• Home
• How to Participate
• FAQs About DNA Testing
• The Study
• The Francis Surname
• Groups
• Haplogroups
• Lines
• Links
• Results
• Conclusions
• Contact Us

Y-DNA Haplogroups In Francis Surname Project

What is a Y-DNA haplogroup?

A Y-DNA haplogroup is a group of individuals who share a common ancestor through the direct paternal line. They are distinguished from each other by the presence of certain mutations on the Y-chromosome of male members of the group. For the haplogroup to be widespread, the common ancestor had to have lived thousands or tens of thousands of years ago.

Haplogroups are useful in two ways. One is that they provide information about one's ancestry. If you join the National Genographic Project or read books on the subject, you can learn when and by what route your ancestors left Africa and something about the path they took to wherever they ended up. Because some haplogroups are correlated with certain places, you can sometimes learn something about their ancestry. For example, the I1 haplogroup is associated with Scandinavia and Northern Germany and certain sub-groups of R1b are associated with Ireland, Frisia, and other parts of Europe.

A second way in which haplogroups are useful is to tell at a glance whether two people are related through the direct paternal line in a historical time span. If two individuals come from different haplogroups, then they are clearly not related. On the other hand, having the same haplogroup does not mean that two individuals are closely related. As mentioned above, their common ancestor may have lived tens of thousands of years before.

To determine if two individuals within the same y-dna haplogroup are related, you must look at their haplotype. This is a list of numbers reflecting the number of times certain enzymes are repeated at certain points in their y-chromosome. The haplotypes of the individuals who have taken part in this program are listed on the results page.

Haplogroups Found in the Francis Surname Project So Far

• I - Of all y-dna haplogroups, I appears to have been in Europe for the longest time. In fact, it seems to be the only one that actually originated there, having moved into Europe as part of the earlier (now apparently extinct) IJ haplogroup, and then broken off. I was probably the dominant haplogroup in Europe until the invasion of the R1s, who may have nearly wiped it out. Two of its sub-groups: I1 and I2b are represented in the Francis surname project.
  • I1-the second most common haplogroup in Western Europe and Great Britain after R1b. At one point, the haplogroup was believed to have originated in France, where it was supposed to have taken refuge during the Ice Age. It is now more commonly believed to have originated in northern Europe, perhaps in northern Germany or southern Scandinavia. It is now most common in Scandinavia, Northern Germany, Netherlands and other areas where Germanic languages are spoken. When found outside of these areas, it is usually in areas that have seen large-scale incursions by Germanic invaders, such as Eastern (Danelaw) England and Normandy, France.
  • I2b- a close relative to I1, it covers an overlapping, but generally more southerly area, including Germany, Northern France and parts of Britain. Unlike I1, this group is believed to have penetrated Great Britain very early, and may have been original, pre-Celt occupiers of the islands.
• J2 - very common in the Middle East, this haplogroup is common among individuals of Jewish descent. J2b is very common in the Balkans and may be associated with the spread of Bronze Age Culture through Europe. In Great Britain, there is some evidence for an association with Roman settlements. Two of the J2s in the project appear to have British ancestry, while one is Jamaican or Cajun, suggesting French ancestry.
• E1b1b1 - This haplogroup may have originated in the Near East and spread across Europe. There are small amounts of E1b1b1 in Great Britain, which might have arrived with a variety of different invasions. It should be pointed out that one of the E1b1b1 lines in the project is believed to descend from a fairly recent NPE and may not have English ancestry at all.
• R1a - The most common haplogroup in Eastern Europe, it is also common across Central Asia and among Indians and Ashkenazi Jews. The researcher Bryan Sykes believes that when found in Great Britain, it might indicate a Swedish Viking ancestry, while others have said it might be associated with the Wends, an East European group that may have taken part in the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England. On the other hand, it might also indicate Jewish or Indian ancestry. At least two of the R1As in our study have haplotypes common among Ashkenazi Jews.
• G - a very old haplogroup that is most common in the Caucasus region, but is not especially common even there. It is often associated, like E1b1b1 and J2, with the spread of agriculture out of the Middle East into Europe. In Great Britain, it is most common in Wales.
• R1b - far and away, the most common haplogroup in Western Europe. It has been divided into many sub-clades, which are associated with smaller areas. It is also fairly common in Eastern Europe. In Great Britain, where most Francis lines originated, R1b is sometimes associated with various Celtic peoples, such as Irish, Scots, Welsh and Cornish. On the other hand, some R1b groups, such as R1b1b2g, can also be associated with areas where Germanic languages are spoken, such as Netherlands and NW Germany. Nearly everyone in Ireland is R1b. and it is the majority group in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and even England. The writer Bryan Sykes has given the nickname "Oisin" to this group.