Sicilianu101's Results

[Sicilianu101]

I wanted to start out by saying that I actually tested with FamilyTreeDNA.. But we don't have our own forum so I'm posting my results here instead..

I am 100% Sicilian and can trace all my ancestry to the small village of Alcara Li Fusi in the Nebrodi Mountains of Northeastern Sicily (to my great-great-great grandparents).

These are my original FamilyTreeDNA results:

Middle East: Bedouin, Bedouin South, Druze, Iranian, Jewish, Mozabite, Palestinian= 53.74% ±17.93%
Europe (Southern European): Sardinian, Tuscan= 46.26% ±17.93%




These are the results from Dr. McDonald's BGA Analysis.






This is the email he sent me:

The program says

Most likely fit is 35.9% (+- 9.1%) Europe (various subcontinents)
and 1.6% (+- 0.9%) Africa (various subcontinents)
and 62.5% (+- 8.9%) Mideast (various subcontinents)

The following are possible population sets and their fractions,
most likely at the top
Tuscan= 0.365 Ethiopia= 0.031 Cypriot= 0.603
Tuscan= 0.365 Ethiopia= 0.031 Cypriot= 0.605
Tuscan= 0.353 Ethiopia= 0.022 Cypriot= 0.625
Tuscan= 0.335 Mandenka= 0.013 Cypriot= 0.652
Tuscan= 0.335 Yoruba= 0.012 Cypriot= 0.653
Tuscan= 0.336 Bantu Ke= 0.013 Cypriot= 0.651
Tuscan= 0.341 Maasai= 0.016 Cypriot= 0.642
Tuscan= 0.335 Bantu So= 0.012 Cypriot= 0.653
Spain= 0.221 Mandenka= 0.009 Cypriot= 0.770
Tuscan= 0.606 San= 0.000 Palestin= 0.394

which in fact is perfectly reasonable given what you say.

Without your saying what you are, I would have confidently
said "some Mediterranean Island". Your spot on the scatter plots
(I see far more of them than I send) is unique ... I've never
seen anything like it. Clearly it is Mediterranean. The reason
that it is unique is that you are from one village. An academic
study using methods identical to what generates the scatter plots
(principal component analysis) found huge differences
in Sicilian village 50 km apart! If I had been forced to guess
which island, I would have said Malta, which would not have been
a bad guess. Both Sicily and Malta end up on the map
(green spot) well to the east of Italy.

According to Dienekes Admixture Analysis I am:

34.8% Mediterranean
27.4% West_Asian
17.2% West_European
11.4% Southwest_Asian
6.6% Northwest_African
1.5% East_European
1.1% East_African
0.2% Neo_African
0% South_Asian
0% Northeast_Asian
0% Southeast_Asian
0% Palaeo_African

This is a pie-chart of my results:


You can see it in his excel spreadsheet online under the tab "individual results." I am DOD804.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...COCa89AJ#gid=3

[Osweo]

Oooooooooh, Phoenicio! Do you know much of the ancient history of your ancestral village? Is it a Carthaginian settlement? Or do you think this oriental element is older than the Punic expansion? Sea Peoples? neolithic?

Thanks for sharing.

[Odoacer]

Oooooooooh, Phoenicio! Do you know much of the ancient history of your ancestral village? Is it a Carthaginian settlement? Or do you think this oriental element is older than the Punic expansion? Sea Peoples? neolithic?

Thanks for sharing.

Phoenician colonies were confined to the western parts of Sicily:



Alcara li Fusi is situated roughly 35 miles west-southwest of Tyndaris (modern Tindari), on the other end of that bit of land which juts northward. However, if we can trust poorly-translated Internet websites, in 855 the Arabs evidently razed whatever was there before, excepting the castle (or, alternately, building it), & established what has become the modern town. The name is partially derived from an Arabic appellation (Alcara = al-Aqarāt, "little fortress").

Therefore, perhaps there is some Arabic ancestry from the period of the Muslim conquest.

[Sikeliot]

Even though there were no Phoenician settlements in the area his family is from, the non-European Caucasoid influence appears in the Anatolian or Levantine direction (look at the West Asian and SW Asian scores from Dienekes and the results from Doug McDonald which have a significant amount of him matching up to Cypriots, compared to only 6.6% NW African) which would mean either a Greek connection or simply Neolithic.

[Portukalos]

34.8% Mediterranean
27.4% West_Asian
17.2% West_European
11.4% Southwest_Asian
6.6% Northwest_African
1.5% East_European
1.1% East_African
0.2% Neo_African
0% South_Asian
0% Northeast_Asian
0% Southeast_Asian
0% Palaeo_African

The reason why some of your Mediterranean component is considered as "Middle-Eastern" by McDonald results is because it is a very old component in Europe (and found mainly in South Europe) and has an affinity with West-Asia, especially with the Anatolia/Caucasus cluster.

It is consistent with what get Sicilians. they usually cluster with Greek Cypriots and Jewish people. Somewhere between Balkans and West-Asians.

[Portukalos]

Most likely fit is 35.9% (+- 9.1%) Europe (various subcontinents)
and 1.6% (+- 0.9%) Africa (various subcontinents)
and 62.5% (+- 8.9%) Mideast (various subcontinents)

You could be 45% (South) Europe and 55% Middle-East. The problem is that the guess % is hard because as you know the both groups are influenced genetically each of other.
You'd probably never know your exact % ancestry from the two regions.

[Ibericus]

The reason why your Mediterranean component is considered as "Middle-Eastern" by McDonald results is because it is a very old component in Europe (and found mainly in South Europe) and has an affinity with West-Asia, especially with the Anatolia/Caucasus cluster.

Your ancestry is consistent with what get Sicilians , they usually cluster with Greek Cypriots and Jews. Somewhere between Balkanians and West-Asians.

I don't think so. Mediterranean component is also relatively high in other parts of Europe, for example Orcadians have 25% or British and Germans 22%

[Portukalos]

Oooooooooh, Phoenicio! Do you know much of the ancient history of your ancestral village? Is it a Carthaginian settlement? Or do you think this oriental element is older than the Punic expansion? Sea Peoples? neolithic?

Thanks for sharing.

Likely some kind of Greek Islander ancestry + Neolithic expansion. Look up he clusters with Greek Cypriots.

However it is true that like many other Sicilians he has a higher Southwest Asian/Arab (15%) than the average Greek but fits pretty much the Cypriot's.

[Portukalos]

I don't think so. Mediterranean component is also relatively high in other parts of Europe, for example Orcadians have 25% or British and Germans 22%

You are right. But it is more commmon among South-East Europeans and European Islanders.

[Sicilianu101]

It is true that my town's name comes from Arabic. Our strongest cultural influence (and also seen in the names of different parts of the countryside) seems to come from the Byzantines.

To add to the complexity, according to the Italian wikipedia article on Alcara Li Fusi at
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcara_Li_Fusi

it says:
"Nel XV secolo è attestata una comunità ebraica,probabilmente più antica e particolarmente consistente in questa zona dei Nebrodi[8], confermando che ad Alcara erano centro di scambi commerciali ed economici. La comunità sarà scomparsa o quasi nel XVII secolo con l'espulsione dalla Sicilia di tutti gli ebrei non convertiti.[9]"

"In the XV century is attested a Jewish community, probably more ancient and particularly consistent in this region of the Nebrodi, confirming that at Alcara there were centers of commercial and economic exchange. The community would have disappeared in the XVII century with the expulsion from Sicily of all Jews not converted."

They could have contributed to my higher than average North African component since these are Sephardic Jews.

If you compare to the average Sicilian population from Dodecad, I have more West Asian, North African, SW Asian, and Western Euro, and less East Euro and Mediterranean.