Roper and Campbell Families Y-Chromosome Comparison

L. David Roper (roperld@vt.edu)
(www.roperld.com)

Back to Roper Y-Chromosome Project Main Page.

In a comparison of over 100 surname Y-chromosome markers I found that the closest surname to the Majority USA Roper family, also called the RoperY1 family, is the Campbell surname. Since then many Campbells have had their markers measured. Here I compare the Campbell markers with the paleolithic Roper markers.

The data are (Those ending in C and D are Campbells; those ending in R are Ropers:

DYS389I=DYS389a is subtracted from DYS389II to give DYS389b. If one does not do this one can get either one too many or one too few relative mutations. See Y-Chromosome Markers for Many Families.

The relative mutations among these individuals are:

A way to look at the results is through a phylogenetic network. I use the free software of Fluxus Engineering (http://www.fluxus-engineering.com/sharenet.htm) to calculate and draw a network. (There are usually several possible networks for any given set of markers, but I present only the simplest looking one calculated by the program.) The phylogenetic network diagram is a visual way to see the genetic distances or relative mutations among the participants.

Another way to look at the results is through a phylogenetic network. I use the free software of Fluxus Engineering (http://www.fluxus-engineering.com/sharenet.htm) to calculate and draw a network. (The official brief instructions for using the program are at http://www.fluxus-engineering.com/netwinfaq.htm. I have some further instructions at Brief Instructions for Using the Phylogenetic Network Program)(There are usually several possible networks for any given set of markers, but I present only the simplest looking one calculated by the program.) The phylogenetic network diagram is a visual way to see the genetic distances or relative mutations among the participants.

A phylogenetic network for these individuals is:

This is a reduced-median-median-joined calculation.

Note that the Campbells in the upper left corner are quite distinct from the MUR/RoperY1 cluster and the other paleolithic Ropers, which seem to form in two groups.

This way of calculating a phylogenetic network does not account for the unusual nature of the four DYS464 markers.

To create time-ordered phylograms of the various paleolithic groups, I use the PHYLIP Neighbor software, with the UPGMA option (Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean), and the relative-mutations matrix to generate a tree file (*.tre) to be plotted by the TreeView software. (For a description of how I do it, see PHYLIPTreeViewUse.htm.)

Here is a time-ordered phylogram for the Ropers and the Campbells:

Present time is on the right.

Note that Campbells and the MUR/RoperY1s separated from each other about 1200 ybp, after the other paleolithic Ropers separated from the common ancestors of all. This is about the time surnames came into use.

Here is another look at a phylogenetic network for the Campbells and paleolithic Ropers.

This way of calculating a phylogenetic network does account for the unusual nature of the four DYS464 markers, which shows better the close relationship between the Campbells and the MUR/RoperY1s.

Back to top of this page.