Finally a location and some names!

Exciting news for me the other day. I got in touch with one of my mother's 5th cousins (let's call them Cousin A) who is of Hungarian descent as I noticed that she matches another member of this cousin's family over at Gedmatch. And it's a good job I did get in touch, because they told me that since I had last wrote, they had been in touch with Mum's other 5th cousin of Hungarian descent (cousin B) of which me, my mother and cousin A are also related to (that is we are all descended from the same ancestor).

Cousin A and cousin B had managed to locate a city, timeframe and 3 surnames that they both shared in common! I didn't realise, but their Hungarian ancestry is in fact Szekley. The city they have both been able to find a connection to is Gyergyoszentmiklos, in Szekely Land, Romania. The surnames in common date back 8 generations making their common ancestors their GGGGGreat Grandparents approximately (my mother, cousin A and cousin B being of similar age). So they are in theory, 6th cousins. The 23andme prediction was 5th to distant cousins.

Cousin A tells me that the Szekely were a close community and that marriages within the community were common, so it is possible that these surnames they have found were all related to each other and it is impossible at this time to narrow the link down further.

On reading up about the Szekely, it seems that some moved to Bucovina in the second half of the 18th Century. Perhaps this included my ancestors-descendants who branched off from our common ancestors. This group seem to be the ones who later emmigrated to the USA in the late 19th Century, so it would make sense, or perhaps they married into a Hungarian family or a German family which later went on the the US.

What is interesting is that Bukovina is not far from the Galicia region, where my mother has other matches.

Really chuffed, it may be a distant connection, but it has made the connection solid!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sz%C3%A9kelys

Hungarian ancestry continued and more!

These two cousins who share a common ancestor with me are both have lived in Romania. However they believe the link is through their Hungarian ancestry. One cousins mother has taken the test and has confirmed the Hungarian ancestry!

A new cousin is a 5th cousin from Lithuania. They believe their ancestry to be 100% Lithuanian, but given the history of that region, I am not surprised that we now have a connection to that country.

A new distant cousin with Hungarian ancestry has popped up with the new features at 23andme, as well as a relative that was born in Switzerland (5th cousin) who is yet to respond.
Had one decline who declared their ancestry to be near/middle east and has Jewish name and haplogroups. Wouldn't surprise me if our link was via some Jewish convert years ago from Central Europe.

Sweden matches are still high but hover around 5.6cM or under. Not sure what to make of this, could be ancient. Danish matches have increased but still in same levels as Sweden. Latvia has appeared through a mixed Swedish/Danish/Latvian at 5.5cM and also Israel/Lebanon/Latvia/Latvia and Russia/Russia/Estonia/Latvia matches.

A new tool called DIYDodecad has revealed that the top 10 best fit for my mother, as a prediction of her ancestry, is 50% British 50% Hungarian. In the latest run a third of her top 30 scores are 60% British 40% Hungarian. When a family member wrote to the creator of the DIYDodecad programme, they said these scores are reflective of someone who is Western European with some minority Eastern European (Russian) or more substantial Central European such as German or Hungarian!

Hungarian relatives!

I am so thrilled to have discovered that I have shared ancestry with two people who are of Hungarian descent! These two people are themselves 5th cousins and they match in the same location as my mother, making all three of them (and me!) related via shared ancestors from the Hungarian region c. 1780. It's always a gamble predicting a time frame for these relationships but I'm just happy to have found some relatives to support what the biogeographical tests were saying! Thanks to both of them for all their help!
Latest Ancestry Finder updates include someone who is Hungarian/Croatian/Bosnian/Bosnian and another who is Ukrainian/Polish, plus a mystery Romanian/Unknown.
Given my new cousins have Romanian ancestry themselves and come from Transylvania, I'm wondering if this mystery match also has some Hungarian ancestry.
My mother also gets quite high scores on Eurogenes to Central Europe/Hungary.
I'm sticking to my Galicia emmigrant theory!

Yet more evidence for Eastern European ancestry!

Running my relatives 23andme data through Dr Doug McDonald's BGA programme, he says:
"The most probable single population is Orkney. However, there is sufficient mixing of eastern European to make the spot on themap near Wolfen, Germany."
So the 23andme data supports what we're finding with the deCODEme data which is brilliant!

Below is a map of all my ancestral locations.

German relatives on both sides!

I have just discovered that we have German ancestors via the same German family on HIR but on both sides of their family! The Dad and son share on Chr 5 in the same place but the father's segment is longer and the Mum and other brother on Chr 18 again with the mother's segment being slightly longer!
Geographic areas:
Bohemia, Germany, Weimar, Neustadt an der Orla, Neunhofen, Wettin, Arnshaugh, Lobenstein, Schwerstedt, Buttstädt, Querfurt, Gross-Ellguth, Ligota Wielka, Silesia, Schlesien, Neuhof, Frankenstein, Bohemia, Germany, Weimar, Neustadt an der Orla, Neunhofen, Wettin, Arnshaugh, Lobenstein, Schwerstedt, Buttstädt, Querfurt, Gross-Ellguth, Ligota Wielka, Silesia, Schlesien, Neuhof, Frankenstein, Ząbkowice Śląskie, Apolda, Jena, Leipzig, Bremberg, Żarek, Taltitz, Plauen , Apolda, Jena, Leipzig, Bremberg, Żarek, Taltitz, Plauen.

History Lesson!

Ok so my history of Europe is rubbish for anything before World War One. But doing my research into Galicia it says that it was part of the Austrian Empire. Having no real idea where that covered, I resorted to Wikipedia (not the best source I know) and it says that the Austrian Empire lasted from 1804-1867 and covered Galicia, Hungary, Croatia and Montenegro to name a few countries.
Why is this significant? Because we also have a 6th cousin who is half Croatian/Montenegran! Ok so the other half of their ancestry is unknown, so I can't go jumping the gun here, but what if there was a connection thanks to this? Although given the link would probably be about 500 years ago I guess that stuffs that theory, BUT Croatia is next door to Hungary and I'm sure migrations must have happened. Frustratingly, there is also on Ancestry Finder, someone who is probably a 4th cousin who is half US half Austrian....how nice it would be to find out about them!

A bit of geography!

After discovering two relatives sharing on an X chromosome lived only 400 miles apart, it seems to me feasible that our common ancestor would have migrated around the region and their descendants would have done the same. I have looked into Ukrainian migrants to North America to see when they arrived and where they came from. One website, "Every Culture", states that between 1891 and 1914 170,000 Ukrainians settled in Canada from the provinces of Galicia and Bukovyna. Galicia is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine, not far from Bialoboki. The area has had a turbulent past and between the 13th-18th centuries it was controlled by Tatars and peoples of Altaic and Uralic stock from Central Asia.
In America, 350,000 began to arrive in 1877 and came from Lemko (which was part of Galicia) and the Transcarpathian region. Galicia, Bukovyna and Transcarpathia are all the same same region of south west Ukraine bordering Poland and Hungary!