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Understanding the Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree

The Time Tree provides a visual representation of the Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) for SNPs on the Y-DNA Haplotree of humankind.

The Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree provides a visual representation of when your ancestors lived, and when different branches of your family split apart on the Y-DNA Haplotree of humankind. This tree does not include the names of the ancestors, but by the names of the SNPs they left as a legacy to their descendants. This means that the time tree can be read as a traditional descendancy chart, only without the names.

The Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree provides the following tools and information:

Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree w numbers.png

  1. Display Options - Opens a drop-down menu with filters that can be applied to the display. You can read more about these options in the Display Options section below.
  2. Reset - Resets any filters you have applied. If you have navigated forwards or backwards along the timeline, this will also revert the graph to the original SNP you selected
  3. Vertical Spacing - Increases or decreases the width of the graphic. You may want to increase this if a branch is particularly busy, or decrease it to look at larger trends.
  4. Full Screen - Toggles full screen mode on and off. If you are on a PC, you can exit full screen by pressing the escape ey (esc) on the top left corner of your keyboard.
  5. Timeline - Historical dates to help visualize the age of SNPs. The dates are presented using the internationally recognized Common Era (CE) and Before Common Era (BCE) formats. While these broadly align with the BC/AD system, we've opted for CE/BCE for their widespread use and general applicability across different calendar systems.
  6. Back Button - Shifts the timeline one SNP back in time.
  7. SNP - Lists the name and relative position on the Y-DNA Haplotree. Clicking a SNP icon will adjust the timeline to originate from that SNP. Hovering your cursor over this icon will provide an information pop up listing the date most recent common ancestor (MRCA) of this line lived.
  8. Age Range - The average age estimate for a SNP based on many factors including archaeological remains, modern-day test takers, mutation rates, and personal genealogies.
    The dotted line represents the margin of error for this time estimate.
  9. Countries of Origin - The furthest downstream branch will list the countries that test takers in that branch have reported. These are self-identified locations of their direct paternal MRCA.
    Some of these ancestors may be Ancient Connections or Notable Connections, so you may see additional information when you hover your mouse over these icons.

Display Options

The Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree provides the following filters:

Y-DNA Discover™ Time Tree Display options drop-down.png

  • Ancient Connections - These are haplogroups found in archaeological remains or derived from ancient SNPs found in modern-day test takers.
  • Present-day Testers - This provides the self-reported country of origin for test takers in our database.
    • NOTE: This option is only available for SNPs with fewer than 1,000 downstream branches.
  • Notable Connections - These are famous historical figures and notable modern-day individuals. Their haplogroups have been determined by traditional paper trail genealogy or archeological remains.
  • Confidence Bars - This displays a dotted line representing the possible time range for the SNP. The date given for the SNP is the mean of this range.
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