Slavic DNA

Note: We are not attempting to define and explore ancient haplogroups of the Slavic people here. Mainly provide a first cut, high-level grouping of our Slavic surnames as initially yDNA tested and without formal surname studies started. For terms without links to definitions yet, see the sister site H600 Glossary.

Think of this page as planting seeds. Hoping to germinate and grow each surname into their own DNA surname study project over time. So just a place to germinate and collect early information about the surnames and haplogroups of interest until they grow to their own study and page. Like as happened with Randy's surname study that led to the H600 Project formation. Over time, either this page will disappear or will simply collect more information on ancient haplogroups and peoples.

Slavic Peoples

IndoEuropean Language Tree Only, Slav Highlight

So what defines the Slavic people. Clearly the DNA has been mixed for millennia due to the proximity and beginning of farming, trade and governance. Much like geneticists have a human Phylogenetic Tree of Life for yDNA and mtDNA, linguists have a similar one for what they perceive to be the roots and transition of spoken language among populations. We show one such artistic example for the IndoEuropean languages here. Notice how they group Slavic languages off a single large branch with sub-branching from there. In fact, they define three major sub-branches from which languages known by today have developed. These three groups are known as the Eastern, Western and Southern Slavic language groups. Similarly, we see this grouping among the DNA of Slavic people.

Ends up, especially since the breakup of the USSR and fall of the "iron curtain", there are modern country boarders that roughly define the spoken language majorities. So next we introduce a modern map of Eastern Europe showing current boarders. We simply identify countries and color them by their main tongue as a Eastern, Western or Southern Slavic language grouping. We know, for example, there are Slovenian speaking areas outside their current country border. In Italy and Austria; areas that were once considered part of Slovenia but divided out at the end of WWII. But the current boarders can serve as a rough guide. Note that for the Southern Slavs, we are mostly considering the West Balkan that were part of the Jugoslavia nation. The Southern Slavic nation of Bulgaria is not our focus here.

Y Haplogroups

There are two main haplogroup branches more unique (even today) that contain the ancient Slavic peoples. These branches separated further back in time and before surnames and other modern genealogical documents came into being. These branches are I2a-S17250 and R1a-Z282. Each have different ancient roots in the people of post-ice-age Eurasia.

Without giving the anthropological reasoning, suffice it to say that the South Slavs (that is, Western Balkans, or basically those part of the former Jugoslavia (but including some of present day Bulgaria) are heavily dominated by the I2a haplogroup. Eastern Slavs to the north are heavily dominated by R1a. Western Slavs have become more mixed (diluted) by the Western European haplogroups.

The Slovenes, a major group in our study on this site, have many in R1b-L151 as well. In fact, almost as many as in I2a. This is thought due to the Prussian / Hapsburg rule over the area during the last 500 years. They are the only South Slav region, like for the Western Slavs of Poland, that show a strong Western European influence in addition to their Slavic roots. Western Slavs like in Poland have a strong R1b presence in addition to a strong R1a in current times.

The Eastern and Western Slavs have distinct majority sub-clades within the R1a-Z282 haplogroup. Specifically, Polish and other Western Slavs are predominantly R1a-M458 while Eastern Slavs are more R1a-Z280. These are roughly sister clades in the tree that branched off some x,000 years ago. Why the largest concentration of R1a-Z280 is in the Rusyn area on the eastern Ukrainian border and nearby Russian areas; there is a dominant cluster of R1a-Z280 in Belarus, Ukraine and Eastern Slovakia as well.

These haplogroups are not exclusive to Slavic peoples but are simply dominant as measured in present day people with roots in the area from at least the 1800's. Eupedia has a chart showing the mix of clades within European populations as found in various studies. A subset of that chart is extracted for primarily South Slavs here for quick clarity and educational purposes. You are strongly urged to click through to the original chart above for more detail.

Historically, they labeled R1a-Z280 the Balto-Slavic haplogroup. Balto-Slavic is a term borrowed from the the ancient Indo-European language historical progression chart from before Baltic and Slavic languages split further. Slavic itself then later splits distinctively into three further branches: Western, Eastern and Southern Slavs. With the Southern Slavs dominating the Balkan Peninsula. Often the southern Slav peoples are considered Western Balkans as Eastern Balkans are the Bulgarians and nearby areas.

It can be confusing but Baltic/Balto and Balkan are very different references. (Similar to how lay people get confused by Slovakia versus Slovenia; especially if they see the native spelling of these countries that appear identical.) The Baltic states are those Slavic states bordering the Baltic sea in the north. Lithuania, Estonia, etc. A border area between Western Slavs (Poland, etc) and Eastern (Ukraine, Russia, etc). This as opposed to the Balkan Peninsula as a term for the geographic area that comprises most of the Southern Slavs. In fact, except for Bulgaria, all the traditional Southern Slav states were unified by the formation of Jugoslavia in 1918. Jugoslavia means "Southern Slavs".

I2a-S17250 - West Balkan Slavs

South Slavs are predominantly within the I2a haplogroup (except Slovenians). More specifically, South Slavs appear within I2a-S17250 (aka I2a-1b2a). Historically, the South Slavic branch has been identified as I-M423 (aka I2a-1b) and I-P37 (aka I2a-1) before that. This new. deeper clade of I2a-S17250 is simply a refinement of branching. It came about as more extensive testing has occurred and placed this population group further down the tree and thus more recent in time when it branched and formed.

Although some have labeled this the Slavic-Carpathian clade, the Slavic-Carpathian people are more dominant, today, within R1a. If a summarized name is given at all, these are West Balkan Slavs.

Legan is the only surname falling within this group that we have tested so far and is from Slovenia.

R1a-Z280 - Slavic-Rusyn and other Eastern Slavs

R1a-Z280 is often termed the major Balto-Slavic branch of the Phylogenetic Tree. But that oversimplifies it. Many Western Slavs (Poland, et al) are as heavily dominated (mixed) with the general Western European R1b clade in addition to R1a. And South Slavs are much more dominant with I2a as mentioned earlier. So if any label is to be given, simply Eastern Slavs or more restrictively, Slavic Rusyn, is appropriate. Again, we are not trying to be anthropologists here but simply provide some basic, ancient structuring to the surnames being tested.

Košak, Lostoski, Velikonja and Rus fall within this R1a-Z280 haplogroup. For the many from Slovenia, this is likely originating from the Carpathian / Rusyn area (also termed Carpathian Ruthenia): a border region of Western and Eastern Slavic people that has long been distinctive but generally stateless. Košak and Rus as Slovenian surnames are believed derived as place names meaning from the Cossack and Rusyn regions / populations. Cossack's being much further East than the Rusyn population; along the Western Russia and Eastern Ukraine border. Which is where R1a-Z280 is predominant.

A non-Slavic name in our project Ziemke is likely from R1a-Z280 as well. Deeper testing is needed to confirm this. Ziemke is a German form of an old Hebrew name now known as Simon.

R1b Western European

R1b is normally associated, in its dominant form, with Western European populations. Its strong presence in Western Slavs and even Slovenia is likely due to the influence Europe has had over these areas. R1b is the third predominant haplogroup in Slovenia today and almost as dominant as I2a -- the traditionally Southern Slav haplogroup. The fact that Slovenia is dominated by R1a and then more minorly by I2a and then R1b speaks to the influence during the past 500 or more years of (a) Eastern Slavs and (b) the Prussian / Hapsburg dynasty.

Kastelic, a Slovenia origin name, has tested down R1b and not R1a or I2a. The name has possible German origin as "Kastel" means fort or castle in both languages.

Other Haplogroups

Jordan is under haplogroup I1 and not covered here. It is not a traditional Slavic haplogroup nor Slavic surname and has its own study already. Jordan is unusually dominant in Slovenia; especially in the Šentjernej area where they lived over the last 300 years.

Slavic names of Baznik, Ivan, Phrne, Rogelj, and Suhovič have not been yDNA tested yet. While Baznik is likely a surname derived from the meaning "Bozniak" (meaning, from Bosnia), Rogelj seems likely derived from a German name. There were many german-speaking settlements in Slovenia. Note that Ivan and Suhovic are surnames here with origins from Slovakia and not Slovenia. This is more a general Slavic page, not just for Slovenia, as our project covers ancestors from both those areas; as well as Croatia, Serbia, and Lithuania.

Determining Your Y Haplogroup

See Determining your Haplogroup with various test services as a start. You can see how the various Microarray File Test Services yield different depths of testing in the yDNA chromosome. The optimum, best way is to get a 30x WGS test from a company like Nebula Genomics or Dante Labs.

Surnames and Haplogroup Detail

We have developed a table of the surnames tested to date. A column indicates the branching down from the main group, if known due to deep SNP testing like BigY. The top level groups mentioned earlier are estimated to have formed 4000-5000 years ago; or further. Coloring is used to help indicate common paths before branching more uniquely.

Surname	Haplogroup (Source)	EKA	Phylogenetic Tree Entries	Z280 Path²	Notes
Kosak	R1a-BY33421 (BigY) R1a-BY27373 (yFull)	Anton Košak, b1830 Gabrovka, Zagradec, Ivančna Gorica, Slovenia		Z280 -> CTS1211 -> Y35 -> CTS3402 -> Y2613 -> Y2609 -> Y2608 -> BY27373	yFull has not added new terminal BY33421 below branch BY27373 that FTDNA has. yFull entry here here from VCF file submission before BAM available and does not depict BY27373 that the current tree does.
Lostoski	R1a-YP1363* (BigY) R1a-YP1363* (yFull)	Piotr Łastauskas, b.1867 Kalvarija, Suvałkija, Lithuania		Z280 -> CTS1211 -> Y35 -> CTS3402 -> Y33 -> CTS8816 -> Y3301 -> S18681 -> YP315 -> YP314 -> YP331 -> YP1361 -> YP1363*	yFull has structure below R-YP1363 but placed this kit as terminal there. FTDNA now has structure below R-YP1363 but indicates the BigY test did not cover those SNPs.
Velikonja	R1a-BY32501 (BigY) R1a-PH3782 (yFull)	Matija Velicogna, b1685, Predmeja (formerly Dol pri Otlici), Ajdovščina, Slovenia		Z280 -> CTS1211 -> Y35 -> CTS3402 -> Y33 -> CTS8816 -> Y2902 -> Y3226 -> Y3219 -> YP1144 -> PH3519 -> PH3782 -> BY32501	yFull has not added branch BY32501 below PH3782 yet.
Rus	R1a-BY29685* (BigY), R1a-BY29685 (yFull)	Johan Rus, b1771, Oberfeld, Šentjernej, Slovenia		Z280 -> CTS1211 -> YP343 -> YP340 -> P278.2 -> BY29685*	yFull updated with Nebula WGS but no change in para-haplogroup.
Ziemke	R1a-M417¹ (Anc)

¹M417 is a few steps up / earlier in the tree than Z280 studied here. More as a placeholder in case it falls into this group with further testing. An in-law with patriline roots in Wisconsin. See Ancestry and SurnameDB entries.
² The Z280 Path column is from yFull's tree as of Fall 2018. Final terminal may be from FTDNA only.

Mitochondrial Haplogroup

For many reasons, the mitochondrial haplogroup work is not as well studied and followed yet; both here and in general. Even though the effort was much deeper and earlier than for yDNA. We start to track matrilines here as more do full mitochondrial sequencing in WGS tests. Unlike for yDNA and patrilines, the matriline is often difficult to identify. Because traditionally woman's records and surnames are not tracked. More specifically, their birth surname or more specifically that of their father.

EKA	Haplogroup	Notes
Helena Purkoviž, b1787 Šentjernej, Slovenia, d1867¹	H1bs2a	Siblings, and 1st cousin WGS tested. Just H on 23andMe, Haplogrep and FTDNA

¹Research into this ancestor since known grandmother Anna Baznik née Krhin is by descendant and matching tester Maria Velikonja. Helena is Anna's maternal grandmother.

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Slavic Peoples