Results
All of the participants in the Stamper DNA study fall into Haplogroup R1b1 (formerly known as R1b), which is the most common Y-DNA haplogroup in western Europe. More than half of men of European descent belong to R1b. The frequency of R1b1 is highest along the Atlantic coast of Europe (up to 90% of Welsh, Irish, and Basque populations, for example), and declines as you move east. Haplogroup R1b1 probably originated in a group of people who "wintered" in what is now Spain during the last Ice Age and then moved north when the glaciers retreated 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. R1b is considered a marker of Palaeolithic European hunter-gatherer ancestry.
R1b probably arrived in Spain from the east among the peoples considered to be aboriginal to Europe. It is believed that everyone who is R1b is a descendant in the male line from an individual known as "the patriarch" since his descendants account for over 40% of all the chromosomes of Europe. This haplogroup is characteristic of the Basques people who are genetically the closest of the original R1b population of only a few thousand.
The Stamper DNA Project is not connected in any way to any other DNA testing company other than Family Tree DNA of Houston, TX. Neither does this project nor do the administrators receive any financial incentives for using this company. An ancestral chart is required for participation in this group study in order to obtain the group reduced rate. There are no fees other than the cost of your test.