Background

  Only about 37 persons have *ever* known to be tested at this rare low DYS19 STR marker value of 9 (or less), which is is the focus of this Project. 

  These rare persons have nationalities including Italy, Switzerland, U.S.A., England, Ireland, and Germany. 

  15 have known Italian ancestry; ten are Project members. 

  Nine project members have Swiss ancestry. One of those has the (mutated) unique DYS19 marker value of 8 (!!). All of these are, also, members of the FamilyTreeDNA French-Swiss project.  These Swiss-ancestry members of this cluster have all been proven to be related by official records, with common ancestry circa AD 1300. This provides an excellent opportunity to examine mutation rates and characteristics. Since this group all exhibit DYS19

   In view of the foregoing fact, we believe that a strong possibility exists that the various persons with DYS19=9 (and 8) share ancestry.