John Neese (c. 1780-aft.1860) and his direct patrilineal descendants all appear to belong to haplogroup J-FT167236, a branch of haplogroup J2 (J-M172) which is relatively rare in Europe. Four of his descendants, two through his eldest son John Neese Jr. (1801-1861) and two through his fifth son, Washington Columbus Neese (1816-1878), have done Y-DNA testing at Family Tree DNA and they all belong to haplogroup J-M172 (J2). They have all done Short Tandem Repeat (STR) testing, three of them at the 111 marker level and one at the 37 marker level and have close matches to each other. Kit 893411, a descendant of Washington Columbus Neese (1816-1878), has a 106/111 match with kit MK49218 and a 108/111 match with another Family Tree DNA kit of unknown number, both descendants of John Neese Jr. (1801-1861). Kit 893411 has a perfect 37/37 match with another descendant of Washington Columbus Neese (1816-1878), Kit 628727.[24]
Of the four Family Tree DNA kits, Kit 893411 has also done the Big Y-700 test which scans the entire useful portion of the Y chromosome, about 15 million base pairs, and has moved the Y-DNA haplogroup designation for John B. Neese (c. 1780-aft. 1860) and his descendants out onto a more recent branch of haplogroup J2, haplogroup J-FT167236. The haplotree path for J-FT167236 is as follows: J-M304 (J) > J-M172 (J2) > J-M410 > J-CTS7683 > J-L26 > J-PF5088 > J-PF5160 > J-L24 > J-Z393 > J-L25 > J-Z438 > J-CTS1192 > J-FGC35503 > J-FGC35461 > J-FGC34168 > J-FGC35489 > J-FGC63246/FGC63245 > J-FT73387/MF29663 > J-FT167236. Kit 893411 has only one Big Y-700 match, Kit B659264, meaning that of all those who have done the Big Y-500 or Big Y-700 tests, only this person has 30 or fewer differences in SNPs from him.[25] In addition to FT167236, the these two share another 29 unique SNPs not shared with any other tested individuals. The owner of Kit B659264 has the surname Walker and claims to be descended from Martin Wacker (1560-1635) of Weil im Schönbuch, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. FamilyTreeDNA estimates that this descendant of Martin Wacker and the owner of Kit 893411, a descendant of John Neese, share a Most Recent Common Ancestor who was born ca. 1500 CE.
Besides J-FT167236, there is another subclade branch coming off of J-FT73387/MF29663, J-FT73347, which has a test taker of British descent and a subclade branch coming off of that, J-PH2770, with one test taker of Italian descent (Kit B169903) and two of Kuwaiti descent. Coming off of J-FGC63246/FGC63245, the parent haplogroup of J-FT73387, is a test taker of Lebanese descent (Kit M11069) and another subclade, J-BY165866, with two test takers of Saudi descent (Kit IN28914 and ?) and coming off of that a subclade, J-FT144609, with two Kits, one of Saudi origin (Kit 284840).[26] Kit 893411, one of the descendants of Washington Columbus Neese (1816-1878), and the Saudi, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Italian and British descent probably share a Most Recent Common Ancestor who was born perhaps around 1050 BCE.[27]
It is significant that the haplogroup to which the descendants of John Neese (ca. 1780-aft. 1860) belong, J-FT167236, is different from the haplogroup of other descendants of Matthias Nehs (1673-abt. 1741), the supposed paternal grandfather of John Neese, all of whom belong to haplogroup R-M269 (R1b1a1b) or one of its subclades. Two of those descendants, including Jeffrey Nase, have done Big Y-700 testing at Family Tree DNA and have extended their haplogroup designation from R-M269 to a distant subclade, R-FT75379. The haplotree path for this haplogroup is as follows: R-M207 (R) > R-M173 (R1) > R-M343 (R1b) > R-L754 > R-L389 > R-P297 > R-M269 (R1b1a1b ) > R-L23 > R-L51 > R-P310 > R-L151 > R-P312 > R-ZZ11 > R-U152 > R-Z56 > R-BY3548 > R-Z43 > R-Z145 > R-BY1823 > R-BY28794 > R-PF6582 > R-PF6577 > R-FT75379.[28]
This difference in haplogroups between John Neese (c. 1780-aft. 1860) and his descendants and other descendants of Matthias Nehs (1673-abt. 1741) demonstrates that John Neese (c. 1780-aft. 1860), although the legal son and heir of Johann Ulrich Nehs, was likely not his biological son (assuming that John Ulrich Nees also belonged to haplogroup R-M269 like his father), either because he was adopted or because of some other non-paternity event. The only Y-DNA STR matches or Big Y matches that the descendants of John Neese (c. 1780-aft. 1860) have at Family Tree DNA besides with each other are with individuals with the surname Walker, an anglicized version of the German surname Wacker, the surname of John Neese's presumed mother, Anna Margaret Wacker. Kit 893411 for example, has a 65/67 match with a descendant (Kit N62300) of Jacob Andreas Walker/Wacker (1749-1783) of Frederick County, Maryand and Brother's Valley, Bedford (now Somerset) County, Pennsylvania, a presumed descendant of Martin Wacker (1560-1635) of Weil im Schönbuch, Württemberg, Germany.[29]Another match is a 36/37 match with a descendant of a Michael Wacker/Walker (1700-1775). And yet another is a 36/37 match with a descendant (Kit 286507) of Andrew Walker (1769-1857).[30] Perhaps John Neese (c. 1780-aft.1860) was born into the family of Anna Margaret Wacker and was adopted by her husband, Johann Ulrich Nehs.
