Origin of I1-L22 Southern Scandinavia? Lower Saxony?
Predicting the origins of a haplogroup can be a tricky business. For I1-L22 several similar regions are estimated in common sources. Most frequently, southern Scandinavia is cited as the predicted location of origin (Denmark), whilst other sources state the slightly more northern Fennoscandic region (Norway, Sweden, Finland). The methods of estimating the origins of a haplogroup usually combine frequency statistics of the haplogroup'far north?s prevalence with known migration routes (usually backed up by the archaeological record) and the wider historical record. In the case of I1-L22, there seems to be consensus that the origin was north European, the only question is how
Using paternal ancestry statistics gained through members of the I1-L22 Facebook group, we have conducted a similar origin prediction activity. We combined the known origins of our group members and weighted them for frequency. When triangulated on a map of Europe we can see that the origin locus seems to be around lower Saxony.
Now this result too is clearly north Europe, but so far the most southern of all predicated locations of origin. Our estimation clearly has weaknesses, for one the dataset included a little over 50 pieces of data and relies on assuming the stated locations of a member's believed paternal origins are in fact true. The advantage of our estimation is that the FB group includes testers from many different testing companies, not just FTDNA or data from YFull, so in that sense it might provide a more 'rounded' result than previously we have seen.
To be honest, haplogroup origin estimations are always rather 'guestimations' and my personal gut feeling is that with a larger dataset we might find the lower Saxony result creeping further north into what is now modern day Denmark. One thing for sure is that this is another result confirming the 'Northern' origin of L22 and its Germanic character. It is also important to note that many of L22's daughter branches will have much more northern origins, probably due to pressure from population groups in central and western Europe pushing further north, which in turn forced L22 daughter branches into Scandinavia for possible refuge.
I just got my report back from 23andme and they inform me that my ydna haplogroup is I-Y22 so that brought me here via a google search. I had that particular test done because knowing my haplogroup may assist me in discovering who my pre 16th century male line ancestors were. I can only go back 12 generations. Before that there is a lot of debunked misinformation about my male line. It seems that falsifying genealogical information in order to graft one's family tree onto one of a noble house was a popular sport in the 19th century and to me the only way to find out for sure is through a combination of DNA testing and good old fashioned research. So my only contribution to this thread as far as refining the origin of I-L22 is concerned is that my earliest male line ancestor that I can confirm came from England and was born there around 1580 and came to America around 1630 and left several children. I can only speculate beyond that. There is evidence to suggest the line had been in the Wiltshire area for a few generations before that. This is based on the fact that the small town in Massachusetts was founded by a small group of settlers including my ancestor and they came as a group, almost entirely from Wiltshire, this combined with the fact that the part of the UK with the highest frequency of persons with my ancestor's surname is also Wiltshire indicating that may be the location when my male line first used our surname. Surname usage more or less came into use among the lower classes roughly upon the arrival of the Normans in 1066 though in less populated regions perhaps a little later so I estimate the beginning of the use of our surname at around 1066-1200 A.D. It is only a guess that my male line might have arrived with the Norman invasion. Ultimately I would like to find others from England who have tested as I-L22 who share my surname and have documented their male line ancestry to the period prior to my ancestor's immigration so as to facilitate connecting my documented line to one that genetic testing shows I belong to. I will probably always be missing a few generations of my male line but hopefully I will be able to learn the true origin of my male line.
ReplyDeleteIn estimating the origin of a species or genetic group, rather than using its frequency in various locales, I would recommend looking for the region with the greatest genetic variation on that theme. In the same way, we trace the potato to Peru or corn to mesoAmerica (the locales with the greatest variation in potatoes and corn).
ReplyDelete