The branches of N in this project are some of those that sprang earliest from the roots, closer to the time of the exodus from Africa than the later haplogroups which have become the majority.  Over millennia, many human lineages always die out, so that there are fewer and fewer of the oldest lines that survive.   That is the reason why there are so few members of these early N clades still found today: their great age.

Family Tree DNA's haplogroup description of N: The N superhaplogroup has been characterized as pan-Eurasian. Haplogroup N is one of the two major trunks emerging from the original African root, and dates to approximately 65,000 years ago. Interestingly, several sub-haplogroups of the N cluster—haplogroup N1 and derivative lineages—have been detected in the Near East, suggesting either early divergence near the root of haplogroup N or subsequent migrations back towards western Eurasia following the original dispersal into east Eurasia. Future work will further document the historical distribution of this root haplogroup and closely related haplogroups within the N cluster.

A paper published in 2010 focuses on haplogroup N1a, the first to take such an in-depth look at one of our early N branches.  It's available for free downloading!  Mitochondrial haplogroup N1a phylogeography, with implication to the origin of European farmers by Malliya Gounder Palanichamy et al.  This paper contains a very detailed phylogenetic tree of haplogroup N1a, which we hope to soon reproduce here.  We must mention that one of our project co-admins collaborated with the author in the early stages of this study, several years ago.  Not only that, but the mtDNA of several members of this project was generously donated to and sequenced in this study, making an invaluable contribution to the advancement of our knowledge of this rare group!

N1b ASHKENAZI FOUNDER LINEAGE A haplogroup N subclade, N1b - has been identified as one of four Ashkenazi Jewish founder lineages. This is defined by the transition G to A at the nucleotide position16176 - See: "The Matrilineal Ancestry of Ashkenazi Jewry: Portrait of a Recent Founder Event" D. Behar, et al.

A NOTABLE"N" A famous member of haplogroup N is Ann Curry, a host on the "Today Show", who is haplogroup N9a. Her haplogroup designation was shared during a November 18, 2005 interview with Dr. Spencer Wells of National Geographic's Genographic Project.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Wikipedia's Haplogroup N - Haplogroup N's derived clades include the macro-haplogroup R and its descendants, and haplogroups A, I, S, W, X, and Y.

Rare unclassified haplogroup N* has been found among fossils belonging to the Cardial and Epicardial culture (Cardium pottery) and the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. A rare unclassified form of N has been also been reported in modern Algeria.

Haplogroup N1'5

Haplogroup N1 – found in Africa

Haplogroup N1b – found in Middle East, Egypt (Gurna), Caucasus and Europe.

N1a'c'd'e'I

Haplogroup N1c – Northern Saudi Arabia, Turkey

N1a'd'e'I

Haplogroup N1d – India

N1a'e'I

Haplogroup N1a – Arabian Peninsula and Northeast Africa. Found also in Central Asia and Southern Siberia. This branch is well attested in ancient people from various cultures of Neolithic Europe, from Hungary to Spain, and among the earliest farmers of Anatolia.[28]

N1e'I

Haplogroup N1e – found in Balochs, Burushos, and Buryats

Haplogroup I – West Eurasia and South Asia.

Haplogroup N5 – found in India.

Haplogroup N2

Haplogroup N2a – small clade found in West Europe.

Haplogroup W – found in Western Eurasia and South Asia

Haplogroup N3 – all subgroups have so far only been found in Belarus

Haplogroup N3a

Haplogroup N3a1

Haplogroup N3b

Haplogroup N7 – all subgroups have so far only been found in Cambodia

Haplogroup N7a

Haplogroup N7a1

Haplogroup N7a2

Haplogroup N7b

Haplogroup N8 – found in China.

Haplogroup N9 – found in Far East. [TMRCA 45,709.7 ± 7,931.5 ybp; CI=95%]

Haplogroup N9a [TMRCA 17,520.4 ± 4,389.8 ybp; CI=95%]

Haplogroup N9a12 – Khon Mueang (Pai District)

Haplogroup N9a-C16261T

Haplogroup N9a-C16261T* – Vietnam (Kinh)

Haplogroup N9a-A4129G-A4913G-T12354C-A12612G-C12636T-T16311C!!! – Tashkurgan (Kyrgyz)

Haplogroup N9a1'3 [TMRCA 15,007.4 ± 6,060.1 ybp; CI=95%]

Haplogroup N9a1 – Chinese (Hakka in Taiwan, etc.), She, Tu, Uyghur, Tuvan, Mongolia, Khamnigan, Korea, Japan [TMRCA 9,200 (95% CI 7,100