Identifying the Y-DNA haplogroups of ancient Roman families through their descendants

Here a summary table of the Roman nomina and their presumed haplogroups. The patrician gentes are in bold.

GensOriginHaplogroup
QuinctiaAlbanG2a-L497>Z1816
CantiaG2a-L497>Z1816
Coelia/CaeliaEtruscanG2a-L497>Z1816
CordiaG2a-L497>Z1816
PapiniaG2a-L497>Z1816
PreciaG2a-L497>Z1816
StatiaG2a-L497>Z1816
PapiaSamniteG2a-U1>L1264
FloriaG2a-U1>L13
HordeoniaG2a-U1>L13
LemoniaG2a-U1>L13
OrbiliaJ2a-L70
TiberianaJ2a-L70
AuliaJ2a-Z438
LiciniaEtruscan?J2a-Z438
LuciaJ2a-Z438
DecimiaSamniteJ2b
MatiaJ2b2-L283>Z38241
CorneliaRomanR1b-L2>ZZ56
CominiaAurunci?R1b-L51>Z2118
CaniniaTusculumR1b-S1523>BY38816
CaeciniaEtruscanR1b-Z145>CTS6389
CampatiaR1b-Z145>PF6577
ClaudiaSabineR1b-Z193
MarciaSabineR1b-Z193
PapiriaAlbanR1b-Z193
PinariaSabineR1b-Z193
PostumiaRomanR1b-Z193
ValeriaSabineR1b-Z193
HortensiaRoman?R1b-Z193
HostiaR1b-Z193
PomponiaSabineR1b-Z193
RaniaSabineR1b-Z193
ServiliaAlbanR1b-Z43>S47>S4634
PliniaR1b-Z43>S47>S4634

Out of the 10 patrician gentes listed so far, 8 presumably belong to R1b-U152, one to R1b-Z2118 and one to G2a-L497>Z1816, which I had long predicted to be Celto-Italic and closely linked historically to the propagation of R1b-U152. So there is consistency with what the expected Y-DNA lineages of Italic people. But it is even more remarkable that the 6 families of Sabine origin (4 patrician and 2 plebeian) all belong to R1b-U152>Z193 !

Also consistently, all the J2a-L70 and J2b2 surnames that I could potentially match to Roman gentes belong to minor gentes, except the gens Licinia, an originally obscure plebeian gens which rose to prominence in the late Republic.

I wonder Y DNA of Lucius Junius Brutus founder of Roman Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Junius_Brutus
 
Wow, that's a lot of G2. Especially compared to the J2, whose spread in north-western Europe is often attributed to Romans.
 
There doesn’t appear to be any G2a-CTS342 among the original Romans? Only U1 and L497 ?

Also, perhaps a question for Torzio, but what does “La” prefix mean in southern Italian surnames, in particular Calabrian? I recall reading that it’s a fairly recent innovation.
 
There doesn’t appear to be any G2a-CTS342 among the original Romans? Only U1 and L497 ?

Also, perhaps a question for Torzio, but what does “La” prefix mean in southern Italian surnames, in particular Calabrian? I recall reading that it’s a fairly recent innovation.

La = The

example ...La Russa means the Red ( could be a red headed woman )...........but it is mostly created for women without a husband ( single women with child in the early days when surnames where introduced) ..............in the North , more common is Dalla instead of La

La, In the south , it was also used as an orphan dropped/abandoned off at the church by the mother..........in the north it was Del Pio ..............or under Venice it was Del Pio Luogo

In the north ( medieval times ) it was also used for foreigners giving them an Italian surname .....like, the family named Scaliger, the german rulers of Verona....where called La Scala by italians ( artificial made up name )
 
Wow, that's a lot of G2. Especially compared to the J2, whose spread in north-western Europe is often attributed to Romans.

That's because J2a was not one of the original Indo-European haplogroup in the founding Italic population of the ancient Romans. J2a was presumably assimilated from neighbouring Etruscan and Greek populations. By the time the Romans conquered Gaul and Britain there would have been many J2a men among the Romans (be them legionaries, administrators or merchants).
 
I wonder Y DNA of Lucius Junius Brutus founder of Roman Republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Junius_Brutus

I couldn't find any modern surname sounding like Junius (June, Juny?) in the FTNDA projects. But while looking for the existence of a anglicised form of Brutus, I found that the surname Brute exists in Britain at the border of England and Wales. Brutus could also have become Bruto in late Latin, then Bruton in English, and that name also exists and is more common. Better still, there is a FTDNA project! 70 of the 72 members are R1b. Few tested for deep clades, but among those who did, several belong to R1b-L51>Z2118 (aka PF7589). Two individuals from Cheshire (around the major Roman town of Deva Victrix, aka modern Chester) share the common deep clade is Y40983, which was formed 1150 years ago and descend from a single ancestor 450 years ago. That's for the British Bruton individuals. If we go up the phylogenetic tree, we find that the common ancestor in Roman times they would have carried the SNP Y5141 (TMRCA 2300 years) and outside Britain this clade is found only in Italy! Bingo!

So based on this evidence, it seems possible that the Brutti belong to R1b-L51>Z2118>Z2116>Y5149>Y5141. Since, as far as I know, Brutus is a cognomen only found in the gens Junia, it is indeed possible that Lucius Junius Brutus belonged to that clade too. To confirm this it would be good to find other surnames derived from Junius or one of the cognomina linked to that gens (Brutus, Bubulcus, Pera, Pennus, Silanus, Blaesus, Rusticus) and see if they also belong to that clade. Many variants of Junius exist in England (June, Junes, Juny) but are all rare and I couldn't find any Y-DNA project. Over time some Junes might have become Jones as people tend to change unfamiliar names into familiar ones. However the vast majority of Jones belong to the Celtic R1b-L21 and so far I haven't found any Jones who were R1b-Z2118.
 
Here a summary table of the Roman nomina and their presumed haplogroups. The patrician gentes are in bold.

GensOriginHaplogroup
QuinctiaAlbanG2a-L497>Z1816
CantiaG2a-L497>Z1816
Coelia/CaeliaEtruscanG2a-L497>Z1816
CordiaG2a-L497>Z1816
PapiniaG2a-L497>Z1816
PreciaG2a-L497>Z1816
StatiaG2a-L497>Z1816
PapiaSamniteG2a-U1>L1264
FloriaG2a-U1>L13
HordeoniaG2a-U1>L13
LemoniaG2a-U1>L13
OrbiliaJ2a-L70
TiberianaJ2a-L70
AuliaJ2a-Z438
LiciniaEtruscan?J2a-Z438
LuciaJ2a-Z438
DecimiaSamniteJ2b
MatiaJ2b2-L283>Z38241
CorneliaRomanR1b-L2>ZZ56
CominiaAurunci?R1b-L51>Z2118
CaniniaTusculumR1b-S1523>BY38816
CaeciniaEtruscanR1b-Z145>CTS6389
CampatiaR1b-Z145>PF6577
ClaudiaSabineR1b-Z193
MarciaSabineR1b-Z193
PapiriaAlbanR1b-Z193
PinariaSabineR1b-Z193
PostumiaRomanR1b-Z193
ValeriaSabineR1b-Z193
HortensiaRoman?R1b-Z193
HostiaR1b-Z193
PomponiaSabineR1b-Z193
RaniaSabineR1b-Z193
ServiliaAlbanR1b-Z43>S47>S4634
PliniaR1b-Z43>S47>S4634

Out of the 10 patrician gentes listed so far, 8 presumably belong to R1b-U152, one to R1b-Z2118 and one to G2a-L497>Z1816, which I had long predicted to be Celto-Italic and closely linked historically to the propagation of R1b-U152. So there is consistency with what the expected Y-DNA lineages of Italic people. But it is even more remarkable that the 6 families of Sabine origin (4 patrician and 2 plebeian) all belong to R1b-U152>Z193 !

Also consistently, all the J2a-L70 and J2b2 surnames that I could potentially match to Roman gentes belong to minor gentes, except the gens Licinia, an originally obscure plebeian gens which rose to prominence in the late Republic.
This is interesting. Could you please advise if these results are shared in any DNA website or it can be compared to Big y results to find matches. Thanks
 
Here is another branch of R1b that I haven't investigated yet.

R1b-L51>L151>S1200 (CTS4528)


  • Flaming (Prussia/Poland) + Fleming (UK) => both could derive from the gens Flaminia.
  • Kellum (unknown origin but surname exist in England, though very rare) => maybe from Chilo, a cognomen of the gens Flaminia above.
  • Aker (England)=> from the cognomen Acer? (found notably in the gens Sedatia of Gallic origin)
  • Kienle (Germany) => possibly a corruption of Cilnia (to Cilne => Cinle => Kienle), an Etruscan gens
  • Marcelis (Netherlands) + Merkel (Germany) => possible corruption of Marcellus, a cognomen of the gens Claudia and Quinctia, among others.
  • Carnley (North Midlands, England) => possibly a corruption of Cornelius
  • Suhre (Rhineland, Germany) => from the cognomen Sura (found in the gens Cornelia and Licinia)

Note that Carnley and Suhre both fall under the same deep clade S1200>S14328>BY62339 so that clade is another potential candidate for the gens Cornelia.
 
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Here is another branch of R1b that I haven't investigated yet.

R1b-L51>L151>S1200 (CTS4528)


  • Flaming (Prussia/Poland) + Fleming (UK) => both could derive from the gens Flaminia.
  • Kellum (unknown origin but surname exist in England, though very rare) => maybe from Chilo, a cognomen of the gens Flaminia above.
  • Aker (England)=> from the cognomen Acer? (found notably in the gens Sedatia of Gallic origin)
  • Kienle (Germany) => possibly a corruption from Cilnia (to Cilne => Cinle => Kienle), an Etruscan gens
  • Marcelis (Netherlands) + Merkel (Germany) => possible corruption of Marcellus, a cognomen of the gens Claudia and Quinctia, among others.

There are also Johnson’s with that Haplogroup (R-CTS4528).

Some came to the USA from Cornwall to Boston MA area in about 1626 AD :)

tQeIm4C.jpg
 
There are also Johnson’s with that Haplogroup (R-CTS4528).

Some came to the USA from Cornwall to Boston MA area in about 1626 AD :)

tQeIm4C.jpg

I don't know if he belonged to that particular sub-lineage, but wasn't U.S. President Lyndon Johnson U-152?
 
There are also Johnson’s with that Haplogroup (R-CTS4528).

Some came to the USA from Cornwall to Boston MA area in about 1626 AD :)

There are hundreds of people who are R-CTS4528. What's your point? Why should Johnson be a Roman name?
 
There are hundreds of people who are R-CTS4528. What's your point? Why should Johnson be a Roman name?

I never said that !

The point is: if R-CTS4528 is Roman related, it was also in Cornwall in the 1600s.

Despite the fact that LivingDNA doesn't believe there's much Roman genetic evidence in England.

People can make of that information what they want, there are many Johnson’s out there.
 
Very interesting Maciamo. Regarding gens Licinia, there is an interesting tradition regarding the Moreno surname origin, Julio Atienza, a well known genealogist in Spain, stated that the Moreno's descends from Lucius Licinus Murena. The fact is that, at least one spanish Moreno on FTDNA is PF5456, a subclade of JL-70s.
In my own case, my original surname was Martínez de la Jara (patronymic-toponymic surname), the patronymic, as you've said comes from Martinus, from latin god Mars, I belong to a subclade of PF5456. Regards
 
I presented this before ............a paper which goes into detail about G2a-L497 clearly states it is a tyrolese and coastal northern romanian marker ............a very high % has this marker

https://www.fsigenetics.com/article/S1872-4973(13)00136-1/fulltext

Clearly this marker entered Italy via Raetia e Vindelicia lands
Perhaps it entered through there (especially G-L43), perhaps not. By the way, G-L497 predates well Rhaetians and Etruscans, as you know. Anyway, I do agree that it could be among them, in the case it's what you're suggesting. But if you want my opinion, this paper is 7 years old, and it looks outdated in some aspects.
It provides a coalescent time of 13.900 years with standard error of 3.300 for East Tyrol!!
I'm not sure, either, that those age estimations based on STR markers "necessarily" means per se that the clade did originate (or expanded from) there. The following comes from the (much more recent) paper "Prehistoric migrations through the Mediterranean basin shaped Corsican Y-chromosome diversity" (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...l.pone.0200641), just as an example: "Fifteen out of the 17 Corsican G2a2b2a1a1b-L497 displayed a unique Y-STR profile (S4 Table) with an estimated TMRCA of 6867 +/- 1294 years." Do we think that G-L497 arrived in Corsica abt. 7000 years ago? Likely not.
I actually think this TMRCA based on STRs is not even accurate. I mean, if the results are correct and I checked them right, all these Corsican G-L497 men would have Y-GATA-H4=12, and sixteen out 17 would have DYS461=10, two results uncommon among G-L497 men. What a coincidence it would be. :) But no. It may actually evidence low diversity: the Corsican men involved would form together a branch not "that" old.

Well, G-L497 does have a relatively high frequency around that part of Alps and surroundings, apparently, and Berger's map catched up that, as others - including Eupedia's. However, I'm affraid G-L497 highest SNP diversities would be somewhere else, and even the STR diversities suggested in the paper "Reconstructing the genetic history of Italians: new insights from a male (Y-chromosome) perspective" don't falsify this notion.
 
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Perhaps it entered through there (especially G-L43), perhaps not. By the way, G-L497 predates well Rhaetians and Etruscans, as you know. Anyway, I do agree that it could be among them, in the case it's what you're suggesting. But if you want my opinion, this paper is 7 years old, and it looks outdated in some aspects.
It provides a coalescent time of 13.900 years with standard error of 3.300 for East Tyrol!!
I'm not sure, either, that those age estimations based on STR markers "necessarily" means per se that the clade did originate (or expanded from) there. The following comes from the (much more recent) paper "Prehistoric migrations through the Mediterranean basin shaped Corsican Y-chromosome diversity" (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...l.pone.0200641), just as an example: "Fifteen out of the 17 Corsican G2a2b2a1a1b-L497 displayed a unique Y-STR profile (S4 Table) with an estimated TMRCA of 6867 +/- 1294 years." Do we think that G-L497 arrived in Corsica abt. 7000 years ago? Likely not.
I actually think this TMRCA based on STRs is not even accurate. I mean, if the results are correct and I checked them right, all these Corsican G-L497 men would have Y-GATA-H4=12, and sixteen out 17 would have DYS461=10, two results uncommon among G-L497 men. What a coincidence it would be. :) But no. It may actually evidence low diversity: the Corsican men involved would form together a branch not "that" old.

Well, G-L497 does have a relatively high frequency around that part of Alps and surroundings, apparently, and Berger's map catched up that, as others - including Eupedia's. However, I'm affraid G-L497 highest SNP diversities would be somewhere else, and even the STR diversities suggested in the paper "Reconstructing the genetic history of Italians: new insights from a male (Y-chromosome) perspective" don't falsify this notion.


Excellent information. Thanks, Regio.
 
Perhaps it entered through there (especially G-L43), perhaps not. By the way, G-L497 predates well Rhaetians and Etruscans, as you know. Anyway, I do agree that it could be among them, in the case it's what you're suggesting. But if you want my opinion, this paper is 7 years old, and it looks outdated in some aspects.
It provides a coalescent time of 13.900 years with standard error of 3.300 for East Tyrol!!
I'm not sure, either, that those age estimations based on STR markers "necessarily" means per se that the clade did originate (or expanded from) there. The following comes from the (much more recent) paper "Prehistoric migrations through the Mediterranean basin shaped Corsican Y-chromosome diversity" (https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ar...l.pone.0200641), just as an example: "Fifteen out of the 17 Corsican G2a2b2a1a1b-L497 displayed a unique Y-STR profile (S4 Table) with an estimated TMRCA of 6867 +/- 1294 years." Do we think that G-L497 arrived in Corsica abt. 7000 years ago? Likely not.
I actually think this TMRCA based on STRs is not even accurate. I mean, if the results are correct and I checked them right, all these Corsican G-L497 men would have Y-GATA-H4=12, and sixteen out 17 would have DYS461=10, two results uncommon among G-L497 men. What a coincidence it would be. :) But no. It may actually evidence low diversity: the Corsican men involved would form together a branch not "that" old.
Well, G-L497 does have a relatively high frequency around that part of Alps and surroundings, apparently, and Berger's map catched up that, as others - including Eupedia's. However, I'm affraid G-L497 highest SNP diversities would be somewhere else, and even the STR diversities suggested in the paper "Reconstructing the genetic history of Italians: new insights from a male (Y-chromosome) perspective" don't falsify this notion.


Its highest diversities are in northern Romania/Moldova area
 
Its highest diversities are in northern Romania/Moldova area
There is some frequency in there, but I'm affraid the evidences are of low diversity in the East, actually. G-L42, for example, is the most frequent in Balkan as a whole, but most of them by far belong to G-Y128028. The major expansion would have happened from an area more to the West, probably not far from those where STR diversities supposedly peak. Where the MRCA lived may be another story, at least according to ancient DNA.

C1GHUF3.gif
 
There is some frequency in there, but I'm affraid the evidences are of low diversity in the East, actually. G-L42, for example, is the most frequent in Balkan as a whole, but most of them by far belong to G-Y128028. The major expansion would have happened from an area more to the West, probably not far from those where STR diversities supposedly peak. Where the MRCA lived may be another story, at least according to ancient DNA.

C1GHUF3.gif


The paper I presented, regardless that is is 7 yo , states that L497 is 78% of the G2a in the Tyrol-Austria/Italy
 
Roman emperors have a grave? Their Y DNA is detected in the graves?
 

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