Below is a brief answer given by FamilyTreeDNA to the question "What is a haplogroup?"
"One way to think about haplogroups is as major branches on the family tree of Homo Sapiens. These haplogroup branches characterize the early migrations of population groups. As a result, haplogroups are usually associated with a geographic region. If haplogroups are the branches of the tree then the haplotypes represent the leaves of the tree. All of the haplotypes that belong to a particular haplogroup are leaves on the same branch. Both mtDNA and Y-DNA tests provide haplogroup information, but remember that the haplogroups nomenclature are different for each."
Y-chromosome DNA Haplogroups of Man
Below is a table of yDNA Haplogroups, consisting of many sub-groups descending from what are know as "super-haplogroups", such as F, K, and P.
| Y Chromosomal Adam (Noah) | ||||||||||||||
| A | B | C | * | F | ||||||||||
| D | E | G | H | * | K | |||||||||
| I | J | L | M | * | P | |||||||||
| N | O | R | Q | |||||||||||
For more details about what Haplogroups are, click here to be directed to Wikipedia's portal on the subject.
