About us
The science of genetic genealogy has revolutionized one's ability to discover ancient ancestors and their wanderings prior to the periods during which surnames evolved and detailed written records were kept. In 1985, the founder of this research group and former Group Administrator Dr. Harrison Hoppes published a family history titled "Swiss Roots: A History of the Happes Family to 1800," which furnished data indicating that one of his ancestors was enumerated in the Swiss property censuses of 1290 and 1292 under the surname Habesburc, the same spelling King Rudolf von Habesburc (later Habsburg) had engraved on his 1291 sarcophagus lid. FTDNA intially tested the author's Y-DNA, and he and his Co-administrator Thomas Sacher had discovered that over a dozen other surnames contain close "genetic cousins" to them, all R1b-DF90+; Fitze, Grass, Himmelsberger, Kreis, May, Mesmer, Neff, Penczer, Schiess, Schlatter, Schapbach, Sittner, Tanner and Waldburger (and related spellings). Many more surnames have been added since, and in 2017 Dr. Harrison Hoppes named Dr. Andre Viau, also R1b-DF90+, as lead administrator for what has become the R1b-DF90 and Subclades Research Project, which now includes several subclades and many more surnames across western, northern, central and southern Europe, Anatolia and the Maghreb. Sadly, Dr. Harrison Hoppes passed away in early 2019. Dr. Andre Viau continues to administrate the FTDNA R1b-DF90 and Subclades Research Project along with genetic cousins Mark Alliston, Onur Dincer and Thomas Sacher as co-administrators.