Project Goals
Besides the obvious goal of verifying and extending family trees, this project hopes eventually to resolve some issues relating to Rzeczpospolita's history and genetic composition. For example:
- Was R1a1 the haplogroup of the Indo-Europeans who gave rise to the Slavic and Baltic language families, and later to Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Lithuanian?
- Was I2a the haplogroup of the Balkan intermediaries who brought the practice of farming to the Slavs and Balts from its origin in the Middle East?
- Was R1b1b2 the haplogroup of the Teutonic Knights lands that were incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Republic after the Battle of Grunwald? Was R1b1b2 also the haplogroup of the Scots who settled in Poland in large numbers in the 17th century? Is some fraction of R1b1b2 indigenous to eastern Europe?
- Was N the haplogroup of the indigenous people along the Baltic coast who later adopted the languages of the arriving Indo-Europeans? Was N also one of the haplogroups of the Lipka Tatars who were invited to settle in Poland-Lithuania at the end of the 14th century after the fall of the Mongol Empire?
- Was I1 the haplogroup of the Vikings who ruled, or protected, Ukraine in the 10th century? Was I1 also the haplogroup of the Danes along the Pomeranian coast who were eventually incorporated into Poland-Lithuania? Is some percentage of I1 and I2b1 indigenous to eastern Europe?
- The Jewish community brought haplogroups J, G, and E1b1b from the Middle East. But were J and G also the haplogroups of the Alans, a Sarmatian tribe that ruled, or protected, southern Poland in the 5th century? Do J and G also mark some of the descendants of the Lipka Tatars?
- Did the Jewish people bring haplogroups T and R2 from the ancient Middle East?
- Does haplogroup Q descend from the Khazar nobility, who converted to Judaism early in the lifetime of their state and then joined the larger Eastern European Jewish society after the fall of Khazaria?