From some private messages that I have received, it appears that there is some confusion about what the haplogroups signify. In our Bowles project, we presently have three different haplogroups represented: R1b, J2, and I. What I am going to try to do in this message is explain how, when and where we think these groups came into existence. Quoting from FTDNA, "A Haplogroup is defined as all the male descendants of the single person who first showed a SNP mutation. A SNP mutation identifies a group who had a common ancestor far back in time, since SNP's rarely mutate. Each member of a Haplogroup would have the same SNP mutation as the common ancestor. These mutations are extremely rare, and identify a group of people over a period of tens of thousands of years." I won't go into the science behind SNP mutations since it does not help us in our quest to understand haplogroups. During the time of the last Ice Age, most of northern Europe was covered over with ice which restricted man to areas south of the ice pack. During this time there were three distinct areas where humans settled in communities: the Iberian Peninsula, the Balkans, and the Ukraine. If you look at a map today, we are referring to central Spain (the Iberian Peninsula), the area north of Greece (the Balkans), and the area to the northeast of the Black Sea (the Ukraine). These three groups had been isolated so long that naturally their DNA had picked up mutations which can be defined as different haplogroups. As the ice receded about 12,000 years ago, and man could extend his habitat northward, these groups spread out. Those of the Iberian Peninsula moved into western Europe and the British Isles initially. We label them as haplogroup R1b. Those in the Balkans, which we label as haplogroup I, moved across central Europe and up into Scandinavia. The third group, which we label as haplogroup R1a, spread into eastern Europe, central Asia, and as far as India and Pakistan. These three haplogroups account for about 80% of Europe's present day population. Remember that we are using today's names to identify locations. None of these nations existed at that time. In fact this was before mankind adopted agriculture. Around 8,000 years ago peoples of the Middle East had developed the new technology of agriculture, and they began spreading into Europe. There were several haplogroups involved including J2. While they are found predominantly along the Mediterranean coast, over the centuries many also moved north and westward into western Europe and even the British Isles. In the centuries since then, we have experienced what is called genetic drift. That is, while the majority of folks have stayed in the general geographical areas identified above, a significant portion have "drifted" into other regions. You only have to look at the history of the British Isles to understand how this genetic drift brought these different haplogroups together. I won't bore you with a history of England, except to mentions the names of Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Normans to mention just some of those who found their way to these islands. Haplogroups will tell you almost nothing about your ancestors in the last 500-1000 years. What it will do is give you some idea of where your most distant ancestors began their journey. Comments are welcome. Charlie Hartley Bowles DNA Project Administrator [mailto:hartley@iglou.com]