This is the story of my ancestry from Nigeria in Africa to Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia. Then the story goes back west to Central Asia, Western Asia, and Southwest Asia, and Western Europe. From there, the story goes on to England and Ulster. Then Ontario, Canada, and the United States.

In 2008, Daniela Moneta started a Biggins Y-DNA project. Daniela, a professional genealogist, started the project as part of her efforts to learn more about her ancestor Eleanor Biggins who was born in 1798 in Middlesex, England. Daniela found my Biggins/Beggan Irish Roots on the Internet and asked me to have my Y-DNA tested. I was skeptical because of the cost and doubtful that I would learn anything, but my wife Marilyn encouraged me to do it. I learned a lot, but I am not sure that Daniela did.

In 2009, I received an email from Josiah McGuire. He said that surnames we have matches with are said to descend from "Colla da Chrioch" as stated in the Irish Pedigrees by O'Hart. He started the Clan Colla Null 425 Project at FTDNA to attract Clan Colla descendants. I agreed to be a co-administrator and was the first one to join the new Clan Colla project. I started a Web page called DNA of the Three Collas. We then found two geneticists with our Clan Colla DNA and asked them to join us in administering the Clan Colla project: Patrick McMahon who had studied genetics at Trinity College Dublin and Tom Roderick who was on the Emeritus Staff at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, and was a member of the Human Genome Project.

Shared mutations on the Y chromosome of different individuals indicate that they share a common male ancestor at some point in their lineage, allowing researchers to trace paternal ancestry through the presence of these shared mutations and group individuals into Y-DNA haplogroups. Shared Y-DNA mutations are only passed through the male line. These mutations are passed directly from father to son, allowing for tracing of paternal ancestry. When multiple individuals share a specific mutation on their Y chromosome, they are classified within the same group, representing a distinct branch on the evolutionary tree of the Y chromosome. Mutations accumulate over time. As generations pass, new mutations can occur on the Y chromosome, leading to the development of different sub-groups within a larger group. By comparing the pattern of shared mutations between individuals, geneticists can estimate how closely related they are through their paternal line and when they might have shared a common ancestor.

This story addresses the deep ancestry of Peter Biggins including the use of Y-chromosome DNA, tested by Family Tree DNA. Y-DNA is passed down from father to son, much like surnames. By testing a living male, we can learn about the deep ancestry of his paternal line. This testing also applies to his sons and their sons, his brothers and their sons, and his paternal male cousins.

• DNA. Deoxyribonucleic acid, a chemical consisting of a sequence of hundreds of millions of nucleotides found in the nuclei of cells. It contains the genetic information about an individual. In 1953, they discovered it was shaped like a double-stranded helix. In 2003, they finished first sequencing of the human genome.
• SNP. A single nucleotide polymorphism, a mutation in Y-DNA that happens when a single nucleotide (A, T, G, or C) in the genome sequence is altered. For me, at position 8556635, an A has mutated to a C. If someone else has this mutation, there is a good chance we share a common ancestor.
• Haplogroup. A haplogroup is a SNP shared by two or more testers. Family Tree DNA discovered in 2015 that I shared the A>C mutation at position 8556635 with another person named Bigham and named the mutation BY3164. Haplogroups allow the creation of a tree with branches, like a family tree in genealogy. Major branches are represented by the letters A through T.

Y-chromosome DNA can do several things for the genealogist:

• Y-DNA can sometimes extend a family tree back a few generations. This has not happened for me yet.
• Y-DNA can sometimes extend a family tree back to a time when surnames were first adopted. I am part of a group of 12 men with the name of Beggan, or a variation thereof, who share a unique Y-DNA mutation, or SNP, named R-BY3164. It is estimated to have been born around 1350 AD in Ulster. These 12, in turn, share a SNP named FT14481 with men named McDonald, McAuley. McGuire, and Larkin. This SNP was born around 750 AD.
• In some cases, Y-DNA can tell us which tribe or sept our ancestors came from in the last one or two thousand years. This has happened for me. I share the Y-DNA (SNP Z3008) of men with a combination of surnames that ancient pedigrees trace back to the Three Collas, who lived in 4th century Ulster.
• Y-DNA tells us our male ancestry back to "Adam." On the way back, we learn where we branch off from the many groups that populate different parts of the world.

The Estimated Migration Route of My Y from A-PR2921 in Africa in 232000 BC to R-DF13 in Ulster in 2500 BC. Source: Discover More.

Biggins Deep Ancestry

Collas with R-BY3164

Five Collas, Lake Champlain, 2023..

Six Collas, Five Mile River, Darien, Connecticut, 2016.

Two Collas, Darien, Connecticut, 2015.

Nine Collas, Mill River, Lusby, Maryland, 2014.

Five Collas, Lake Champlain, 2014..

Seven Collas, Cape Cod, 2010.