If you have already tested with FTDNA and want to join our project, please click on the join projects link on the upper left hand side of your homepage.
Go to Dual Geographical Projects and click on V2 once there, click on Voices_in_time.
Haplogroups which are included in our project are:
mtDNA: A, C, H, J, L, U5
y-DNA: E, G, J, R, T


Haplogroup A is believed to have arisen in Asia some 60,000 years before present. Its ancestral haplogroup was Haplogroup N.
Haplogroup A is found throughout modern Asia. Its subgroup A1 is found in northern and central Asia, while its subgroup A2 is found in Siberia and is also one of five haplogroups found in the indigenous peoples of the Americas, the others being B, C, D and X.
The mummy "Juanita" of Peru, also called the "Ice Maiden", has been shown to belong to mitochondrial haplogroup A.

Haplogroup C seems to have come into existence shortly after M168 was introduced, probably at least 60,000 years before present. Although Haplogroup C attains its highest frequencies among the indigenous populations of Mongolia, the Russian Far East, Polynesia, Australia, and at moderate frequency in the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria, it displays its highest diversity among modern populations of India, and therefore it is hypothesized that Haplogroup C either originated or underwent its longest period of evolution and diversification within India or the greater South Asian coastal region.

It represents a great coastal migration along Southern Asia, into Southeast Asia and Australia, and up the Asian coast. It is believed to have migrated to the Americas some 6,000-8,000 years before present, and was carried by Na-Dené speaking peoples into the northwest Pacific coast of America. Some have hypothesized that Haplogroups C and D were brought together to East Asia by a single population that became the first successful modern human colonizers of that region, but at present the distributions of Haplogroups C and D are different, with various subtypes of Haplogroup C being found at high frequency among the Australian aborigines, Polynesians, Vietnamese, Kazakhs, Mongolians, Manchurians, Koreans, and indigenous inhabitants of the Russian Far East and at moderate frequencies elsewhere throughout Asia and Oceania, including India and Southeast Asia, whereas Haplogroup D is found at high frequencies only among the Tibetans, Japanese peoples, and Andaman Islanders, and has been found neither in India nor among the aboriginal inhabitants of the Americas or Oceania.

Haplogroup C contains the polymorphism, very common in Central Asia, which is believed to be that of Genghis Khan, spread wide during the Mongol conquest of Asia.


Haplogroup H
The Cambridge Referenc Sequence (CRS), the human mitochondrial sequence to which all other sequences are compared, belongs to haplogroup H. About one half of Europeans are of mt-DNA haplogroup H. The haplogroup is also common in North Africa and the Middle East.
H1 – H1 is the most common branch of haplogroup H. It represents 30% of people in haplogroup H, and 46% of the maternal lineages in Iberia. 13-14% of all Europeans belong to this branch, and H1 is about 13,000 years old.

H1a – H1a is a branch of H1. Further research will better resolve the distribution and historical characteristics of this haplogroup.

H1b – H1b is detected at its highest frequency in Eastern Europe and North Central Europe. It is also found in about 5% of haplogroup H lineages in Siberian Mansis.

H2 – H2 is somewhat common in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, but likely spread from Western Europe because it is not found in significant frequency in the Near East. It is found in its highest frequency in Germany and Scotland.

H2a – Haplogroup H2a is found most frequently in Eastern Europe, and at a low frequency in Western Europe. Unlike its parent branch H2, H2a’s geographical distribution extends to Central Asia.

H2b – H2b is the branch to which the CRS belongs. Further research will better resolve the distribution and historical characteristics of this haplogroup.

H3 – H3 is the second most common branch of H. Like H1, it is found mainly in Western Europe. However, H3 is not found in significant frequencies in the Near East. It is at its highest frequency in Iberia and Sardinia, and is about 10,000 years old.

J2: The J2 lineage originated in the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent where it later spread throughout central Asia, the Mediterranean, and south into India. As with other populations with Mediterranean ancestry this lineage is found within Jewish populations.
Research note: Many people new to Genetic Genealogy think the J2 haplogroup is synonymous with having male Jewish ancestry. One should note that having a J2 haplogroup assignment does not necessarily indicate Jewish ancestry. The J2 haplogroup is far more ancient than the Jewish religion and is found in many lines with Mediterranean region ancient ancestry. Another relatively more recent mode for J2's entry into some parts of Europe from the Mediterranean areas could have been the Roman Legions and Roman settlements.
In Italy, one of the European countries with the highest frequencies of J2, it has been found in the remains of ancient Etruscans, who spoke a non-Indo-European language of unknown affinity. Another important fact about the distribution of Haplogroup J2 is that it appears to have dispersed from a Middle Eastern homeland to the west through a primarily maritime or littoral route, as it is found in high concentrations among the populations of the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea in both Eurasia and Africa, and particularly along the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean in Europe. This distribution may be more consonant with a Neolithic or post-Neolithic maritime dispersal from the Middle East, such as through Phoenician commercial and colonial activities, or even through Greek colonization.

L1b is concentrated in West Africa, with some overflow into Central and North Africa (particularly geographically adjacent areas, connected by the West African coastal pathway) but little in East, southeastern, or southern Africa.

mtDNA haplogroup U was the first modern human mtDNA haplogroup to appear in Europe. Its oldest subgroup, U5, originated ~50,000 B.C.E.(Finnilä 2000)

Haplogroup U5
The oldest mtDNA in Europe which is human (i.e. Homo Sapiens and not Neanderthal or other archaic individual) is U5 and U8a (see below). The age of U5 is estimated at 50,000 but could be as old as 60,500 years.

The presence of haplogroup U5 in Europe pre-dates the expansion of agriculture in Europe. Bryan Sykes' popular book The Seven Daughters of Eve says it shows up 45,000-50,000 years ago in Delphi, Greece and named the originator of haplogroup U5 Ursula. It shows that U5 is the first out of Africa into Europe, and that it shows up as the first Europeans in two places, Delphi and Spain around 50,000 years ago.

By another source haplogroup U5, age is estimated at about 52,000 kya, being the oldest subclade of haplogroup U.[6]

Haplogroup U5 and its subclades U5a and U5b form the highest population concentrations in the far north, in Sami, Finns, and Estonians, but it is spread widely at lower levels throughout Europe. This distribution, and the age of the haplogroup, indicate individuals from this haplogroup were part the initial expansion tracking the retreat of ice sheets from Europe ~10kya.

Haplogroup U5 is found also in small frequencies and at much lower diversity in the Near East and parts of Africa, suggesting back-migration of people from northern Europe to the south.[1]

U5 and U6 are "sister mtDNA groups" with a common ancestor (probably in West Asia).


U5a: Mediterranean Origin. The mitochondrial super-haplogroup U encompasses haplogroups U1-U7 and haplogroup K. Haplogroup U5, with its own multiple lineages nested within, is the oldest European-specific haplogroup, and its origin dates to approximately 50,000 years ago. Most likely arising in the Near East, and spreading into Europe in a very early expansion, the presence of haplogroup U5 in Europe pre-dates the expansion of agriculture in Europe. Haplogroup U5a—a lineage within U5—is somewhat younger, dating to approximately 40,000 years ago, and is mostly distributed in southern Europe. Interestingly, individuals with haplogroup U5 and U5a may have been come in contact with Neandertals living in Europe at the time. 11% of modern day Europeans share this origin.



Subhaplogroup U5b
mtDNA subhaplogroup U5b appears at 32% - 52% in Sami populations (depending on population)(Meinilä 2001).


Almost 50% of subhaplogroup U5's subclade U5b1b1 HVR1 haplotypes are unique to Sami populations and do not occur elsewhere, while most of the haplogroup V HVR1 haplotypes is also seen among other European populations (Torroni 2001). The age of haplogroup U5b1b1 was estimated by Delghandi 1998 using HVR1 haplotypes only to be between 5 500 to 10 500 years old, and by Ingman 2006 using full mtDNA sequences haplogroup U5b1b1 and V was estimated to be 5 500 and 7 500 years old respectively. It is believed on the basis of correlation analysis that haplogroup V and U5b migrated togheter with male haplogroup I1a (Rootsi 2004) and on the basis of variance and haplotype analysis its believed they migrated from western Europe.

The "Sami-specific motif" subset of mtDNA subhaplogroup U5b occurs in 12% of Finns (compared to 34% in Finnish Sami) in Finland's Oulu Province as a result of Sami admixture. (Finns in the more northern Lapland Province were not studied because recent maternal Sami ancestry could not ruled out.) (Meinilä 2001)

If you wish to read the info below, please copy and paste it to your browser.

World Haplogroups
http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps

The African Diaspora: Mitochondrial DNA and the Atlantic Slave Trade
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1182259

Identification of Native American Founder mtDNAs
Through the Analysis of Complete mtDNA Sequences:
Some Caveats
http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Bandelt2003.pdf