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The Genographic Project

My Genographic Journey

GENETIC HISTORY: Julio León Peixoto Schwab
 

My Hg (main) Europe Hg G 1 Europe Hg G 2

After reading about it in The National Geographic Magazine, I decided to participate in The Genographic Project. I submitted tissue samples from the inside of my cheeks to have my DNA examined. The results came about one month later.

My Y-chromosome results identify me as a member of member of the very uncommon haplogroup G. Members of the haplogroup G carry the following Y-chromosome markers:

M168 > M89 > M201

The map below highlights my ancestors' route.

A brief descriptions of my Y-chromosome markers:

  • M168: My Earliest Ancestor
    The M168 mutation first appeared in the "Eurasian Adam" (also called "Y-chromosomal Adam", the common ancestor of everyone living outside of Africa today), between 31,000 and 79,000 years ago — most likely in today's Ethiopia and Sudan. The migrations of the original M168s descendants took them out of Africa where they became the first homo sapiens to survive away from humanity's birth place.

M168 Fast Facts

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Time of Emergence: Roughly 50,000 years ago.

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Place of Origin: Africa.

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Estimated Number: Approximately 10,000.

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Tools and Skills: Stone tools; earliest evidence of art and advanced conceptual skills.

 

More information about M168 in National Geographic (interactive map):
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?card=my051

  • M89: Moving Through the Middle East
    Haplogroup F (marked by mutation M89) first appeared around 45,000 years in Northern Africa or the Middle East. This marker is found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. The first people to leave Africa (not my ancestors) likely followed a coastal route that eventually ended in Australia. My ancestors were part of the second great wave of migration out of Africa; they followed the expanding grasslands and plentiful game to the Middle East and beyond.

M89 (Haplogroup F) Fast Facts

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Time of Emergence: 45,000 years ago.

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Place: Northern Africa or the Middle East.

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Climate: Middle East: Semi-arid grass plains.

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Estimated Number: Tens of thousands.

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Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools.

 

More information about M89 in National Geographic (interactive map):
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?card=my033

  • M201: Living in the Fertile Crescent
    M168
    and M89 are quite common but M201, which defines haplogroup G, is a very rare mutation. It arose around 30,000 years ago in a man born along the eatern edge of the Middle East, perhaps as far east as the Himalayan foothills in Pakistan or India. He has had relatively few descendants. Some of them went east on into southeast Asia, south China and the Pacific Islands, but most moved back into the Middle East.

    Then about 10 thousand years ago things began to change for the members of the four Haplogroups G-J. Prior to this time all humans were hunter-gatherers. The people of what was known as the “Fertile Crescent” developed agriculture and the world would never be the same again. Population could expand rapidly and farmers began moving out of the Middle East, through the islands and along the shores of the Mediterranean, through Turkey into the Balkans and the Caucasus Mountains. The ancestors of most males in the G haplogroup migrated to Europe from the Middle East or Mediterranean with the spread of agriculture 6,000-8,000 years ago.

    An hypothesis which is growing stronger recently is that these same people at the same time might have introduced the Indo-European language into northern India, the Middle East, and Europe. Indo-European is the parent language for Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Germanic and hence of most of the other languages of the mid-east, north India and Europe. There have been many attempts to identify the original Indo-European homeland, but it is now thought to have been the Sredy Stog culture in what is now eastern Ukraine.

M201 (Haplogroup G) Fast Facts

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Time of Emergence: 10,000 - 20,000 years ago.

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Place: Middle East or Caucasus Mountains.

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Climate: Middle East: Semi-arid grass plains.

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Estimated Number: Approximately 100,000.

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Tools and Skills: Stone, ivory, wood tools.

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Some migrated into eastern Europe during the Neolithic.

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Contributed to the introduction of agriculture in Europe.

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May have contributed to the introduction of the Indo-European language into northern India, the Middle East, and Europe.

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Currently uncommon. Found in very small percentages in southern Europe and the Middle East, and in even smaller percentages in other Eurasian areas.

 

More information about M201 in National Geographic (interactive map):
https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?card=my034

Where the Gs were around 1500 AD

The data in the table below attempts to represent the situation before the relatively recent European expansion that started around 1500 AD. This is done by considering only stable populations that are believed not to have migrated for hundreds of years. (For example, European migrations to the Americas are not counted.)

Region Percentage of Gs
in the male population

Republic of Georgia, Caucasus Mountains, south of Russia

30%
Island of Sardinia (Italy) 14%
North central Italy 10%
Northern Spain 8%
Turkey 7%
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Greece, Hungary, Albania, Croatia, Ethiopia around 5%
Northwestern Europe 1% to 3%
Middle East 1% to 3%
China, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Polynesian Islands less than 1%

These percentages are perhaps surprising because my recent ancestors come from northern Portugal (the original region of Peixoto, my father's family name), Alsace (my maternal grandfather, Leon Schwab, was from Strasbourg), Catalonia (the original region of Nin, my paternal grandmother's family name), and the French Basque Country (the original region of Etchebarne, my maternal grandmother's family name).

Current distribution of G haplotypes

This external site has 10 tables, one for each of G1, G2, ..., G10, showing the current  distribution of G haplotypes, including recent migrations. I aggregated the values of these 10 tables to obtain the results presented here.

Maps of Haplogroups in Europe

  • European Map 1.
    This is based on a map by JD McDonald from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I modified the map to emphasize the distribution of my haplogroup (G-M201).

  • European Map 2.
    Map by by Roy King and Peter A. Underhill from Stanford University.

 

 

 

Documents I received from The Genographic Project

 

My Ancestral Journey
Chart of my haplogroup's ancient global migrations.
(In PDF format.)

 

Genetic History
Chronicle of my lineage's genetic journey from Africa to the present.
(In PDF format.)

 

Genetic Certificate
Test results certificate.
(In PDF format.)

My Hg (main) Europe Hg G 1 Europe Hg G 2

logo: The Waitt Family Foundation: Global field science supported by the Waitt Family Foundation

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