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Fergus(s)on DNA ProjectAnalysis by Halpogroup |
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A haplotype is the specific genetic signature of a person's DNA. A haplogroup is the set of haplotypes sharing a common characteristic. All persons within a specific haplogroup share a common ancestor. The relationship between different haplogroups is slowly being worked out, forming a family tree of mankind as a whole. To date there are 23 primary haplogroups A through R and numerous subgroups.
According to the Genographic Project1, haplogroup A first appeared about 55,000 years ago. Today it is found in males throughout Africa and in particular Tanzania's Hadza peoples and eastern Africa's bushmen. A mutation split the gene pool into haplogroups A and B about 50,000 years ago. In turn two different haplogroups mutate out of B forming C and F. The youngest of the primary haplogroups is R which appeared about 30,000 years ago.
This haplogroup is believed to have evolved in the Middle East. It expanded into the Mediterranean during the population boom driven by the adoption of agriculture some 9,000 years ago. Today it is distributed around the Mediterranean, southern Europe, and in north and east Africa.2.
This is a European haplogroup, representing nearly one-fifth of European males and of all Fergus(s)on men. It is almost non-existent outside of Europe, suggesting that it arose in Europe. Estimates of the age of haplogroup I suggest that it arose prior to the last Glacial Maximum, about twenty thousand years ago. During the last Ice Age it was probably, confined to the refuge in the Balkans, and then spread northward during the recolonization of northern Europe following the retreat of the glaciers.
The J2 lineage originated in the northern portion of the Fertile Crescent where it later spread throughout central Asia, the Mediterranean, and south into India2.
Lineage R1a is thought to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas. It is associated with the Kurgan culture, known for the domestication of the horse (approximately 3000 b.~). This lineage is currently found in central and western Asia, India, and in Slavic populations of Eastern Europe.2 A well-known individual of the R1a lineage is Somerled, founder of Clan Donald.
Lineage R1b originated prior to the end of the last Ice Age where it was concentrated in refugia in southern Europe and Iberia and is the most common Haplogroup in European populations. It is especially common in the west of Ireland where it approaches 100% of the population. About 70% of all Fergus(s)on are within R1b or some subset thereof.
Copyright © 2006 Fergus(s)on DNA Project
