DNA Test Results: Middle Eastern Mysteries

Despite the fact that I am fortunate to have a very extensive family tree and have been able to trace my ancestors back through many generations, I decided a few weeks ago to use DNA to extend and enrich my family history research.

I therefore enrolled with the well-known DNA laboratory, Family Tree DNA, a U.S. based firm that specializes in testing DNA for genealogical purposes. A few days later, my test kit arrived in the post. It consisted of a pair of mouth swabs, two small test-tubes, a couple of labels and a return envelope.

The procedure could not have been easier. I simply swabbed the inside of my mouth to collect skin cell samples from the inner side of my cheeks, secured the swab heads with the collected samples into the test-tubes, fixed the labels and sealed everything into the return envelope before mailing the package back to Family Tree DNA in Houston, Texas.

Soon after the laboratory acknowledged the receipt of my test samples, the testing process began. I had ordered three types of test:

1. Y-DNA Testing: a test that analyses the DNA of the male Y chromosome, which passes from father to son from generation to generation. It traces a man’s paternal lineage and is therefore useful for identifying male relatives (i.e. cousins, close or distant) with the same family surname. Obviously, the test can only be completed on males. This is perhaps one last bastion of male exclusivity and I'm sorry ladies, you simply cannot join the Y-DNA club!
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2. mtDNA Testing: a test that analyses the mitochondrial DNA which passes from mother to child in her X chromosome, regardless of the child’s gender. A brother and sister will always carry their mother’s mitochondrial DNA but it can only be passed to the next generation by the female. This test is therefore useful for both sexes to trace their maternal lineage, from mother to grandmother and so on and so forth.
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3. Family Finder Testing: a test that analyses the non-gender related autosomal DNA that we inherit from our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on. It’s therefore a useful means for discovering cousins; not just those that possess the same Y-DNA or mtDNA that we inherited from our paternal and maternal lines but also those relatives who descended from any of our ancestral lines within the last five or six generations. Autosomal DNA testing also analyses one’s ethnic origins and determines the percentage makeup of our DNA in comparison to pre-tested populations from around the world.

Once testing is completed the results are posted to Family Tree DNA’s databases for comparison purposes: to put it very simply and without using technical language, so that one can identify other persons with the same types of DNA and may therefore be related in one way or another. Once these matches are found, the related parties can contact each other and by using traditional genealogical techniques (i.e. family tree charting and vital records, etc.), can identify how they are related and fit into each other’s family tree.

The test results arrived in dribs and drabs over several weeks. First the Y-DNA, second the mtDNA and finally and most recently, the Family Search results. In a nutshell my samples yielded the following results:

1. Y-DNA Result: My Y-DNA proved to be of the R-M269 (or R1b1a2) haplogroup  (in layman terms, a group of people who share a common ancestor with the same DNA mutations). The R-M269 lineage likely began in West Asia. It descended from another lineage, which came out of Africa during a great migration several thousands of years ago. Some of those migrants travelled northwest into Central Asia and others into Europe. Others moved south and entered the Levant Region. A very high percentage (i.e. approx. 70%) of males from south west England (as well as from other parts of the British isles) present with the R-M269 Y-DNA group. It shows that they (we in the case of my paternal ancestors) were the key studs of the area because we must have done most of the fathering!
   
   The result is hardly surprising considering that I am a white Anglo-Saxon male with most of my known forebears originating in the British Isles or Western Europe. Of particular interest though are the several other persons in my R-M269 group with the surname Stone; many of whom now live in the U.S. but with many of those who trace their Stone ancestry back to Somerset in England. This is interesting because my most distant known paternal ancestor was Thomas Stone (1720–1785), a tenant farmer, who lived his whole life in Over Stowey, Somerset: being born there c. 1720; who married Mary Allercott  (1720–1758) there on 23 October 1743; and who died there on 4 March 1785. They had five children, William, Elizabeth, James, Ann and Sarah: I being descended from James.
   
   I will need to spend the next few weeks contacting these potential Stone cousins to determine if we are related in any way and if so, to explore whether we can extend our family trees further back into the past.
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2. mtDNA Result: my mtDNA proved to be of the I2 haplogroup. Primarily a European group, I group (of which I2 is a branch or sub-group) is detected at very low frequency across west Eurasia with slightly greater representation in northern and western Europe. It was likely present in those populations that first colonized Europe about 30,000 years ago. Its origin may be in northern Iran or in Europe towards the Carpathian Mountain region where its highest frequency is found. The I2 group is believed to be an ancient Southern Scandinavian (i.e. Viking) type.
   
   Of my I2 group matches on the Family Tree DNA database, I found several originated in Northern Ireland, where my earliest known direct maternal ancestor hailed. My 2nd great grandmother, Martha McCullagh (c.1843–19??) married John Smyth (1841–19??), a miller, in Newry, Co. Down on 20 December 1866. They had at least three daughters, including my great grandmother, Esther Smyth (1871–1960). Esther was born in nearby Rostrevor on 13 September 1871. She died in Parkstone, Dorset on 2 June 1960, where her widower, a Dutchman, Francis Adrianus Robbers (1873–1967) outlived her until he died after a fall on slippery ice during the winter of December 1967.
   
   Again, I will need to spend time to trace those matches to see where they might fit into the Hobkirk and Stone Family Tree.
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3. Family Finder Results: of particular interest has been the results of the Family Finder or autosomal DNA testing.
   
   Firstly, my primary reason for selecting this test was to help a distant cousin, Tony Hart, to confirm his descent from our common ancestors: my 4th great grandparents, Lt.-Col. Samuel George Carter (1786–1868)  of the 16th Regiment of Foot (he was a central figure in the Mary Anne Clarke-cum-Prince Frederick, The Duke of York army commissions bribery scandal) and his wife, Isabella Louisa Howe Browne (1798–1858), the great granddaughter of John Browne, 1st Earl of Altamont (1709–1776) of Westport in Co. Mayo, Ireland. Innes Hutchison, another distant cousin, sharing the same descent from Samuel and Isabella Carter also participated in this testing exercise.
   
   The good news is that while traditional genealogy had shown that Tony and Innes were my third cousins twice removed, the autosomal DNA testing proved this connection by predicting our relationship range as being between “third and fifth cousins.” This was fantastic news for Tony since it after 12 years of family history research he had finally proved his descent from Samuel and Isabella.
   
   The second reason for conducting this test was to identify hitherto unknown relatives to further family history research. To this end, the results have thus far proved very encouraging. There are approximately 250 persons on the database who are predicted to be related in the second to fifth cousin range. It is going to take some time to explore and discover the connections but I hope the effort will ultimately result in smashing through the brick walls that have up to now prevented identifying older generations in various lineages of the family tree.
   
   Finally, the third—and by no means the least interesting—reason was to gain a better understanding of my ethnicity. I had always believed myself to be a ‘pure blooded’ white Anglo-Saxon male with strong hints of French Huguenot and Dutch blood from my Bosanquet and Robbers ancestry, respectively, from my late mother’s line. However, in December last year, I learnt from the historian Anne M. Powers that one of my lines descended from Robert Cooper Lee (1735–1794) and Priscilla Kelly (c.1738–1797), the latter being the illegitimate but free born daughter of the Chief Justice of Jamaica, Dennis Kelly (1700–1757) and a mulatto woman, being the daughter of an African slave. Their story is well documented in Anne Powers’s charming book, A Parcel of Ribbons: Letters of an 18th Century Family in London and Jamaica and further discussed in my recent blog post, “The Portrait of Robert Cooper Lee”.

   
   The interesting yet puzzling result is that the DNA test says that I am 92.87% Western European (no surprise) and 7.13% Middle Eastern (huge surprise). To be more specific, 92.87% of my DNA matches the DNA of populations tested in the Orcadian region (Orkney Islands off Britain) and 7.13% from Palestinian, Bedouin, Bedouin South, Druze (primarily Syria, Lebanon and Israel) and Jewish populations.

David Bosanquet (1699 - 1741). Turkey Merchant.

I have no idea from where this Middle Eastern (including North African) ancestry derives. Could it be that my 7th great grandmother, the African-Jamaican slave, originated from north Africa where Bedouin tribesmen roamed and not from the West African coast whence so many afflicted souls were enslaved? Perhaps the heritage derives from my Bosanquet forebears (French Huguenots): for example, David Bosanquet (1699–1741), my 5th great granduncle pictured left, was a Turkey merchant. He spent many years building the family fortune in Halab in the Levant (Syria) before returning to London in 1729 to became a director of the London Assurance Company.

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Robert Cooper Lee’s father, Joseph Lee (c.1692–1760), being my 6th great grandfather, was also a Turkey merchant and presumably had spent time in the Levantine. He married Frances Jaques (1698–1748)—also from French Huguenot stock—in London in July 1720. Could it be that the Middle Eastern connection derives from this side of the family?

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Family Tree DNA says that the personal genetic results:

• Reflect “the last 100 to 2,000 years (about 4 to 80 generations)” of the tested person’s ancestry;
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• May also reflect “one population that mixed with another in ancient times and became fixed in the second population.”
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• Detect “small traces of genetic ancestry as low as 3% (about 5 to 6 generations) from a distinct Continental group .… [particularly when] there has been little admixture.”

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To my understanding, this means that my 7.13% Middle Eastern heritage could have derived from a 2nd or 3rd great grandparent, which is a very recent connection.

What this all means is that my DNA test results pose more questions than they answer! I will seek advice from Family Tree DNA but it is likely that I will need to request other family members to undergo DNA testing in order to exclude certain branches of the family from being the source of this Middle Eastern mystery! For example, I shall ask my father to conduct autosomal testing so that we can quickly determine whether the source derives from my paternal or maternal line and just like a police investigation, we can narrow down our further lines of enquiry from there.

All fascinating stuff but busy times ahead! Stay tuned for future updates.