The House of Nassau was a diversified aristocratic dynasty in Europe. It is named after the lordship associated with Nassau Castle, located in present-day Nassau, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The lords of Nassau were originally titled “Count of Nassau”, then elevated to the princely class as “Princely Counts”. Early on they divided into two main branches: the elder (Walramian) branch, that gave rise to the German king Adolf, and the younger (Ottonian) branch, that gave rise to the Princes of Orange and the monarchs of the Netherlands.
All Dutch and Luxembourgish monarchs since 1815 have been senior members of the House of Nassau. However, in 1890 in the Netherlands and in 1912 in Luxembourg, the male lines of heirs to the two thrones became extinct, so that since then, they have descended in the female line from the House of Nassau.
A number of years ago, a client of Brad Michael Little asked him to investigate her son’s ancestry, as he was confirmed to be R-DF98 (aka “The King’s Cluster” – refer Royal “Wettin House“) and also his grandfather had been left on the steps of a church as a baby. In his crib were several bars of gold.
Through a complex process of analysis using my our atDNA triangulation system, with known male and female descendants of the Russian House of Romanov, House of Wettin and House of Hesse, the “placeholder” conclusion was that my client’s son was a maleline descendant of the House of Nassau.
Further work is required to confirm this placeholder, such as convincing a known Nassau female descendant to take a atDNA test – and that test showing a confirmed match with my client. If it is correct, then the full SNP listing of the Royal Nassau Haplogroup is R-P310 > U106 > Z381 > Z156 > Z306 > Z304 > DF98 > S1911 > S1894 > FGC14758.
Proving this placeholder is important, as it would add weight to my theory (as follows) that R-DF98 is really “The King’s Cluster“, and therefore almost all the Continental Western European Royal Houses (such as Capetian, Carolingian, Welf / Hanover, Habsburg and Ottonian Dynasty etc) would be R-DF98. Refer the information under Royal Capetian House, wherein it is shown by Mr Lucotte that they are R-DF98.
I would go further and postulate that the Salian Dynasty King’s of Germany, together with the leadership of the Salian Franks would also be R-DF98.
Proof for such a proposal is not assured. It will be confirmed (or denied) if a combination of living royalty (such as the Oldenberg’s) and ancient royal skeletons (such as are housed in Westminster Abbey) undertake Y-DNA testing.
We may be partly there, re proving the the hypothesis that R-DF98 is indeed “The King’s Cluster” – refer the information shown in the “Royal Capetian House“, from this website.