Updating the Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L.I. Branch on YFull's Y-Tree: E-Y19643 (E-BY6201)

 The current version of YFull's Y-Tree is v10.02.00. It is dated 6 April 2022. The branch of the greater tree which is populated by descendants of Adam Brouwer of Gowanus, L. I. and identified by the SNP E-Y19643, is found here. Y-DNA testing by FamilyTreeDNA's BigY-700 test supplies the data used by YFull to create the E-Y19643 branch of the Y-Tree. FamilyTreeDNA's reported results show the SNP E-BY6201 as the identifying SNP for all descendants of Adam Brouwer. YFull does not include this SNP in its database. In effect E-Y19643 and E-BY6201 represent the same place on the larger Y Haplotree. When you test at FamilyTreeDNA (through the Brewer DNA Project), your reported results will include the SNP E-BY6201. Should you submit your data to YFull for inclusion on the Y-Tree, they will show this SNP as E-Y19643. The SNPs identifying the sub-branches of E-Y19643/E-BY6201 are shown with the same identifying numbers by both FTDNA and by YFull. They, as of this post, are: E-BY173116, E-BY52688, E-BY6312 and E-BY6313, E-FT90657, E-FTC5921, E-BY6245, and E-FT40569. A summary of the ancestors of those whose Y-DNA tests have "discovered" these SNPs follows.

As stated, E-Y19643, identified by FTDNA as E-BY6201, is common to all descendants of Adam Brouwer. If you are one who is researching your Brouwer, Brower or Brewer ancestry, and you suspect but are not certain that you may be a descendant of Adam Brouwer, a BigY-700 test with the Brewer DNA Project will definitively answer your question, yes you are a descendant, or no you are not. The less expensive STR marker tests with FTDNA will give you a predicted result of either E-M35, or some other SNP. A predicted result showing positive for E-M35, coupled with your traditional genealogical research, will inform you to some degree (dependent on the accuracy of your traditional research) whether you are or are not a descendant of Adam Brouwer. Any other predicted result tells you that you are not. E-M35 is a deep ancestry SNP. It was formed, as calculated by YFull, 34,700 years before the present (ybp). The time to the most common ancestor (TMRCA) as calculated by YFull, is 23,900 ybp. Needless to say, there are very many lines that descend from E-M35 to the present day, and not every present day individual testing positive for E-M35, who also has the surname Brouwer, Brower or Brewer, is a descendant of Adam Brouwer. We have a couple of examples of this among the members of the Brewer DNA Project. The BigY-700 test will provide certainty. The standard STR marker tests may not.

As listed above, we now have eight SNPs identifying sub-branches (sub-clades) of E-Y19643/E-BY6201. These SNPs would have first come into being during the years between Adam Brouwer's life and the present day. Adam Brouwer's sons were born during the period of 1646 to 1672, and so we are looking of a span of some 376 to 350 years from present to past as the earliest time in which these SNPs first came into being*. They define descendant lines from Adam Brouwer. I have created this Descendant Chart illustrating the sub-branches of E-Y19643/E-BY6201 by combining the results of BigY tests with the traditional genealogical research that has accumulated over many years and is the basis for our present understanding of the descendants of Adam Brouwer. In using this descendant chart it is essential that you consult the endnotes. They are critical to understanding and applying the chart to the search for placement of unconnected ancestries among the sons of Adam Brouwer. 

Adam Brouwer had seven sons, all of whom reached adulthood and left male descendants. As of this post, the Brewer DNA Project includes confirmed descendants of four of those sons, Pieter, Jacob, Abraham, and Nicholas. The latter two, Abraham and Nicholas, are now represented by sub-branches on the YFull tree. The descendants of sons Pieter and Jacob have not yet been defined by an identifying SNP and are shown under the main branch (E-Y19643). The Descendant Chart that I created includes a branch for Pieter and Jacob simply to illustrate the fact that known descendants of the two are among the participants whose test results create the YTree. The latter can be used by members of the Brewer DNA Project in conjunction with the sub-unit groups for the Adam Brouwer group that are found on the DNA results page (the Y-DNA Colorized Chart). We do not have confirmed descendants for Adam Brouwer's other three sons, Mathew, Willem and Adam. I'll just briefly summarize the sub-branches here.

The YTree's main branch (E-Y19643) is comprised of five tests which include two confirmed descendants of Pieter Brouwer, one confirmed descendant of Jacob Brouwer, along with a second participant who we believe is a descendant of Jacob Brouwer but whose ancestry back to Jacob has not been confirmed by traditional research methods to the degree we would like to have. The fifth is a participant who does not share the Brouwer/Brower/Brewer surname, but who is by virtue of his Y-DNA test is a genetic descendant of Adam Brouwer. This participant's connection to a Brouwer ancestor has not been discovered, although current opinion is that he is likely a descendant of Adam's son Nicholas Brouwer. At the Brewer DNA Project at FTDNA, we currently have four participants who are confirmed descendants of Pieter Brouwer (two of the four have not joined YFull). We also have six other confirmed descendants of Pieter Brouwer who have not upgraded to the advanced BigY-700 test. Should some or all of them do so, we may be able to discover SNPs that would identify new genetic sub-branches of the E-Y19643 tree. This in turn may help those who have not been able to confirm their line among Adam Brouwer's descendants do so.

As with Pieter Brouwer, Jacob Brouwer's descendants, one of whom is confirmed by traditional genealogical research, the other is suspected to be a descendant but has one unconfirmed link in his ancestry, are found on the E-Y19643 main branch. The Brewer DNA Project includes STR marker (basic YDNA tests) results for two other confirmed descendants of Jacob Brouwer (one of whom is since deceased). Finding SNPs that will define a specific branch for Jacob Brouwer will require finding more direct descendants of Jacob who are interested in joining the Project and taking a BigY-700 test.

E-BY6312 and its sub-branch E-BY613 on the YTree represent descendants of Adam Brouwer's son Abraham Brouwer. All three are positive for E-BY6312. Abraham Brouwer had two sons, Jeury and Abraham, and both left descendants. The individual shown on the branch labeled E-BY6312 is a descendant of Jeury Brouwer. The two found on the sub-branch, E-BY6313, are an uncle and nephew, and they are direct descendants of the younger Abraham Brouwer. Testing positive on a BigY-700 test for E-BY6312 will confirm that the tested individual is a descendant of Adam Brouwer's son Abraham Brouwer. Also testing positive for E-BY6313 will confirm that you are a descendant of Abraham Brouwer's son Abraham.

Adam Brouwer's son Nicholas Brouwer is represented by three sub-branches on the YTree. The three are identified by three different SNPs: E-BY173116, E-BY52688 and E-FT90657. Each of these SNPs is unique to a single line of descendants beginning with a specific son of Nicholas. The current data, however, does not tell us if that SNP originated with that one specific son. A SNP that can be identified as unique to all descendants of Nicholas Brouwer while being unique from Nicholas' brothers, has not been identified. This means that when looking at these three branches on the YTree, we see them as sub-branches of E-BY19643 and on the same level as E-BY6312 (Nicholas's brother Abraham) and this might be a bit misleading when trying to understand actual genealogical relationships among the descendants. The Descendants Chart that I created is a more accurate picture of how these lines are in fact related. E-BY52688 has two tested descendants, one of whom is a confirmed direct descendant of Nicholas Brouwer's son Adolphus Brouwer (1693-1742). E-BY173116 includes two tested descendants, one of whom is a descendant of Nicholas Brouwer's son Jurge Brouwer (1701-?). The third SNP, E-FT90657 has three tested descendants, one of whom is a descendant of Nicholas Brouwer's son Nazareth Brouwer (probably b. between 1702 and 1710). The other two in this last branch are descendants of a Daniel Brewer (b. ca. 1771) who lived at Lee, Oneida Co., New York. Please see Endnotes 23, 26 and 29 on the Descendant Chart.

This leaves us with the sub-branch E-FTC5921 which includes nine tested individuals and represents either a son or grandson of Adam Brouwer who is a common ancestor of all nine. That common ancestor has not been identified as all nine members of this branch have been unable to complete their ancestry completely back to Adam Brouwer. Of Adam Brouwer's seven sons, we can eliminate Abraham and Nicholas. The nine would not be descendants of either of those two. We are then left with Adam's sons Mathew, Willem and Adam, none of who have any confirmed direct male descendants among the participants in the Project, and Pieter and Jacob, both of whom do have confirmed participating descendants (see above) but of those participants, none show a unique match with any of the nine who form E-FTC5921. Below E-FTC5921 we have two sub-branches, E-BY6245 and E-FT40569. E-BY6245 is represented by three descendants of Peter Brewer (b.1750-60, d.1840/41) of Westmoreland Co., Pennsylvania and later Hardin Co., Kentucky (see Endnote 13). The three seen on the YTree (a fourth has yet to take the BigY-700 test) are first cousins (they share a common grandfather). E-FT40569 is represented by three descendants of Henry Brewer (b. 1750-60. liv. 1840) of Fayette Co., Pennsylvania and later Clark and Owen Counties, Indiana. Two of the three share a great-grandfather (see Endnote 16). Of the three who are grouped under E-FTC5921, two are descendants of Benjamin Brewer (1755-1834) of Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pennsylvania and later Washington Co., Indiana. The third is a descendant of Mathew Brower of Greene Co., Pennsylvania. Not shown on the YTree, but shown on the Descendant Chart is a third sub-branch, E-BY114218. This SNP, while not identified by YFull, is identified by FamilyTreeDNA as a unique SNP to the descendant of Mathew Brower (post of September 11, 2013)** and the participant's brother who was also tested by FTDNA but has not submitted his results to YFull and so is not on the YTree. Also not yet seen on the YTree are two other participants at FTDNA who are identified by E-FTC5921, one a descendant of Henry Brewer (1765-1829) of Berkeley Co., Virginia (now W. Virginia) and later Adams Co., Ohio, and the other a descendant of Thomas Brewer (d. by 1830) of Annville, Lebanon Co., Pennsylvania (see the post of February 25, 2022). The current version of the YTree includes nine tested participants, while at the Brewer DNA Project, we have twelve members in this group with another two awaiting BigY-700 test results. What all of the participants have in common, besides having incomplete lines back to their genetic ancestor Adam Brouwer, is the fact that all of their known lineages can be traced in time back to the late colonial/early post Revolutionary period, and to locations in Pennsylvania and northern Virginia (areas now within West Virginia) with indications of prior origins in New Jersey. 

This post has gotten kind of long so we will explore some possible connections for the incomplete lineages within the known descendants of Adam Brouwer, using the Y-DNA test results and matches described above in combination with the traditional genealogical research that has been accumulated over the course of many years, in a follow up post (or two). In the meantime please also refer to the posts of November 6, 2013 and December 20, 2013, as well as those linked above.

*To be clear, the SNPs identifying the various sub-branches would have first come into being sometime between 350 to 376 years ago and the present. Some may have been first come into being sometime within the past one or two hundred years. TMRCA estimates are calculated by YFull. Also see the YFull's simple chart for E-Y19643.

**The tested descendant is NOT a descendant of Mathew Brower's son Conrad Brewer who is mentioned in the follow up September 18, 2013 post. He is a descendant of Mathew's son John B. Brewer.

BGB 720