Project News
October 8, 2008 -- rs11799226 discovered as defining a new subclade beneath P312/S116/rs34276300
October 17, 2008 -- FTDNA control test results posted for L21=rs11799226; commercial testing begins
November 7, 2008 -- L21 added to ISOGG's Human Phylogenetic Tree as new subclade "R1b1b2a1b6"
November 22, 2008 -- R-L21 Project is launched
December 8, 2008 -- 50th member confirmed
January 12, 2009 -- 100th member confirmed
March 11, 2009 -- ISOGG updates its R Tree. R-L21* is now "R1b1b2a1a2f".
March 15, 2009 -- 200 members!
March 15, 2009 -- The YCC (and FTDNA) updates its R Tree. R-L21* is now "R1b1b2a1b5."
June, 2009 -- Eastern European Ashkenazi R-L21* Haplotype Cluster discovered with characteristic marker values 388=11, 392=14, 459b=9, and 464c=15. Commenting on the comparison of several cluster haplotypes, Dr. Anatole Klyosov wrote (translated from Russian by Lena Govor):
". . . [A]ll these haplotypes have 8 mutations in 25 markers and 14 mutations in 37 markers. This places the common ancestor of all 7 haplotypes 650±240 years back if calculating on the basis of 25-markers and 550±160 back if calculating on the basis of 37 markers. In other words these seven people have a common ancestor who lived in the 14-15th century. It is possible to reconstruct that these families fled Central Europe around 650 years ago when Europe was depopulated by the bubonic plaque and Jews were often massacred as alleged culprits of the epidemic. The surviving Jews fled to Lithuania and Poland, who offered them protection. Jews at that time experienced a genetic bottleneck. That is why the most distant common ancestor of many Jewish clusters lived in the middle of the 14th century or later – that corresponds to the time of their migration to the new territories in Eastern Europe."