I have final results from my FamilyTreeDNA "Big Y-700" DNA test and I am totally lost as to how to utilize the data to breach the brick wall and move past my 2nd great grandfather Patrick Howland 1802-1854. The HELP information at FamilyTreeDNA is so vast I really do not know where to begin. My Y-DNA Haplogroup has finally been defined as R-P312 -> RZ290 -> R-S552 -> R-DF63. Haplogroup R-P312 is the descendant of the major R-P25 (aka R-M343) lineage and is most common in Central Europe, Spain, France, Portugal, and the British Isles.
It appears that I have 34 Y-chromosome mutations (private variants), that have not been shared with any known living descendant of my common ancestor who lived thousands of years ago; before my 2nd great grandfather Patrick Howland's birth. Each mutation in a Y-chromosome occurs on average every 83 years. So 34 times 83 equals 2,822 years. This means the first mutation occurred 2,822 years before this present time. That would be the 8th century BC (800 BCE) which was before Rome was founded (750 BC). My last mutation may have occurred recently, about 83 years ago, so I probably got it from my father William V. Howland.
