NEWS

Oct 19 2019: Yahoo Groups has announced another round of feature removal so we are moving the official communications to Facebook's R1b Y DNA project forum at http:www.facebook.com/groups/R1b.YDNA/ This project's FTDNA Activity Feed is still available and will be supported by project administrators so that is an alternative for you.

Jun 01 2019: Project now has over 8,000 members.

May 20 2017: Gail Riddell joined as a co-administrator. She perhaps the most skilled project administrator around. Welcome to Gail!

May 18 2017: Project reaches over 5,700 participants.

May 09 2015: Olalde and Reich released their study of Bronze Age artifacts and ancient DNA focused on the Bell Beaker folks. Britains' Bell Bell folks are overwhelmingly R1b-L21. In fact, a close relative, possibly a son, of the "Amesbury Archer" turns out to be R1b-L21.  This relative, the "Companion", is R1b-L21 and was likely born in England. The "Amesbury Archer" has been showed to be from the Alpine reigon. “The Beaker Phenomenon And The Genomic Transformation Of Northwest Europe” http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/05/09/135962

Feb 11 2017: A new Big Y result has shown that SNPs that were previously thought to be equivalent to L21, namely Z245, Z260 and Z290, have been found to be older. This means that a branch marked by L21, L459 is a direct descendant of the branch marked by Z245, Z260 and Z290. P312 is the SNP that marks the direct ancestor of Z245, Z260 and Z290. The project name will be updated to the R-Z290 and L21 All Subclades project.

Dec 22 2016: Our fearless leader, founder and visionary, Richard Stevens, is stepping aside as project administrator to become our "chairman of the board". Thank you so much, Richard. R-L21 is the largest Bronze Age Y haplogroup project and Richard has done a brilliant and steadfast job of getting us going on multiple fronts and seeing us through to 5,347 members. Richard appointed Mike Walsh to become the lead administrator.

Feb 2015: Haak, et. al. have produced a monumental paper which apparently confirms that R1b-M269 (including L21) was spread west into Europe from the steppe by Indo-European steppe pastoralists of the 5th-3rd millennia BC. “Massive migration from the steppe is a source for Indo-European languages in Europe” http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/02/10/013433

Feb 26 2014: Project name changed from "R-L21 Plus" to "R L21 and Subclades."

May 03 2012: BIG NEWS! The Royal House of Stewart is R-L21! Richard Scott, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch, was tested and found to be L744+ L745+ (L21>DF13>DF41>L744>L745) and an exact match (on how many markers?) of a descendant of Charles Stewart of Ardshiel, who fought at Culloden. The House of Stewart produced a number of famous kings and queens of Scotland and England, including James VI/I (of Scotland and England, respectively) of King James Bible fame.

Aug 18 2016: Project reaches 11,000 participants. We have over 7,300 67 STR haplotypes in the project so 67 STRs is the standard. We've also got over 4,200 111 STR haplotypes in the R1b_Haplotypes spreadsheet so 111 STRs is beneficial. I estimate there about 20,000 R1b people with 111 STRs in the FTDNA database. There are now over 2,200 distinct branches of R1b (R-M343) on the FTDNA haplotree.

May 03 2012: HUGE NEWS! R1b is found in ancient Bell Beaker remains near Kromsdorf, Germany. One of the bodies tested M269+ and U106-. http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2012/05/bell-beakers-from-germany-y-haplogroup.html

Mar 2011: Project hits 1,000 participants mark.

Jun 2010: A second Spanish/Portuguese (Iberian Peninsula) R-L21 haplotype cluster is discovered, with the following characteristic marker values: DYS19=15, 459b=9, and YCAIIb=19.

Jun 2010: An apparent Spanish R-L21 haplotype cluster is discovered, with the following characteristic marker values: DYS385a=12, 439=11, 459a=10, 447=24, 449=31-32, 464a=14, 456=15, 607=16, 438=11, 481=19. So far, there are least eleven different Spanish surnames connected with this cluster, with ancestry in various parts of Spain and Latin America. We are currently trying to recruit members of the cluster for testing in an effort to see just how extensive it is and how far flung.

Apr 2010: Project hits 800 participants mark.

Oct 2008: Control result results are in for the SNP L21. Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) begins commercial testing for L21.

We owe thanks to Richard Stevens for his ground-breaking working in initiating and guiding this project. He has been cited by authors related to the peopling of Europe and was one of early visionaries recognizing the spread of R1b-M269 through out Europe in association with Indo-European Languages.