23andMe Chromosome Segment Sharing

Since hearing about 23andMe finally bringing back the chromosome browsing feature that allows one to see one's matches with DNA Relatives on the site, we checked it out for our account (and that of our Haitian parent). For us, unfortunately, 23andMe still maxes out one's DNA matches at 5000. This means that the overwhelming majority of matches I have on that site are those sharing my "Hispanic" roots. For African matches, our Haitian parent has more luck. We were able to browse a number of them and see the shared segments with people from Nigeria, Congo (via South Africa), Sierra Leone, Ghana, Liberia, and other places. 

Interestingly, we saw that our Haitian parent shares a segment of DNA on their X chromosome that overlaps with that of a Fulani person (judging from surname) who is likely from Sierra Leone and someone else from Sierra Leone who is possibly Temne (inferring from surname). And through our Haitian parent's account, we saw that we share the Temne person as a match (even though 23andMe doesn't actually list this person in my DNA Relatives). In any case, the shared segments were always small (11.37 cM for the Temne, 11.58 cM for the Fulani). So, through our Haitian parent's side, we appear to have a female ancestor who was possibly from a Temne-like (or adjacent group) background who was trafficked to Saint Domingue. We assume the Fulani shares this Temne-like ancestry with us. But to make things more surprising, our parent did share a segment of DNA with another Fulani on the second chromosome that was assigned as "Senegambian and Guinean."

In terms of the paper trail, the colonial parish registries, runaway slave ads and notarized contracts or plantation inventories list a number of "nations" from what is now Sierra Leone and Liberia. Some examples include the Timbou, Mamou, Susu, and Mende. Cangas, Mesurades, Miserables, Bouriquis, and more from the Liberian and Ivory Coast regions were also present in the colony, according to Moreau de Saint-Mery. 

We will likely keep exploring this new shared segment viewing feature to explore our Haitian parent's matches with Liberians, Nigerians, and Ghanaians. It is just unfortunate that the Historical Matches feature doesn't allow for this. Nor can one see specific shared segments used by 23andMe to assign the African Genetic Group matches that appear in the Ancestry Composition breakdown. Adding these features would make the site more useful and important for genealogical research. 

European Ancestry (23andMe)

Although our interests in genealogy and DNA testing are primarily centered on African ancestry, we did find it interesting how our 23andMe results indicate a smaller French ancestry than Ancestry. Given our roots in the Spanish Caribbean, we expected most of our European ancestry to be from the Iberian Peninsula. Yet French was only 0.3% here despite our Ancestry results showing 2%. We're also assuming the Swedish and Swiss, Southwestern German and Western Austrian estimates are catching some of the Germanic or western European ancestry similar to that foud in France? The other surprise, although not really shocking for the Iberian Peninsula, was seeing our Y Chromosome Haplogroup: J-L26. 

Ancestry Timeline Feature

 

Although it obviously can't be interpreted literally, the timeline feature of 23andMe shows you the possible most recent ancestor who fell into one of the assigned categories. Most of these are plausible for Caribbean people with roots in Haiti and the Spanish Caribbean. And as indicated here, the indigenous ancestry is from far deeper in time. The South Asian here is probably noise while "Swedish" is presumably due to overlap with western European or Iberian populations. In addition, the Senegambian & Guinean being dated earlier in time is also consistent with the large numbers of Senegambian captives brought to Saint Domingue earlier in the French colonial period.

Indigenous Caribbean Historical Matches

 

One of the more interesting aspects of 23andMe is seeing the historical matches. Since we have ancestry from Puerto Rico that includes indigenous Caribbean admixture, we found a very large number of matches with the Indigenous Caribbean Ceramic Age samples on 23andMe. While most were undoubtedly very small matches, we found it fascinating to see matches from Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Indeed, some of the matches were with individuals buried in the same area, like the two from northern Haiti's Fort-Liberté Bay. To make the feature even more interesting, 23andMe should provide more precise information on the chromosome segment's location. It might be worthwhile to explore these matches to various indigenous Caribbean peoples who were related to others from different parts of Hispaniola or even different islands altogether. 

Despite the lack of these features, it was still interesting to note that most of our matches are with samples from Hispaniola (mainly the Dominican Republic). This is presumably due to the far greater number of indigenous Caribbean samples from the DR as well as the migration/intermarriage of indigenous peoples between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (and the Lucayan Islands). Nonetheless, we found it intriguing that the highest matches were with samples from Hispaniola. The largest amount of shared ancestry was with an ancient woman from the site of Andrés, east of Santo Domingo. Although we only share 16.45 cM across 3 segments with this woman, this supposedly means we share more ancestry with her than 99.90% of all 23andMe customers who share DNA with her. The next largest matches were of 10.8 and 10.2 cM with two individuals from Diale 1, a site in northeastern Haiti. Although only 2 segments, the amount of shared DNA with the two individuals is similar and possibly the same segment. If 23andMe provided the segment information, I could potentially explore my relation to the 2 people from the Diale site in Haiti and the woman from Andrés. Even more intriguing is the fact that the two individuals from Diale had 16-20% Archaic ancestry from peoples who lived in the Antilles before the Arawakan-speakers migrated to the Greater Antilles. Moreover, the two people from Diale, who lived sometime between 800 CE to 1200 CE, may have fallen under the sphere of influence of Marien, a cacicazgo that was perceived by the Spanish sources as the most powerful chiefdom or polity in northern Haiti. Of course, there is no evidence for Marien in this earlier time period, but the site which was the probable capital of Marien was inhabited by the 1200s.

In addition, we shared 2 segments of DNA with two other individuals from the modern Dominican Republic. In the case of Ceramic Age Caribbean Individual I15112, from El Atajadizo, DR, we have more common DNA with her than 91.90% of all 23andMe customers. For Ceramic Age Caribbean Individual I12350, we share more DNA with her than 87.90% of all 23andMe customers who match her. The general picture then is one of closer matches with women from sites in the DR and Haiti and a plethora of smaller matches in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. Since the site where these individuals were found is no sure guarantee of their origin, it is difficult to say with any certainty where they may have originated from. Therefore, it is possible some of these matches were with indigenous people who may have hailed from Puerto Rico or the eastern Dominican Republic before migrating. Nonetheless, we believe that the two related individuals from Diale, Haiti may have come from the area and one was male while the other female. Overall, the closest indigenous matches were from Atajadizo, a site near San Pedro de Macorix, and the two relatives from Haiti. The results could be explained by a number of factors but are certainly consistent with a shared ancestry between indigenous peoples in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. They could also be due to the forced relocation of indigenous peoples from Hispaniola and the Bahamas to Puerto Rico in the 16th century. But historians and archaeologists have provided more than enough evidence of long-standing contacts between eastern Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.

23andme Sub-Saharan Africa Update

 

Like many others, I was eagerly awaiting the update for sub-Saharan Africa on 23andme. We manage the account of a close relative from Haiti and were very interested in seeing any changes. Overall, the changes were not a surprise for Haitians and match what little I have uncovered with historical/genealogical sources. For example, the only "Very Close" African genetic group was the Igbo. This matches our findings of a consistent "Ibo" presence among African slaves in 18th century Bainet. 

The distant Yoruba people genetic group was also not surprising. Given the well-known historical interactions between peoples of Benin and southwestern Nigeria as well as the Yoruba presence in both regions, we suspect many Haitians may have this genetic group. Indeed, it is also matched by the high number of Yoruba matches for this relative on Ancestry.

The Ewe, Ga, and Ga-Dangme genetic groups are also to be expected as distant. One of the mutual African DNA matches between this person and myself on Ancestry is Ga, suggestive of an identical by descent shared ancestry. The Ga also overlap with Togo and Benin peoples, a known source of the African captives brought to Saint Domingue. As for the Mende, Temne and Kru, our relative has DNA matches from Sierra Leone on Ancestry and 23andme. From the former site, she and I share a match with someone who is half-Sierra Leonean (and half-Nigerian). This relative also has 2 Mende matches on Ancestry. 

Unfortunately, they did not get any African genetic groups for Angolan/Congolese or Senegambian and Guinean. This was disappointing as it would have been interesting to see African genetic groups for each region. Nonetheless, this person has 2 Fulani matches on 23andme and may see genetic groups in the next update.

23andme Update

Our Haitian relative shared their updated ancestry composition report from 23andme recently. As we expected, little changed for their sub-Saharan African ancestry. The "Broadly West African" category disappeared, but merely boosted their "Nigerian" estimate to 43.2%. They also retained the close Igbo match. As for their other African regions, everything is largely the same. Country matches with Liberia, Sierra Leone ad Ghana, but no specific ethnic groups or regions. Their Congolese and Southern East African results are also similar, with the 0.4% Southern East African estimate minor. Again, hardly anything new. In fact, it confirms their overwhelmingly West African ancestry that appears most rooted in Lower Guinea. From the slave trade data to Saint-Domingue, this suggests almost half of her ancestry is rooted in areas that fed the Slave Coast and Bight of Biafra. 

For Europe, however, some changes can be seen. France is finally severed from Germany, and clearly makes up most of her European ancestry. This is hardly surprising for Haitians. The Belgian, Rhinelander, and Southern Dutch is new, but also not too surprising as Belgium neighbors France. We also noticed that our parent and I had distant DNA matches with users from Belgium and the Netherlands on MyHeritage, too. Perhaps 23andme is confirming distant ancestry from that region for both of us. As for the Iberian Peninsula, 23andme's update assigned it to Andalusian, Asturian & Castilian with 0.2% Basque. Very small but there is some overlap with France in the Iberian Peninsula. Haiti, of course, also had people of Spanish origin during the colonial era. Lastly, the Irish ancestry at 0.2% was unexpected. But perhaps to be explained in the overlap of Irish populations with other groups in western Europe?

Fortunately, there is some more precision in the update for our Haitian parent's minor Amerindian ancestry. Like Ancestry DNA, 23andme assigns it to a vaguely South American origin. We would like to think this Central Andean/Amazonian estimate is misreading indigenous Taino ancestry, but our parent does not have any Historical Matches from the indigenous Caribbean. Therefore, if it's not from the indigenous peoples of Haiti or the Greater Antilles, it may be indigenous people who came to Saint Domingue under French rule. Baptismal records indicate Indians from Aruba, today's Colombia, and other regions were in the colony. Perhaps that's the origin of this allegedly South American indigenous ancestry? 

As for trace ancestry, it is now reflected as North African and Northern Indian & Pakistani. The latter appears at all confidence levels, too, while North Africa disappears at 80% confidence level. The North African may be via the minor Spanish ancestry or perhaps West Africa. It is difficult to say with certainty, but North African ancestry is not indicated by this relative's Ancestry DNA results at all. Even for myself, with far more substantial ancestry from the Iberian Peninsula, my North African estimate was only 1% on Ancestry DNA. Thus, is it possible the trace North African ancestry in our Haitian parent is via West Africa? Their South Asian trace ancestry is similarly ambiguous. It is no longer Malayali South Indian but remains an enigma.