What are the criteria for judging the closeness of a y DNA match?

[firemonkey]

I currently have one same haplogroup match = E-BY5244.  37- 4 (done to y-DNA111) Big Y STR Differences
13 of 663. He's not listed under 'Big Y - Results'

[ph2ter]

STR differences are mostly irrelevant.
They are useful only for determining the general haplogroup and close siblings (Y-DNA links not older than a few hundred years).
What counts are SNP matches.

[firemonkey]

STR differences are mostly irrelevant.
They are useful only for determining the general haplogroup and close siblings (Y-DNA links not older than a few hundred years).
What counts are SNP matches.

So BIG-Y is more 'expensive hype' than substance?

[Riverman]

I currently have one same haplogroup match = E-BY5244.  37- 4 (done to y-DNA111) Big Y STR Differences
13 of 663. He's not listed under 'Big Y - Results'

I'm in complete agreement with ph2ter on the matter. If he is no BigY match, it might be due to being slightly above threshold in SNP distance or it's a bug.

Your branch is a very clearly English/British one, the only thing that sticks out is the single Hungarian. I wonder about that one. Is it an NPE or did he migrate to Hungary?

So BIG-Y is more 'expensive hype' than substance?

No, the BigY is everything, because the BigY determines your SNP's and places you in the tree.

Are you sure he is not listed among your BigY matches?

[firemonkey]

I currently have one same haplogroup match = E-BY5244.  37- 4 (done to y-DNA111) Big Y STR Differences
13 of 663. He's not listed under 'Big Y - Results'

I'm in complete agreement with ph2ter on the matter. If he is no BigY match, it might be due to being slightly above threshold in SNP distance or it's a bug.

Your branch is a very clearly English/British one, the only thing that sticks out is the single Hungarian. I wonder about that one. Is it an NPE or did he migrate to Hungary?

So BIG-Y is more 'expensive hype' than substance?

No, the BigY is everything, because the BigY determines your SNP's and places you in the tree.

Are you sure he is not listed among your BigY matches?

I was talking about  https://www.familytreedna.com/my/big-y#matches  He doesn't appear there, but the Hungarian match does. Yfull gives closest str match as 0.031 with most distant known ancestor Carthew 1590, from Cornwall.

However the waters get muddied for me in that autosomally I'm a comparatively stronger autosomal match to Gatley than to Gatty/Gattey. I have Gattey and Gatty matches but none have traced as far back as Cornwall(where the Gatty surname 1st appeared in the UK- according to the IGI) I do however a cousin match at My heritage with Gatleys from Cornwall.  I did learn from an email exchange  with Bernard Deacon  https://bernarddeacon.com/news/  the following -

However, I've taken a look at earlier records and find that the surname was found in Cornwall from an early date and with a very specific geography. The first example I've found was Isolde Gatty who rented a cottage in St Ewe parish in the mid-1400s. The name in the first half of the 16th century was located along the Fowey River valley up to Lostwithiel and west into the Roseland as far as Philleigh. This suggests a point of origin somewhere in that district.

But as to its meaning at present your guess is as good as mine. There are Gatleys also at that period just to the north west - I wonder if there's a connection.

I do have 3 cousin  matches with the 'Hungarian' matches surname  that have  ancestors from Cornwall.

[Riverman]

STR differences are mostly irrelevant.
They are useful only for determining the general haplogroup and close siblings (Y-DNA links not older than a few hundred years).
What counts are SNP matches.

So BIG-Y is more 'expensive hype' than substance?

I currently have one same haplogroup match = E-BY5244.  37- 4 (done to y-DNA111) Big Y STR Differences
13 of 663. He's not listed under 'Big Y - Results'

I'm in complete agreement with ph2ter on the matter. If he is no BigY match, it might be due to being slightly above threshold in SNP distance or it's a bug.

Your branch is a very clearly English/British one, the only thing that sticks out is the single Hungarian. I wonder about that one. Is it an NPE or did he migrate to Hungary?

So BIG-Y is more 'expensive hype' than substance?

No, the BigY is everything, because the BigY determines your SNP's and places you in the tree.

Are you sure he is not listed among your BigY matches?

I was talking about  https://www.familytreedna.com/my/big-y#matches  He doesn't appear there, but the Hungarian match does. Yfull gives closest str match as 0.031 with most distant known ancestor Carthew 1590, from Cornwall.

However the waters get muddied for me in that autosomally I'm a comparatively stronger autosomal match to Gatley than to Gatty/Gattey. I have Gattey and Gatty matches but none have traced as far back as Cornwall(where the Gatty surname 1st appeared in the UK- according to the IGI) I do however a cousin match at My heritage with Gatleys from Cornwall.  I did learn from an email exchange  with Bernard Deacon  https://bernarddeacon.com/news/  the following -

However, I've taken a look at earlier records and find that the surname was found in Cornwall from an early date and with a very specific geography. The first example I've found was Isolde Gatty who rented a cottage in St Ewe parish in the mid-1400s. The name in the first half of the 16th century was located along the Fowey River valley up to Lostwithiel and west into the Roseland as far as Philleigh. This suggests a point of origin somewhere in that district.

But as to its meaning at present your guess is as good as mine. There are Gatleys also at that period just to the north west - I wonder if there's a connection.

I do have 3 cousin  matches with the 'Hungarian' matches surname  that have  ancestors from Cornwall.

I guess he is just above the STR threshold then and still to distant for an SNP match. Is the Hungarian at a closer distance with his STR difference? That might explain it.

Autosomal matches need to be taken into account separately, because genealogically more distant people might have inherited more DNA by chance or there might be multiple relationships. Multiple relationships aren't just an issue if you have Ashkenazi Jewish, Roma or Finnish etc. heritage, its also an issue in close-knit rural communities all around the world. And then there is inheritance by chance, which can make distant matches appear closer or closer more distant.

[firemonkey]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

I'm not sure about  close knit rural communities . But when looking into the Gatley angle. There's  a Sarah Gatley who was a Quaker and cousin matches that connect to her that were Quakers.

[Riverman]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

Then it is strange and looks like a bug, unless that individual has specific privacy settings or something like that. If I were you, I would contact support about it.

[firemonkey]

Waiting for response from FTDNA support.

[Tolan]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

Then it is strange and looks like a bug, unless that individual has specific privacy settings or something like that. If I were you, I would contact support about it.

This person may have had many private SNPs since the common ancestor and be considered too distant.
I don't know how big y matches works, because I don't have one.
But it would make more sense to put everyone on the final SNP marker like Yfull does

[ph2ter]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

Then it is strange and looks like a bug, unless that individual has specific privacy settings or something like that. If I were you, I would contact support about it.

This person may have had many private SNPs since the common ancestor and be considered too distant.
I don't know how big y matches works, because I don't have one.
But it would make more sense to put everyone on the final SNP marker like Yfull does

yfull works the same way as FTDNA.
The final SNP can be only the one that is shared between at least two men. Private variants are not shown as final.

[firemonkey]

Found BIG-Y result of Hungarian match under Block tree-detailed view = 14/654.

[FionnSneachta]

A person is considered a match if they have 30 or fewer differences in SNPs with you. He won't appear as a match if there are more than 30 differences. This occurs among my dad's Big Y matches too. For example, there is a person who is positive for BY3439 (two SNPs before Y160102) and the shared ancestor is estimated to have lived around 1200 AD. We also share the same number. This match doesn't appear in my dad's Big Y matches but he does appear in the Block Tree. As said already, it's the differences in private variants. My dad has 5 variants including a private variant. To be honest, I can't see how he could possibly have 25 private variants. I see this occurring more often in matches who just bought the Big Y-500 and never upgraded to Big Y-700. I have never been too concerned about it since they still appear in the Block Tree and STR matches.

That is one match off the top of my head. However, there are more. My dad has 50 Big Y matches but 6 are members of the Pugh or Traynor family while the remaining 44 are of the Kelly family. However, there are actually 46 among the Kelly group in the Block Tree excluding my dad.

[Tolan]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

Then it is strange and looks like a bug, unless that individual has specific privacy settings or something like that. If I were you, I would contact support about it.

This person may have had many private SNPs since the common ancestor and be considered too distant.
I don't know how big y matches works, because I don't have one.
But it would make more sense to put everyone on the final SNP marker like Yfull does

yfull works the same way as FTDNA.
The final SNP can be only the one that is shared between at least two men. Private variants are not shown as final.

No,
In the Big Y matches, I have no matches because there are too many private mutations between me and my matches from my final SPN.
On yfull, in the SNP matches, I have everyone who has my final SNP with the SNPs that we have in common specifically.

[ph2ter]

The Hungarian match is listed where  I previously said it was. However there is nobody with that surname listed at 12-111 yDNA markers!

Then it is strange and looks like a bug, unless that individual has specific privacy settings or something like that. If I were you, I would contact support about it.

This person may have had many private SNPs since the common ancestor and be considered too distant.
I don't know how big y matches works, because I don't have one.
But it would make more sense to put everyone on the final SNP marker like Yfull does

yfull works the same way as FTDNA.
The final SNP can be only the one that is shared between at least two men. Private variants are not shown as final.

No,
In the Big Y matches, I have no matches because there are too many private mutations between me and my matches from my final SPN.
On yfull, in the SNP matches, I have everyone who has my final SNP with the SNPs that we have in common specifically.

But in Block tree and Time tree is shown the final SNP like on yfull tree.
The matches lists maybe have different criteria.