About us
U152 and Subclades Research Project focuses on the R-U152/S28/PF6570 haplogroup. U152 has had various ISOGG designations since 2006. 2006-07: R1b1c10. 2008-10: R1b1b2a1a2d. 2011: R1b1a2a1a1b3. 2012: R1b1a2a1a1b2. 2013-15: R1b1a2a1a2b. 2016-17: R1b1a1a2a1a2b. Major U152 subclades include L2/S139, ZZ45>Z36/S206, Z56/PF6571/BY3548, and PF6658/Z193. The main purposes of this advanced research project is the expansion of the U152 and Subclades Phylogeny by the discovery of new SNPs, the study of their point of origins and their probable migration routes.
Who can Join: Anyone who has been found to be U152 or downstream SNPs by FTDNA, iGenea or National Geographic Genographic Project or has been tested for STR markers by FTDNA and his U152 / S28 or downstream SNPs status was confirmed by another testing lab such as 23andMe, DecodeMe, Ethnoancestry or Genebase.
How to Join this Project: FTDNA members can join by clicking the "Join Request" button. National Geographic Genographic Project members must first do the free transfer of their results from the Genographic Project database to FTDNA database. See the "Learn More" link at the bottom of your Genographic Project personal page for how to do the free transfer. Once you have a personal account page at FTDNA, sign in to your personal account page and click on the "Join Projects" section in the upper left corner, scroll down to "Y Haplogroup Projects" section. Click on the R backbone haplogroup category. Then click on the R1b-U152 project link. You will then see a description of this project. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the small join button at the bottom of the R1b-U152 project description and join page. If you have never been tested before you need to order a Y DNA test kit. Click on this link to order it from FTDNA at a group rate!
Important note about useful key data for this project: When you join this project, be sure to fill in your direct paternal line "Earliest Known Ancestor" field in the "User Preferences" section of your personal account page otherwise a blank will display for that field in your entry. This entry should be based on the family's genealogical knowledge and information for the data in the field has to be based on evidence, not just speculation. If you don't know the full name and specific details about your direct paternal ancestor you could simply enter the his surname and or a country of origin if at least that is known. Also enter the latitude and longitude for your ancestor's origins so a pin will appear in the world map.
Questions and Queries about Test Results and Groups: For questions or discussion about the groupings of this project and/or ancient ancestry affiliations based on the SNP test results, please send all questions or queries to Tibor Fehér, Administrator (English, Hungarian) or Steve Gilbert, Co-Administrator (English, French), at the e-Mail addresses listed above. Also, co-administrator Michael Talley is fluent in English & German (see email above). Please read the U152 and Subclades Group Descriptions by Tibor Fehér with descriptions and explanations for the project groups displayed in the "Y-DNA RESULTS" section of this project.
History: U152/S28 came to the knowledge of the scientific community through the publication of the paper Whole-Genome Patterns of Common DNA Variations in Three Human Populations by David A. Hinds et al. in Science on 18 Feb 2005. The single positive subject in the Hinds paper was NA07349, or CEPH1345-01, a Utah Mormon from the Centre d'Etude du Polymorphism Humain (CEPH) collection, available at the Coriell Institute. Dr. Pui-Yan Kwok at the University of California, San Franscisco (UCSF) had discovered this SNP prior to its submission to Single Nucleotide Polymorphism database (dbSNP) on 18 May 2004. While the Hinds et al. manuscript doesn't mention the Y chromosome, analysis of the underlying data by Gareth Henson, a genetic genealogist in Wales, revealed a number of interesting new SNPs. In March 2005, Gareth shared his analysis with Dr Jim Wilson, President of EthnoAncestry. After some time exploring various SNPs, Dr. Wilson designed and ordered primers for S28 in late November 2005. The primer arrived on 7 Dec 2005. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on 11 Dec, and Sanger sequencing on the 12th. The results revealed that Dr. David Faux (Partner of Dr. Wilson at EthnoAncestry) was positive for S28, while Dr. Wilson was negative. The following week EthnoAncestry discovered that customer, Charles Kerchner was also positive for S28. Kerchner had ordered his EthnoAncestry test on 30 Sep, received it on 8 Oct, and was notified of his results on 21 Dec 2005. By 3 February 2006, 5 people had tested positive for S28. It immediately became clear that S28 was a common R1b subgroup. While the SNP was universally known as "S28" in 2005 and 2006, the Sims et al. paper published on 8 December 2006, repeated EthnoAncestry's analysis and discovery using the name "U152", which was in turn used by FTDNA when they launched their SNP test; and thus many people began to use that name. (Sources: Dr. Jim Wilson, Dr David Faux & Charles Kerchner P.E. via emails to FTDNA project administrator, Mark Mitchell 6-7 Feb 2018)
Charles Kerchner P.E. (retired) launched this project with FamilyTreeDNA in 2008 to learn more about the SNP U152/S28. Both U152/S28 pioneers, Charles Kerchner and David Faux have retired from the daily management of their respective YSNP DNA projects in early 2011, and Charles Kerchner handed over the U152 Project on FTDNA servers to Tibor Fehér and Steve Gilbert. In September 2011, the project crossed the 500 member mark. In March 2014 it crossed the 1000 member mark, on 9 July 2017 the project crossed the 2000 member mark, and on 24 March 2021 the project crossed the 3000 member mark.