Cladograms

What is a Cladogram?

A cladogram is, essentially, a family tree for the DNA genome. The Cladogram is a useful way of looking at the specific STRs and SNPs found within the Y-DNA code and mapping them out to a family tree so that we can determine which changes happened in what order, and if there are any markers that are specific to one branch or another that can be helpful in determining parentage and ancestry. To this end, I encourage everyone to upgrade their tests to at least the 67 marker level when they are able, and to participate in some of the Y-DNA SNP testing as the more information we have like this, the better our results will be.

Col. William Descendant Cladogram

Overview

The descendants of Col. William account for 12 members of the study at the time of this writing. I have been able to get genealogical information on 7 of these members either because 4 of them provided me with trees and 3 of them I was able to research myself. The remaining 5 people I have not been able to accurately ID at this time. As a result, this cladogram should be treated as an initial estimate and should be further refined later, as additional information is uncovered.

Of the 7 trees that I have ID'd, all of them start with a single Most Recent Common Ancestor - Capt. Thomas Claiborne II (b. 1680) - so he will be the starting point for this cladogram. This Thomas Claiborne is the grandson of Col. William.

Claiborne Cladogram

1. Capt. Thomas Claiborne II (b. 1680)
   1. Thomas Claiborne III (b. 1704) - No data
   2. Leonard Claiborne (b. 1705)
      1. Leonard Claiborne (b. unk) - Members of this line show a 1 point decrease in DYS-458, dropping it to 15. This is the only known instance of this change. There are 7 generations between this Leonard and the test subject so the change could have happened at any point along that path. Further tests by descendants of Burnell will refine the timing of this change.
      2. Burnell Claiborne (b. 1720) - Members of this line do not show any changes to the Y-DNA values in the samples present.
   3. William Claiborne (b. 1706) - No data
   4. Nathaniel Claiborne (b. 1716) - Members of this line do not show any changes to the Y-DNA values in the samples present.
   5. Augustine Claiborne (b. 1720)

      The descendants of this line have some quirky data. Originally I had grouped Kit 1580 and 1583 as being descended from the same MRCA because they both share the same 2 value jump in DYS-458, but on paper, these are separate branches, one from Buller and one from Herbert. The 18 value is not present in all of the lines, which means it did not come from Augustine himself. Based on the data we have available currently, it appears that these changes occurred independently in parallel.

      1. Herbert Claiborne (b. 1746) - This line shows a marker change of 2 points in DYS-458, increasing the value to 18. It would be very unusual for the marker to jump 2 values in a single mutation, but it can happen. This suggests that in 5 generations between the test subject and the MRCA there may be a value of 17 along that line. Additional test data will confirm this.
      2. Buller Claiborne (b. 1755) - This line shows a marker change of 2 points in DYS-458, increasing the value to 18. It would be very unusual for the marker to jump 2 values in a single mutation, but it can happen. This suggests that in 5 generations between the test subject and the MRCA there may be a value of 17 along that line. Additional test data will confirm this.
      3. Richard Claiborne (b. 1755)
         1. Rev. Richard Baring Claiborne (b. 1798)
            1. Charles Baring Eugene Claiborne (b. 1827)
               1. Charles Frederick Claiborne (b. 1873) - Members of this line do not show any changes to the Y-DNA in the samples present.
               2. James Baring Claiborne (b. 1878) - Members of this line show a decrease in the value to DYS-19 by 1 point down to 15. This is a slow changing marker and this change has occurred within 3 generations of the test subject.
   6. James Claiborne (b. 1721) - No data.
   7. Daniel Claiborne (b. 1722) - No data.

Westmorland Cladogram

This family's Cladogram is rather complex and teasing it out will take some time, but research is currently underway.