Here, as promised in the April 25th entry on this topic, is the update:
The Howell 12 marker Y-DNA test results are in....and so far there is no match in the ysearch.org public database or in the private FamilyTreeDNA database! But to be fair, there are only a few Howell's that have participated in the test so far. Hopefully the database will continue to grow rapidly. I will check periodically for matches -- stay tuned. (If you would like to have your DNA tested and compared to this database, check out the FamilyTreeDNA web page.)
Click here to check the database (Howell surname only) for the latest matching results. (if there are no matches, the result will show just user ID 6PWDB)
The 12 marker Y-DNA test did identify the signature as being in the "R1b Haplogroup", with a "Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype" as descibed in detail as follows (quote) :
The Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype is the most common Y-DNA signature of Europe’s most common Haplogroup, R1b. Simply put your ancestors have experienced a dramatic population explosion over the past 10,000 years, probably since the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM-that’s Anthropology-speak for the last Ice Age) that covered most of Europe beginning 20,000 years ago and lasting for 10,000 long cold winters.
R1b, and its most common Haplotype (yours), exists in high or very high frequencies in all of Western Europe from Spain in the south to the British Isles and western Scandinavia in the north. It appears that approximately 2.5% in Western European males share this most common genetic 12 marker signature and because of its very high frequency we always suggest that for genealogy purposes people in this group should only use our 25 or 37 marker test for their genealogy.
Anthropologists have been describing for many years that only a select % of all the males in past societies did the vast majority of fathering, while other males lost the opportunity to pass on their Y-Chromosomal genes.
On a lighter note it’s clear that R1b’s Western Atlantic Modal Haplotype has contributed much more then it’s ‘fair share’ in populating Western Europe.
To keep costs to a minimum, I think the best strategy for now then is to wait for another 12 marker Howell match to appear in the database, then consider ordering the 25 or 37 marker tests.