Odyssey of Y Act 12 - Finale

A thread of silk on an English countryside hedge. Visualised  by Gemini AI to represent a thread of Asian DNA being found in Berkshire,

Why the obsession with a few genetic markers along the string of one chromosome? I possess an autistic cast of mind that highly values truth and rules; I am adept at identifying patterns and deciphering trends. I see the errors others might overlook.

My paternal lineage, however, seems to defy standard logic. It is an improbable survivor. In Europe, yDNA haplogroup L is an incredible rarity, accounting for less than 1% of the population—an exotic outlier. Within that small bracket, men carrying the variants M317 and SK1414 constitute a tiny minority. Within L-SK1414, my own lineage is a "ghost." It has had no known cousins for the past 7,000 years. It should not have survived in such isolation for so long. Globally, there are only two confirmed instances of L-FGC51036.

Somehow, it has endured rather than reaching a dead end. To find such a deep-time outlier—a branch of the human tree that refused to wither—is extraordinary. It traces a lonely arc from the high plateau of Khorasan to the banks of the Thames. It survived the rise of the first cities in Mesopotamia, the collapse of the West Asian Bronze Age, and the expansion of the Eastern Roman Empire—all while remaining a "Ghost Lineage.

The Zagros Mountains. Source Creative commons. By Farid Atar

We were the "late-stayers." While our genetic cousins drifted towards the Indus or the Balkans, we held the high ground of the Zagros Mountains for thousands of years longer. We were the last of the mountain ghosts to descend. By the time we stepped onto a Venetian galley, we carried a code that was already ancient and exceedingly rare. We did not arrive in England as part of a great migration; we arrived as a single, solitary thread of silk, seven millennia in the making.

I carry the STR marker DYS448=15. This roughly corresponds to the SNP L-SK1414. Most males have 19, 20, or 21 or more "stutters" at that position on the Y-chromosome; mine has been fixed at 15 for at least 7,000 years. Most European men belong to a vast, roaring river of yDNA; mine is a persistent stream that has avoided being swallowed by the earth.

When I first opened the book of my genetic code, I found 115 "pages"—private mutations—that no one else had ever read. They were the silent markers of a line that had walked in solitude for two thousand years. The only other person with a similar genetic "accent" was a man on the Makran coast of Pakistan. We are the two ends of a 7,000-year-old silk thread: one caught on a palm tree in the East, the other on a hawthorn branch in Berkshire.

My hypothesis is that this lineage found a long-term sanctuary in the Zagros Mountains or the South Caucasus. The cradle of my ghost lineage Around 7,000 years ago, several lineages radiated outwards like thin spokes to father the other L-SK1414 lines in Anatolia, the Levant, Arabia, and the Indus Valley. Each spoke was fragile; only 86 men worldwide have tested positive for SK1414 or DYS448=15. As these branches spread, I believe my own lineage was one of the last to leave the old refugia of the West Asian valleys. This explains why it has left so few recorded heirs. Its eventual arrival in Southern England—likely via late medieval galleys—suggests a slow, westward drift through the Levant before crossing the sea. A genetic stowaway on a Venetian galley, carrying a 7,000-year-old secret from the Silk Road to the English wool markets

Odyssey of Y Act 10

The convergence of genetic evidence and documentary research has brought a new level of precision to my recorded genealogy, allowing me to trace the odyssey of my paternal lineage: yDNA haplogroup L-SK1414 > FGC51040 > FGC51036.

In the mid-18th century, my Brooker ancestors emerge from the shadows of surviving parish records. On November 1, 1746, my 6 x great-grandparents, John Brooker and Mary Gardiner, were married at St John’s College, Oxford. They were not scholars; rather, John was a copyhold tenant of the College. At the time, the vicar of St Mary’s in Long Wittenham was non-resident, living in Oxford. It was more practical and cost-effective for the couple to travel to Oxford for the ceremony than to pay the fees required to entice the vicar back to their home parish.

The marriage register identifies both John and Mary as residents of Long Wittenham, Berkshire. In 1746, the parish was primarily held by two landowners, including St John’s College. As tenants on this manor, John and Mary would have practiced communal farming within an open-field system—a landscape defined by individual strips allocated to various tenants, a practice that persisted long after the medieval period.

While Mary was born and raised in the nearby parish of East Hagbourne, identifying John’s origins has proven more elusive. I once hypothesized that he belonged to the Brooker family of East Hagbourne; however, rigorous genealogical research—utilizing a process of elimination to rule out other John Brookers of similar age and nomenclature in neighboring Berkshire parishes—disproved that theory. Consequently, the specific birthplace of my 6 x great-grandfather remains a mystery, as he first appears in the historical record in 1746.

My 6 x great grandfather John Brooker? As visualised by Google Gemini AI.

While there is no definitive documentary record of John Brooker’s origins, the evidence suggests a clear migratory pattern. Based on yDNA STR markers that indicate a shared paternal lineage with the Chandler family of Basingstoke, I hypothesize that my Brooker ancestors migrated northwards across the North Wessex Downs of Hampshire and Berkshire between the 16th and 18th centuries. As explored in Act 9, I suspect that the wool trade and sheep farming may have provided a catalyst for this movement. I have mapped this target area below to illustrate the potential path of this migration.

Source ©  OpenStreetMaps Modified by myself.

There are several parishes within that target zone, where I see both Brooker and Chandler entries in the same registers, even on the same page. STR comparisons of our yDNA suggests a convergence between 1540 and 1600 CE.

The story of John does not end in 1746. John and Mary had at least six children baptized at St Mary’s between 1749 and 1763, including my 5 x great-grandfather, Edward Brooker, in 1757. Edward witnessed the parliamentary enclosure of Long Wittenham's open fields in 1809. It was his son, John Brooker Jr., who—like many others dispossessed of land tenure—fell into the poverty of the agricultural laboring class. He eventually drifted landless across the river and eastward through Oxfordshire in search of work.

Our yDNA lineage—descended from Ice Age ibex hunters in the Zagros Mountains, Early Neolithic goat herders, and Chalcolithic priests—has traversed millennia. It has survived the rise of the Ur III civilization, the era of Hurrian merchants in the Mitanni Empire, and the bustle of Phoenician temples. From Levantine mariners on 15th-century Italian galleys to Tudor wool merchants in Basingstoke, our ancestors have occupied every stratum of history. Now, they toiled in the soils of Oxfordshire for others.

Odyssey of Y Act 9

My working hypothesis is that the yDNA lineage L-SK1414 > FGC51040 > FGC51036 first reached Hampshire soil via a Levantine mariner serving aboard a Venetian galley. While he could have absconded upon reaching Southampton, I suspect a different path: a brief encounter with a local Hampshire woman before he returned to the sea.

This 'dalliance' provides a more plausible explanation for how this specific DNA entered the regional gene pool during the transition from the late medieval period to the Tudor era. Naturally, much of this paternal odyssey remains rooted in conjecture. To bridge the gaps in the historical record, I have used Gemini AI to imagine the meeting between this distant ancestor and my 15th century great-grandmother in the bustling port of Southampton.

The Southampton priest appears disgruntled at the prospect of baptizing a child born out of wedlock, doesn’t he? Yet, I’ve directed Gemini AI to capture the mother’s joy—portraying her as an innocent soul, undeterred by the cleric's disapproval.

Perhaps I have let my imagination run a step ahead of the records, but the narrative is tempting. Forty years after that first arrival, I imagine the mariner’s son defying the period’s inherent prejudices to rise to the rank of a wool merchant. The lifeblood of Southampton was the highly valued wool of the surrounding counties, which acted as a magnet for foreign fleets. In this scene, I have asked Gemini AI to portray my ancestor as an entrepreneur, visiting the wool hall in Basingstoke.

There is a firm rationale for this setting. If my paternal lineage arrived in the late medieval or early Tudor era at Southampton, the line clearly drifted northward toward the Berkshire and Hampshire Downs. Basingstoke is the earliest known residence of the Chandler family, with whom I share a specific yDNA signature.

A comparison of my STR (Short Tandem Repeat) markers against the Basingstoke Chandlers suggests the following TMRCA (Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor):

Probability Estimated Generations Estimated Years Before Present
50% (Median) ~14–16 Generations 420–480 Years
95% (Confidence) 4–35 Generations 120–1,050 Years

Historical Correlation:

Assuming a standard genealogical generation of 30 years, this 14–16 generation gap places our common ancestor between 1540 and 1600 CE.

I recognize the hurdles of such a rapid ascent in 1540. The era was fraught with xenophobia and a profound suspicion of those with Mediterranean features or Catholic leanings. While the dating range is flexible—the DNA may have arrived earlier, taking several generations to migrate toward the Downs—I am using a degree of 'informed conjecture' to frame my AI-generated imagery. I believe the science of STR matching is most powerful when paired with a narrative. This is not just a data point; it is a 'could have been' for how my lineage took root in English soil.

Act 9 of the Odyssey: My yDNA has traversed the millennia—moving from an Ice Age ibex-hunter in the Zagros Mountains to a Proto-Neolithic goat herder, then onward through a priest-diviner on the Khorasan Highway. It has lived as a Bronze Age smith visiting the Great Sumerian civilizations, a Hurrian merchant reaching the Levant, and a temple accountant in Roman Phoenicia, before finally arriving as a mariner in Tudor England.

Odyssey of Y Act 8

If a man of my Asian paternal lineage was a mariner in the Venetian service in the late 1490s (Venetian sailors were often actually recruited from the Republic's colonies in the Levant or the Adriatic), his journey from the Levant to England would have been a two-stage odyssey. After serving on a Galea di Beirut to reach the Rialto, he would have transferred to the prestigious Galee di Fiandra (Flanders Galleys) for the trek to Southampton. This journey represented the pinnacle of medieval maritime logistics—a state-regulated convoy that connected the silk and spice hubs of the East to the wool markets of the North.

Source ©  OpenStreetMaps Modified by myself.

1. The Fleet: The "Great Galley" (Galea Grossa)

The mariner did not cross the seas in a small rowboat. He served aboard the Galea Grossa, the "jumbo jet" of the 15th century. These massive merchant vessels, roughly 40–50 meters in length, were the only ships legally permitted to carry the most precious "light goods"—spices, silks, and dyes—from the Levant to the North.

  • The Crew: A single galley carried approximately 200 oarsmen. In the 1490s, they employed the alla sensile method: three men shared a single bench, but each pulled his own individual oar. This required a rhythmic, highly skilled labor that took years of practice to master without tangling.

  • The Hybrid Power: These ships were marvels of engineering. While they utilized three massive lateen sails for the open sea, they relied on the raw power of the oarsmen for maneuvering in tight ports, navigating narrow channels, or escaping pirates during a dead calm.

2. The Route: The "Muda" System

The journey was a state-regulated convoy system known as the Muda. It was not a direct shot but a series of calculated "hops" across the known world.

Phase 1: The Levant to Venice

The first leg was a voyage from the ports of the Levant (such as Beirut) to the heart of the Republic.

  • The Hub: The Piazzetta in Venice served as the mandatory layover. The mariner wouldn't just stay on the ship; he would live in the city for weeks or months, exchanging Syrian dirhams for Venetian ducats.

  • The Arsenal: These vessels were not private property; the Galea Grossa was a state-owned vessel built in the Arsenal—the world's first industrial factory. The Republic built them, and wealthy merchants merely rented them for the voyage.

Phase 2: Venice to the Atlantic

Once refitted, the "Flanders Convoy" began the long trek west.

  • The "Stop-and-Shop": The fleet stopped at Malaga on the Spanish leg to take on "fruits of the sun"—raisins and almonds—which were highly prized luxuries in England.

  • The Bay of Biscay: This was the most feared stretch of the journey. Because the galleys were low-slung, they were at constant risk of being swamped by massive Atlantic "rollers." During these storms, the oarsmen usually huddled below deck or assisted with the sails, praying for the safety of the hull.

Phase 3: The Arrival in Southampton

  • The Galley Quay: Upon reaching England, the fleet docked at Southampton’s West Quay. The medieval walls that stand today are the same stones these men walked past as they sought out local taverns and markets.

  • The Return: The journey was a circle. The return trip was just as vital, as the mariners loaded heavy sacks of English wool and "cloth of tin" to carry back to the looms and markets of the Mediterranean.

3. Life as a "Merchant-Oarsman"

If an ancestor was on the bench in 1498, his life was a unique blend of grueling labor and entrepreneurial opportunity.

  • The Portata: Unlike the galley slaves of later centuries, these were free men. A unique Venetian tradition allowed sailors to carry a small amount of their own cargo tax-free, known as the portata. An oarsman could tuck a bundle of silk or a bag of saffron under his bench to trade privately in Southampton, potentially earning more from this "luggage allowance" than from his actual wages.

  • Social Mixing: By law, every galley carried a contingent of noble youth serving as crossbowmen (balestrieri). A common mariner would have worked and lived alongside these young Venetian aristocrats as they learned the family trade.

  • The Turning Point: The year 1498 was a tipping point in history. While the mariner kept a sharp eye out for rival Genoese privateers, the world was changing. This was the last generation to enjoy the Venetian monopoly on spices; the first Portuguese voyages to India were already underway, and the center of gravity for global trade was about to shift forever from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

Arrival at Southampton? Visualised by Google Gemini AI.

In 1498, life on the bench was a calculation of risk. Between the freezing spray of the Atlantic and the constant shadow of North African corsairs, a mariner was more than a labourer—he was a stakeholder. By tucking a bundle of Lebanese saffron or Syrian silk beneath his rowing bench, he became a micro-merchant on the longest trade route of the known world. He was the vital link between the spice markets of the Levant and the damp, wool-rich ports of the North.

When the fleet finally dropped anchor in Southampton Water, usually near the West Quay or God’s House Gate, the mariner stepped into a rain-slicked frontier of the Venetian commercial empire. For sixty days, he lived a double life. By day, he was a beast of burden, hauling heavy wool-sacks onto the deep-hulled Galea Grossa. By night, protected by royal patents that exempted 'Men of the Galleys' from local xenophobia, he moved through the town as a man of status.

While the elite Venetian 'factors' (agents) conducted business in grand stone houses like Duke’s Lease, the oarsmen drifted toward the smoky, semi-legal world of the waterfront alehouses. Here, his Mediterranean tan and stories of the brewing Ottoman wars were exotic currency. In these taverns, he traded silk ribbons and news for English silver and local companionship.

He was a literal 'man of the world' in a town where most residents never traveled twenty miles from home. In the shadows of the West Quay—far from the watchful eyes of the fleet’s Capitanio—he found the privacy and the people that allowed him to leave a biological stowaway behind. When the trumpets finally sounded for the fleet’s departure, he sailed with the tide, but his genetic signature remained anchored in the soil of Hampshire.

Discussion: The Southampton Hypothesis for L-FGC51036

This study proposes a potential migratory path for the yDNA haplogroup L-FGC51036 (L-SK1414 > FGC51040) to Southern England. Currently, this rare lineage has been identified in only two European surname families, both clustered within the Berkshire and Hampshire regions. By the 18th century, these lines remained highly localized, situated within just 32 miles of one another.

Analysis of Short Tandem Repeat (STR) variants suggests these families shared a common paternal ancestor approximately 400 to 650 years ago. This raises a critical question: when did this shared paternal line arrive in Britain? Traditional theories for Levantine DNA in Britain typically include:

  1. Romano-British Arrival: Often attributed to Syrian or Greek auxiliary units stationed in Roman Britannia.

  2. Medieval Anglo-Jewry: Arrival with Jewish communities following the Norman Conquest.

  3. The Crusades: Return of English knights with Levantine followers or the movement of Eastern Christians.

However, the evidence suggests a more recent arrival. First, the lineage is too rare and geographically restricted to have been circulating in Britain for nearly two millennia; a Roman-era arrival would likely have resulted in wider dispersal and a greater variety of surnames. Second, L-FGC51036 has not been identified in Sephardic or Ashkenazi datasets, making a link to medieval Jewish migrations unlikely.

The heavy concentration of this lineage near the South Coast strongly suggests an entry via the Port of Southampton. A late medieval or early Tudor arrival (circa 1450–1530) matches the genetic data perfectly. During this window, Southampton served as the primary English terminus for the Venetian "Flanders Galleys" and various Mediterranean carracks. The presence of Levantine sailors and "merchant-oarsmen" aboard these vessels—men who lived and traded in Southampton for months at a time—presents a highly attractive and historically grounded hypothesis for the arrival of this genetic signature.

Odyssey of Y Act 2

The Zarzian Return: 18,000 BCE I visualize the Zarzian hunter-gatherers of the Zagros and ask: is this my great-grandfather?

The unbearably harsh conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) once drove the Baradostian Ice Age hunters out of these mountains and into lower-altitude refuges. However, after 20,000 years ago, the climate began to stabilize, permitting a slow return to the Zagros valleys. Unlike many other groups of the era, my paternal ancestors do not appear to have traveled far; they remained rooted in the Zagros or South Caucasus region for an immense span of time. I would conjecture that they return to the same valleys:

13,000 years ago. Zagros Mountains and valleys (now in Iran) South West Asia

The Zagros and South Caucasus mountains (now in Iran), South West Asia. © OpenStreetMap contributors".

The Zarzian Way: A Prelude to Farming The Zarzian culture was the eastern equivalent of the Epipalaeolithic Natufians in the western Fertile Crescent. While their Baradostian predecessors had sustained themselves primarily by hunting caprines—wild goats and sheep—life after the Last Glacial Maximum shifted toward a broader strategy.

Post-glacial humans enjoyed a far greater diversity of food. Their diet expanded beyond the ibex and mouflon to include onagers, gazelles, crustaceans, fish, birds, and—as visualized above—tortoises. They also gathered a wide array of wild plants, including legumes, nuts, and grass seeds. Evidence of grinding stones suggests they were processing these into porridges or primitive flatbreads.

This period likely represented a critical, early stage in the journey toward agriculture. Accidental selection processes were already in motion. By gathering seeds from plants with firmer rachises (the stem holding the grain), they were unconsciously initiating the shift toward domestication. A similar, unintended process was occurring with their prey. By managing their herds—selecting specific animals to hunt while preserving others—they began the long transition toward animal husbandry. They weren't intentionally trying to "invent" farming; rather, it was nature at work, forging new, symbiotic relationships between humans and the species around them.

Their tools evolved alongside their diet. While the Baradostians excelled at manufacturing burins and regular blades, the Zarzians pushed flint technology further, creating even smaller, geometric microliths designed for complex, composite tools.

Odyssey of Y Act 1

An early Zagros hunter and his band. Visualised for me by Gemini AI. My great grandfather?

Introduction This is the tale of a long journey from the last Ice Age to the present day—a history of my paternal lineage as determined by Y-DNA research, archaeology, linguistics, and, to be honest, a fair amount of conjecture. While this is the story of just one ancestral line of an East Anglian, it represents a single thread in a vast tapestry. There are thousands more ancestors in my past, but their specific stories are lost in the quagmire of genetic recombination. Our ancestry is far less localized than we conventionally think; you likely have a similarly epic story hidden in your own cells. I was simply lucky enough that this one followed a steady genetic marker down through the millennia.

The Subject Matter I am an English "chappie" from an East Anglian family. However, a DNA test revealed a far more exotic signature:

Y-DNA Haplogroup L (+M20 +M22 +M317 +SK1412 +SK1414 +FGC51041 +FGC51036)

For the sake of brevity, let’s call it L-FGC51036.

If I were to trace my father's line - back through grandfathers and great-grandfathers, all the way to the depths of the Last Glacial Maximum - who would that ancestor be? How did he survive the biting cold of the Ice Age, and where on this earth was he standing?


The Zagros Mountains (now in Iran), South West Asia. © OpenStreetMap contributors".

The Ice Age Pioneers: 25,000 Years Ago This is where I believe my direct paternal ancestor lived 25,000 years ago. The climate was seasonally harsh as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) approached—a period when life in the Zagros would eventually become intolerable. For now, however, my Ice Age ancestor and his band survived by hunting large game, particularly the Bezoar Ibex (wild goat) and the Mouflon (wild sheep). This was the dawn of a profound relationship; our later ancestors would slowly forge a bond with the local ibex, eventually leading to its domestication. By exploiting the varied habitats across different altitudes of the Zagros valleys, they practiced what anthropologists call vertical hunting.

These were not the first humans to inhabit the region. Anatomically modern humans arrived circa 40,000 years ago, but Neanderthals had made these valleys their home long before. While my 23andMe results suggest I have more Neanderthal DNA than 98% of their customers, I take that specific metric with a grain of salt. Regardless of that ancient admixture, these modern humans in the Zagros—likely my direct ancestors—are known to archaeologists as the Baradostian Culture.

The Baradostians are often linked to the Aurignacian Culture of Europe, the famous pioneers who trekked across the European continent between 40,000 and 33,000 years ago. While the European Aurignacians left behind splendid cave paintings and sculptures—often featuring lions—the Baradostians of Southwest Asia left a more subtle mark. Some researchers even suggest that the Aurignacians were actually Baradostians who had migrated into Europe.

While we find fewer examples of Ice Age artwork in the Zagros, this may simply be due to sampling bias; modern politics and conflict often hinder archaeological investigation in the region. Instead, we look to their flint assemblages. The Baradostians were adept at knapping small bladelets and crafting burins—sharp, chisel-edged tools used for piercing hides. They utilized massive limestone caves and rock shelters, such as Shanidar and Yafteh, as seasonal basecamps. Inside, archaeologists have found evidence of large, central hearths where families would gather to cook, repair tools, and perhaps pass down the oral traditions that kept their culture alive.

But the climate was shifting. By 20,000 years ago, the LGM arrived in full force. Even the hardy Baradostians could no longer endure the mountain winters, and the culture faded away as they retreated to more hospitable refuges.

yDNA haplogroup L in Medieval Cherry Hinton, England

Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, James Alexander Cameron on Flickr

Most of our nuclear DNA recombines with every generation. But a yDNA Haplogroup is a genetic marker that follows along the direct paternal line, passed down from biological father to son. Follow it back, and it will follow your father's father's, father's, etc.  Most NW European males carry a yDNA haplogroup of R, or I. Sometimes G, J, E. However, I have a variant of L, defined by a mutation coded M20 (L-M20). yDNA haplogroup L is regarded as Non-European and some will insist that it is South Asian. I can reliably trace my own paternal line back to 18th Century Oxfordshire / Thames Valley.  yDNA haplogroup L is NOT seen as European. It is seen as an Asian genetic marker. The males of two English families share my own mutations: BROOKER of Oxfordshire and CHANDLER of Basingstoke, Hampshire. My next closest yDNA matches are men from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, India, and Lebanon. 

Cherry Hinton, Cambs.

Excavation of a Medieval Cemetery. Ancient DNA revealed.

Consequently, when I saw that FTDNA had given me Ancient Connections from here in England, I at first thought it a mistake. Yet there they were, two excavated skeletons from a medieval cemetery in Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire.

Were they relatives / ancestors of the Brooker and Chandler lines?

I investigated. These two human remains dating between 940 CE and 1170 CE, and coded Cherry Hinton 919 and 936 had the M349 and B374 variants. I can best demonstrate our paternal relationship by a plan:


The most recent mutation shared by both myself, and these Medieval Cambridgeshire Men, is M317. The TMRCA (Time of most recent common ancestor) to all descendants, is I'm afraid, 12,700 years ago. The M317 variant first formed 18,100 years ago. Therefore, I and the Cherry Hinton men, last shared a common paternal line at the end of the last Ice Age. I would suggest that our common yDNA ancestors lived somewhere between Anatolia, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both my own SK1412, and their M349 formed around 12,700 years before present. We cannot share our direct paternal lines before 10,700 BCE.

What do we know about these Medieval men? I have scoured the excavation reports and data sheets:

Genetic history of Cambridgeshire before and after the Black Death

'In total, 48 individuals from Cherry Hinton were targeted for DNA extraction in this study, including 24 females and 24 males (Table S1). Two of the sampled individuals have been directly radiocarbon dated.'

'Cherry Hinton The settlement of Church End Cherry Hinton (Cherry Hinton) is located around six kilometers southeast of Cambridge. In the late 9th to the mid-10th century, a large thengly (aristocratic) or proto-manorial center was established (92, 93). The associated timber chapel and graveyard were excavated in 1999 by the Hertfordshire Archaeological Trust (subsequently Archaeological Solutions and now Wardell Armstrong) in advance of development of the site in accordance with the appropriate planning regulations'

More on the excavation in this Current Archaeology report.

Cherry Hinton 919 (sk3262) was related to a female (mother, or sister?) number 947 (sk3262) with whom he shared his mtDNA haplogroup U5b3e His yDNA was sequenced as L-B374.

Cherry Hinton 936 (sk2077) had no close relatives (albeit had to have shared his paternal line with 919). His mtDNA was T4b4+152. His own yDNA was also L-B374.

Both sequenced from tooth root; classed in Rural 4 group; dated between 940 CE to 1140 CE

The route of their yDNA was: L-M20>M22>M317>M349>B374. See plan above.

The route of the modern BROOKER / CHANDLER lines is: L-M20>M22>M317>SK1412>SK1414>FGC51041>FGC51036

 L-B374 Today

Only one modern English, or British tester, has so far tested on ftDNA, or registered on yFull with a result of L-B374.

The only modern Asian samples have been a single tester from Kazakhstan. Rather, the highest density of testers have placed their paternal lines in Switzerland, The apparent centre of modern L-B374 - this variant looks very European. The TMRCA for B374 is 600 BCE. Following Switzerland, it has also been reported in: Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Tatarstan, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia.

This is not the case with my own variant (L-FGC51036). Other than the two South English families, our closest yDNA relatives have been from Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, India, and Turkey. Our own line arrived independently, and possibly later than that of the Cherry Hinton Men. I propose an Early Medieval date for the arrival of my own paternal line in England. Maybe one day we will get as lucky, and our own paternal line ancestors will be excavated?

Documentary Paternal line.

I have proven descent from John Henry Brooker, through genetic matching to support the documentary evidence. I and my sibling share some centimorgans of autosomal DNA with descendants of his sister. Additionally, smaller segments are shared from the prior few generations, to support that this paternal line is biologically true, at least back to Generation 5 (great great grandparent). He was the only one of my great grandfather's not to be Norfolk-born.

If I follow his paternal line (BROOKER) back using traditional genealogical method, I follow it back to the Thames Valley borderlands of rural Oxfordshire and Berkshire. I have good, strong documentary evidence back to my direct paternal line 5 x great grandfather, Edward Brucker, born 1757 at Long Wittenham, Berkshire.

Support for my 6 x great grandfather being a John Brooker born 1722 at Hagbourne, Berkshire in 1722 is pretty good. His father before him I have verified, was another John Brooker born 1691 at Hagbourne. His father was Thomas Brucker, also baptised at Hagbourne in 1658.  If biologically true, he would be my 8 x great grandfather and that would place my Y chromosome in Hagbourne, Berkshire in 1658. The Chandlers who share the yDNA descend from a Thomas Chandler who lived in Basingstoke, Hampshire during the late 18th century. At some point prior to that, our two paternal lines must merge.

Anything earlier than 1658 Hagbourne, too much doubt creeps in, but I have candidates stretching back a few generations waiting for more supportive evidence. They are in the Wantage/Uffington area of Oxfordshire. Caution - they may be incorrect. Another candidate in in Whitchurch, Hampshire.

I've researched the BROOKER surname:

Distribution of BROOKER baptisms AD 1550 - AD 1600 by English County.  County boundaries modern, but East and East Surrey united for historical purposes.  Includes records of derivations of Brooker surname.

During the 16th Century CE, it was not a common surname in Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Its origins are the Sussex / Surrey area. It is possible that I had a Brooker surname ancestor move up through Hampshire into the area. I think that our surname picked up the yDNA in Hampshire, or in a South English port. My favourite hypothesis is that a South West Asian sailor visited, and left a son there early into the Medieval.

This hypothesis might seem unlikely, yet it brings me to:

Updown Girl

In my previous post concerning Anglo Saxon DNA, I discussed this report:


A 2022 survey, where hundreds of ancient human remains were sequenced for DNA. My favourite treasure of that study, came from an Anglo-Saxon grave in Kent. A girl, who had died during the early 7th Century CE (600s) around the age of 11 years of age. She was buried with Anglo Saxon artefacts, with full respect. She was related to some other nearby individuals (great aunts?) who had artefacts suggestive of Frankish origin.

On sequencing UpDown Girl's DNA, it was revealed that 33% was West African in origin!  UpDown Girl most probably had a grandfather from West Africa. Her DNA was most like the modern Esan or Yoruba population groups.

This is another example of why we should be very wary of not generalising. There were always a few travellers who would move far from home. It could be that my Asian sailor was another one, like UpDown Girl?

More on this spectacular find by link:

Wikipedia - UpDown Girl