Deep Ancestry
National
Geographic's Genographic Project uses genetic markers to
trace the migration patterns of early humans. I sent in a DNA
sample to them ( a cheek swab) and payed my money and now have learned
which Y-Chromosome Haplogroup I belong to. Based on
these genetic markers, there are about 25 Haplogroups in the world today, so my
group includes millions of people descended from a man
who lived at least 10,000 years ago. Markers on the Y-Chromosome
are passed directly from father to son with no matching genes coming
from the mother, therefore this is information on my direct male
line. My direct male line as far as I have traced it is:
Lawrence Firrantello 1954 -
Larry L (Loreto) Firrantello 1915-2001
Iganzio Firrantello 1875-1957 (adopted by Firrantello)
Loreto Castiglia 1849-19??
Nicolo Castiglia 1791-1858
Vincenzo Castiglia 1767-1807
Nicolace Castiglia 1749-1799
If any of these are your ancestors, this information describes at least
one line of your ancestry. If you are a direct male
line, that is, if your name is Firrantello or Castiglia, you would get
the exact same results from the test because your Y chromosome markers are
the same as mine. Note that if you are female, there is a
different test, the Mitochondrial DNA test, which traces your direct
female ancestors by looking at mitochondria which pass on genetic
information only from the mother, not the father.
I would encourage you to click on the link above to find out more
details.
My results, Haplogroup J2 were pretty much what I expected, the only
one on their chart that goes to Italy. If
as the report suggests, my ancestors originated 60,000 years ago in
Africa, migrated to the Middle East then on to eastern Mediterranean
about 10,000 years ago it would make perfect sense with what I know of
the history of Sicily. They could have come from Greece
2,000 years ago when Sicily became part of "Magna Grecia" and continued
to be Greek speaking until 1,000 years ago. Or maybe they were
descended from the
Phonecians. We really can't know for sure from this
genetic information, but something like that could be the case.
Here is the description of Haplogroup J2
which I received. Here is a map
showing the migration pattern of this group