Family DNA project

How often did you meet namesakes in your life? Have you ever wondered if he is a relative or just a person with the same name? Sometimes you even asked him where he was from, or joked that your name was the same. Nevertheless, you never went further; you did not try to understand. I also wanted to find out, and whether it is possible that all namesakes among themselves are distant relatives or it is impossible. Thanks to modern technology, it has become available to everyone. The Family DNA project was created in 2017 year. This project is devoted to the study of East European names starting Achk/Ochk such as Achkas/Ochkas, Achkasov/Ochkasov, Oczkoś, etc. All these surnames had been probably from one word expressing the ability to vision, or physiological features of the eyes disposition. It is possible to summarize the interim results (relatives or namesakes) after the research, but first let us decipher a number of terms that will occur in the text.

Haplogroup — a group of similar haplotypes that have a common ancestor, which occurred mutation inherited by all descendants. Haplogroup branched into SNP.

Haplotype — the result of the study of genetic markers at several sites of the chromosome. Markers and frequency of their repetition will be presented in the table of results.

SNP - has a number of branches in the Haplogroup. The Terminal SNP - finished branch defined in the tested person.

Coincident - a person who has a similar marker haplotype, which indicates a probable relationship.

According to the settled scientific ideas, all people have descended from one man and one woman. However, not the ones you are thinking about. These genetic Adam and Eve did not live at the same time and did not have common children. They had their partners, thanks to whom they gave offspring, but for hundreds of years, when epidemics, natural disasters and wars carried away from the surface of the earth tribes and entire peoples, to this day only those who have adapted to new conditions or survived by chance. It was found out that a person has a number of genetic markers of poorly amenable mutation and transmitted from father to son or from mother to daughter for many tens and hundreds of generations without significant changes. Making archaeological excavations and extracting DNA from the remains of ancient people, scientists have learned to determine the degree of kinship of ancestors to living people comparing their haplotypes. A large number of matches is a closer relationship; a small number of matches is a more distant relationship. Thanks to this, a tree of male and female haplogroups with an approximate age of their occurrence was created:

Hereinafter we will consider only male haplogroup because traditionally people transmit the name through the male line. The tree of male haplogroups is represented in the figure in a very truncated version, there would not be enough screen to represent all the branches of this tree, so huge it is. The fact is that the Y-chromosome (male chromosome) is 3 thousand times longer than the mito-dna studied in women and mutations in it occur much more often and, accordingly, there are much more variations.

For hundreds of thousands of years, the male descendants of genetic Adam settled on the planet Earth forming more and more branches of their haplogroups. And the map of their settlement looks like this:

As we’ll examine the surnames, which are typical for Eastern Europe I think, it is useful to look at the map of domination of those or other male haplogroups in Europe by countries.

So, let's move on to the results of the study. The table below shows the Numbers, Names and Surnames of the tested. Their genetic markers and frequency of their repetitions. Different haplogroups are distinguished by different colors.

One of the first tested was 638573 Taras Ochkas from Poltava (Ukraine), whose roots are from the village of Yarmaky Myrhorod district of Poltava province. Haplogroup G2a (G macrography , see fig. below) turned out to be his haplogroup, which is believed to have originated 20.9 thousand years ago in Mesopotamia (the area of modern Syria) and spread throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East reaching its population peak in the Caucasus.

In most European countries, haplogroup G is extremely rare, for example in Ukraine reaches 2-4% of the total male population of the country. It is believed that haplogroup G in the South of Russia and Ukraine appeared because of the inclusion of the traditionally inhabited Alans in the structure of the Eastern Slavic population who came later to these lands.

The terminal SNP (extreme confirmed branch, known to science yet) of Taras is G2a-FGC12126 (originate 9.8 thousand years ago) and is present as the Europeans and the Saudis. The next, closer branch of this SNP (not discovered by science yet) presented in Taras DNA must be surely Ukrainian; you can see this fact in the FTDNA database of the coincident persons. Taras has the following close coincident persons: Denis Ivas from Taganrog, whose the most ancient ancestor with surname Daragan was a Zaporozhian Cossack, Moskow resident Daniil Berezhnoy with roots from Sumy (Ukraine), Vladislav Kulik from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous province with the roots from Shostka (Sumy province of Ukraine), Krasnodar citizen Alexander Gerashchenko, a descendant of the Cossacks of Poltava province (Ukraine) and Taras Chubenko from USA, whose ancestor in the male line with surname Mamiy from Ukraine.

Muscovite 327499 Anatoly Achkasov passed the test in 2013. His ancestors documentary originate from the nobility of Kostroma province (Russia). His haplogroup is also G2a like Taras Ochkas, but SNP is the other terminal G2a-Z37368 (occur 6.3 thousand years ago, included in G2a-M406, see fig. below). Therefore, although they are relatives of the haplogroup G2a, but they are separated by 14.7 thousand years before their common ancestor. According to the test result Anatoly has Finnish and North Russian genus origin. So his the closest coincident persons are Bernt Shelholm, Juhani Suojanen from Finland and Finn Philip Aminoff whose family documentary comes from the chief military commander of Ivangorod (Russia) by the surname of Aminov. Haplogroup G is extremely rare in the North of Russia and Scandinavia. It accounts for less than 0.5% of the total male population of these lands.

The members of Anatoly family think that their genus comes from the Tatars according to the family legend.

Famous persons who reliably or allegedly belong to haplogroup G2a:

 Actors: Evgeny Grishkovets, Bogdan Benyuk

 Soccer player: Lionel Messi

 King of England: Richard III

 French kings: Louis XVI, Henry IV

 Ruling dynasties: the Alawites (Morocco), the Hashemites (Jordan)

 Nobles: the Achkasovs (Kostroma), the Aminoffs (Finland), the Bogushevichis, the Mickiewicz, the Tugan-Baranovskys (Polish-Tatar family)

 Georgian princes: the Abashidzes, the Gelovanis

 Secretary-General: Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin)

Ipatievsky monastery of Kostroma, founded around 1330

The next participant of the project 769395 is Gennady Ochkas from Kiev. His roots are from the village of Kybyntsi Myrhorod district, Poltava province (Ukraine). His haplogroup turned out haplogroup I2a (from macrogroup I) that allegedly occurred 21.9 thousand years ago in European territory and reached its population peak in the Slavic States of the Balkans. In Ukraine, the frequency of distribution of haplogroup I2a reaches 20-30%. Gennady’s terminal SNP I2a-Y3120 (occured 3.8 thousand years ago and included in I2a1 (I2a-L460) see fig. below) refers to the so-called Dinaric group. The next, closer to Gennady SNP, not specified yet, highly likely originated in the Carpathians. Gennady has the following coincidence persons: German Philip Kluge (from "klug" smart wise) in Yiddish; Kuban resident Sergey Shvets with roots from the town Nezhin of Chernihiv province (Ukraine); American John Pachuk with roots from Galicia; Argentinian Juan Carlos B. from the Brest province (Belarus); Daniel Kopas from Hungary; Oleg Morenkov from the Tambov province Russia (probably the ukrainian surname of ancestors was Morenko) and the Canadian Brian Bullock whose ancestor by the surname of Burbulyak was from the Ternopol province (Ukraine).

Famous personы who reliably or allegedly belong to haplogroup I2a:

 Theologians: Martin Luther

 Tennis Players: Novak Djokovic

 US presidents: James Monroe, Andrew Johnson

 Princes of Scotland: The Hamiltons

 Businessmen: Bill Gates

 Kings of Prussia: the Hohenzollerns

 Emperors of France: Napoleon III

 Actors: Chuck Norris

 Writers: Stephen King

The following tested is 714688 Vladimir Achkas from Barnaul (Russia), whose ancestors are from the village of Jušavičy Nesvizh district, Minsk province (Belarus). Village Jušavičy belonged to Radziwill family and known from the late sixteenth century as the their property. Haplogroup of Vladimir occured widespread in Eastern Europe R1a. Haplogroup R1a (from macro group R) was originated approximately 18.3 thousand years ago in southern Siberia. Haplogroup R1a is the most spread from East Germany to the Ural Mountains, reaching 60% of the male population in Poland and 50% in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Vladimir’s terminal SNP is very rare - R1a-CTS11142 (age is not installed yet (part of R1a-CTS1211, see fig. below). The Belarusian origin of the Vladimir’s genus is confirmed not only documentary, but also genetically - among the closest coincident persons (at the level of the XVI century to a common ancestor) are Andrey and Mikhail Harlap with ancestors from the Mogilev province (Belarus).

775042 Ivan Ochkas from Krasnoyarsk (Russia), his ancestors are from the village of Piasočnaje Kopyl district, Minsk province (Belarus). Piasočnaje is known since the XVI century as a village in the Novogrudok povet (district) and Voivodeship (province) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Kopyl Principality, at the beginning as the property of the Olelkoviches, and after the Radziwills. Ivan's haplotype was almost identical to the haplotype of 714688 Vladimir Achkas from Barnaul. It is too coincidental to be an accident; they are definitely not just namesakes. In favor of the relationship, it says not only the similarity of surnames but also the geography of the origin of the participants. The distance between their ancestral villages is 24 km from each other. The terminal SNP and coincident persons of these two distant relatives are the same correspondingly. This group of relatives should be marked in the table with the symbol [❆].

The villages Jušavičy (rus: Юшевичи) and Piasočnaje (rus: Песочна) on a Special map of the Western part of Russia by Schubert 1826-1840 years.

The directions of migration of these two relatives are as follows:

I founded that the earliest sources of mention of the surname Ochkas was related just at ancient Belarus:

The book "Belarus in the Era of feudalism" volume 1, from ancient times to the XVI century. It was published in Minsk in 1959.

It contains historical notes founded and published by historians of the past.

Thus, the Vilna archaeological Commission from Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania) founded and published a record from 1891:

1595 June 15. The record in Minsk city book of reports of person who brought news at Minsk province (voevodstvo) Pozharyssky about the investigation and the sentence of court of Starinskaya district (volost’) in the case of Ochkas who was accused of theft.

This court record is talking about the caught of the suspect person named as Volontey (Valentey) Ochkas accused in the theft of the boiler. Because of torture of Volontey he admitted everything.

Also, in this book ("Belarus in the Era of feudalism" volume 1, from ancient times to the XVI century.) there is a record founded and published by the historian A.Sapunov in 1883 in the book "Vitebsk antiquity" volume 1, it was published in Vitebsk.

(Translated by the historian A. Sapunov from Polish).

1660 January 4. - Lavrin Fedorovich Ochkas, Vitebsk citizen, he brought from Toropets to Vitebsk on 2 carts: cow skins 114, nets of non-water 7 ends for 3 cops. Customs duty: 2 cops, 0 pennies, 0 penyazies.

Note:

Toropets is now a town in Tver province of Russia.

Copa, pennies, penyazies-Lithuanian currency.

The Copa is an old European currency that was equal to 60 items. (1 Lithuanian Copa = 60 Lithuanian pennies = 21 Polish zlotys)

Penyazies - Lithuanian monetary unit (1/10 of the Lithuanian penny (1/8 of a Polish penny).

Nesvizh castle. Architectural, residential and cultural complex of the Radziwill family in Nesvizh. Architectural monument of XVI-XVIII centuries.

The next tested N35844 is Alexander Achkasov from Kharkiv (Ukraine), whose ancestors are from the village of Kam'yana Yaruha of Kharkiv province. Two hundred archers of Chuguevsky (Chuguev town, Kharkiv province) founded the village of Kam'yana Yaruha in 1647. Haplogroup of Alexander is occurred also widespread in Eastern Europe R1a. Terminal SNP of Alexander R1a-L366 (originated 2.7 thousand years ago and is included in R1a-CTS1211, see fig. below). There are representatives of all European countries among the closest matches of Alexander, but especially Poles, Russians and Ukrainians. Further study of this line will allow answering more precisely the question of the origin of the genus.

The first mention of the surname Achkasov in the village of Kam'yana Yaruha of Chuguevsky district of the Kharkiv regiment is dated to 1719 year when the similar surname of the Ochkasov occurs among smallholders settlement. There were already 14 families with the surname Achkasov in Kam'yana Yaruha in 1779. The majority of family members had documentary confirmed relatives. Now many members of the Achkasov family from Kharkiv province call Kam'yana Yaruha and its surroundings as the homeland of the ancestors. Perhaps all of them are distant relatives. The place of the Ochkasovs family arriving into Kam'yana Yaruha is still unknown yet. However, there is a suggestion that they arrived from the province of Kursk. The book "Historical chronicle of the Kursk nobility (author A.A.Tankov) volume 1 (1913) has an inscription about this: "When a new town of Chuguev was arranged located more southern then previous one, it was part of the nobility children of Kursk and Belgorod who had passed into it." That is why nowadays the largest number of persons by the name of Achkasov lives in the Kursk province.

The following tested 707357 is Dmitry Ochkas from the village Andreevskaya, Kalininsky district, Krasnodar province (Russia). The Dmitry’s ancestors lived in the Kalininskaya village before their dispossession. Kalininskaya village was founded in 1808 as military village Popovichevskoe, which in 1811 and 1822, were filled by migrants from Poltava and Chernihiv provinces (Ukraine). Dmitry's haplogroup turned out to be the same widespread in Eastern Europe haplogroup R1a. Terminal SNP of Dmitry R1a-V1334 (included in R1a-M458, see fig. below) was open recently and the estimated age of it is about 2.1 thousand years. Dmitry had no coincident persons before Ochkas DNA project foundation. He had only one distant relative - Michael Lenguel with ancestors from Hungary (from Hun. Lenguel means "Pole"). It seemed that the impasse in the study of this branch, but it seemed only at the beginning.

The following tested IN10589 is Sergey Ochkas from Luhansk province (Ukraine). His ancestors were miners and they lived in the town Chistyakove of Donetsk province (Ukraine). His haplotype almost completely coincided with the haplotype of Dmitry mentioned above. No doubt, they are definitely family, though they do not aware of the existence of each other.

The following tested 721858 is Alexander Bolkisev (by father he is Ochkas) from Yekaterinburg (Russia). His ancestors also lived in the village of Kalininskaya of Krasnodar province (Russia) before their exile in Siberia as mentioned Dmitry from Andreevskaya village. According to the test results, the haplotype of Alexander completely coincided with the haplotype of Dmitry! Another R1a-V1334. It was getting interesting.

Kalininskaya village is now a home to several families with the surname «Ochkas». Two different family branches that call opposite one as namesakes. They allocated from each one representative for DNA test passing. These representatives are 760426 Nikolay Ochkas (Severnaya Ulitsa str.) and 714253 Nikolay Ochkas (Shkol'naya Ulitsa str.). According to the results of DNA tests, these "namesakes" were actually relatives. Their haplotype coincided not only with each other, but also with Dmitry from Andreevskaya and Alexander from Yekaterinburg. It became obviously that all natives of the Kalininskaya village with a surname Ochkas are probably relatives among themselves. Again R1a-V1334.

The next participant of the project is 769807 Dmitry Achkas from Melitopol (Ukraina), whose ancestors are from the Novobohdanivka village of Melitopol district, Zaporizhia province. The natives of the Poltava and Chernihiv provinces (Ukraine) founded the village of Novobohdanovka in 1862. Natives of Kursk and Oryol provinces (Russia) also settled later in Novobogdanovka. According to Dmitry, his family has a legend that his ancestors came to this village from Poltava, but from what place exactly no one remembers. Dmitry passed the test and surprisingly, it turned out that the haplotype of Dmitry completely coincided with the haplotype of immigrants from the village of Kalininskaya and almost completely coincided with the haplotype of Sergey from Luhansk. There is one relative from Zaporizhia to the money box R1a-V1334.

The following tested were four brothers 711437 Yuri Loza (grandfather Ochkas) and 634321 Dmitry Ochkas with ancestors from the village Novomyshastovskaya of Krasnoarmeysky district, Krasnodar province (Russia). Immigrants from Poltava and Chernihiv provinces (Ukraine) founded Novomyshastovskaya village in 1823. Brothers’ haplotype occurred identical not only with each other (which is expected) but with the haplotype of persons originating from the Kalininskaya village and Dmitry from the village of Novobohdanivka. The family clan of big size starts to appear. Total, again: R1a-V1334.

It remains only to find out where and where all these genetic relatives moved from SNP R1a-V1334. And there was a lead! According to the Krasnodar province archive families with surname Ochkas lived in Kalininskaya village (until 1957 Popovichevskaya) and Novomyshastovskaya village appeared in 1808-1822 from Poltava province. We even know the place where they arrived from – it is a village Yarmaky of Myrhorod district. The ancestors of tested 638573 Taras Ochkas were from this village. However, Taras has haplogroup G2a, and a common ancestor with haplogroup R1a (and accordingly its SNP V1334) was already 60 thousand years ago! They could not be related. It was necessary to search further for the test with the ancestors from the village Yarmaky. We found such person.

637713 Oleg Ochkas is from Myrhorod. His ancestors were from the village of Yarmaky of Myrhorod district of Poltava province. The first mention of the village Yarmaky belongs to the first half of the XVIII century. Oleg‘s Haplotype was absolutely identical to the haplotype of immigrants from the Kalininskaya, Novomyshastovskaya and Novobohdanivka villages and it is almost identical to the haplotype of Sergey from Luhansk! They are all genetic relatives! According to my approximate data, their degree of kinship with each other does not exceed 10 generations. It is succeeded to confirm documentary their 8-th level genetic relationship. The ancestral village of the owners of R1a-V1334 found!

Village Yarmaky (rus: Ермаки) on Military-Topographic map of Poltava province 1863-1878.

According to archival records, the very first mention of the surname Ochkas in this locality refers to 1649.

In the register of the entire Zaporozhye Army of 1649 compiled after the Zborov Treaty and signed by Hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky on the one side and the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - Jan II Casimir on the other, three Cossack surnamed Ochkas, who were chosen to serve the Polish crown, were noted.

These are: Levko Ochkas - Cherkassy Regiment, Semyon Ochkasenko - Umansky Regiment and Zhadan Ochkasenko - Myrhorod Regiment. No villages are specified.

The ending -ko or -enko in the last name at that time was given to the sons at birth and worn as long as the father-head of the family was alive.

The Hetmanate (or otherwise the Zaporozhye Army) in those days was administratively divided into regiments and hundreds.

The Myrhorod Regiment is a military administrative unit of the Hetmanate with its capital in Myrhorod. The regiment was founded in 1625. Registers of Cossacks were compiled on regiments every year. Cossacks could alternate between themselves and not serve permanently.

In V. Krivosheya's book "Cossack officers of the Hetmanate" (encyclopedia 2010) is mentioned for 1679 Ochkas Ivan is a comrade of Myrhorodsky's regiment. The village is not specified.

The honorary title of a Military comrade was usually conferred on Cossacks, who especially testified their courage and decency in battles and campaigns in the face of the army. The distinctive sign of the army comrade was the right to wear the oseledets. Oseledets - a strand of hair on the shorn head (see the figure below).

Receiving the rank of Military comrade was equal to the first officer rank in the cavalry of the regular army - cornet.

In the book the student and namesake of the deceased are already V. Krivosheya - Irina Krivosheya (Officers of the Ukrainian Cossack Power (XVII-XVIIІ century), 2014, is an addition to the biography of this Ochkas:

"Ochkas Ivan is a comrade of Myrhorodsky's regiment (1679, 04.1687), ataman (chief) of the Yarmaky (04.1687)."

In book of the oath of the Myrhorod Regiment for 1718, while giving the oath to the heir of the Russian throne, Petr Petrovich, son of Peter 1, the Cossack of the village Yarmaky Ivan Ochkas was noted. Apparently the son of that Ivan, was the ataman of the village Yarmaky. This Ivan had three sons. They were the only ones with such a surname who lived in the village of Yarmaky at the time. So all R1a-V1334 carriers are probably descendants of this family. Almost 300 years have passed and many did not know that they have such distant relatives and most importantly, that it can be confirmed. Thank you a lot of DNA genealogy. For convenience, we will mark this large group of relatives in the table with the symbol [✔]

Main directions of migrations of the relatives with the SNP R1a-V1334 as follows:

The following tested is 771935 Lukasz Oczkoś from Przemyśl Podkarpackie province of Poland, whose ancestors were from the village of Czernichów Kraków district, Lesser Poland province. The village of Czernichów was founded at the turn of the X-XI centuries. The Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec had the property Czernichów village in the XIII century. Later in the XVI century, this village was the property of the Polish king Sigismund I.

Czernichów (Czerniechow) village on the map of the Kingdom of Galicia Karl Weiland, 1832

Haplogroups of Lukas was widespread in this area R1a. Terminal SNP of Lukas is R1a-Y2902 (originated 4.2 thousand years ago and is included in R1a-CTS1211, see fig. below).

Among close coincident persons, Lukas is to highlight the American Frank Vanko, whose roots are from the town of Martin in Slovakia, located in 115 km from the ancestral village of Lukasz Czernichów. Further research will allow more accurately establish their degree of belonging.

Benedictine Abbey in Tyniec, founded in 1044.

The next participant of the project is IN21219 Jan Oczkoś from Kraków (Poland). His ancestors lived before the Second World War in Drohobych district, Lviv province Ukraine. Jan has R1a haplogroup and terminal SNP is R1a -YP256 (origin. 2.5 thousand years ago, included in R1a-M458, see fig. below).

Jan has the following coincident persons: pole Andrzej Sicinski, the Argentinian Jorge Czajkowski with roots from Ukraine, American David Hutco has probably Ukrainian origin, Romania Janos Edes, Ukrainian Sergiy Lugovyy, pole Michael Mierzwa, American Daniel Varga with roots from Ukraine and the other - totally 41.

The following tested - 3st cousin 714786 Alexander Ochkas and 768230 Vladislav Ochkass from Krasnodar (Russia), whose ancestors are from the village of Baturinskaya Bryukhovetskay district of the Krasnodar province (Russia). Their haplogroup is still the same in Eastern Europe R1a. Their terminal SNP is R1a-YP4647 (2 thousand years ago and is included in R1a-M458, see the figure below). Interestingly, this SNP is a daughter for SNP R1a-L1029, which is also present in Ochkases Yarmaky, but there is no close relationship (it means even less than 500 years) between the Ochkases, the Baturininskaya and Ochkases the Yarmaky, their common ancestor lived somewhere 2-3.2 thousand years ago. There are no close coincidences in DNA bases for Ochkases of Baturinskaya village, while this is a poorly researched branch, of distant ones - one Serb and two Germans. But this in no way can talk about the geography of the origin of the genus.

Next tested 713908 Vladimir Ochkas is from village Bryukhovetskaya Krasnodar province (Russia). Already during the testing, Vladimir learned that his ancestors used to live in Baturinskaya and the aforementioned Alexander and Vladislav are his relatives in the fifth generation. Therefore almost completely coincided haplotype of Vladimir with haplotupes Baturinskaya relatives already surprised no one. The terminal SNP of Vladimir is also R1a-CTS11962. We mark this group of relatives in the table with the symbol [❀]

According to the Krasnodar province archive, the surname Ochkas appeared in the village of Baturinskaya in 1871 when the peasant of Ekaterinoslav province (Ukraine) Gregory Ochkas with the whole family was enrolled in the Cossacks with the enrollment to the village of Baturinskaya by the Order of the Kuban Cossack Host. Where exactly the family came from is not known and it is possible only DNA testing will answer this question. Now Ekaterinoslav, is the city of the Dnipro (Ukraine). And in the city of the Dnipro now lives a large number of people with the surname Ochkas, perhaps theuare - distant relatives of the Ochkases in Baturinskaya.

The next tested is IN35744 Dmitry Achkasov from the town of Zadonsk (Russia). His ancestors previously lived in Afanas'yevo village of Lipetsk province (Russia). They were the founders of the village of Achkasova in Lipetsk province. Yelets serving people got the lands located «close by Short Well» in 1593-1594 as the villages Large, Medium, Upper Short and actually Short itself. The village Afanasevo was founded on these villages’ lands. The name of the village Afanas'yevo was first mentioned in 1620 because of the Church located in the village. This church had a name of Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, which received its present name.

Afanas'yevo village (rus: Афанасьевское) and the Achkasova village (rus: Ачкасова) on a Special map of the Western part of Russia Schubert 1826-1840 years

Dmitry's haplogroup was R1a. Terminal SNP Dmitry is R1a-YP951 (origin. 3.7 thousand years ago and is included in R1a-CTS1211, see fig. below). Among the closest coincident persons Dmitry are many representatives of Europe but especially the poles and ukrainians. Further research will more accurately establish the origin of the genus.

The Achkasovs first appeared in Yelets district between 1613 and 1615. They were freeholders or the Boyar scions and served as a police officer in Yelets. They received the manor houses in Afanas'yevo, the Upper Short and neighboring villages, where they eventually settled. Now the surname Achkasov is very widespread in this area and further researches will allow revealing relationship between these relatives who have long forgotten about the General roots.

Panorama of the town of Yelets, Lipetsk province.

For convenience of understanding of degree of relationship between participants of the project at which haplogroup R1a is revealed I placed single participants and family branches on a tree of haplogroup R1a.

Famous persons who have haplogroup R1a reliably or allegedly:

 Actors: Evgeny Mironov, Tom Hanks, Bogdan Stupka, Max von Sudov

 Writers: Alexander Pushkin

 Musicians: Oleg Skripka, Oleg Mykhailuta

 Journalists: Leonid Parfenov

 Seafarers: Francis Drake

 Inventors: Nikola Tesla

 Princes: the Radziwills (Lithuania/Belarus), the Drutsky-Sokolinski, the Volkonskys, the Obolenskys

 Kings of the Netherlands: Willem-Alexander

 US presidents: Herbert Hoover

 Israeli Prime Ministers: Benjamin Netanyahu

The next member of the project is IN10612 Denis Ochkas from Anapa (Russia), whose ancestors were from the village of Svobodne, Donetsk province (Ukraine). The Svobodne village was founded as an Apostol'skoe village in the second half of the XIX century.

The village is Svobodne (rus: Апостольское) on the military topographic map of Ekaterinoslav province and the land of the Don army, 1875.

The Denis’s haplogroup was very exotic for Europe haplogroup T. The number of haplogroup T among men in Europe does not exceed 4.5% in Italy and 2.5% in Greece. 1.5 and 1% of men have haplogroup T in Russia and Ukraine. Terminal SNP of Denis is T-CTS933 (origin 7.7 thousand years ago).

Apparently, haplogroup T appeared about 45,000 and 35,000 years ago in the immediate vicinity of the Iranian plateau in the Fertile Crescent.

This is due to the fact that it is here that the most ancient burial remains are found, the owners of which belonged to the haplogroup T. Haplogroup T would be an important (although probably not dominant) line among ancient peoples such as the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians during the Copper and Bronze ages.

The higher frequencies of haplogroup T detection among male remains in places such as Cyprus, Sicily, Tunisia, Ibiza, Andalusia, and the Northern tip of Morocco suggest that haplogroup T may have been settled in the Mediterranean by Phoenicians (1200-800 BC), and that ancient Phoenicia appears to have consisted of more haplogroup T than Lebanon today (5%).

Assyrian clothing in the illustrations of 1882.

Denis has no close matches, only very distant ones. This is due to the rarity of the haplogroup and a small number of tested ones. From far coincident persons especially notable is Igor Vavilov with the roots of Morshansk, Tambov province (Russia).

Famous persons who have haplogroup T reliably or allegedly:

 Businessmen: Sergey Brin

 US presidents: Thomas Jefferson

So, as we can see, the theory that all namesakes among themselves are actually distant relatives is not so ridiculous: two belong to the same genus, nine to the other and three to the third from the 22 people tested. There are many families in Europe, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and New Zealand still missing. There is also a similar name in Slovakia - Očkáš, in Poland-Oczkowicz, Oczkowski. Moreover, if one names a corny turned out to be genetic relatives, and then you never know - maybe among the similar names, there are not just namesakes?

The results table will be updated with new test subjects and is publicly available at:

• https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Ochkas?iframe=yresults

If you are interested in the project and want to become a member, ask me how:

• ochkas@gmail.com

If you want to make a donation to support the project, you can do it here:

• https://www.familytreedna.com/group-general-fund-contribution.aspx?g=Ochkas