In January, I compared the Vaughan/Stephens/Hooper Modal Haplotype against results of tow British Y-DNA studies published by Bryan Sykes and Stephen Oppenheimer. Both men, independently of each other took Y-DNA samples of men from all over Britain and Ireland to determine if, through DNA research, the genetic make up of ‘the Isles’ as Sykes called Great Britain and Ireland, could be mapped out. Their results determined that much of the genetic make-up of the Isles is early Celtic, and that later invasions did not displace the genetic code of the original inhabitants. R1b was found to be the predominate Haplogroup of the Islands, and both attributed this to Iberian men settling in Britain and Ireland shortly after the last Ice Age.
Through a bit of research, I was able to find the raw data used by both men in their research. 6 to 8 DYS markers were used by the men to reach their conclusion, and the men from whom the samples came were interviewed to determine where they were from, and to make certain that the men in the test were at least 3rd generation natives of the neighborhood where they were from. In other words, all the men had to have paternal grandfathers living in the same area that they lived.
Comparing our Modal DYS markers to the results brought out some very clear conclusions. By far, the vast majority of the matches (and I allowed a one point mismatch in any one marker, so as to allow for any random mutation that might have occurred). The closest genetic matches to our Modal were from men from Wales. There were a handful of close matches from other places in England, but none from Ireland, and the vast majority from Welsh men. One perfect 6 marker match came from a man living about 60 miles north of Tretower Court. Another close match was to a man who lived in Brecknockshire, Wales, which is where Tretower (ground zero for the Vaughans) is located. It is very, very clear that our Vaughans are of ancient Welsh ancestry. L21 is a very, very old Celtic mutation, and the DYS values agree — our Vaughans and their genetically matching Stephens and Hoopers were Welsh — possibly descendants of Romanized Celtic Brits who fled west when the Anglo Saxons invaded Britain when the Roman army left at the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Certainly they could have moved to anywhere in Britain or Ireland over the centuries, and these results don’t imply that the American immigrant was born in central Wales, but I am confident that no matter where this man lived, his ancestry led back to Wales.
Eddie Davis