Marie Rundquist and I would like to announce the formation of the Native American Haplogroup C project, titled Y-DNA Haplogroup C-P39 Project.

Native American males who descend from direct paternal ancestors who crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia some 10,000+ years ago fall into one of two haplogroups, or genetic clans.  One is haplogroup Q and the other is haplogroup C.

Since both haplogroup Q and haplogroup C are found among Asians, not everyone with these haplogroups in the Americas are Native Americans – only certain subgroups identified by specific mutations that occurred shortly before, during or shortly after the migration process.

In order to group Native American descendants together to better study these haplogroups and to coordinate their genealogies, we have created a haplogroup C project just for people who are Native American descendants.

Native Americans who carry haplogroup C are indeed quite rare and are identified by a special mutation, a SNP marker, known as P39, within haplogroup C.  This haplogroup subgroup is also known by the name C3b.

We would like to invite all men who are haplogroup C and carry mutation P39, or anyone who is haplogroup C and has a family history of paternal line Native ancestry to join the project.

You may recognize the names of the administrators.  If not, let me introduce them.

Marie Rundquist’s Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia Project has rewritten the history of the Native American’s who married into the Acadian families in Canada beginning in the 1600s and before the Acadian deportation and scattering in 1755.  I wrote about the extremely interesting Acadian Germain Doucet family who, it turns out, is haplogroup C3b.  In addition, Marie, an Acadian and Native descendant herself, is an author.  Her book, Finding Anne Marie details another discovery of a Native American ancestor in an Acadian family.

I too am a Native American descendant from several different genealogical lines, including, ironically, the Acadian Doucet line.  I have been involved with Native American genetic genealogy since dinosaurs roamed the earth.  Ok, not quite that long, but since this science was taking its first tentative steps, about 12 years now.  I manage and co-manage several DNA projects that involve or are dedicated to Native American heritage.  I, along with Rebekah (and others), was a partner in the revolutionary 2010 Native American SNP discovery.

Genetic advances and discoveries relevant to Native history and genealogy are regularly covered on my blog, www.dna-explained.com.  It’s searchable, just enter the word “Native” into the search box.  In addition, I maintain a historical focus on the Native people through the Native Names project which is focused on extracting the earliest names of Native people found in colonial documents.  To date, they number over 30,000 individuals and over 8,000 surnames.  Adventures in this project and a wide range of Native history are discussed on my blog, www.nativeheritageproject.com.

All three co-administrators come to you with years of genealogy and genetic experience.  We welcome project members as well as questions anyone might have.  We’re excited to be threads in the tapestry of unfolding history and hope you will join us.

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/ydna_C-P39/default.aspx

If you’d like to take a DNA test, click here.