Doug,
I am actually not certain which side of my family the Niger-Congo Genesis comes from. I do not know of my Portuguese ancestors (in particular) having any slaves, but I do know my English ancestors did. My Portuguese great-grandfather was pretty dark, but he looked more middle-eastern to me. I have been assuming the Portuguese is where I get the North African reading from. Much of Sao Miguel is from the Algarve and Alentejo, I have read; that's pretty close to North Africa. Ultimately, I think traditional genealogy is the best way to give definition to these relatively broad strokes, as we gather records and really see what was going on. I can't imagine how you have documented huge lines of African ancestors. I would imagine the records would be hard to find. Maybe our Azorean ancestors kept more detailed records than our American ancestors. Well, I certainly am curious of who my African ancestor (or ancestors) might have been. The Family Finder is a near-term test, as you have mentioned. Paper research should be able to get us there. -Trevor Costa (Va/DC) -----Original Message----- From: pico <[email protected]> To: azores <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, May 8, 2014 1:36 pm Subject: RE: [AZORES-Genealogy] MyOrigins surprise findings from Family Finder DNA testing I wrote the following privately, but I think others might find it interesting. I wonder why more people are not joining in with the conversation. I thought after I went into to much detail that there would be something by others. I think these results are way more recent, but old at the same time. For instance, probably the biggest thing that scared people to find is a black ancestor. There is no doubt about it, you and I must have a black ancestor to get those results. If we think about all the slavery in the Azores, that certainly seems logical. I know many of my ancestors owned slaves. Often it mentions the origins of those slaves in a general way like the Congo. Then we have many pais incognitos for expostos and for single women. Then I have documented two huge lines of slave descendants for both Pico and Terceira. Then you see the generally darker skin tones of the people from the Mediterranean basin which can be both middle eastern and African influences. By new and old I mean we can have an ancestor with DNA from a combination of Africa and Middle Eastern and found either as a slave or as an immigrant to the Azores from the 1600s. Maybe a legitimized exposto, son or daughter of a slave and her master was born in 1700. I don't have any legitimized ancestors that recent, but I have certainly seen them and the mother is incognita. As for another new and old example, all it takes is one ancestor from the late 1600s to be from England or modern UK to appear as 1% European Islands DNA. And he might not be full English DNA, but might have been in Portugal for a couple generations with just 25% English DNA, but then you have 3 or 4 of them and now you get to 1% DNA from the year 1675 or so. For Jewish DNA, that is falling into the one I think we see as North Africa around Morocco and as around Jordan and Israel. I'm getting it on my mother's side in Hungary for Jordan, and on my father's side as maybe Berber or Jew from Morocco. If Sao Miguel is anything like Pico, there are many early settlers from just after the forced baptisms as new Christians. We see it from all the Y-DNA testing that is 100% proof they were there. I have one of these ancestors from Pico named Baltazar Vieira from Sao Mateus in the late 1500s, thanks to Antonio Faria's Y-DNA test. He has jumped head first into all this and is finding some fascinating evidence and information that he sends me privately. Then I have another with the name Bairos from Pico, I think. Will have to double check if he's my direct line, but I have many named Bairos and assume I must have some connection to him. But that doesn't actually mean Bairos is his direct paternal line. It could be from his mother who might be an old Christian. I'm seeing anywhere from 3 to 15% of DNA from my other matches that are from the middle east or north Africa and some of that is certainly Jewish DNA, if not most of it. While that number isn't huge, it is consistent and tells us there was a small population of Jews in Pico and probably the other islands. One factor is that we lose 50% of our ancestors' DNA with each generation. So are we losing more of our Jewish DNA by chance? Was the percentage actually higher and is now fading away? Could be. We need more people doing the Y-DNA test to answer this better. I suppose the mt-DNA test will also serve the same purpose. I think this is the type of thing others would like to comment on, but might still not be willing to speak up if what they found is too shocking that their DNA isn't lily white. Doug da Rocha Holmes Sacramento, California Pico & Terceira Genealogist 916-550-1618 www.dholmes.com -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: [AZORES-Genealogy] MyOrigins surprise findings from Family Finder DNA testing From: <[email protected]> Date: Wed, May 07, 2014 9:32 am To: [email protected] Commenting further in regards to yesterday's new release of Family Tree DNA's Population Finder that is now called MyOrigins, maybe a bigger surprise is that my father's got his European DNA breakdown of 87% as follows: North Mediterranean Basin - 52% (From Portugal to Greece on the north side of the Mediterranean Sea) European Coastal Plain - 20% (centered around Switzerland, Eastern France, Southern Germany, Western Austria) European Coastal Islands - 15% (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland) Of this, the surprising, but confirming information is that it explains the red and blonde hair, tall features we have on both our Pico and Terceira lines. My father's grandmother from Sao Roque do Pico had flaming red hair which carried on to two of my siblings. I think my grandfather was blonde and I think his sister was also blonde. I've heard that Northern Portugal's population was influenced by the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe and then there are the documented Flemish immigrants in the Azores which can fall into the above Coastal Plain area. And we have the Celts with mixtures of Viking/Danish DNA in modern UK. So what all this means is that maybe there was a heavier dose of modern UK peoples that ended up finding their way into Portugal and accounting for 20% of my father's DNA. Maybe the close ties between England and Portugal from the time of King Joao I in the 1400s can account for this. So I think testing each family member with the Family Finder test will help everyone gain further insight into the populations in the Azores and anywhere else their origins lie. I originally thought that my own Family Finder test was enough to represent my own generation, but now I see that it would be very helpful to have more of my generation get the test. And of course, testing the oldest generations still living is a must. In my case, testing a cousin who has none of our Chilean ancestors would be helpful. So I need to see if I can work on that more. Doug da Rocha Holmes Sacramento, California Pico & Terceira Genealogist 916-550-1618 www.dholmes.com -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores. -- For options, such as changing to List, Digest, Abridged, or No Mail (vacation) mode, log into your Google account and visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Azores. Click in the blue area on the right that says "Join this group" and it will take you to "Edit my membership." --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Azores Genealogy" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/azores.
