A couple of years ago my grandson decided he wanted to know more about his ancestry.  He joined the National Geographic Genotype Project.  Through that I learned my haploid group.  The Project separates paternal and maternal information.  His maternal haploid–which would be mine–is J1c3b.   The J haploid was named for Jasmine, one of the seven daughters of eve from the book by the famous Oxford geneticist, Bryan Sykes. Jasmine lived in the area which presently encompasses parts of Syria, Iraq, and Iran.  This group was the last to migrate to Europe. In fact some theorize that they brought agriculture to Europe. Currently Haploid J is found in most of Europe and the Middle East except for the people who live in Lapland.  However, the more specific J1c3b is not found in the Middle East any more but mostly in northwestern Europe.  www.eupedia.com/europe/Haploidgroup

Since I teach high school and am not teaching summer school, one of my summer projects is to investigate my ancestry more thoroughly.  My cousin has extensively investigated my father’s side.  Through his investigations, I discovered my last name did not come from where I had thought.  Those ancestors are from northern Ireland and left there in the late 1600’s.  For some reason after living in the United States, their descendants changed the spelling of their name from Lytle to Lightle, my last name.

Yesterday, I ordered a DNA kit.  Given all the information I already have and my haploid group, I am very curious as to what these results will indicate.  It will provide no information about my father’s side because women can only trace back generations of mothers.  However, since it is my mother’s side about which I know nearly nothing, it will be new information.  As I progress on this quest, I will share what I learn here on my blog.  Here’s to happy ancestry hunting.