Modern-day gypsies,  Europe's widespread Romani population, are now as diverse in language, lifestyle, and religion as any demographic but they all share a common past.

And that past started about 1,500 years ago  in northwestern India, according to the first genome-wide perspective on Romani origins and demographic history. With
approximately 11 million people, the Romani represent the largest minority group in Europe, rivaling the total populations of  Greece, Portugal, and Belgium.  Yet they lack written historical records on their origins and dispersal. To fill in those gaps, researchers gathered genome-wide data from 13 Romani groups across Europe to try and confirm an Indian origin for European Romani, which was the conclusion of linguistic analyses. 



Manfred Kayser from Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands

 Published in Current Biology