Holtz and Glantz of Germany predicted to form ancient branch of J2b-CTS11760 based on shared rare STR alleles

Until today, my last communication with the manager of FTDNA Kit Number 471827 was in August 2019. This sample did Big Y and was positive for a prolific line of J2b-Z631>Z1043 known as J2b-CTS11760.

His uniparental male line ancestor was Joakim von Holtz who had died in Eskiltuna, Sweden in 1669 after having migrated there from some unknown part of Germany.

Because the living descendant has two mutations in his first 12 STRs from what the J2b-CTS11760 ancestor had, who lived 2600 years ago by YFull estimate, he doesn't get any matches within the FTDNA database. YFull calculates these ancestral haplotypes in the "info->STRs" tab.

We were disappointed that his Big Y didn't result in a new branching point below J2b-CTS11760. Instead, it indicated that he was equally distantly related to all J2b-CTS11760 men.

Closest relative from an unlikely GD 3/12 Match

Yesterday I found that a man in the J2 public project along with a man in the Glantz project are likely to be von Holtz's closest male line relatives.

So far all I know about these two men is what they made publicly available - one man traces his male line to an ancestor named Heironymus Glantz from somewhere in Germany.

STR Match Finder output showing rare alleles shared by Glantz and von Holtz descendants. In this case it is a strong indicator of common inheritance from one man who may have already been living in Germany around 1000-2000 years ago.

Apart from matching the von Holtz descendant on four reliable rare alleles, he has the DYS485 15 to 17 mutation, an indicator that he is positive for J2b-Z8429, the immediate parent of J2b-CTS11760 on YFull. So we already know he must be restricted to that portion of the tree.

I hope one of these men will eventually do a WGS or Big Y test and establish the SNPs defining this male line on the YFull tree, if my prediction based on the STRs is correct.

Roman-mediated migration from the western Balkans or surrounding areas to the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes is definitely one possible vector for how their ancestor(s) may have migrated to Germany.

I'll be happy to go into more detailed speculation once their branch is on the YFull YTree with an age estimate.

If you have done a WGS or Big Y test I recommend to have your sample analyzed by YFull as it will contribute to the accuracy of the relative frequency and diversity maps I am developing.

These posts are the opinion of Hunter Provyn, a haplogroup researcher in J-M241 and J-M102.

1 thought on “Holtz and Glantz of Germany predicted to form ancient branch of J2b-CTS11760 based on shared rare STR alleles”

  1. I am Carol Cunningham D/O Allan Dale Scott, Male, tested to 111 Y markers at FTDNA . dad has zero matches in either Calhoun or Scott groups there. Kit #78159. His grandfather ‘John Thomas Scott’ said to be born 13 Oct 1821 in Dunoon, Scotland & he had no parents or family history. My thoughts are that he may have assumed anothers’ Identity. I cannot expand on that except to say my researcher in Scotland found no record of this man.

    On May 30 2022, your agency recorded info on a man who, in my limited knowledge, was haplogroup E-M78 did the bigY or whatever, was V10.03.00 in you records. I am curious about this chap. I am over 80 years of age, and I am sure I would not afford nor be able to assimilate a bigY or whatever test. That is my conundrum. Can you help me? Carol

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