This page provides a less detailed summary and introduction to our Sons of the Legion? article with the intent of making it more digestible for the casual reader while providing an introductory overview for someone that might then choose to proceed to the more detailed article. It is intended to provide key information as well as links to specific topics within the more detailed article which can be accessed as the reader’s interests might dictate.
The article begins with a very brief discussion of relevant Y-DNA related science and human Y-DNA haplogroups. We then identify other publications and webpages that discuss the likely migration of men of the E-V13 Y-DNA haplogroup from the Balkans to various Roman garrison areas in Western Europe.
Consistent with the publications discussed at the above link, we then examine specific genetic evidence of a subclade of E-V13, likely originating in the Balkans around 900 BCE, being spread to multiple garrison areas of the Western Roman Empire early in the first millennium. This E-V13 Subclade is E-BY4793 and we explore several further subclades of E-BY4793 along with the basis for associating most of these with specific regions where the Roman Legions garrisoned their troops. The exception is a subclade with ongoing presence in the Balkans, suggesting that the ancestors of those in that subclade were not recruited by the legions but remained in the Balkans for most or all of the intervening centuries. Each such discussion provides a link with graphics illustrating the hypothetical spread of E-BY4793 with an estimate of the timing of the migration and the spread of subsequent subclades. Far more speculative is our page discussing from where in the Balkans these men with the E-BY4793 variants might have been recruited.
Having established a pattern of such migrations around the Empire, we address in more detail one such subclade which is the central focus of our thesis. This subclade is E-BY165986 which likely originated in and spread widely throughout the area of Southwest Germany often referred to as Swabia. As with other subclades of E-BY4793, we look at the apparent timing of the migration from the Balkans and the origination of additional subclades within Swabia, but we also discuss the 10+ men who have done detailed Y-DNA testing, identifying as available their earliest known male-lineage ancestors and the connections of these ancestors to the region.
Anyone interested in this E-BY165986 subclade and its Swabian history may wish to go first to our page displaying the timeline, subclades, test subjects and the test subjects’ ancestors as relates to this migration. After viewing this you can return to the main article for additional discussions of the E-BY165986 subclades and their connection to testers and surnames.
We finish with an appeal for assistance with our research. We are asking for such assistance from those who can confidentially provide information on their relevant Y-DNA haplogroups or who might be willing to participate in Y-DNA testing programs.
Please feel free to leave questions or comments below or at any of the linked pages.
Go to full “Sons of the Legion?” Article
If you would like to share this page with family on
social media, please click below and spread the word.