The Russian Nobility project under the leadership of Vladimir Volkov has managed to not only collect DNA samples from some of the most Noble families of Russia but has also managed to trace their lineage to their common ancestor via their DNA results, further to this by careful research it has been possible to not only confirm that Rurik the legendary founder of the Russian State did in fact exist but it has been possible to confirm family relationships between some of the Elite Noble families of Russia. As some of these Noble families had emigrated to Russia so as to serve the Royal Court of Russia is has also been possible to confirm family connections to Gediminid the Grand Duke of Lithuania through DNA results of some of these Noble Families. Note: Haplotypes for the majority of Rurikid and Gediminid princes publicized within this project were kindly provided by the administrators of both the Russian Princes DNA project (AndreySeslavin) https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/russian-princes/about and the Rurikid DynastyDNA project (Andrzej Bajor) http://www.familytreedna.com/public/rurikid to whom we are truly thankful.