Friday, November 28, 2008

My DNA lineages - from Oxford Ancestors

I had my Mitochondrial (maternal line) and Y-chromosome (paternal line) DNA analysed by Oxford Ancestors (OA) some while ago.

Here are the results (click on any of the images to make them bigger and more readable):
  • mtDNA = haplogroup H -- which OA call 'Helena'
  • Y-chromosome gene group = R1b -- which OA call 'Oisin'.

    Maternal Line - Helena

    As mentioned in the previous post, I'm most likely Celtic on both sides. On my mother's side, I think the 'Helena' story is reasonably secure. The 'Helena' clan were the original Celtic inhabitants of Britain after the last ice age.

    We now look to the paternal side.

    Paternal Line - Oisin

    In Bryan Sykes' book, "Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland" he's more specific about how the 'Oisin' clan got to England. He says we were 'descended from Iberian fishermen who migrated to Britain between 4,000 and 5,000 BC' and that we 'Oisins' are 'now considered the UK's indigenous inhabitants'.

    Oxford Ancestors provided an overall classification chart, shown below.

    suggesting that if you were 'Oisin' and lived in England, then there was a 75% likelihood you were Celtic. (Obviously there were also Anglo-Saxons and Danish Vikings who were also part of the 'Oisin' clan - it would need a more refined analysis of genetic markers to distinguish those from the indigenous British 'Oisin' Celts). So that's the slightly more tentative basis of a Celtic ancestry on my father's side too.

    How did we get here? Take a look at the two following 'out-of-Africa' migration maps. As before, click on a map to make it larger.

    Migration of maternal clans

    Migration of paternal clans

    For close relatives, the paternal story applies to my father, brother and sister, and two sons. Also my brother's sons.

    The maternal story applies to my mother, brother and sister. Also my sister's daughters and son.

    My own sons get their MtDNA from Clare, who is Irish - and we believe thoroughly Celtic - on her mother's side).

    Next Post: the Origins of the British

    Previous Post: the language of my ancestors