Journal of Genetic Genealogy, 3(2):63-71, 2007 63 Geographic Patterns of R1b in the British Isles – Deconstructing Oppenheimer Kevin D. Campbell Abstract Stephen Oppenheimer’s book, The Origins of the British— A Genetic Detective Story, references a clan nomenclature which is not explicitly defined in the text nor linked to the underlying data. This paper attempts to understand Oppenheimer’s analysis while incorporating results from subsequent clan testing to hypothesize the haplotype definitions for Oppenheimer’s R1b sub-clans. Introduction The essence of genetic genealogy is to understand where we’ve come from. However, many of the recent papers and books have missed opportunities to provide strong links relating genetics to regional locations. Specifically, two recent books by Oxford professors–Blood of the Isles: Exploring the Genetic Roots of Our Tribal History, by Bryan Sykes (2006), and The Origins of the British—A Genetic Detective Story, by Stephen Oppenheimer (2006) address genetics in the British Isles, but both omit important genetic information. Both books are based upon the analysis of thousands of DNA samples collected in the British Isles, but in each case, critical elements of the analysis are left unpublished— elements that make the analysis difficult to follow and almost impossible for others to confirm the authors’ conclusions independently. In the case of Sykes’ work, Blood of the Isles was targeted to the general population and written in the manner of a popular work of non-fiction. In contrast, Stephen Oppenheimer’s book The Origins of the British synthesizes historical, anthropological, archaeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence into a cohesive set of conclusions. While Oppenheimer chose to include the term “genetics” in the title of his book, it comprises only a part of his overall analysis. However, by leading with genetics, Oppenheimer owes a certain level of traceability to the reader to allow a thorough and detailed review of his analysis. To his credit, Sykes has provided his samples underlying Blood of the Isles for examination, but he failed to pro- Address for correspondence: Campbell@alum.mit.edu . Received: July 12, 2007; accepted: August 30, 2007. vide a detailed analysis of those samples for the reader. For example, Sykes does not fully describe his “clan” system in adequate detail. A “clan” is a group of individuals with closely matching Y-STR haplotypes, to which a fanciful name has been assigned by the author of the book. However, Sykes does not tell us which haplotypes are included in each clan. My analysis of Sykes’ clans, which included the determination of the probable clan definitions, was published in the last issue of this journal (Campbell, 2007). In this article I will attempt to achieve the same general result for Oppenheimer’s book. In particular, the present article will attempt to provide some insight into the probable definitions of Oppenheimer’s clans. Methods Sykes’ and Oppenheimer’s analyses have both similarities and differences that affect how one might approach reverse-engineering each. Both authors chose to coin “clan names” as shorthand monikers for genetic groups derived from their analysis. While these clan names provide convenient shorthand for mass market books, serious researchers want to see the genetic definitions of these groups. Sykes’ work is based upon original data collection (primarily via blood samples), and he has published his full dataset on his web site for use by other researchers. 1 Oppenheimer’s study is not based upon new genetic data, but rather is based upon a re-analysis of previously published information. Oppenheimer uses five key sources for his British data: The studies of Capelli (2003), Wilson et al (2001), Weale et al (2002), and Hill et al (2000), and data provided by D. Faux and J. Wilson related to the Orkney and Shetland Islands, one 1 http://www.bloodoftheisles.net/OGAP_yDNA.pdf