Capt George Athy immigrated to Maryland from Galway in 1661. He and an apparent brother named John were transported as indentured servants, probably arriving at Port Tobacco, MD in Charles Co. 20 out of 22 U.S. Atheys who have been tested in the project have matching Y profiles and all 20 are presumed to descend from Capt George, and are hereafter referred to as the "Capt George Cluster."
The Y-STR profile for the Capt George Cluster is almost unique in the world's databases (which contain data from over 100,000 people). A small group of Whitfields have been found who match the Capt George profile, plus one single person named Prince (about whom nothing is known--he was found in the anonymous SMGF database).
Three participants, kit numbers 78569, 79007, and 79193, all descendants of Corp John Athy (b c1729) have results that place them in the Capt George cluster. DYS570 has been reported for two of them and their results have very important implications for the tree of descent from Capt George. We had first thought that Capt George's value on DYS570 must have been 16, since it appeared that descendants from two sons of Capt George had that value. However, more participants are now showing a 17 on this marker. A reevaluation by (project co-administrator) Paul C. Athey of his own line and that of descendants of Thomas Athey (b 1746-lived in Hampshire Co, VA) has suggested that all those with DYS570=16 descend from Robert Athy (b 1730, brother of Corp John). The descendants of Corp John have DYS570=17, which demonstrates that the value of 16 on DYS570 first occurred in Robert Athy and not before. And, it is only in proven or suspected descendants of Robert Athy that the value of 16 is showing up. The traditional genealogical techniques and the Y-profiles are telling us the same story, that an important part of the early Athy/Athey tree is incorrect in Larry Athy's book. This is going to take some time to sort out, but Paul is hard at work on his reassessment of the early generations. If you do not get his newsletter, you should contact him at athyhistory@sbcglobal.net. Some of Paul's work in the family in Ireland may be seen at his web site: http://groups.msn.com/theathyfamilyofgalway/originsoftheathyfamily.msnw
There are some other shared mutations within the Capt George Cluster that apparently occurred independently, even though this seems somewhat improbable. Three participants have the same mutation on DYS389ii, but two of these are certainly not closely related, and the third has an unknown connection to the others in the cluster. Three participants also share a mutation to a value of 15 on DYS019, but in this case as well, there appears to be no way that all of these could have gotten this value from a common ancestor.
One other marker, DYS446, shows a shared mutation in two participants (20463 and 55918) and in this case the mutation may be showing that participant 20463, whose connection to the other participants was previously unknown, may be closely related to 55918. If this is correct, the common ancestor would be John Queen Athey, and the value of DYS446=18 may serve to mark all of his descendants.