GeneticGroup 001: R1a North West Europe-Possible Norman/Norse: M198+ M417+ CTS4385+FGC9988+ 

Genetic group 001 descend from George Stead, born about 1780, Knaresborough, Yorkshire. All the Stead males that belong to this lineage share a genetic distance (GD) 63/67 STR markers with a lineage with the surname Leavitt who trace their direct paternal ancestor to John Leavitt, born 1608 in south Yorkshire.

Based on the GD of 63/67, this Stead lineage and the Leavitt lineage have a most recent common ancestor between 1100-1300AD, the very time when surnames were introduced in the UK. 

The Leavitt lineage are likely to trace their ancestry to Hooton Levitt (sometimes spelled Hooton Levett) which is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England; one of four villages in the county that carry the name of Hooton, meaning 'farmstead on a spur of land'.

Hooton Levitt (or Levett) carries the manorial affix of the de Livet family, an ancient Norman family that gained control of the manor in the 12th century after marriage with the granddaughter of Richard FitzTurgis (later 'de Wickersley'), lord of the manors of Hooton and Wickersley and co-founder of nearby Roche Abbey.

It is likely that the Levetts of Yorkshire, who gave their surname to thevillage of Hooton, originated in Sussex, where the family had initially held land and where their holdings were in the area of Sussex controlled by the Earls Warenne, among the most powerful of the Norman nobility, who held animmense baronial holding in Yorkshire stretching to Lancashire and Cheshire. William de Livet was a witness for a deed of about 1200 in which William de Warenne, 5th Earl of Surrey, confirmed a grant to Kirklees Nunnery by Reyner le Fleming, lord of the manor of Clifton.

What is very interesting is the fact that Hooton Levitt is about 10 miles from a place called 'Stead'. 

This genetic group belongs to the yDNA haplogroup R1a1a which only makes up about 5% of the yDNA lineages of the UK. This specific clade of R1a1a (CTS4385+, FGC9988+) is very old and also very rare among the R1a1a carriers worldwide (see the images uploaded to the ‘activity feed’ for detailed images of the R1a1a haplotrees from the R1a1a and subclades project).

Recent results from the BigY have yielded more matches with Norman surnames (e.g. Prendergast - descended from the 12th century Norman Knight Maurice de Prendergast, Neal - The Norman Neal family of Wiltshire & Pike - a variation of the Norman name Picon). Other matches included in the BigY results are those with Scandinavian surnames (e.g. Lundstorm, Lindberg, Korpi and Jonsen) which correlate nicely with the origins of the Normans being of Norse ancestry.

Genetic Group 002:R1b1a2a1a1a4 Frisian - Anglo Saxon: U106+, L48+

This genetic group belongs to the L48+ branch which is below the Proto Germanic haplogroup U106+ which is believed to be 4000-3500 years old based on current estimates from BigY mutation rates in this specific SNP. The SNP marker L48 is below U106 and regarded as a good indicator of Anglo-Saxon/Frisian origins as it has its highest frequencies among the Germanic speaking countries.

The principal Proto-Germanic branch of the Indo-European family tree is R1b-S21(a.k.a. U106). This haplogroup is found at high concentrations in the Netherlands and north-west Germany. It is likely that R1b-S21 lineages expanded in this region through a founder effect during the Unetice period, then penetrated into Scandinavia around 1700 BCE, thus creating a new culture, that of the Noridc Bronze Age (1700-500 BCE). R1b-S21 would then have blended for more than a millennium with pre existing Scandinavian populations, represented by haplogroups I1, I2-M223, R1a-Z284 and to a lesser extent N1c1, which evolved into a relatively unified whole during the Iron Age, the first truly Germanic culture and language, although spread across many tribes. R1b-S21 became the dominant haplogroup among the West Germanic tribes, but remained in the minority against I1 and R1a in East Germanic tribes, including those originating from Sweden such as the Goths, the Vandals and Lombards.

The presence of R1b-S21 in other parts of Europe can be attributed almost exclusively to the Germanic migrations that took place between the 3rd and the 10th century. The Frisians and Anglo-Saxons disseminated this haplogroup to England and the Scottish Lowlands, the Franks to Belgium and France, the Burgundians to eastern France, the Suebi to Galicia and northern Portugal, and the Lombards to Austria and Italy. The Goths help propagate S21 around Eastern Europe, but apparently their Germanic lineages were progressively diluted by blending with Slavic and Balkanic populations, and their impact in Italy, France and Spain was very minor. Later the Danish and Norwegian Vikings have also contributed to the diffusion of R1b-S21 (alongside I1, I2b1 and R1a) around much of Western Europe, but mainly in Iceland, in the British Isles, in Normandy, and in the southern Italy.

From the Late Middle Ages until the early 20th century, the Germans expanded across much of modern Poland, pushing as far as Latvia to the north-east and Roman into the south-east. During the same period the Austrians built an empire comprising what is now the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia,Croatia, Serbia, and parts of Romania, western Ukraine and southern Poland. Many centuries of German and Austrian influence in central and Eastern Europe result having a small percentage of Germanic lineages being found among modern populations. In Romania 4% of the population still consider themselves German.The low percentage of R1b-S21 in Finland, Estonia and Latvia can be attributed to the Swedish or Danish rule from the late Middle-Ages to the late 19th century.

There are two members of the project that belong to this genetic group and both trace their most distant paternal ancestor to Ireland inthe 1800s. This is very interesting and can have several possible scenarios to how this haplotype ended up in Ireland.

If this lineage is proven to have been in Ireland for some time, it is most likely that these members are descended from a knight that was involved in the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland in the 12^thcentury but this particular ancestor would have previously hadAnglo-Saxon/Frisian origins.

It is also possible that this lineage had migrated from England to Ireland in more recent times but more matches in the future will help solve this.

Genetic Group 004:Needs Validation, U152+, L144+; Italo-Celtic

This genetic group also belongs to R1b but has a specific SNP called L144. L144 is considered an Italo-Celtic marker and most likely came to Britain during the Rome era.

Starting circa 1300 BCE, a new Bronze Age culture flourished around the Alps thanks to the abundance of metal in the region, and laid the foundation for the classical Celtic culture. It was actually the succession of three closely linked culture: the Urnfield culture, which would evolve into the Hallstatt culture (from 1200 BCE) and eventually into the La Tène culture (from 450 BCE). After the Unetice expansion to Western Europe between 2300 and 1800 BCE, the Urnfield/Hallstatt/La Tène period represents the second major R1b expansionthat took place from Central Europe, pushing west to the Atlantic, north to Scandinavia, east to the Danubian valley, and eventually as far away as Greece, Anatolia, Ukraine and Russia, perhaps even until the Tarim basin in north-west China (> see Tarim mummies).

The Celtic Iron Age (late Halstatt, from 800 BCE) may have been brought through preserved contacts with the the steppes and the North Caucasus, notably the Koban culture (1100-400 BCE).

The Alpine Celts of the Hallstatt culture are associated with the S28 (a.k.a.U152) mutation, although not exclusively. The Italic branch (also S28/U152) is thought to have entered Italy in the 12th century BCE (see Villanova culture), but there were certainly several succesive waves, as attested by the laterarrival of the Cisalpine Celts from Gaul. The Belgae were another S28/U152 branch, an extension of the La Tène culture northward, following the Rhine, Moselle and Meuse rivers.

The expansion of the Urnfield/Hallstatt culture to Italy is evident in the form ofthe Villanovan culture (c. 1100-700 BCE), which shared striking resemblances with the Urnfield/Hallstatt sites of Bavariaand Upper Austria. The Villanova culture marks a clean break with the previous Terramare culture. Although both cultures practised cremation, whereas Terramare people placed cremated remains in communal ossuaries like their Neolithic ancestors from the Near East, Villanovans used distinctive Urnfield-styledouble-cone shaped funerary urns, and elite graves containing jewellery, bronze armour and horse harness fittings were separated from ordinary graves, showing for the first time the development of a highly hierarchical society, socharacteristic of Indo-European cultures. Quintessential Indo-Europeandecorations, such as swastikas, also make their appearance. Originally a Bronze-age culture, the Villanova culture introduced iron working to the Italian peninsula around the same time as it appeared in the Hallstatt culture, further reinforcing the link between the two cultures.

In all likelihood, the propagation of the Villanova culture represents the Italic colonisation of the Italian peninsula. The highest proportion of R1b-S28 is found precisely where the Villanovans were the more strongly established, around modern Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna. The Villanova culture was succeeded by the Etruscan civilisation, which displayed both signs of continuity with Villanova and new hybrid elements of West Asian origins, probably brought by Anatolian settlers (who would have belonged to a blend of haplogroups E1b1b, G2a, J1, J2 and R1b-L23).

Genetic group 006: Predicted P312+! Testfor P312 and if confirmed + try testing L21

The Proto-Italo-Celto-Germanic R1b people had reached in what is now Germany by 2500 BCE. By 2300 BCE they had arrived in large numbers and founded the Unetice culture. Judging from the propagation of bronze working to Western Europe, those first Indo-Europeans reached France and the Low Countries by 2200 BCE, Britain by 2100 BCE and Ireland by 2000 BCE, and Iberia by 1800 BCE. This first wave of R1b presumably carried R1b-L21 lineages in great number (perhaps because of a founder effect), as these are found everywhere in western, northern and Central Europe. The early split of L21 from the main Proto-Celtic branch around Germany would explain why the Q-Celtic languages (Goidelic and Hispano-Celtic) diverged so much from the P-Celtic branch (La Tène, Gaulish, Brythonic), which appears to have expanded from the later Urnfield and Hallstat cultures.

Some L21 lineages from the Netherlands and northern Germany later entered Scandinavia (from 1700 BCE) with the dominant subclade of the region, R1b-S21/U106 (see geneticgroup 002). The stronger presence of L21 in Norway and Iceland can be attributed to the Norwegian Vikings, who had colonised parts of Scotland and Ireland and taken slaves among the native Celtic populations, whom they brought to their new colony of Iceland and back to Norway. Nowadays about 20% of all Icelandic male lineages are R1b-L21 of Scottish or Irish origin.

In France, R1b-L21 is mainly present in historical Brittany (including Mayenne and Vendée) and in Lower Normandy. This region was repopulated by massive immigration of in sular Britons in the 5th century due to pressure from the invading Anglo-Saxons. However, it is possible that L21 was present in Armorica since the Bronze age or the Iron age given that the tribes of the Armorican Confederation of ancient Gaul already had a distinct identity from the other Gauls and had maintained closeties with the British Isles at least since the Atlantic Bronze Age.

R-L21 is the most common Y-DNA lineage in the British Isles and 95% of British L21+ lineages test positive for DF13 which is believed to have mutated in the British Isles. This genetic group have a signature that looks typically DF13 but this needs further testing for confirmation. This genetic group share fairly recent ancestry (possibly within documented history) and their lineage came to Britain with the Brythonic speaking settlers from Central Europe that came during the early to mid Bronze Age.