Theoretical Computed Paths for Sub-Groups of the Brewer DNA Project

 The links below will take you to "Theoretical Computed Paths," of ancestral migration as computed by Hunter Provyn (the Phylogeographer) and available on his website "mygrations." He has a YouTube channel as well. They were first posted by Hank Graham to the Activity Feed at the Brewer DNA Project website, but since that page is only available to members of the Brewer DNA Project, and as it was posted back in January and is now getting buried in the feed, I figured I'd transcribe the links here. Hopefully they will reach a wider audience and perhaps inspire a few BREWERs, BROWERs, BROUWERs and BRUERs (etc.) to join the Project. So, here goes:

Listed in order of Brewer DNA Project sub-groups as they appear on the Project's Y-DNA Results Page.

Adam Brouwer, Gowanus, L. I., E-Y19643

Ambrose Brewer (born ca. 1753), R-CTS1751 (see YTree links below)

Arthur Brewer, J-Y18401 (see below)

Hubert Brower, Immigrant to Philadelphia 1726, R-Y84707 

Jan Brouwer (of Flatlands, L.I.), I-Y7214 

John Brewer of Great Waltham near Coggeshall, Essex, England, R-A298 

John Brewer of Sudbury, Massachusetts, R-FGC46823 

Lanier-Brewer (includes descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick Co., VA and others), I-Y15031 

Sackfield Brewer, b. 1634 Berkshire, d. 1699 Virginia, R-FGC11784 (see below)

Under Consideration L - Group includes a non-Brewer surname (Campbell), BigY proven haplogroup match beyond the Genealogical Period, I-Y57730 (see below)

Under Consideration M - Ancestor: John Brewer, b. 1775 GA, d. LA, and Patience Sibley, R-ZP85  (see below)

What can I say, it's all just kind of fun to watch and imagine. Thanks to Hank for the original post and to Hunter Provyn for creating this wonderful visual tool. And to YFull, whose published YTree is the basis for the "paths."

Just for good measure here are links to the above haplogroups on the YFull YTree. Some of these are sub-clades of haplogroups whose Theoretical Computed Paths are included above. The Phylogeographer has not created paths for every SNP found on the FTDNA and/or YFull trees.

Adam Brouwer

Ambrose Brewer - R-Y53883 which is a sub-clade of R-CTS1751

Arthur Brewer - J-Y18828 a sub-clade of J-Y18401

Hubert Brower

Jan Brouwer

John Brewer of Great Waltham

John Brewer of Sudbury, MA

Lanier-Brewer haplogroups

Sackfield Brewer - R-FTA60564 a sub-clade of R-FGC11784

Under Consideration L - I-A6543, equivalent to I-Y57730

Under Consideration M - R-FTA10684 a sub-clade of R-ZP85

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Sunset At Gowanus Bay and A Note on the Bennett Project at FamilyTreeDNA

 The image of Henry Gritten's painting, "Sunset At Gowanus Bay," has occupied a prominent space on this blog's pages since inception. I have no plans or desire to change this. It's simply a beautiful image. The image I used is of relatively low resolution and was taken from the White Mountain Art & Artists website, which has since moved to this new online location. 

A much higher resolution image is available elsewhere. Ron Bennett, in a just recently received email has directed me to an online image of "Sunset At Gowanus Bay," at the website of the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Art in Hobart, Tasmania. And with this link provided by Ron, you can find a much higher resolution image that is downloadable. 

And just to stretch this post out a little further, Ron tells me that he is a descendant of Willem Adriaense Bennet who Adam Brouwer descendants will recognize as the second husband of Maria Badie, who in turn is the mother of Adam Brouwer's wife Magdalena Verdon by her first husband Jacob Verdon. There is a Bennett surname project at FamilyTreeDNA. Group 02 of this surname project is comprised of descendants of Willem Adriaense Bennet (see the project's public Y-DNA colorized chart page). Tested members of this group are identified by the ancient haplogroup E-M35 which, coincidentally, is the same ancient haplogroup in which descendants of Adam Brouwer are found. I say, "coincidentally," only to emphasize that despite sharing a common haplogroup (E-M35) Adam Brouwer and Willem Adriaense Bennet were not closely related. E-M35, as calculated by Y-Full, was formed 34,700 years before the present (ybp). The Time to Most Recent Common Ancestor (TMRCA) is 23,900 ybp. Looking at the Bennett project chart I linked to, we can see that two members have taken the advanced BigY tests and have been identified by two different SNPs, E-FTA645 and E-BY164190. Neither of the two SNPs are found on YFull's current YTree (v10.04.00), but hopefully in time as more Bennet descendants take advanced Y-DNA tests like the BigY-700, and submit their results to YFull, we will see an appearance on the larger Y-Full Y-DNA tree. We then may get a better idea of just how far back in time Adam Brouwer and Willem Adriaense Bennet shared a common paternal ancestor.

Thanks to Ron for directing us to a better image of "Sunset At Gowanus Bay."

Update August 22, 2022: My mistake on not finding haplogroup E-FTA645 on the YFull YTree. I was using their SNP search tool incorrectly. Ron has pointed out that it is equivalent to E-FTA557 which is a sub-branch of E-Y32590 and you can see that branch here. The earliest haplogroup that is shared between both the descendants of Adam Brouwer and those of Willem Adriaense Bennet is E-M78. As of YTree v10.04.00, YFull calculates that E-M78 was formed 19,100 ybp and that the time to most recent common ancestor was 13,200 ybp.

Using the Phylogeographer's "Theoretical Computed Paths" tool, we find E-M78 placed in the Mediterranean Sea, just south of the Aegean Sea, on the island of Crete. Theoretical Computed Path for E-M78. 

Update November 21, 2024: As per the comment below dated November 20, 2024, from Ron Bennett, the link to the Bennett Projects Y-DNA Results page has been updated in the above text. Here are the current links to pages at FTDNA's Bennett Project website:

FTDNA Bennett Project About Page

Bennett Project Y-DNA Results Overview page (colorized chart)

Bennett Project Group Time Tree (public view)

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Edmund Brewer of Robertson County, Tennessee: A Correction to the Brewer-Lanier Database

 I created the Brewer-Lanier Database back in late 2015 and it was later updated in early 2016. It's purpose was to share collected genealogical research that I accumulated over a period of just a few months in an effort to help out members of the Brewer DNA Project who were descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County, Virginia or of other Brewer families found in the American southeast. 

An Edmund Brewer is found on page seven of the Brewer-Lanier Database. It has been brought to my attention in an email from Michelle Reardon that the information I have assembled for this Edmund Brewer in fact belongs to two different men named Edmund Brewer. The purpose of this post is to correct and clarify the profile of Edmund Brewer found on the Brewer-Lanier Database. 

Michelle, whose 3rd great-grandfather is Edmund Brewer informs me that he was born about 1788 in North Carolina, and although he is the Edmund Brewer who witnessed a deed in Robertson County, Tennessee in 1805, he is not the Edmund Brewer who married Francis Rool, and had a daughter Rebecca Brewer who was born 16 February 1819 and died 28 November 1912 in Green County, Kentucky. The Edmund Brewer of Robertson County, Tennessee later relocated to Yell County, Arkansas where Michelle has traced her ancestors and her 3rd great-grandfather Edmund Brewer's descendants. 

In short, the profile of Edmund Brewer found on page seven of the Brewer-Lanier Database is actually for two different Edmund Brewers. One Edmund Brewer married Francis Rool and had a daughter Rebecca (Brewer) Handy who died in Green County, Kentucky in 1912. Her Kentucky Death Certificate names her parents as Edmond Brewer and Francis Rool. The second Edmund Brewer is Michelle's ancestor who is found as a witness to a deed in 1805 in Robertson County, Tennessee, but later moved to Yell County, Arkansas where he is found on the 1860 U.S. census in the household of his son Joseph Brewer (Michelle's 2nd great-grandfather).  The name of this Edmund Brewer's wife has not been discovered. Whether or not he is in fact related to Jones Brewer (as is postulated in the profile) is not known, and no evidence has been located to either confirm or refute this possibility. 

Thanks to Michelle Reardon for bringing this correction to my attention. Should anyone have additional information regarding either of the two Edmund Brewers mentioned, please feel free to use the Comments feature for this post to share such info with others.

[Also see the post of September 8, 2022].

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Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society at FamilySearch.org

 The Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society was a twice a year publication of the New Jersey Historical Society which began in 1845 with Series 1, Volume 1 and ended in 1966 with Volume 84. While somewhat difficult to access in the past, the volumes are available on the FamilySearch.org website through their online catalog under the title, "Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society." Digital images of the various volumes can be accessed and viewed on a home computer without the need to travel to a local Family History Library Center. While FamilySearch.org does not charge for a subscription, you must register with an account in order to access digital images.

I have not been able to locate the existence of a cumulative table of contents for the entire series, and I doubt that one has been created. The individual issues, which can be accessed from the page linked above, do include a table of contents for that issue, and fortunately, the individual issues can be searched, one at a time, with a search tool provided by FamilySearch. For example, here is Series 1, Volume 1, and you will find in the bar above the image, that familiar magnifying glass icon that represents a search tool. You will have to conduct a search on each volume separately. There is no search tool that encompasses the entire collection. And, to my knowledge, there is no published collective index, or list of article titles. Update to this paragraph: As mentioned in the Comment of July 19, 2022 found below, an index to the issues of the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society HAS been created by Donald Sinclair (1996). See this webpage at the NJHS Proceedings Wikipage. The index is cited as, Sinclair, Donald (comp.) An index to the magazine New Jersey history: Through 1966 called Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society : volumes 1 through 110, 1845-1992. (New Jersey Research Series, volume 4) (Newark Public Library, Upland Press, 1996) Apparently out of print, but available at libraries. In addition there is an online table of contents available for New Jersey History, which is a NJHS publication that picks up on the discontinued Proceedings. See no. 14 at "Publications of the NJHS".

Scattered among the articles within the eighty or so volumes are vital records. This is what brought my attention to this resource. While many New Jersey vital records, I'm thinking colonial period Dutch and German church records here, were published elsewhere and for many years have been accessible, those of the Baptism records of the New Brunswick First Reformed Dutch Church have not been. In the past I relied on online transcriptions compiled by others. While most of these are reliable, I still prefer to see, first hand, the source that they were transcribing. The New Brunswick First Reformed Dutch Church Baptisms, 1717-1820 were published in New Series Volume 11, no. 2 (Apr 1926) and begin at page 205 of that volume. You can download the entire volume in PDF form which does make it easier to work with on a lap top or desk top computer.

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The Origins and Family Connections of Burwell Brewer

 David Brewer, a Co-Administrator of the Brewer DNA Project, who is focused on the "Lanier-Brewer" group within the project, as recently made available to members of the project a paper titled, "The Origins and Family Connections of Burwell Brewer." He has placed it online using Google Docx and has allowed me to provide a link via this post to others who may have an interest. This is a 237 page paper with over 800 footnotes citing records. The paper is not "finished," to quote David, but is being made available in it's current form for review and comment. Those who are not members of the Brewer DNA Project can contact David through the Project's main page.

The Origins and Family Connections of Burwell Brewer

 Long thought to be a son of George Brewer of Brunswick Co., Virginia, David concludes that this assumption regarding Burwell Brewer is not correct and that Burwell is more likely a son of William Brewer of Martin Brandon Parish in Prince George County, Virginia. 

From David Brewer's post to the Brewer DNA Project's Activity Feed: 

"The paper is long, and it has a lot of record cites. My objective is to put as much relevant information as possible about this group in one document. As more data is published online with the passage of time, other researchers will be able to build on this information and correct errors of fact and speculation. The paper also includes a lot of information about other Brewer and allied families present in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Mississippi Territory. For example, there is a lengthy discussion about a man named William Brewer from Lancaster County, South Carolina, who I believe was the son of George Brewer Jr., of Brunswick County, Georgia. The paper also discusses Burrell Brewer of Chesterfield County, South Carolina, a likely close relative of William Brewer of Lancaster County, Those men often have been mistaken for descendants of Burwell Brewer, but the paper explains why I believe, instead, that they were descendants of George Brewer of Brunswick County."

I will say no more and leave it up to interested readers to review the document in it's entirety at the above link, and ask those with insight or comments to contact David Brewer directly. The Brewer DNA Project is a Y-DNA project and I would urge any descendants of any of the numerous BREWER families whose origins trace back to the American Southeast during the colonial period to consider contacting and joining the project by taking a Y-DNA test.

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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.

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