About us
The Northern Punjab and Jammu-Kashmir Project was established on 27 Aug 2021 by Awais Hussain and Fesser Majid. It was initially entitled 'Mirpur Y-DNA and Genealogy' but it was decided to broaden the scope and welcome members from surroundings who all belong to a shared heritage. Gareth Henson joined the admin team on 29 May 2023.
The project aims to study the history, origins, and demographics of families and clan communities in Northern Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, with a focus on the following areas:
- the Mirpur region: Mirpur, Dadyal, Chakswari, Islamgarh, Kotli, Bhimber
- the Pothohar plateau, including Rawalpindi, Gujar Khan, Islamabad, Kallar Syedan, Chakwal, Jhelum (Sohawa, Dina, Pind Dadan Khan)
- Gujrat (Kharian, Sarai Alamgir, Jalalpur Jattan)
- Jammu
- and the Valley of Kashmir
These areas have a significant diaspora community worldwide, particularly in Britain, the USA, and Europe. However, their heritage remains underrepresented and understudied. Our platform is dedicated to genealogical research, using traditional methods, oral history, knowledge of clans and tribes, and genetic evidence (autosomal DNA, Y-DNA, and mt-DNA) to uncover the origins and lineages of these communities.
A 1946 map of North-Western India, including northern Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir, by National Geographic
About the Administrators
Awais Hussain is an avid researcher of family history for over ten years and is the founder of Mirpur Heritage / Apna Heritage, a UK-based charity which aims to preserve and promote the heritage, arts, culture, history, genealogy, language, and literature of communities from Mirpur and surroundings. He has extensively researched this region and is actively involved in numerous collaborative projects, notably with the Australian Indian Historical Society and the Newpakhistorian Ethnology and History of Punjabi Tribes. His chapter 'The Story of Mirpur: From Magnificence to Marginalization to Migration' was published in the collection 'Society and Politics of Jammu and Kashmir' in 2021. Alongside colleagues, Awais has also helped over twenty individuals learn about and connect with their biological family.
Gareth Henson joined the team on 29 May 2023. He administers multiple haplogroup and surname projects in addition to geographical projects. Gareth's research on STR DYF399 was published in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy in 2005, and in 2011 he discovered and named SNPs Y-Z709 through T-Z717. A native of Wales, he currently resides in the Netherlands.
Fesser Majid has spent the last ten years researching the genetics of the Indian subcontinent, more specifically the genetics of the greater Kashmir where his heritage lies. Using new and existing empirical and theoretical research, he has assisted many people in trying to understand their genetic genealogy from their DNA results. His main areas of focus are ancient DNA, Y-DNA and mtDNA haplogroups of South and Central Asia. Using DNA, he has been able to build a comprehensive picture in the understanding of the movement and history of tribes settled in the subcontinent. He also sometimes assists testers to find missing family members using genetics and official documentation.