CTS10893 Saxon DNA

BY3323 Saxon DNA

My cousin Paul Drueke had his Y-chromosome DNA tested at Family Tree DNA. Father Franz Rinschen, pastor of Mariä Himmelfahrt Church in Schönholthausen, Germany, provided valuable information on the Saxon roots of our great great great grandfather Johann Drücke. Administrators of the U106 project have contributed to our understanding of this DNA. Jim Nickel; and Geoff Blackburn have contributed to this page.

Background. My cousin Paul Drueke had his Y-chromosome DNA tested by Family Tree DNA in 2012. We started a Drueke DNA project at FTDNA, with Paul and me as administrators. We have no other Druekes yet, but we welcome anyone with CTS10893 DNA.

Paul's Y-DNA is a SNP called BY3323. It was born in 400 BC. It is downstream of several SNPs, including the U106 SNP. The U106 SNP is referred to as Saxon DNA.

U106, 2950 BC, Poland
Z381, 2650 BC, Northern Germany
CTS10893, 850 BC, Germany. Paul shares this SNP with 26 testers from England, 6 from Sweden, 4 from Germany named Rave, Graser, Ahrens, and Brink, 3 from Scotland, 3 from Ireland, 2 from Poland, and 2 from the United Kingdom.
BY3323, 400 BC, Germany. Paul shares this SNP with 5 testers named Wright from England who share BY11427, 1450 AD

A SNP is a "single-nucleotide polymorphism," a mutation that occurs very infrequently. This SNP was originally found in Charles Moore's DNA in December 2012 as part of the Geno 2.0 Project sponsored by National Geographic, with testing by Family Tree DNA. FTDNA eventually offered this test to members directly in July 2013, and Paul received his positive result in August 2013. In July 2015, Paul received his results for Big Y, and we constructed the tree above for Paul and 24 others with CTS10893 DNA.

Our oldest known ancestor with this DNA is our great, great, great grandfather, Johann Drücke, was born in 1743 AD in Elspe, Westphalia, Germany. He lived most of his life nearby in a house in Ostentrop. He traded in Westphalian hams, which he bought from farmers in the area and sold in Münster to the north and Frankfurt to the south. He also traded in seltzer water, which he bought in Selters, a town between Ostentrop and Frankfurt.

Volker Kennemann wrote an article about Johann Drücke in the December 2013 edition of the magazine of the Finnentrop historical society. See: Trader and Transporter.

Westphalia, where Johann Drücke was from, is part of Old Saxony. Old Saxony consisted of Lower Saxony and western Saxony-Anhalt as well as Westphalia.

Map of Saxony (circa 1000 AD). Johann Drücke lived in Elspe which is 10 miles east of Attendorn. Attendorn is called Attandarra on the map, which can be seen in Saxonia near the southern tip of Westfalia. Source: Old Saxony.

It turns out Paul's DNA matches mostly people with English sounding names from:

England (Arnold, Bennett, Ozment, Self, Wooten)
Wales (Ellis, Price)
Ireland (Moore)
Scotland (Armstrong, Greer, Russell, Scott)

Many people with English names have Germanic origins. And his DNA is what they call Saxon DNA. The Saxons were Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Britain from the early 5th century up to the Norman conquest in 1066. Our ancestor is from Westphalia, which was part of Old Saxony.

Paul is kit number 230496. His DNA can be found in several projects at FTDNA: Drueke project, U106 project, Germany project, and Anglo-Saxon project.

SNP Age. SNPs occur randomly. The number of SNPs can vary a lot by tester. On average over a large population for a long time period, some have estimated that Big Y SNPs might occur every 83 years.

BIG Y. BIG Y is a testing program offered by Family Tree DNA that tests a large part of the Y-chromosome. It identifies a man's SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and compares those SNPs with other men it has tested. The CTS10893 BIG Y SNP Tree includes the SNPs of all men who have been tested under the BIG Y program and have the CTS10893 SNP. Testers have downloaded their raw results from their FTDNA homepage. The raw results are then uploaded to the Y-DNA Data Warehouse. Testers agree to making their reults public on the Big Tree. Andrew Booth and Raymond Wing put raw results on a spreadsheet and match them up with other testers. The tree above is based on that spreadsheet.

A detailed tree for U106 is available from the U106 Project here. YFull offers its Experimental Tree, which includes estimates of when SNPs occurred.

Map of Z381 (2500 BC). Source: Migration Map for Z381.

U106 Project. The U106 project at Family Tree DNA has a category for people who have tested positive for CTS10893. Categories are listed on the Results page.

The administrator of the project is Charles Moore, who was the first to test positive for CTS10893. Co-administrators, including Raymond Wing, are listed on the Background page.

The U106 project was founded in 2008. The project has a table of Y-DNA marker results for all members. It also has a table of SNP results for all members. Included with most members' results is his most distant Y-DNA ancestor.

U106 project administrator Charles Moore was first to test positive for the CTS10893 SNP.

Anyone with CTS10893 DNA should be sure to join the U106 project.

Surname Projects. In addition to the U106 Project, all are encouraged to join their surname project. The Drueke project welcomes anyone with CTS10893 DNA regardless of surname.

Unique Marker 510=15. In addition to SNPs, Y-DNA can be distinguished with STRs, or Short Tandem Repeats. STRs are referred to here as "markers." Family Tree DNA offers tests of 12, 25, 37, 67, oor 111 markers. Almost all who are CTS10893 and have tested 111 markers have a unique value of 15 for marker 510, the 108th marker. Everyone else with U106 DNA has a value of 16, 17, or 18. So, this marker can be used as a good predictor of whether a person will test positive for the CTS10893 SNP.

U106 Group. Those who want to know the latest information about CTS10893, may wish to participate in the U106 Group. The U106 site is administered by the same people who administer the U106 project at FTDNA. You can actively participate or just keep up to date with what is being said. The purpose of the group is to learn about U106 DNA from material submitted by group members and ask questions of group members. You can send messages to the group, respond to messages submitted by others, add Internet links and files relating to U106, and learn from links and files submitted by others.