DNA
It's always been my desire to find my roots. In fact, it's an obsession, and only those with similar leanings can relate to what I'm saying. To those of you who don't care, or are content with thinking Mary Poppins is your great aunt, that's fine, but you'll never know the satisfaction of knowing who you are and where you're from.
A couple of years ago, a fellow Klugh in the Carolinas did a DNA test. He contacted me and asked me to do the same. Like me, he wanted to know if the Butler PA and Carolina Klughs were related. I thought about it for about three months and finally gave in.
Alas... and take note of this... the Butler Klughs ARE NOT related to the Carolina Klughs; not even close. In a way that's good, because now we can concentrate on the Lancaster PA Klughs. If anyone in the Lancaster area wants to do the 46-marker DNA test, it must be a male indigenous to the Lancaster area. It can't be someone who migrated there from another part of the U.S.
Below is a map showing the migration route of our ancestors.1 It's based on the results I received (which won't
be published here). It shows that prior to coming to America, we came from Europe, and prior to that we came from
the Uzbekistan region of south-western asia, and prior to that we came from the middle east.
Following the map is an explanation of what group we're in and their history, and following that is an explanation
of some of the terms used in DNA research.
R1b
We belong to haplogroup R1b, The Artisans, who first arrived in Europe from west Asia about 35,000- 40,000 years ago at the dawning of the Aurignacian culture. This cultural was remarkable for its subtle yet significant technological progress, like the shift from random flint collection to the use of a single stone core to shape flint tools as needed.
Aurignacian decorative beads and jewelry could also be the first sign we have of the uniquely human quality of self-awareness and adornment. Additionally, some anthropologists believe that the Aurignacian culture was the first to paint. Either way, the people of this time period left behind fascinating cave paintings in France, Spain and Portugal.
Other experts believe that the Perigordian culture was prevalent at the time when the Artisans first arrived in Europe. This culture distinguished itself with different technological advances, such as denticulate tools with saw-tooth notches for cutting meat or wood and for smoothing and polishing. There are several known subgroups of R1b. We're not yet able to tell which (if any) of these subpopulations we match to, but we can know a little about a few of them.
Population genetics is a rapidly advancing field, and new data may allow us to match our DNA to a specific subgroup in the future. One subgroup of the Artisans, R1b3 (sometimes called R1b1c) is associated with the Cro-Magnons. Based on archaeological excavations, particularly in France, it's believed that the Cro-Magnons wove clothes, built huts and painted.
The Ice Age may have played a role in the dispersion of the Artisans. At the peak of the Ice Age a European ice shelf extended as far as southern Ireland, mid England and northern Germany, completely covering Scandinavia. Most of continental Europe was tundra and the land only supported trees as far south as southern France, northern Italy and areas north of the Balkans and across the Black Sea. Thus, the Artisans most likely moved south of the tree line for their resources, making permanent homes where their descendants remained even when the ice shelf receded. Others returned north once resources were again available.
About 70% of individuals currently residing in southern England are members of the Artisans. Other members can be found at high rates in the modern day populations of Spain, Portugal, France, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Based on this observation and other archeological and historical information, it is likely that your ancient ancestors also populated these areas. The Artisans include a genetic group known as the Atlantic Modal Haplotype (AMH), which features greatly among the Irish and Welsh populations.
Some researchers believe that the genes associated with the AMH moved with the early Celtic migrations. Although ancient ancestral Celts were a diverse group and varied in many ways, certain mythologies are consistent throughout most Celtic traditions, despite geographic or tribal boundaries. More than 300 Celtic deities have been described, many of which are reflected in classic Roman counterparts. The god Lugh (or Lugus) may have played an important role among those deities. Folklore and storytelling has infused Lugh's character with magic and fantasy, given him credit for thunder and lightening, and placed his stage in the sky.
The widespread acceptance of Lugh in Celtic culture is supported by the use of his name as the root of city names. Lyon, the present day city in southeastern France was called Lugdunum in Roman times. The city of Leiden in south Holland may also have its roots in the name of the god.
R1b1c4 and R1b1c6 are very specific Artisan subsections found primarily in Basque populations, but also in Catalan, Spanish, French, British and German populations.
A unique modern day population, the Basque people self-identify as a discrete ethnic group in north-central Spain and southwestern France. Early Basque culture was basically democratic and their pre-Christian religion was formed around a superior female goddess, Mari. A rich mythology of Basque creatures and characters includes imps, giants, dragons, soothsayers and other nature-based deities. Traditional Basque cuisine was dictated by the mountains and sea surrounding Basque country. Lamb, fish and beans are typical ingredients of a Basque meal. The language associated with the Basque people is euskara, which linguists believe exists in a family by itself, and is not related to English or other western European languages. Members of the Artisans can be found at high rates in South America. Populations geneticists ascribe this finding to the movement of peoples from Iberia to South America over the last 500 years.
R1b Haplogroup Explained
Haplotype - A set of numbers or letters obtained from the DNA test of an individual. A set of alleles for genetic markers inherited as a unit. A contraction of the phrase "haploid genotype".
Haplogroup - A group of similar patterned and related descendant haplotypes which share a common ancestor.
All humans belong to a Haplogroup2, an ancestral clan whose markers permit geneticists to study how modern humans came to inhabit the world. Haplogroups represent the branches of the tree for Homo Sapiens. The branches of the tree of Homo Sapiens stitch together and every male in the world can be located on one branch or another by a test that looks for a rare mutation (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) on the male Y-chromosome. The nickname for the testing procedure used to establish one's Haplogroup is SNP and it is pronounced as it appears.
About 30,000 years ago, a descendant of the clan made its way into Europe. A man was born with marker M343, the defining marker for Haplogroup R1b. These travelers are direct descendants of the people who dominated the human expansion into Europe, the Cro-Magnon. The Cro-Magnon created the famous cave paintings found in southern France, providing archaeological evidence of developing artistic skills as humans moved into Europe.
Haplogroup R1b is now the most common Haplogroup in European populations. It is believed to have expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last glacial maximum, 10 to 12 thousand years ago. This lineage is also the Haplogroup containing the Atlantic modal haplotype.
R1b is the most common haplogroup in Western Europe3, reaching over 80% of the population in Ireland, the Scottish Highlands, western Wales, the Atlantic fringe of France and the Basque country. It is also common in Anatolia and around the Caucasus, in parts of Russia and in Central and South Asia. Besides the Atlantic and North Sea coast of Europe, hotspots include the Po valley in north-central Italy (over 70%), the Ossetians of the North Caucasus (over 40%) and nearby Armenia (35%), the Bashkirs of the Urals region of Russia (50%), Turkmenistan (over 35%), the Hazara people of Afghanistan (35%), the Uyghurs of North-West China (20%) and the Newars of Nepal (11%). R1b-V88, a subclade specific to sub-Saharan Africa, is found in 60 to 95% of men in northern Cameroon.
The Germanic Branch
The first expansion of R1a took place with the westward propagation of the Corded Ware culture (3200-1800 BCE) from the Yamna homeland. This was the first wave of R1a into Europe, one that is responsible for the presence of this haplogroup in Scandinavia, Germany, and a portion of the R1a in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary or Poland. The high prevalence of R1a in Balto-Slavic countries nowadays is not only due to the Corded Ware expansion, but also to a long succession of later migrations from Russia, the last of which took place from the 5th to the 1th century CE. The Germanic branch of Indo-European languages probably evolved from a merger of Corded-Ware R1a (Proto-Slavic language) and the later arrival of Italo-Celtic R1b from Central Europe. This is supported by the fact that Germanic people are hybrid R1a-R1b, that these two haplogroups came via separate routes at different times, and also on the linguistics of Proto-Germanic language, which shares similarities with Italic, Celtic and Slavic languages. The Corded Ware R1a people would have mixed with the pre-Germanic I1 aborigines to create the Nordic Bronze Age (1800-500 BCE). R1b presumably reached Scandinavia later as a northward migration from the contemporary Hallstatt culture (1200-500 BCE). The first genuine Germanic tongue has been estimated by linguists to have come into existence around (or after) 500 BCE. This would confirm that it emerged as a blend of Hallstatt Proto-Celtic and the Corded-Ware Proto-Slavic. The uniqueness of some of the Germanic vocabulary points at borrowing from native pre-Indo-European languages. Celtic language itself is known to have borrowed from Afro-Asiatic languages spoken by Near-Eastern immigrants to Central Europe. The fact that present-day Scandinavia is composed of roughly 40% of I1, 20% of R1a and 40% of R1b reinforces the idea that Germanic ethnicity and language had acquired a tri-hybrid character by the Iron Age.
Anatolian or Caucasian Origins?
Some of the oldest forms of R1b are found in the Near East and around the Caucasus. Haplogroup R1 and R2 might have originated in southern Central Asia (between the Caspian and the Hindu Kush). A branch of R1 would have developed into R1b then R1b1 in the northern part of the Middle East during the Ice Age. It presumptively moved to northern Anatolia and across the Caucasus during the early Neolithic, where it became R1b1b. The Near Eastern leftovers evolved into R1b1a (M18), now found at low frequencies among the Lebanese and the Druze.The Phoenicians (who came from modern day Lebanon) spread this R1b1a and R1b1 to their colonies, notably Sardinia and the Maghreb.
References:1. From Ancestry.com
2. From DNA - 101: KNOWLES SURNAME DNA PROJECT
3. From Eupedia
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