Click any one of these to follow the E1b1 lineage's complete path through time

Looking at the SNPs above, you can see that this group moved very slowly out of Africa, then extremely rapidly once they got to Europe. The timing of their arrival into Western Europe is somewhat debated, but they were in Normandy far in advance of the time our ancestors were taking the surname from the land.

A Broad Look at the E1b1 Path Through Time

If this section seems short compared to the R1b section, our E1b1 participants should be happy. It simply means that your haplogroup is more clearly understood. And, not being members of the AMH haplogroup, yours' is a far easier set of results to compare with other data. 

Two of the three branches of haplogroup E, the major clades E1 and E2, have been found mostly on the African continent, where their distribution has been analyzed in detail (Underhill et al. 2000; Cruciani et al. 2002). The third branch, the clade E3 (now E1), defined by the mutation P2, is the only one that has been found in large numbers in Europe and in western Asia 118

As of this writing, we have two participants who fall within the Haplogroup formerly known as E3b. Their specific markers are characterized by M35+ V36+ and they're specifically now known as Haplogroup E1b1b.  Both participants now are in the subclade E1b1b1a2. Unlike R1b, this haplogroup can be more clearly traced in time. They didn't breed as successfully and, thus, have a more clearly defined trail up and out of Africa. But the path these ancestors followed, and events that affected their path through time are better understood and endlessly fascinating because this group spent such a large percentage of their time in the fertile crescent of the Mediterranean - the most populous area of the human world - the area from which so much of modern civilization was formed.

The first three clades of this Haplogroup all mutated in Northeastern Africa -
E1b1
E1b1b
E1b1b1

All these groups probably first mutated in Africa between 20,000 and 47,500 years ago. This group stayed in Africa far longer than our R1b or I1 Haplogroups. The mutation that established E-M35 (E1b1b1a2) participants was estimated by Criciani et al. (in 2008) at 24,000 years ago. (Cruciani obtained an estimate of 25.6 thousand years (ky) for the TMRCA of the E1b1 group.

Interestingly, our E1b1 participants both show a "null" value on DYS425. A value of "null" (zero) for any marker means that the lab reported no result for this marker. All cases of this nature are retested multiple times by the lab to confirm their accuracy.  Mutations causing null values are infrequent, but are passed on to offspring just like other mutations, so related male lineages such as a father and son would likely share any null values. The null 425 is a very common value among all clades in the M-35 project. For all people tested with FTDNA's 38-67 marker test, most show null on this allele.

Steven C. Bird has done a fascinating study of the E1b1 Haplogroup in which he compares standard FTDNA alleles of subjects in given geographies to arrive at geographic locations of specific subclades of E1b1.

Bird's hypothesis that members of the E1b1(a2) haplogroup migrated to Britain from the Balkans with the Roman military during the first through third centuries as members of auxiliary military units or as members of the regular Roman legions, is supported by genetic, archaeological and historical evidence. I've seen many such sources, but Bird's was new to me in 2008. However, it seems believable based on the Anglo-Saxon studies of R1b.

There is some reason to believe that our E1b1b participants came to the U.K. from the Roman provinces of Thracia and Moesia.119   Steven C. Bird did a geographical survey of existing families of E1b1b origins in the U.K. and studied their markers. The set of markers our participants display plus the "null" marker on DYS425 were the clinchers. Our participants are an almost exact match (DYS393 off by 1) with only one set of his results - the A1335 Group -

Bird places this group in Wales up to the current day. Our E1b1b participants may want to include this area in their research. But, like the Anglo-Saxon DYS390=23 participants, if this group were here while our R1b's were in Normandy adopting the surname from the land, how then did M35 acquire the surname?

To see the more recent history of this E1b1 group and explanations of how they might have gotten to the UK, click the link below, or the "Genealogy Groups" link at the top left of this page.

R1b  |  E1b1  |  I1  |  R1a  |  S21


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