Of course, this does not mean that every Francis anywhere, or even all participants in the study, have British ancestry. One of the E participants believes that he and his father (the other E) descend from a child who was adopted into a Francis line and might have originally had a German surname. Going purely by haplogroup, the most likely bet would be the Balkans, since that is where it is most common. Similarly, the two R1As in the study have been found to have haplotypes that are characteristic of Ashkenazi Jews. and may be examples of a cases where Jewish families changed their names to Francis upon arriving in an English speaking country. See the surname page.
Nonetheless, though, the majority of the evidence suggests that Francis is predominantly an English and Welsh line.
Scientists such as Bryan Sykes and Robert Oppenheimer originally linked the R1b haplogroup with the Celts, who are believed to have come from western or central Europe in different migrations from after the end of the Ice Age almost up until the Roman invasions. R1b is nearly universal in Ireland. It is also by far the most common in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall. Even in England, it is the dominant haplogroup, but by a smaller margin than elsewhere. Other scientists have since concluded that some of these individuals, such as R1b1b2g may actually have arrived with Germanic invasions.
There is less controversy about I1, which is most common in Scandinavia, Germany and the Benelux countries. When found in England, it is usually associated with various Germanic invaders, such as the Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. I2b overlaps with I1 in Germany and the Benelux countries, and is also common in parts of France, Italy and other parts of Europe. People of British descent who have this haplogroup may be descended from Germanic invaders like the I1s, or they may be among the earliest residents of Britain. R1a is a widely spread haplogroup that is very common in Eastern Europe, but also has many members as far away as Eastern Europe. The writer Bryan Sykes believes that R1a primarily came to Britain with Swedish Vikings, since the haplogroup is reasonably common in Sweden. But they might also have come to Britain with Ashkenazi Jews, an eastern European group that came to the country with the Anglo-Saxons called the Wends, or some other group. .
The final group of haplogroups -- G, J2 and E1b -- is a bit harder to place. G is most common in the Caucasus, J2 in the Middle East and E1b in the Balkans, although they are not uncommon in Britain. Some scientists have associated them with the spread of agriculture out of the Middle East, while other research has associated at least J2 and E1b with Roman settlements.