Sunday 10 July 2011

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!

Thursday 17 March 2011

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!

Sunday 20 February 2011

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.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

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.

Sunday 23 January 2011

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!

Monday 17 January 2011

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!

Tuesday 11 January 2011

At last! Some proof across DNA tests?


I have just discovered that using the Decodeme Genome Browser, one of my relatives' X chromosomes shares a segment at 10Mb with the Granddaughter of one of her top matches at HIR search! The segment length at HIR search would be the 23andme equivalent of around a 5th cousin...(Gedmatch suggests 4th cousin once removed) but they do not appear as relatives on 23andme because the SNPs they share are below 1000. This HIR match shares at two locations on the same chromosome too for a total segment length of 14.5cM. The family is Ukrainian. I am thrilled because my relative only shares with two other people on this region of the X and one is Polish and the other part Slavic. No other friends out of the 300 at Decodeme share in that region at 10Mb. A total of four people share with my relative at 10Mb. The 4th crosses over the end of the segment length and is of Colonial (including German), Finn and recently discovered Jewish ancestry. So do they cross where a past German or Jewish ancestor is shared?
So it would seem that whilst the Grandmother gave her Granddaughter no segments of DNA that are in common with my relative on any other chromosomes, she did pass on some shared information within her X chromosome.
*Update-I have been in touch with the person from Poland who matches on the X chromosome.
They tell me that they come from a place called Bialoboki close the the Ukrainian border! I have checked the locations of our Ukrainian relatives family, and they lived about 480 miles away!
Even more bizarre is looking at the location, it's not that far from Hungary where we have a 5th cousin-Budapest is only 332 miles away!

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Matches above 800 SNPs at HIR search

It seems to me that anything over 800 SNPs is pretty suggestive so let's see what matches my relative gets above 800 SNPs....
Colonial
Colonial
British 5th cousin at 23andme
Colonial 5th cousin at 23andme
German/Finn
Colonial
Jewish/German/English
Jewish/Adopted
German
Czech/Jewish/German/Colonial
Colonial
Unknown
German
Unknown
German
Colonial
British
Colonial
British
Unknown
German/Polish/Swedish
Colonial
Irish/Hungarian
Unsure
British
Ukrainian Jewish
British
Unknown
Irish
Colonial
Colonial
Colonial
Dutch
The rest are below 5cM.
So what should I make of this? Well, I think I should discount all the Colonials because they are a mix of nationalites including British, so I am left with:

British
German/Finn
German
German
German
British
British
German/Polish/Swedish
Irish/Hungarian
British
Ukrainian Jewish
British
Irish
Dutch

Nearly half have German ancestry, 4 of which have segment lengths that 23andme would classify as 5th-10th cousins, so in theory the shared ancestry would be after the Saxon invasions of England (which is always at the back of my mind with these tests). But I suppose if you have American ancestry then German ancestry is almost to be expected!