, and I will definitely do more research & as of yet I have not invested any money in this website, and will proceed with caution if and when I ever have the financial means I will make sure to do my due diligence prior to purchasing upgrades!!

so far the only person I had found that appears to have the same question that I did, their question was posted on on Reddit site.

I posted the response below approximately 29 days ago….

Majestic_Pirate_007 • 29d

This is the information I received (as free member at MyTrueAncestry) & I would also like to understand what the Delta 10 means..... Deep Dive Match: [Hidden - Upgrade to Caesar+] Longest shared SNP chain: 386.0 Total Shared SNPs: 2177.0

Closest Clan: Clan Montgomery

Haplogroup: J2a1a202a2b2a26 Delta: 10

(Note. J2a1a. Is written in GREEN print, and the remainder of the string of characters is written in RED print.... I don't know what that means, but it may be an indication of Division or branch of that Haplogroup, that pertains to Delta?)

Ancestral Seat: Eglinton Castle Alexander

Montaomerie 1st I ord Montaomerie (1470)

Perhaps the Haplogroup information that I have described above in my Reddit post is how mytrueancestry Refers to these changes in the X/Y such as what you described above in your response…… 

I will continue to research further. It’s very interesting and looking forward to fully understanding once I’ve had access to appropriate educational resources and I thank you for your help!!!

*** Would you mind if I share your post from this thread to the person that’s on Reddit so they might also have the opportunity to understand??

Thanks!!

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Sure, Rhonda; what we write on G2G is publicly viewable anyway.

A follow-on observation about that yDNA haplogroup. One of the primary difficulties with the older style naming convention, and the reason that it's been mostly abandoned, is that the advent of the Big Y test at Family Tree DNA and then, especially, the upgrade to the Big Y-700 in 2019, have led to the cataloging of tens of thousands of previously uncategorized SNPs. In 2020, when the older naming convention began to go by the wayside, the haplotree at FTDNA (in March that year) had 26,862 branches. Today, that number is 76,932.

The haplogroup shown on your report, J2a1a2b2a2a2, is now identified as J-M68 (not only more precise, but a lot easier to write). With such a long string of characters, it's easy to assume that the haplogroup might not be all that old. But not so. FTDNA estimates that it first appeared around 1200 BCE, a hefty 3,200 years ago. 

The characters in green in that haplogroup name, J2a1a, is now called J-L26. And it first appeared around 14000 BCE. Obviously, neither of those designations have any bearing on the genealogical timeframe.

There is actually a project at FTDNA titled "J-Z35794 - Montgomery Founder" that you might want to have a look at. That deeper J-Z35794 subclade is consistent with J-L26. You can explore the hierarchically structured haplotree here.

The project notes that an even higher-level subclade for their research is J-M172. What's rather fascinating is that the greatest concentrations of that haplogroup are in the Caucasus in Ingush (88.8%) and Chechen (56.7%), Greece (44.2%), and India (43.2%). Given that the Romans had little luck or interest in controlling Scotland while they occupied England, it would be an interesting mystery to investigate how the Montgomery clan was started by a yDNA descendant of peoples who were not large-scale emigrants to the British Isles. Perhaps some Roman deserter circa 100 CE?

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So “true ancestry” is assigning a Y-DNA haplogroup to a female? Do I get the facts right?

If so, then this discredits whatever “information” they provide at their website.