h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Devon DNA project is a new Y-DNA and mtDNA geographical project for everyone with a direct paternal or maternal ancestral line originating in the English county of Devon. Participants can order either a Y-DNA (Y-chromosome) test to find out about their direct paternal line (your father, your father's father, your father's father's father, etc) or an mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) test to learn about their direct maternal line (your mother, your mother's mother, your mother's mother's mother, etc). The only requirement for joining the project is that participants must have a documented paper trail to Devon on the direct paternal line for the Y-DNA test or on the direct maternal line for the mtDNA test. Please join us on our journey of genetic discovery.

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Devon/default.aspx

This offer only runs until 31 December 2010 so time is short

The Y-Chromosome part of the survey contains some interesting results so far. The first obvious conclusion is that the results from this survey correlate very well with the large-scale survey carried out in the South West (Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset) by Bryan Sykes. The one (albeit small) anomaly is the small East Devon cluster of the G haplogroup, which is very rare in Britain. Sykes does not mention it, unless it is included in either his ‘Eshu’ or ‘Re’ clans. It would appear that it originates from the Eastern Mediterranean region. However, I suspect that the direct line male ancestors of these men must have come to Devon before the thirteenth century (when surnames were first introduced), as those with the G haplogroup seem to have fairly common Devon surnames.

However, the main conclusion from this survey (backed up by the DNA surveys of Sykes and Bodmer) is that the vast majority of Devonians had early ancestors who migrated to Britain from Northern Iberia following the last Ice Age, and who have been referred to as Celts following the linguistic studies of Lhuyd in the early eighteenth century.

PlymExile,

I can see the results to date, but I must state that I am a bit of a halpogroup dummy. Therefore you might have to help with what I think I see in the findings.

The vast majority of those tested areclassified as R1b1b2, and I understand that R1b originated (or re-expanded) from Spain/Portugal after the Ice Age. It seems that the R1b's account for approx 75% of the sample.

The rest are spread in small numbers over halpotypes I1 (8.4%), G (5.0%), R1a (5.0%), I2 (3.3%), J (3.3%) and E (1.7%) - in diminishing order. Nothing other than R1b is over 8.5%.

I believe that I1 is seen be some as an "Anglo-Saxon" signature, and I believe that G might be Neolithic.

It appears that this pattern is almost identical to Capaldi's results for Cornwall (rather than say Dorset even though that still had a majority of R1b).

Is this correct?

What do you make of the (female) mtDNA results.

The fact the results are far fewer might suggest the fairer sex are less interested in their ancestry ??

Ozzie Exile,

You are quite right about the R1b haplogroup having migrated from Northern Iberia after the last Ice Age. This group represents the oldest male grouping in Britain. If one discounts those few with the G haplogroup, as they do not show up in any other survey, then the R1b haplogroup in Devon represents about 77% of the current male population. This correlates well with the figure of 78% for R1b (or Oisin) in the much larger Sykes survey for the Southwest (i.e. Cornwall, Devon and West Somerset). This compares with 68% in Northumbria, 63% in Northern England, 66% in Central England, 51% in East Anglia, 58% in London and South/Southeastern England, 79% in North Wales, 86% in Mid Wales and 83% in South Wales. Therefore, the male population of the Southwest (what was Dumnonia) correlates far better with the male population of North Wales than with any other English region in terms of the Y-chromosome.

The I1 and I2 haplogroups represent post-Neolithic migrations from what are now Germany and Denmark. However Oppenheimer has shown from his finer (haplotype) analyses, using haplotype dating, phylogeography and exact gene match methods, that the majority of the I1s and I2s migrated to Britain long before the Anglo-Saxon incursions of the 5th/6th centuries AD, or the later Danish Viking incursions.

The R1a1 haplogroup represents migrations/incursions from what is now Norway (including the Norwegian Vikings).

Population geneticists tend to study the Y-chromosome to determine migration trends in Europe, because mtDNA does not show the same levels of geographical variation as the Y-chromosome. The mtDNA H haplogroup (or Helena in the Sykes survey) is by far the dominant mtDNA haplogroup throughout Europe and is fairly constant at about 46% throughout Britain.

Plym Exile,

Thanks for your response.

On the question of the G halpogroup I have seen sites which indicate that this is an early neolithic types.

In some surveys reasonable percentages of the G halpogroup were found in Gaelic speaking populations, and in parts of Scotland and Wales. For example

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gallgaedhil/haplo_g.htm

There is speculation that these might be the signatures of the "European Celts" or perhaps even the Romans..

There was a period of Gaelic speaking migration to Devon (and Cornwall) in the early centuries AD, but I would have expected thatto have shown up on the North Coast if anywhere - not the east.