Our yDNA Genetic History

Table of Contents

A Probable History of the Golden Family
of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761

Updated 2024.02.12

Goldens of Newberry, South Carolina are R1b R-BY61503 R-FTB95535

William and Nellie Golden’s various male lines have been thoroughly yDNA tested.

All William and Nellie Golden male lines have one or more yDNA tests of some kind. These include descendant lines from sons Abraham, Nathaniel, Isaac, Samuel and Thomas Golden.

Several of the descended male lines have been Y700 tested, those of Samuel Golden (c1770-1859) and Nathaniel Green Golden (c1783-aft.1822).

There are several suspected male lines which may be kin to our Goldens and are not known to be yDNA-tested:  the John Golden male line born in the 1770s (born c1775 in York or Union County, SC area), died bef.1850 Alabama), married to Gracie Snowden, and two Golden male lines born after 1810:  both born in South Carolina, no location given: William Miles / Miles W. Golden, born c1813, and Vardel Virgil Golden, born c1814.

The shared terminal yDNA SNP for all Newberry Golden male lines is R-BY61503 > R-FTB95535.

~~~ R-BY70029 / FGC28926 are the terminal SNPs for a Nathaniel Greene Golden (c1783-aft.1822) descendant branch born in 1956 and 1990. SNP analysis shows that R-BY70029 was born approximately 1890. R-BY70029 is more likely Henry Roosevelt Golden (1904-1987) or possibly his father Henry Hambright Sterling Golden (1866-1937). FGC28926 is probably William David Golden (1956-living).

There are 21 other SNP Grandfathers born between R-BY61503 and R-FTB95535. As of 2023, all have a northwestern central Germany location.

It appears that our SNP grandfather line is thoroughly German, since at least 2500 BCE.

Grandfather R-BY61503

Grandfather R-BY61503 was born about the time Jesus walked the earth. FamilyTreeDNA suggests that he was born approximately 2050 years before 2023, living in northwestern Germany, after having spent some additional 2000+ years living in what today is the European BENELUX region. ^[1]See  FamilyTreeDNA’s new Discover feature (2022) for more info on this line https://discover.familytreedna.com/y-dna/R-BY61503/tree  

Grandfather R-BY61503 had living descendants in northwestern Germany and the Belgian region during the Medieval period, approximately between 900-1100 CE. Some of those Y700 tested descendants immigrated from Oldenburg, Germany in the 1800s, now living in northwestern USA. An additional R-BY61503 living descendant is Belgian. Our Golden line is unique from both the Oldenburg and Belgian line in that neither match one of the subsequent 18 SNP grandfathers born in our own lineage since R-BY61503’s birth.

CAVEAT:  Since Grandfather R-BY61503 was born, there have been 20 other SNP grandfathers. The Samuel and Nathaniel Greene Golden lines each have one unnamed private SNP. A new Y700 test is in progress that should name the remaining SNP by May 2023. ^[2]The 20 SNP grandfathers born since R-BY61503 are: … BY134374, BY148432, BY150806, BY212100, BY58233, BY62311, BY81508, CTS2927, FGC34961, FGC9967, FT180120, FTB93220, FTB93259, FTB93280, … Continue reading

2023 – We are R-FTB95535, 21st SNP Grandson of R-BY61503 ^[3]A SNP occurs approximately every 3 generations, every 75-83 years on average. 

Living male Goldens taking a Y700 test will see that they may have one unnamed, private variant remaining. This one remaining SNP should be unique to their line since 1760-70.

~~~ R-FTB95535: A third Y700 test completed in April 2023 indicates that Thomas and William Golden of Newberry were yDNA R-FTB95535 — the 18th SNP grandson of R-BY61503. This new terminal SNP designation will be present in all male descendants of Thomas and William Golden. Testing also indicates that both the Samuel and Nathaniel Greene Golden lines have experienced one additional non-shared SNP mutation since 1770.

Y700 Tests

Y700 testing has been completed for one Samuel Golden (c1770 SC – 1859 TN) male descendant ^[4]FamilyTreeDNA Kit #466458. and two descendants of Nathaniel Greene Golden (NGG, c1783 SC – aft. 1822 SC). ^[5]FamilyTreeDNA Kit #289065 and MK74313. These two kits contain just one remaining private variant, which is the same for both. This variant should be named by May 2023, with the NGG line having a … Continue reading

Based upon the 18 shared SNPs since Grandfather R-BY61503 was born, our Grandfather R-FTB95535 line that came to America and settled at Newberry, South Carolina was born approximately between 1570 to early 1700s. Our Nathaniel Greene Golden line terminal SNP will change during spring 2023 as a new Y700 test completes being named by ISOGG.  ^[6]This final Y700 test is the son of a Y700 tester in the Nathaniel Greene Golden line so this last terminal SNP will apply to all NGG descendant males .

 

Grandfather R-BY103979

Grandfather R-BY103979 was born and lived approximately during the middle of the Age of Vikings, 793-1066 CE,^[7]Per Wikipedia: The Viking Age (793–1066 CE) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonizing, conquest, and trading throughout Europe … Continue reading through the years of 1770-1780 when our Goldens were in the midst of birthing their first generation of South Carolina-born children.

Our SNP timeline ^[8]Per Rob Spencer and his SNP Tracker web research page: “A SNP is a mutation that occurs at a certain time and place. At some point afterwards, a person with that SNP will have two or more … Continue reading should be complete enough that we may be able to crossreference time and place of our travels to within 75 year windows of the past.

We will never know their names. We will know them however by very specific genetic SNP marker names that make them present in almost specific time and place. Since a SNP is also a genetic mutation that is inherited, we may be able to learn something about their lives that caused the mutation.

Genetic archeology also is currently very active in testing DNA from older settlements and burials. ^[9]Genetic archaeology zooms in on the origins of modern humans. DNA can be used to understand the evolution of modern humans, trace migrations of people, identify individuals, and determine the origins … Continue reading For our Goldens, gaps in time and place since  circa 1066 CE will persist BUT should become clarified and more directly linked to specific tmies and place as others take advanced SNP yDNA testing. Testing has already connected us to R-BY103979 families from the Viking Age, living today in Germany and Sweden.

It would be appreciated and helpful if a male Golden lines other than Nathaniel and Samuel were to take the Patriarch or Y700 test at https://www.familytreedna.com.

United Kingdom Connection

yDNA kinship to a Keeling family via a 67 marker test indicates direct-lineage male kinship prior to 1650. This Keeling family came to the USA about 1838 from Hungerford, Berkshire, England.

Keeling can be a Germanic name as well ‘Keling’. There is no genealogy for this Keeling family before 1750 and only one known Keeling male has taken a yDNA test.

67 marker yDNA tests can be remarkably stable (showing little change over hundreds of years). A Y700 test is needed to know how closely we match in time with the English Keelings.

Some earlier Golden genealogies for our family suggested an Irish origin. There is no evidence for that. atDNA testing suggests this as being highly unlikely … unless those ‘Irish’ were Ulster-Scots (Scot Irish).

Our yDNA SNP history very closely aligns with Germany for almost 5,000 years. However, our atDNA which can be more accurate for the last 10-12 generations indicates Germanic Europe as being only a small fraction of our DNA. This makes it much more likely that we have a pre-1760 origin in South Carolina and our Goldens being of UK (non-Irish origin).

 

2024 Update

Our Golden male line is yDNA type: R1b R-M269 R-U106 R-Z405 R-DF98 R-S18823 R-FGC20605 R-FGC20581 R-BY103979 as of April 2022.

We have two matches with Grandfather R-BY103979. One lives outside of Gothenberg, Sweden. There is no known genealogy for this match. ^[10]I do have contact info for this match. No response has been received to enquiries about their genealogy.

The second R-BY103979 match lives in Nebraska, USA, and descends from Johann Hinrich Meyer, b1780 d1820 at Oldenburg, Germany. ^[11]FamilyTreeDNA Kit #B835407. A Y700 test underway as of April 2022 may reveal additional info. I have contact info and am in regular contact with this match. Meyer family members migrated to Hooper, Nebraska in the 1860s.

Learn more about Oldenburg, Germany … was founded as Aldenburg in 1108, but people have lived in the area for at least some 6000+ years.

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FamilyTreeDNA’s BIG Y700 test can now identify grandfathers by their SNPs with a time gap of approximately 75 years to within the last several hundred years. ^[12]Info about benefits of what can be learned from the Y700 test: https://www.familytreemagazine.com/dna/big-y-700/

Golden male yDNA is R-U106 R-Z405 R-DF98 R-S18823 R-FGC20605 R-FGC20581 R-BY103979.

This line spread from the Benelux/Frisia area to what is now the United Kingdom and to Norway and Sweden, as well as much of northern Germany and Poland.

I use the term ‘Germanic’ because while Denmark and the BENELUX (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) countries do not consider themselves ‘German’, they share yDNA that has origin in what is modern Germany.

Grandfathers and origin according to SNP:

• R-Z405 … born about 4400 years ago in the modern Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) and Frisia area (northwest Germanic)
• R-DF98 … born about 4100 years ago, lived in the same region
• R-S18823 … born shortly after R-DF98, probably within 1-3 generations
• R-FGC20605 … born about 2700 years ago
• R-FGC20581 … born about 2500 years ago
• R-BY103979 … born about 1400 years ago during age of Anglo-Saxon settlement of England. Living yDNA matches today in Germany and Sweden. A Y700 match has origin in Oldenburg, Germany. ^[13]FamilyTreeDNA Kit #B835407
• R-BY61503 … born probably in central Germany, with known descendant lines in the USA and Belgium. ^[14]Previously stated was that one of our matches was from Italy. Not so. They are Belgian and appear to have been living in Italy at the time they took the Y700 test. The origin location for the … Continue reading

Our male line yDNA have existed over the last 4000+ years in the Benelux region. We know that DF98 spread northward into Scandinavia, eastward into northern Germany, and westward into the English Isles.

Using SNP analysis, we can determine branches and timelines of descent. For example, we know that we are distant kin to ‘Niall of the Nine Hostages‘ northwestern male Irish lines but not descended from them (R-M222, aka the Irish Modal Haplotype). History tells us that the reason for so many northwestern Irish males being related is due to the Niall kingdom of the 4th or 5th centuries — this provides a time reference. SNPs are cumulative across time. Niall Irish/R-M222 have our SNPs (DF98 et al) but we do not have the unique aspects that make Niall descendants easily recognizable.

R-M222 and evolution of DNA understanding as more data collected: Before 2019 there were numerous analyses that attributed R-M222 to being descendants of the Niall family itself. It is now believed that a much older grandfather in this area of Ireland is responsible for so many carrying SNP R-M222. ^[15]Howard, W.E. and McLaughlin, J.D., 2011. “A dated phylogenetic tree of M222 SNP haplotypes: exploring the DNA of Irish and Scottish surnames and possible ties to Niall and the Uí Néill … Continue reading

 

For now (2022), our most recent shared yDNA SNP is R-BY103979. Our grandfather R-BY103979 was probably born after 600 AD/CE and before 1100. Further Y700 testing by other kindred male lines will eventually identify a better timeline.

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©2023 William Golden, Norfolk1956@gmail.com // Material may be shared without requesting permission and with appropriate attribution: A Probable History of the Golden Family of Newberry, South Carolina Since 1761, by William Golden