DNA tests on Northumbrians?

[hdw]

A couple of years ago, I persuaded one of the surviving males in our family to donate a swab for testing. Being a family rooted in Northumberland for at least 400 years, we were surprised to find our haplogroup of G2a places us in the Caucasus Mountains! But that was 16-20,000 years ago so I put the results aside until now.

I was wondering if any other Northumbrians born and bred have had their DNA tested and where they are supposed to have emerged from.....

I've joined a focus group for discussing DNA testing in relation to genealogy but it's NOT an easy subject to grasp. The folks on the forum are patient with DNA novices like me and I'm slowly learning.

My aim is to find out what happened between the year 1600 and 16,00 years ago! Big ask but why not?

Gen in NBL England

Like most Scots, my Y DNA haplogroup is R1b-L21. My mtDNA is J1c2 - not too different from King Richard III, who was J1c2e. I think of him as Uncle Dick.

The one English branch on my family-tree is Stephensons from Northumberland. I've traced them back to Alwinton in Coquetdale, where my 4 x great-grandfather Joseph Stephenson and his brother Thomas both married their respective wives in the 1790s. Not sure if that was the original home of the family, though.

The reason I'm posting on this thread is that the Y DNA haplogroup G has been mentioned. As has been said, it seems to originate in the Caucasus but is found in small numbers elsewhere in Europe. I had ancestors on my mother's side called Familton - not Hamilton, Familton - at Earlston in Berwickshire, not far from the English border. Two male Familtons have done the DNA test and both are G -M210, which belongs in Georgia. According to Black's "The Surnames of Scotland", the surname Familton comes from a now lost place-name in the vicinity of Tantallon Castle in East Lothian.

Harry

[Maiden Stone]

Like most Scots, my Y DNA haplogroup is R1b-L21. My mtDNA is J1c2 - not too different from King Richard III, who was J1c2e. I think of him as Uncle Dick.

Well he was a Neville on his Ma's side. She was a bonny lass. His brothers were tall and fair. Bonny lads. Scandinavian?

[DevonCruwys]

Two new companies have entered the DNA market in the last two years: MyHeritage DNA and Living DNA.

Living DNA provides regional breakdowns within Britain and one of the regions is Northumbria. There are various reviews you can read here:

https://isogg.org/wiki/Living_DNA

AncestryDNA now also provide regional breakdowns within Britain though they don't have a specific region for Northumbria. They have a region for Northern England and another one for Yorkshire and the Pennines. You can see the full list of regions here:

https://support.ancestry.co.uk/s/article/DNA-Regions

It's always difficult to find information about the distribution of haplogroups within a country. If you've not already done so you can join the haplogoup K project at Family Tree DNA:

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/mt-dna-k/about/background

The results page of that project will give you an idea of the distribution of your subclade.

[belfordian]

Thank you for your suggestions, DevonCruwy. I have looked previously at the sources you mention  and they don't tell me much about K Northumberland. We just don't have enough people in this part of the world! I'll keep on searching however.

[Gen List Lass]

I've just had my second DNA test results (autosomal this time) and I've 93% ethnicity spread between Aberdeen and County Durham. The other 7% is Norwegian!

This makes much more sense that the paternal test 8 years ago that said Belarus and Georgia!

BUT maybe they traveled from Belarus to Northern UK via Norway....

Gen in NBL UK

[belfordian]

IT is fascinating to think of the possible roots taken by our ancestors to reach UK and for us Northumbrians it is good to imagine they came over Doggerland direct onto the Northumbrian coast! I am sure, in time, we will discover more about these routes. When you think what DNA can tell us today that was not possible just 20 or 30 years ago, you realise how quickly things are moving. I just hope more is discovered in my lifetime!

Belfordian

[Gen List Lass]

When Ancestry first started doing DNA testing it was all about haplogroups. My latest test doesn't mention haplogroups anywhere!

Why is this?

Gen in NBL UK

[PrawnCocktail]

My Ancestry test doesn't mention haplogroups either. Just a small chunk of Norwegian (2%), which I'd expect on the north-east coast (Durham, Northumberland and Berwickshire).

[Ruskie]

I think the marketing is targetting people’s percieved desire to know where they come from, (but not as far back as thousands of years ago).

Hence testing for ”ethnicity”.

If you tell someone they are 40% Scandanavian and 30% English plus a few exotic trace percentages, they can understand that, and have a bit of fun trying to work out where those percentages come from in their ancestry. It is DNA testing for the masses, something to discuss at dinner parties. Accuracy, or lack of it, doesn’t matter.

To tell someone that they are R2D2  is too abstract a concept, and requires research and study to understand. It can be complex to get your head around (more so for some than others). 

Just my thoughts Gen.