Genographic Project: Regional Ancestry

A paternal uncle gave me a nice surprise- he participated in the Geographic Project.  His DNA was analyzed from saliva submitted via the Geno 2.0 kit.  The purpose of the Geographic Project is anthropology, not genealogy, but there is some overlap in the two areas, especially with the introduction of DNA testing into the genealogy field.  Many of my close family members (and thousands of distant cousins) have tested their DNA at the three main DNA genealogy sites (23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA), so I was eager to see what Geno 2.0 revealed.

I'll discuss the findings in two parts:  Regional Ancestry and Deep Ancestry.

According to the website, Regional Ancestry "is based on the mutations across all your DNA and therefore shows the contribution from every one of your hundreds of ancestors."  Deep Ancestry is based on the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA and "shows only a single line of descent."

My uncle's neanderthal percentage was calculated as 1.9% by Geno 2.0, while 23andMe figured 2.7%.  Close enough.

What struck me was the population calculation:  42% northern European; 40% Mediterranean; 18% southwest Asian.  23andMe paints my uncle (and his siblings) as 100% European.  (You can play with various admixture tools at GedMatch and other sites, but little DNA other than European is detected.)  This may be why The Genographic Project describes its determination of Regional Ancestry as "unique."

The percentages of ancestry used to determine Regional Ancestry are compared against 43 Reference Populations.  My uncle is most similar to modern-day people of Denmark and Germany.  We have no known ancestry from Denmark, but the connection may pre-date records so far discovered.

You can view the ancestry percentages of the 43 reference populations.  My uncle is similar to other European populations besides Danish and German.

Happy New Year from 1920

Triangle Music Publishing Company
New York City
Howard Lutter

A More Precise Irish Hometown?

I found a website detailing the history of a school in Meentinadea, County Donegal, Ireland.

I was directed to the page by searching for a priest in the family, Father Charles O'Donnell (1884-1934).

The site mentions that Father O'Donnell's father (Cornelius or Neil O'Donnell) was from Altnagapple, "two miles from the school," and his mother, Mary (Gallagher), was from Cullion, Killybegs.  Father O'Donnell "visited his ancestral home at Altnagapple" on a return trip from Rome in 1923, saying Mass while an uncle, Charlie Mhici O'Donnell, "and relatives were present."

This information expounds upon the little information I previously had, which was from Father O'Donnell's book.  In a poem in the book, Father O'Donnell wrote that his father was from Ardara and his mother from Killybegs.  They met on the road in Donegal.

Father O'Donnell's father, Neil O'Donnell, was a brother of my great great grandfather, Patrick Francis O'Donnell.  Neil and Patrick's parents were Peter O'Donnell and Margaret Gallagher.  I am hoping that Margaret Gallagher was also from this area of Donegal and is related to the Mary Gallagher who married her son Neil O'Donnell.  That should make finding records easier.

I did not know that Neil and Patrick had a brother, Charlie, who remained in Ireland.

Hopefully this additional information will enable me to locate some more generations in Ireland.