Myheritage had updated peoples ethnicities, for which my Mediterranean dna was no longer 11%, but was more like 5%, being of Greek, Southern Italian and Italian. Although I don't have specifically English dna, like my mum and my aunty Lolly, I do have England as an 'additional genetic group', as I do the Shetland Islands. So, yes: Irish, Scottish and Welsh is 66.8%, which includes the Shetland Islands Scandinavian (Viking) is 27.2% Greek and Southern Italian is 2.5% Italian is 2.3% Finnish is 1.2% My mum's update is; Irish, Scottish and Welsh: 66.7% Scandinavian: 30.8% Italian: 2.5% Her specific group is Shetland Islands and a lower confidence additional suggestion is Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Although my mum had been given 7% English formerly, this time no English came up for her at all. My Aunty Lolly, who I'm sure got different sibling dna than my dad, she having no Greek or Italian, got:
Irish, Scottish and Welsh: 52.5% (specifying Ireland and South Wales) Scandinavian: 25.5% English: 12.9% West and North Europe: 1.9% Her specified groups are South Welsh, South-West England (which would be the Forest of Dean) and England. As a low confidence suggestion she has Southern USA
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Chris, of Watchwell House near Glastonbury, shared with me that on an ancient Greek urn, found in a Celtic burial site in France, at Vix, there is what appears to be a Kali style goddess depiction with lions and snakes and her tongue sticking out. The Black Madonnas of Europe may indeed have an old Kali connection, as the gypsies do see in the deity of Saint Sara at St Marie de la Mer. This urn of Vix, it has been proposed, was made in the workshops of southern Italy, where is the origin of my son George's fathers lineage. Not only does the lady of the urn have the Kali sticking out tongue, but she also has a third eye bindi. Her legs are depicted as snakes, for which it may be considered that she was a snake goddess or that her power was of kundalini. The urn was in itself a wine mixing pot, in which wine would be mixed with water, and this being the largest of its kind ever found, dated to around 500 BC. These wine pots were known as kraters and would have been placed in the middle of the room at a banquet. Archaeologists don't appear to have made a connection between Kali and the lady of the urn. Rather she is a gorgon, which was much used as a symbol by the ancient Greeks, her hair being of snakes, she who if gazed at may turn the observer to stone. Yes, her braids did look snake like on the urn. Medusa, of fame, is one of the gorgons. To wear the pendant of a gorgon is to have her protection, both Athena and Zeus having worn such pendants, which in itself reveals that the gorgons are remnants of more ancient goddesses and that their power was still recognised. She had wings and maybe tusks and her eyes were magical; and yes, snakes. As with Kali her power was terrifying to evil-doers, while she also protected those she loved.
Well, such fun it was to make time travel pictures for both my daughterx, the dark and the fair, and how well this worked out for them, with beautiful artistic portrayals manifesting. Thank you Myheritage, I so love it. My daughters were as divas with their precious unquique beauty, as art. So this I was long involved in. Viking Rosina Indian Rosina, as is half of her genetics via her father. Sisters down through the ages. It's such a delight for me to have these pictures which show so beautifully these girls I have brought into the world. And it's so that for genealogical purposes I could well use all our pictures as representative of the ancestresses.
Diving into my son George's archeo-genetics I saw he was of the European tribes, markedly of the Visigoths, but also the Illyrians, Gauls, Franks and Thuringii. His actual closest modern connections were to France and Spain, before even his Italian. It was interesting how his Italian father, Francesco, had been so drawn to this area in which we now lived, especially to the Visigoths, who had sacked Rome, and with him having been so anti-Rome, and of his pro-piracy, which was the past-time of the Illyrians. And, then again, how apt that George had French nationality. George's closest archeo-genetic match was to a Gaul in Lombardy. His second was to a Scythian Moldovan (ah, like his sister Rosina), this being a woman who again had Gaul dna, so being a woman who had married into the Scythians. Thirdly there was a match to a woman of the Thuringii tribe found in Bavaria, her head having been fashioned during her youth into an unnatural state, according to a noble's ideas of beauty at the time, and who was buried with her jewellery. Fourthly there was another Lombard burial, this time the dna being of the Franks. Then there was a bronze age Gaul, then a mixed Gaul Illlyrian found in Germany, then a bronze age mixed Frank Illyrian found in Prague, then a mixed Frank Ostrogoth found in Hungary; and lastly a bronze age burial in Serbia of a mixed Gaul Etruscan. Interestingly, Serbia was listed as one of George's modern populations. And like me he had a genetic connection to King Louis XVI of France. The dna of King Louis XVI was mainly Illyrian mixed with Roman, Gallo-Roman, Thracian and Roman-Hispanian. So George was, through his father, very much of the tribes of Europe. From me he had Roman gladiators, massacred Vikings and Merovingian nobles. And amazingly he had a Greek connection to one of the people who had perished in the Himalayas at Roopkind lake, this being another match to Rosina's own ancestors. Really interesting to see was that George had a match to crusader from Tuscany who had gone to the Holy Land, found there in Lebanon where he had been slain by either the Moslems or the Mongols. A connection to plague victims was made mention of as well. I now turned to looking at my Aunty Lolly's archeo-genetic dna, she being my fathers sister. Her ancient dna was pretty much like mine really, of Celts, Saxons, Franks, Danish Vikings and Vandals. And of modern populations she was mostly Irish and Welsh. Her closest archaic match was to the Bell Beaker peoples. Many individuals of Britain and Europe had good matches to Lolly. Lastly I was looking at my mothers archeo-genetics, aha, so very Viking. Her largest influence was of Icelandic Vikings, after which were Saxons, Celts, Vandals and Danish Vikings. Iceland appeared to be part of the wider domain of her Shetland seafarers, her father being of a Shetland family. One Viking, a victim of the Saint Brice massacre at Oxford, was close in genetics to my mother. Even this connection was classed as very unique, for which all research categories were freely opened up for this individual, which others would have to pay for. Although this young man was a Viking his dna was very mixed, there being primarily Celt and secondly Icelandic viking. This would be attributed to the Viking pioneers having taken native celtic girls for their wives. Other less dominant dna types in this individual were Saxon, Vandal and Pict. Likely then this Viking individual was linked to our Shetlanders and maybe even was a direct ancestor. I'd already come to understand by now that our Shetland ancestors were not exclusively Viking, as had been previously presumed. As it could be seen by the example of early settlers of Iceland, regardless that those pioneers were Viking men, they took along with them many Irish slaves, the most alluring women of which they made wives of. These women were Celts and Picts, and though their men folk had the fate of being enslaved and massacred, as was generally the way of the more attractive women throughout ancient history, their beauty saved them. Another match to my mother was of a Celt in bronze age Scotland, discovered during landscaping work in the garden of Evergreen House on the East Lothian coast. Those remans formed part of a larger bronze age burial ground. Other matches to Icelandic Vikings came up, one being a Gaelic Viking mix and this person being one of the last Vikings to still practise the Norse religion before all would embrace Christianity. All I was discovering was so interesting to me, and yet it was late and sleep was overwhelming me, for which I had to suspend all for now. I got to looking up my daughter Rosina's archeo-genetics, and what I then saw, as it had been for mine too, was again blowing my mind. As to her Indian side, which was through her father, I pretty much guessed there would be some Indo-Aryan influence, deriving from the Russian Steppes. And for sure there was, very much so, and in fact her very Indianness was less influential in her dna than were more distant empires. This variety of influence inluded Persia, the vast aforementioned steppes, and the Greco-Bactrians, who were Greek colonists and based their kingdom in Afghanistan.
The great influence in her of the people of the Steppes reflected nomadic horsemen, often hired as mercenaries, who roamed the vast Caspian steppes, north of the Black Sea, covering the Ukraine, Kazakhstan and parts of Russia. There roamed the bulk of Rosina's ancestors, expressing as nomadic Scythians and Sarmatians, all throught classical antiquity. It was in these steppes, also known as the Pontic Steppes, that horses were first domesticated and our Indo-European languages were born. The Persian kingdom, also to be found in Rosina's dna essentially corresponded to present day Iran but also covered Tajikistan, Afghanistan and into old India as far as the Indus river and beyond. The Greco-Bactrians which expanded into the Indo-Greek kingdom were of Greek Hellenistic origin. Those Greeks who settled in north west India became some of the early Buddhists. They brought to India the richness of their Greek culture, being a people of high sophistication and wealth and staying connected with both cultures, that of the Mediterranean and that of india. So Rosina had of the steppes two large imputs, the Scythians and the Sarmatians, who were anyway related groups. The Sarmatians are known to have been Caucasoid in appearance, tall with long reddish hair, wearing long flowing robes and throwing their javelins as they rode on horseback. As it also was with the Scythians, they roamed the vast plains and the shores of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. Rosina's closest archaic match was from a Scythian found in Kazakhstan, and her second closest match was to an adept of a Buddhist monastery. There was an iron age Sarmatian. And the very oldest matches were to two ancients of the Andronovo culture, they being back in the bronze age, more than 3,000 years ago. The Scythian found in Kazakhstan was close to 3,000 years back as well and the other matches were around 400BC. The most ancient of her revealed ancients, the Andronovo tribes, were of the aforementioned steppe lands, the speakers of the original Indo-European language and the inspiration behind the Indian Vedas in which so much written off reflected aspects of their culture. As was written of in the Indian scriptures they were the very chariot riding Aryans who migrated into India, bringing along with them their language and their religion. They so revered their horses and their wheeled chariots that examples of both are to be found in ancient burials. On their arrival into India, this light skinned, light haired people mixed with darker aboriginal peoples, thereby contributing to the modern populations of India. They always held in great esteem their original homeland, known in the Vedas as Airyanem Vaejah, a land sacred to Zoroastrianism and known as one of Ahura Mazda's 'sixteen perfect lands'. This was therefore the 'cradle of the Aryan tribe'. In Rosina's more modern populations there is listed the Tadjik of the steppes, and the Tatar Crimea, again of the steppes, the Nogai of the Caucasus, Romanians, Afghan Pashtuns, and interestingly the Roma and gypsies, which surely relates not to modern day gypsies but to the tribes on the edge of India from which they originated. It is rather lower down on the list that authentic India gets a mention, in regard to the Punjabi's and Jat pastoralists who had become warriors in the quest to keep out Islamic invasions, and in which they were reknowned for their gallantry and bravery, while yet still being regarded as an essentially pastoral people, noteably separate from brahamnism and distinct enough to, unlike much of India, allow their widows to remarry. Of great interest was Rosina being genetically matched to bodies located in the Roopkund Lake in the Himalayas, this lake also being called 'Skeleton Lake' for there having been found 800 skeletons within its waters, some of them still so well preserved that flesh is still attached to them. Legend attributes these pilgrims to having been victims to a massive hailstorm in which they were bombarded by huge ice stones from the skies. The lake was a pilgrimage place, anciently sacred to the Goddess Nanda, and appears to have been a choice location for travelling Greek colonists as well. Three of those Hellenic bodies, their dna found to be cloest to the inhabitants of Crete, had genetic matches to Rosina. Another match she had was to an Afghani Pathan. One was of the Caucasus mountains. All the others were indian, considered to have been religious pilgrims. Her associations with one of these Indian pilgrims in particular connects her genetically to both the Mauryan Empire and the Brahmin Dynasy of Sindh. It was these Mauryans who had successfully battled the Greek Alexander the Great on his attempts to encroach deeper into India. The Mauryans created the Grand Trunk Road, Asia's oldest and most extensive trading network. As for the brahmins of Sindh, they were a powerful dynasty of Hindu's in what is present day Pakistan. Rosina had good genetic matches to six remains of Scythians, from 600BC, which was a time when yet again Hellenic peoples settling far from their own lands, in this case in Scythia in those aforementioned Pontic steppes. They were known being roaming nomads, for revering wild deer and for being bi-lingual in both Greek and the Scythian languages. The Persians tried but failed to conquer the Scythians, whose retort at them was 'we are free as the wind and what you can catch in our land is only the wind'. Of Rosina's Scythian matches, one was to a noble, two were of the Ukraine, one was Moldovan, and the other two were of the Black Sea. Rosina shared my own acheo-genetic matches to Vikings and Merovingians. Surprisingly, she also had a match to the Guanche people of the Canary Islands. The Guanche's had lived in caves, they had wooden javelins, obsidian knives and shields made from the dragon tree, and they were both sun and goddess worshippers. Ultimately the Spaniards conquered them and sold them into slavery. Rosina's last mentioned genetic match was to the Avar's of the Pannonian Plain. Such people had such an accumultion of wealth that their armour and weaponry was gold plated. To conclude, Rosina's ancestry was mainly of Scythians, Central Asians, Persians and Greeks, whom made their homes ultimately in the north-west of India and there mixed with the locals, so that in time they lost their distinct appearance and all knowledge of the origins may also have been lost if not for being preserved to some degree in ancient Indian religious texts in which they were regarded to be Ayran peoples.
Myheritage sent me a new ethnic DNA update, which at first looked to me the same as before. I made a little video talking of this, very short; and it was only later in the day that it dawned on me that the sub-categories under the listing of Irish, Scottish and Welsh were not just generalised but were specific to me. This was most curious because my Scandanavian Viking at 64.3%, which I had always presumed to relate to my granddad Lyall Inkster who had Shetland Island blood, would only have then in part come from him, because one of thise sub-groups in the Celtic-Pictish category specifically specified the 'Shetland Islands'. Of course, Shetland Islands as a sub category was too obscure to relate to everyone. This update had for the first time localised my my Celtic Pictish Scottish to the distant northern Shetland Islands. At the same time this revealed that those islands were not just a Viking conquered land but was made up still of the original maybe Pictish settlers; my people. My share of Viking blood was still a lot, but was not just from my mothers father I now realised but was from my own father too. And some of my fathers ancestry would always remain a mystery to me.
So the other sub-categories of the Celtic type were of two different Irish types, being from my grannies, and the other was 'southern Wales and southern and western England', this relating to my paternal grandfather, Pop, who was Welsh mixed with the Forest of Dean. Specifically that Welsh was southern Welsh which did reflect my research of his people. The Irish had accorded to it the numbers 12 and 8. These I looked up but myheritage had not as yet identify them with any known Irish groups. Presumably they reflected where my grannies ancestors were known to have come from, Westmeath and County Kerry.
My Greek with southern Italian remained at 4%. This was said to centre around the Aegean and Ionian Seas, reaching to Cyprus, the Caucasus, southern Russia and the Mezzigiorno region of southern Italy; south Italy being 'the first region settled by ancient Greeks outside of their Greek peninsula, going right back to the 8th century before Christ'.
The Spanish was 3.5%, pretty mareh for a minimal DNA to; these people descending from 'ancient Iberian tribes', also extending to the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands. And not only southern Italian, but I had Italian in general at 2.7%. And what of the Finnish; just a little, at 1%; this category includes some of western Russia, being associated with Nordic and Slavic cultures.
Ok, so I next looked at my mums Myheritage update. My mum not only had the Shetland Islands also specified as a key group but an Irish location was given (though with no number accorded), this being 'Cork, Kerry and Limerick'. Wow, distinct places being mentioned and yes that was right on, as her Irish ancestors whom I had researched did indeed come from County Kerry. My mother had only 3% more Viking than I did and as I had observed before she had a 7%English which I had not inherited. Her Spanish was marginally tinier than mine at 3.2% and her Italian was 2.8%, just a fraction more than mine. She had no Greek, this naturally being my inheritance from my father.
My Aunty Lollies update, she being all I have had to represent my deceased father, wasn't now showing up any Greek DNA. My dad and she would not have inherited the same shares of DNA. By deduction I understood him to have had at least the same amount of Greek DNA as me.
And now, this was interesting, not only did her Celtic data specify 'southern Welsh', this being from Pop, her father, but also that her Irish was of the numbers 12 and 8! What!! This showed that the Irish showing up in me was essentially from my dads side, both those numbers relating to my great great grandmother Mary Dolan from Westmeath. Had I not even inherited my mothers County Kerry quota, let alone her English. How curious! Aunty Lolly had English DNA at 12.9%, again not passed on to me, this specifically being eastern and central UK. It could be that my own sister did get English and County Kerry, but as she had passed away long long ago this I could not know. Aunty Lolly had a high Viking percentage at 25.5%, so indeed my own Viking came from both my parents. And there was another group Aunty Lolly had, but not me, which was 9.1% northern and western European, this being associated with Holland, France and Germany. I didn't have it! It was so curious that largish sections of DNA, although of lesser than 10%, may not be handed on to a descendant, and yet that something more ancient, such as presumably the Greek, had come down to me. And I so could have been 'English' but by fate was not. The strong Irish in me did then appear to be from my father. I'd guess that was what this data was saying.
Looking at my daughter Rosina's update, she had got so much of my Viking at 38% and less of my Celtic at 13.7%, with the special grouping of Shetland Islands in there. She'd not got my Greek or Spanish, but she'd got some Italian at 1.9%. The tiy amount of Finnish I had passed onto her too. Overall she was a Viking Indian. Her Indian DNA at 44.8% was of the Indo-Aryan ancient tribes.
And looking at my son George's update, he had inherited from his Italian father some exotic ethnicities, such as Middle Eastern and West Asian. And, oh, I then saw it, as an additional specific genetic type there was mentioned not only the Shetland Islands but also Bari in Italy. If I'd needed any more proof that Francesco was his father and not Dutch Allard then there it was. Francesco's people were from the village of Turi near to Bari.
George's general Italian was 33.6% and his Greek & Southern Italian was 19%. He had Spanish at 4%, Balkan at 7.4%, Middle Eastern at 1.8% and West Asian at 0.8%. Some of that Mediterranean in him was not just from his dad but from me too. Unlike Rosina, he got very little of my Viking at only 2.4%, compared to her huge 38.6%, but he got more of my Celtic and Pictish at 31%, compared to her 13.7%. Hence Rosina was more of a Viking and George was more of a Celt. It would be interesting to see my other childrens DNA one day, to know what percentages they themselves inherited. George's Middle Eastern was of the Levant, this being the 'cradle of civilisation' which had been inhabited for thousands of years. His West Asian aligned to Turkey and Iran, being of ancient Persians and the Turk nomadic tribes. I do know I have tiny amounts of these types of DNA too from the testing I've done with other companies. My youngest childrens ethnic Myheritage DNA percentages arrived: Rosina: 44.8% South Asian; 38.6% Viking (Shetland); 13.7% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 1.9% Italian; 1% Finnish George: 33.6% Italian; 31% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Wesh); 19% Greek and South Italian; 7.4% Balkan; 4% Spanish Iberian; 2.4% Viking Shetland; 1.8% Middle East; 0.8% West Asia And so comparing theirs to mine: 64.3% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 24% Viking Shetland; 4% Greek and South Italian; 3.5% Spanish Iberian; 2.7% Italian; 1% Finnish
That ever mystery of George's dad is by this ethnic result once and for all sorted. He is my Georgio De Bello. Even there had come up a De Bello cousin match for him, this being to Leonora De Bella who was in her 70's and living in America, she being possibly a second or third cousin once or twice removed. I reacquaint with the results of my mothers own test results, through her there coming my Spainish and Italian, whereas through my father would come the Greek. 59.6% Celtic Irish and Scots - (the Welsh being from my father); 27.3% Viking Sheland; 7.1% English (I never inherited any of this, so neither did my children); 3.2% Iberian Spanish; 2.8% Italian And my Aunty Lolly, to represent my deceased father, who is her brother - although they would have had differing blends of their parents DNA:: 52.5% Celtic (Irish and Welsh); 25.5 Viking (not connected to my Shetland genes); 12% English; 9.1% North and West European, for example French, Dutch and German Really I have no way to know my fathers correct percentages as he died so long ago and I suspect his alotted amount was rather different to Lolly's, he being red haired and she so blonde.
I have cousins a little more distant who have done the Myheritage ethnic tests too, although their DNA will have the imput of people I have no connection at all too, but still its interesting to observe. They are both connected to me through my nanny Eileen, the mother of Lolly and my father. Firstly, Dee, descended from nanny Eileen's sister Molly. Dee's grandfather is Scottish and her father is a Londoner with the Welsh surname of Jones: 75.6% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 9.8% Baltic; 9.7 Viking Scandanavian; 2.7% West Asia; 1.4% Finnish; 0.8% Ashkenazi Jew Secondly, Dominic. He descends from a sister of my nanny Eileen's mother Florence who was half Irish. 39.2% Celtic (Irish, Scots and Welsh); 35.6% English; 18.6 North West European; 4.9% Viking Scandanavian; 1.7% Ashkenazi Jew In cousin matches, there is a second or third cousin who I quickly see must be related to me through pop, my Welsh grandfather, this being because my aunt Lolly and I share her as a common relative, but not Dee nor Dominic. Jane Keep, and indeed she does appear to have Welsh, ancestry. 77.9% Celtic; 19.1% English; 3% Spanish Iberian So, Welsh for sure. Well, I got to looking at some of these proposed cousins to see how we may connect to one another, not just this Jane Keep, but two other matches. And though none had any obvious links, I got to researching their lineages and found them myself. Such is my zeal for researching. Jane Keep had only put that her grandparents were a Powell and a Bebb, and not even any other information at all, but regardless, I sussed her ancestry right back to Mary Thomas, who happened to be the daughter of two of my Welsh ancestors, Morgan Thomas and his wife Ann née Rosser. It was by checking all this out that I found a census I'd not seen before, for Ann when she was old and widowed living in Llanelli in 1891 with this aforementioned daughter Mary. And what was so amazing about this discovery was that languages spoken were listed and my Ann, despite everyone else in the household being English speakers, was herself a Welsh speaker. She didn't even speak English at all, only Welsh. Those who did speak both languages were clearly marked as doing so. And I worked out another Welsh cousin link, again which I had to research more to make sense of, this being to a Lionel Herbert Watkins. Thus I found that my connection to Lionel reached right back to the original George Harrison of Llanthony, Lionel descending from his daughter Sophia and me from his son William. The link to George Harrison was not a research even worked out at all by this distant cousin, but I'd sussed it. And I shall get to working out more and more of these proposed cousin connections I do suppose.
I have been looking up ancient Greek foods, after all I have this mystery 4% Greek in my DNA. And this really is quite mysterious, because a cousin who has had her DNA done recently, and who is descended from my nanny's sister, Molly, has no Greek like me. And whats more my Aunty Lolly, who is a full sister to my father has none of this Greek either. And yet certainly it comes through my father, as my mother herself has none of it. So, I am much in confusion, not understanding this at all. Like, at least Aunty Lolly should have some Greek!
So the traditional cheese of the Greeks, feta, has anciently been part of the Greek diet, and it has numerous probiotics, and conjugated linoleic acid, that are beneficial for ones health. For breakfast the Greeks ate various pancakes topped with feta, honey and sesame, or maybe the dough would include olive oil, honey and curdled milk. Or, they would dip barley bread in wine, eating this with figs or olives. The staple diet was grains of wheat, barley and millet with lentils, chickpeas, peas, lupin beans, olives, chestnuts, beech nuts, acorns, garlic, onions, artichoke, nuts, herbs, raisins, figs and pomegranate. Bitter vetch was also eaten, which needed several changes of boiling water to reduce the bitterness, and which was said to be good for ones health. Flat breads were mixed with feta and honey, and wine yeast used as a leavener. Bread was coarse and brown, as usual only the rich eating white bread. Barley was used for not only bread, but also for soup, drinks and dumplings. Food would be boiled, mashed or made into soup, to which then would be added herbs and olive oil. Spring water was the most popular ancient Greek drink, described by Pindar as 'as agreeable as honey'. Many philosophers simply drank water and kept to a vegetarian diet. Wine was watered down, straight wine being only for barbarians and said to lead to madness and death. Barley gruel was drunk, mixed with water and herbs. Of Neolithic times in general, there was cultivated wheat, barley, lentils, peas, chickpeas, flax and bitter vetch. I suppose this would indicate that linseed (flax) is the oldest used oil. I shall get some to try from the health food shop. I got into looking at my aunty Lolly's ethnic DNA, which after all I had paid to get done on the Family Tree site. Apart from that which I had expected, British and Viking and some near European, there was a smaller amount of Greek which I do now know must come to me through my father. And, what was totally interesting, other than that, was a 3% Middle Eastern, 1% of this being from the east of the Middle East, that is from the Persian shores of the Caspian sea down to Mesopotamia, and the other 2% being from the west middle east, that is from Anatolia down through Lebanon and the Holy Land to the shores of the Red Sea. I was so excited by this that I couldn't sleep for ages that night, for I have long felt an emotional kind of connection to the Middle East, this being pre-Islamic, or at least non-Islamic, some connection to all the minority groups under threat in this fascinating part of the world. The next step for me is the free transferal of these results to other DNA platforms, Myheritage and Gedmatch. It was in then looking at my own DNA matches, that I spotted a new close one, quickly working out this was a third cousin descending from my Maxted line. And the tree he'd put online was so minimal that there was not even any mention of Maxteds, but as usual I had applied my detective skills. This cousin, Dominic, was just 20 years old, a scout volunteer working at the Holiday Inn and raised in Eastleigh. His mother, Jillian, then would be my second cousin, she being granddaughter to Lilian Norah Maxted, who was sister to my great grandmother, Florence Maxted. Chatting online with Aunty Lolly, about her ethnic DNA results, and sharing research I have done on the family, she talked of her grandmother (my great grandmother) Florence Maxted and of how she always took in lodgers, and had run a fruit and veg shop in Eastleigh on Desborough Road. It was far to visit, from Dovercourt in Essex to Eastleigh in Hampshire, but still the families would reunite twice a year. Lolly remembered Florence's sister, Lilian Norah, as being blind. As Jill, new found second cousin, would tell me later, Lilian Norah, who was her granny had suffered a stroke, due to an accident, at around the age of 40, hence why she was blind, for which she was also unable to talk properly. Aunty Lolly said even Florence's sight wasn't so good, for which she had as a child read aloud the horse listings for her, the family having been quite partial to a flutter. Florence always made a big bowl of soup every Saturday and everyone came round to make their bets and partake of her soup, always such times being such fun. Sometimes they would win, though the bets made were only ever small. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees I settled into trying to understand more these genetic tools on Gedmatch, specifically the Eurogenes K13 and the Dodecad 3, one of my aims being to discern what is from my mothers side and what is of my fathers. Not that I really work out so much, but there are some things I do see. One marker which I have, but my mum doesn't, and which therefore is from my father, is of the Red Sea. And there I had been previously, holidaying for a month right by the Red Sea in Egypt. Both the Eurogenes and the Dodecad reveal a lot of West Asian, which is considerably higher in me than in my mother. Thus it does look to be that my huge Caucasus heritage, and quite likely the Anatolian/Armenian too, is from my father, or at least a greater portion of the Caucasus is. And isn't that a surprise, considering that mine and my mothers matriarchal DNA is from there, and yet my more recent connections to that land come through my father. Naturally western-northern European is our highest genetics, after which comes a high Mediterranean, which includes some Greek from my father and East European shores of the Black Sea from my mother. South Asian is in my mother and father, and south west Asian is only through my dad. North East Asian is from both my parents, which does get me thinking of Mongol invasions. No paleo-Pygmy African presence shows up after all on the Dodecad. There is, though, north west African from my mum (Moroccan) and north east African (Egyptian) from my dad. Among the Gedmatch tools are oracles for predicting likely origins of the four grandparents, and looking firstly at my mums, her Shetland grandparents are no doubt responsible for the Orcadian, West Scottish, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. All is not so straightforward for grandparents Mary Ann Seagrove and D'Auvergne Bane. There is a considerable amount of south west English, pinpointed to Cornwall, that I'm not sure how to account for. This could be tagged onto either of grandparent I suppose. Like I don't yet know the place Mary Ann's ancestors dwelt in as yet before they came to London. The Irish is accounted for by Mary Ann's 'Sugrue' fathers side from County Kerry, and the Spanish with considerable Basque may or may not have come through the Irish connection. The Dodecad reveals that there is French other than just the Basque, and with a name like D'Auvergne naturally I wonder if that grandfather did have some secret French connection. As far as his Norfolk Banes and Beans are concerned, this would be covered by both south east English and Dutch, the Norfolk cloth merchants (a trade to which my people were linked) being from there, and this could also account for traces of German and Austrian. Although not to forget that the Hanseatic merchants also traded with Shetland. The conclusion of my mothers oracle is a quite present Cornish, Scottish and Danish, and a French Basque which is potentially through the Irish. In my own oracle Irish is the strongest, enormously so. Although my mum's Irish would appear to have a strong Basque and Spanish influence, my dads (which is from Westmeath) would be very grass roots Irish. So for my own grandparents in this: Shetland grandfather Lyall Inkster accounts for West Scottish and Orcadian; Granny Isabelle accounts for Irish, Cornwall, French and Spanish. Then, for my other two grandparents, pop and nanny Eileen, would come so much Irish. For pop surely Welsh would show, but maybe Welsh hasn't been sampled as yet and so has been lumped in with the Irish. Unless, that is, my Welsh Harrisons and Forest of Dean Hawkins were of Irish traveller derivation. So much Irish, it being the closest of all ethnic types to me inclines me to think my nanny Eileen's mystery father to be Irish as well. Somewhere on my dads side also comes in some distant Hungarian, according to Eurogenes, so it may be that the Maxteds came from a gypsy heritage after all, but I have to drop gypsyness for now as a consideration due to a lack of proof. Interestingly, beyond the strong French Basque, the most potent influence of all the Spanish areas is Catalan. And where I live now in the south of France was once part of the Spanish Catalan territories, before being snatched away by France. My coming to this land suddenly holds a significance I'd not before been aware of. The Dodecad points not only to Cornwall and Hungary, but also to Slovenia. And Sardinia is there through my mother, as well as north Italian. As Les Batt had pointed out, this appears to point out a route taken to Spain, being via Sardinia, a route of old sea traders, such as the Phoenicians. Certainly the Phoenicians come to mind with such locations, from the Levant to the islands of the Mediterranean to Spain. The Dodecad embroiders yet again on my mothers strong Iberian secondary ancestry, along with Sardinian and Italian. Whereas my own, presumably enriched by my fathers DNA, is increasingly exotic. The Eurogenes has pointed out for me strong Caucasus and central Asian ancestry, along with Anatolian. The Dodecad finds me markers in a more European and Mediterranean context and these are richly ethnic in variety. Primarily there are Greek, Romanian and Hungarian. So would that then relate to my maybe gypsy Kent-London ancestors? But, oh, they are a right melting pot of cultures, just as one may imagine Londoners to be. And I never thought there was any Jewish ancestry in me at all, for nothing else had shown this, but the Dodecad has made of me links to them. Beyond the stronger Greek-Romanian-Hungarian there comes Slovenian, Ashkenazi Jew, Cyprus, Sephardic Jew, the Balkans, Sicily, Lebanon, Moroccan Jew, south Italy, Cornwall (lol, so exotic), and Egypt. What to say of this, well, ones ancestry is not linear, nor easily determined. In these hundreds of years so many families are joined by the marriages and affairs of the ancestors. The Dodecad grandparent predictor oracle for my mother still emphasises a French Basque probability, with Slovenian coming up too, and naturally Irish. Mine brings in, from my father then, an addition of Romanian and the Balkans. At which point I take a break. Because my friend Omani comes to visit. AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. |
AuthorSusie Harrison and her hobby of genealogy, always looking into her own and her friends family trees. Categories
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