# Population Genetics > Y-DNA Haplogroups >  Genetic history of Sicily : Greeks, Arabs, Normans and others

## Maciamo

This article has just been published 10 days ago :
Nature : Differential Greek and northern African migrations to Sicily are supported by genetic evidence from the Y chromosome

The study shows great heterogeneity between the various regions of Sicily. The table of frequencies of the Y-DNA in each region is particularly interesting.

In short, the author estimates that 37% of the male lineages in Sicily are of Greek origins (notably the haplogroups E3b1 and J2), and 6% of Arabic/North African origins (J1).

At least 7%, but more probably over 10%, could be of Norman origins. The highest frequencies of the typically Nordic haplogroup I1 were observed around Caccamo, near Palermo, representing almost one third of the samples.

The southern town of Ragusa had, unsurprisingly, the highest percentage of the Arabic haplogroup J1 (10%).

A bit over 5% of the people tested in Mazara del Vallo, a town founded by the Phoenicians in south-west Sicily, belonged to haplogroup L. This haplogroup is found in India and the Arabic peninsula. It was not found anywhere in Sicily. It is probably brought by the Phoenicians. Mazara del Vallo is unlikely to have been settled by the Arabs as J1 was absent from the samples.

Another surprising haplogroup found almost only in Mazara del Vallo (16.6% of the samples) is Q, which is normally found in Siberia or Central Asia.

The highest presence of the "native" Western European R1b1c (Celtic or Italic) was observed in Trapani (45%) and in Santa Ninfa (35%), both at the western tip of the island. R1b1c was only between 10% and 15% in places like Troina, Caccamo, Piazza Armerina and Mazara del Vallo.

Greek haplogroups were more frequent in the eastern part of the island.

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## JackMack

Sicily is such a beautiful island! I recently visited there and I found the people, the food (loved the Sicilian wines) and the scenery to be wonderful- all of which has been influenced by their "DNA history." Some of my family is from there (from the NW of the island Mother's side-Palermo/ Monreale and Father's side-Castelbuono/ Ventimiglia line originally from Liguria and a branch in Sicily) and most Sicilians we met seemed to think Norman influence in us but my Y-DNA is J2a4b and my MtDNA is H. I happen to be fair-haired with green eyes, like my mother but I can tan well if I spend time in the sun -going for the California blond look! My father has brown hair/ eyes but his brother is blond/ blue- go figure....I think it shows that we really cannot get all of who we are from just our Y and MtDNA- after all, there are other people in our genetic line with different Y and MtDNA Haplotypes but gave us many other characteristics from their autosomal genes and X chromosome which we are currently not taking into consideration.

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## Catchabus

> ....
> 
> At least 7%, but more probably over 10%, could be of Norman origins. The highest frequencies of the typically Nordic haplogroup I1 were observed around Caccamo, near Palermo, representing almost one third of the samples.
> 
> ....


 
Greetings,

I am from Caccamo in northwestern Sicily, where my family has lived at least since the late 18th century. The modern town was founded by the Normans (though tradition has it that an earlier incarnation of the town was founded by the Carthaginians after their defeat at the hands of Alkibiades at nearby Himera). Based on this history, my educated guess is that I am a Norman descendant as I2b1 (a Germanic haplogroup) is frequent in NW Europe and the Normans mainly came from Denmark. The other possibility is the Lombards, who were brought in by the Normans to “Latinize” the island following the 11th century conquest. Though a small sample, it seems my town has the highest frequency of Haplogroup I in Sicily (see Di Gaetano 2008: [ can't post URL yet]). 

For general interest, my town is known for having the largest castle in Sicily: see sicilyontour.com/eng/images/castello_caccamo_1.jpg[add www and a period to the beginning of the link]

Though I’ve only had the 12 marker test through the Genographic project and was assigned to M170, all evidence I’ve been able to find—including Ken Nordtvedt’s Founder’s Haplotype data and the I subclade predictor at [can't post url yet]—indicate I fall under M223—I2b1: (“Haplo-I Subclades and probabilities are as follows: I-P78-Cont3a =>68% I-M223-Root1 =>17% I-M223-Cont2c =>7% I-M223-Root3 =>5% I-M223-Cont2b =>3%”). I differ from the modal haplotype for P78-Cont 3a at markers 389ii (30 instead of 29) and at 393 (14 instead of 15).

According to Mr. Nordtvedt, “P78+ would be a haplogroup of greater age, and centered in the Slovak region north of the Danube and south of the Carpathians, but spilling over beyond that core area.”

Any thoughts how a northern European haplogroup ended up in Sicily?

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## Maciamo

> Any thoughts how a northern European haplogroup ended up in Sicily?


I think that your hypothesis about the Normans and Lombards is plausible. Naturally we can't known with certainty at present.

An alternative possibility is that I2b1 was already present all over Western Europe before the Indo-European migrations. But based on the current data I would rather suppose that I2a was indigenous to southern Italy and Spain rather than I2b (or I2b1 for that matter).

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## Catchabus

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, a plausible explanation is about all we can expect with this topic. However, there was only one I2b1—M223 cited in the Di Gaetano paper (I would be two) and it’s only found in my town. If it was the Normans who brought this Haplogroup to Sicily then we would have expected to see a least a few more samples in the “Norman” areas of the island (e.g., Trapani or Piazza Armerina).

Despite the lack of concrete answers, since I learned of my Haplogroup designation a couple years ago, more information has come to light and Hap. I, fortunately, is not as large has R1b (my maternal grandfather was M269), so I’ve been able to find more data. I was especially glad to come across the Di Gaetano paper.

I also had my mtDNA analyzed by Genographic and I am in “Haplogroup H (Subclade H).” Unfortunately, for such a large group, I don’t know which of the subclades I fit under. I differ from the CRS at: 16265G, 16298C, 16301T.

This is an older article, but it gives a broad overview of Sicilian mtDNA, and it also includes Caccamo. [I can't post a link so do a Google search for: Autosomal Microsatellite and mtDNA Genetic Analysis in Sicily (Italy)
Select the link from this website:
interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118863870/PDFSTART]

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## Cambrius (The Red)

The Normans were a minority ruling class in Sicily and, according to what some experts say, did not leave that much of a genetic imprint. I would be surprised if the 10% figure mentioned in the first post is confirmed as accurate. However, I'm certain there are some scattered Norman influences. Also, one must consider that throughout history many traders from Northern Europe as well as Northern Iberia travelled to Sicily and some may well have left their genetic mark (Celtic, Germanic, Nordic) on the island.

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## Maciamo

> Thanks for the reply.
> Yes, a plausible explanation is about all we can expect with this topic. However, there was only one I2b1—M223 cited in the Di Gaetano paper (I would be two) and it’s only found in my town. If it was the Normans who brought this Haplogroup to Sicily then we would have expected to see a least a few more samples in the “Norman” areas of the island (e.g., Trapani or Piazza Armerina).


Di Gaetano's paper is only a slice of Sicilian society. If your town is the only one where I2b1 was found so far, it is possible that a cluster of I2b1 exist in nearby towns and villages that were not part of Di Gaetano's samples.

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## dnabuff

My friend did a test 4 years ago I think because his surname was Sareceno ! lol from Sicily and many of his northern italian friends call him sons of arabs. he was tested and result ? J1 ! Now he understands why his surname is SARACENO :) his cousin tested and got J2.. Phoenician or possible Arabs descent too from eastern mediteranean

Then again its quite common from his southern Italian town where his grandfather was born

DNA is so interesting. Many English ( 50% )shares the same genetic marker with germans and dutch since they came to Britain as Germanic Anglo Saxon

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## Wilhelm

> My friend did a test 4 years ago I think because his surname was Sareceno ! lol from Sicily and many of his northern italian friends call him sons of arabs. he was tested and result ? J1 ! Now he understands why his surname is SARACENO :) his cousin tested and got J2.. Phoenician or possible Arabs descent too from eastern mediteranean
> 
> Then again its quite common from his southern Italian town where his grandfather was born
> 
> DNA is so interesting. Many English ( 50% )shares the same genetic marker with germans and dutch since they came to Britain as Germanic Anglo Saxon


ACtually, it's not true that J1 or J2 was carried by Arabs or Phoenicians. 
Arabs did not have any signifant impact in Sicily, since they were a ultra-minority.
The Y-dna J in Sicily comes mostly from Greeks and from Neolithic migrations, as in the rest of Europe

"Another Y-chromosome marker that may have been spread to Europe by Phoenicians and Arabs is the subclade of haplogroup J labeled J*(xJ2) or Eu10. It originated in the southern part of the Fertile Crescent and is very common in Arabia and Palestine (Neolithic J2 or Eu9 is from the northern Fertile Crescent). Its frequencies are 0.9% in Northern Italy, 7.1% in Central Italy and 5.3% in Southern Italy (for a total of between 0.5% and 3.6% admixture). It's important to note that while Phoenician and Arab colonists undoubtedly carried Eu10, its expansion is dated to ~9000-6400 YBP and generally attributed to Neolithic migrations (Nebel et al. 2001). Therefore, levels of recent admixture may be even lower."

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## Maciamo

> ACtually, it's not true that J1 or J2 was carried by Arabs or Phoenicians. 
> Arabs did not have any signifant impact in Sicily, since they were a ultra-minority.
> The Y-dna J in Sicily comes mostly from Greeks and from Neolithic migrations, as in the rest of Europe


You are right that a lot of Sicilian J2 is Greek, but Sicily has 6% of J1, i.e. much more than Greece. The Phoenicians had quite a few settlements in southern and western Sicily. The genetic legacy of the Phoenicians in Sicily, Sardinia or other places like Ibiza has been proved beyond reasonable doubt through the presence of haplogroup T and the Near-Eastern version of R1b (M18) exactly where the Phoenicians had colonies. 

For that reason a lot of J2 must also be Phoenician rather than Greek in these regions. In fact there is little point in arguing that the 10% of J2 in Sardinia are of Greek origin since the Greek never colonised Sardinia. So why should it be any different for the Phoenician half of Sicily ?

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## Wilhelm

> You are right that a lot of Sicilian J2 is Greek, but Sicily has 6% of J1, i.e. much more than Greece. The Phoenicians had quite a few settlements in southern and western Sicily. The genetic legacy of the Phoenicians in Sicily, Sardinia or other places like Ibiza has been proved beyond reasonable doubt through the presence of haplogroup T and the Near-Eastern version of R1b (M18) exactly where the Phoenicians had colonies. 
> 
> For that reason a lot of J2 must also be Phoenician rather than Greek in these regions. In fact there is little point in arguing that the 10% of J2 in Sardinia are of Greek origin since the Greek never colonised Sardinia. So why should it be any different for the Phoenician half of Sicily ?


Because Sicily was largely Greek, and they spoke greek, Phoenicians were not as much as greeks.
So J2 in Sicily is most likely to be of greek origin rather than phoenician.

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## Cambrius (The Red)

> Because Sicily was largely Greek, and they spoke greek, Phoenicians were not as much as greeks.
> So J2 in Sicily is most likely to be of greek origin rather than phoenician.


Yes, possibly. But did J2 actually originate in Greece?

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## Haganus

About the Normandic influence in Sicily: most of Normans who arrived in Sicily
were men from Normandy, who had Norman/Danish fathers and French mothers.
So they were not pure Scandinavians. A good example was William the Conquerer.

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## Wilhelm

> Yes, possibly. But did J2 actually originate in Greece?


I've read that some subclades of the J2 are of Greek origin.
So, we should look into more detail, and see the subclades of the J2 of sicilians, to know if it's greek or phoenician origin

For example, the sub-haplogroup *J2f1* is estimated to be of Greek origin. It is found only in all the former Greek colonies (greece, south France, Sicily, South Italy, west-Turkey, etc) 
Source : http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/HaploJ.pdf

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## Maciamo

> I've read that some subclades of the J2 are of Greek origin.
> So, we should look into more detail, and see the subclades of the J2 of sicilians, to know if it's greek or phoenician origin
> 
> For example, the sub-haplogroup *J2f1* is estimated to be of Greek origin. It is found only in all the former Greek colonies (greece, south France, Sicily, South Italy, west-Turkey, etc) 
> Source : http://www.familytreedna.com/pdf/HaploJ.pdf


The study linked on top of the page gives some of the subclades of J2 identified in Sicily, including the percentages for each region.

The overall percentages are :

- J2a4b (M67) = 3.81%
- J2a4b1 (M92) = 1.27%

- J2a4h1a (DYS445-6) = 4.66%

- J2b = 0.85%
- J2b2 (M241) = 4.66%

- Other J2 or J2* = 10.59%


The nomenclature has changed since both articles, so I have updated the subclade names based on the 2009 ISOGG tree. 

What is called J2f in the study by Di Giacomo (on FamilyTreeDNA) is now J2a4b. Based on Di Giacomo's study, it looks like J2a4b has a Greek (or Anatolian) connection, rather than a Middle Eastern one. But this is because they do not give results for Lebanon. According to this other study of haplogroup J, J2a4b (M67) makes up one fifth of all Lebanese J2, and is indeed the only major subclade in Lebanon. It is Georgia and Calabria that have the highest percentage of J2a4b (M67) and J2a4b1 (M92), totalling 15.5%. In comparison Greece has a total of 7.6% for both subclades. Sicily has 2.4% of each, which is very similar to Lebanon, with 2.5% of each.

J2b is associated with the Neolithic spread of agriculture from Northern Greece and the Balkans. Interestingly it is most frequent in western Sicily, especially at the Western tip (Santa Ninfa) where E-V13, R1a and R1b are also very strong. E-V13 is always associated with J2b, so no surprise there. But the correlation with R1a and R1b could mean that J2b and E-V13 arrived together with those haplogroups, maybe directly from Central Europe or northern Italy.

I couldn't find information about J2a4h1a. This leaves over 15% of J2 of uncertain origin based on Di Gaetano's study.

If look at the subclades of J2 over the Mediterranean there are few discernible patterns. There is often more difference inside a same country than between regions. For instance, there is more difference between Crete and Macedonia than between Greece and Lebanon. This may simply be due to the fact that many subclades of J2 already existed before J2 spread from the Near East to Greece and Italy. Geographically isolated places like Crete developed their own subclades over time, but these represent only a tiny fraction of the overall J2. J2a4d (M319) is almost only found in Crete, but only makes up about 5% of the island's population. 

J2b is the only subclade that seems to have originated, or at least come to represent a sizeable portion of the population, in Greece, and spread from there to the rest of Europe.

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## Cambrius (The Red)

> About the Normandic influence in Sicily: most of Normans who arrived in Sicily
> were men from Normandy, who had Norman/Danish fathers and French mothers.
> So they were not pure Scandinavians. A good example was William the Conquerer.


Very true. Good qualification...

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## Catchabus

It’s unfortunate the Di Gaetano study linked to above did not also dig into Haplogroup I, which has a small footprint in Sicily of about 7.5%, but would reveal more about the Norman connection. As Maciamo points out, my hometown Caccamo has the highest frequency of I1, which is associated with modern Scandinavians, and the only example of M223 (my clade of I, now know as I2b1), which also is found in NW Europe at a high frequency.

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## binx

The area of haplogroup I1-M253 is concentrated mainly in the north of Europe, in the Scandinavian countries. There are also local of I1 in England (15,4%), *Sicily (up to 18,75%)*  and in the centre of European Russia (up to 17%). The presence of carriers of haplogroup I1-M253 at British Isles is associated with the expansion of the Vikings and the Normans, which was proved by historical and genealogical studies, though the ancient migrations are also possible. *In Sicily, haplogroup I1-M253 strongly correlates with Norman invasions from the territory of modern France (Normandy, I1 – 11,9%) and the foundation of the Kingdom of Sicily (Sicilian Kingdom) in 1130*. 


Source:
Alexander Shtrunov, _The origin of haplogroup I1-M253 in Eastern Europe_
The Russian Journal of Genetic Genealogy: Vol 1, №2, 2010
ISSN: 1920-2989 © All rights reserved RJGG

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## binx

> About the Normandic influence in Sicily: most of Normans who arrived in Sicily
> were men from Normandy, who had Norman/Danish fathers and French mothers.
> So they were not pure Scandinavians. A good example was William the Conquerer.


Yep, but even with French mothers, Norman still remained pure Scandinavians by their paternal line (Y-chromosome). Or not?

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## Wilhelm

Well, in the Dodecad Ancestry Project here are some of the Sicilian percentages compared to other europeans : 
*
Sicilians :*
- North European : 13.7 %
- Near-Eastern : 15.9 %

*North Italians :* 
- North European : 31 %
- Near Eastern: 4.6 %

*Spaniards :*
- North European : 38.1 %
- Near Eastern: 3 %

*Basques :*
- North European 39.9 %
- Near-Eastern 0 %

*Greeks :*
- North European 21.1 %
- Near-Eastern 11.1 %

*French :* 
- North European : 50.2
- Near-Eastern : 1.8 %

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...CPGxtqQM#gid=0

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## Regulus

> Well, in the Dodecad Ancestry Project here are some of the Sicilian percentages compared to other europeans : 
> 
> *Sicilians :*
> - North European : 13.7 %
> - Near-Eastern : 15.9 %
> 
> *North Italians :* 
> - North European : 31 %
> - Near Eastern: 4.6 %
> ...


Was there anything on southern Italians?

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## binx

> Was there anything on southern Italians?



No, only Sicilians. 

In any case in Dodecad Ancestry Project sample size seems to be too small.

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## Regulus

> No, only Sicilians. 
> 
> In any case in Dodecad Ancestry Project sample size seems to be too small.


 
Ok thanks.

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## Cambrius (The Red)

14, thus far.

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## archaiocapilos

> The study linked on top of the page gives some of the subclades of J2 identified in Sicily, including the percentages for each region.
> 
> The overall percentages are :
> 
> - J2a4b (M67) = 3.81%
> - J2a4b1 (M92) = 1.27%
> 
> - J2a4h1a (DYS445-6) = 4.66%
> 
> ...


Maciamo it was mostly Peloponnesian Greeks who colonized Sicily and they have 15 % J2a and only 3 % J2b so you are absolutely wrong about J2b being the only J2 subclade that seems to represent a sizeable portion of the population. In fact the opposite seems to be true

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## Ferreira

> ACtually, it's not true that J1 or J2 was carried by Arabs or Phoenicians. 
> Arabs did not have any signifant impact in Sicily, since they were a ultra-minority.
> The Y-dna J in Sicily comes mostly from Greeks and from Neolithic migrations, as in the rest of Europe
> 
> "Another Y-chromosome marker that may have been spread to Europe by Phoenicians and Arabs is the subclade of haplogroup J labeled J*(xJ2) or Eu10. It originated in the southern part of the Fertile Crescent and is very common in Arabia and Palestine (Neolithic J2 or Eu9 is from the northern Fertile Crescent). Its frequencies are 0.9% in Northern Italy, 7.1% in Central Italy and 5.3% in Southern Italy (for a total of between 0.5% and 3.6% admixture). It's important to note that while Phoenician and Arab colonists undoubtedly carried Eu10, its expansion is dated to ~9000-6400 YBP and generally attributed to Neolithic migrations (Nebel et al. 2001). Therefore, levels of recent admixture may be even lower."


I am pleasantly surprised at the level of education at this forum. The Italians have no problem accepting the origin of certain haplogroups from beyond Europe. Nothing to do with my countrymen (I'm Spaniard). In fact the only one who does not accept the scientific reality is this spanish man. I am not surprised!

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## Canek

Very well said Ferreira... most spaniards have problems dealing with their african roots. I'm glad that we finally find a spaniard who is not delusional.

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## Nino1949

My father was born in Trapani/Marsala, Sicily. We are as Y-paternal on Haplogroup I1-M253+ (I1EE)
Can someone shed some more lights on this haplogroup? Am I of Norman origins or Longbards?

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## JFWR

> My father was born in Trapani/Marsala, Sicily. We are as Y-paternal on Haplogroup I1-M253+ (I1EE)
> Can someone shed some more lights on this haplogroup? Am I of Norman origins or Longbards?


Both were Germanic people so it is hard to differentiate between the two. I don't know if Lombards have been definitively associated with I1, but certainly some Normans were I1.

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## sparkey

> My father was born in Trapani/Marsala, Sicily. We are as Y-paternal on Haplogroup I1-M253+ (I1EE)
> Can someone shed some more lights on this haplogroup? Am I of Norman origins or Longbards?


I1-EE has a youthful TMRCA (only about 1,500 years) but connects to the I1-Z58 tree as a whole over 3000 years ago (see Nordtvedt). That is to say, it's a little bit of an outlier, so it's a bit difficult to trace its exact migration route during the Migration Period. Its modern center of frequency looks to be in Germany, maybe somewhere around Munich considering its extent into Italy, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic. I think that distribution looks like a good match with the Lombards, but the sample size is a bit low for me to be really confident.

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## wormhole

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the difference between Sicilians and mainland Italians is that Sicilians have sub-Saharan African Ancestry of at least 1% whereas the mainland has little to none. Not even the Calabrese have it.

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## JACINTA1976

I recently tested on 23andme and I found a 4th cousin with the Ventimiglia last name from Italy. I don't know if 4th cousins are considered closely related but am searching for info from family I'm not in contact with. 




> Sicily is such a beautiful island! I recently visited there and I found the people, the food (loved the Sicilian wines) and the scenery to be wonderful- all of which has been influenced by their "DNA history." Some of my family is from there (from the NW of the island Mother's side-Palermo/ Monreale and Father's side-Castelbuono/ Ventimiglia line originally from Liguria and a branch in Sicily) and most Sicilians we met seemed to think Norman influence in us but my Y-DNA is J2a4b and my MtDNA is H. I happen to be fair-haired with green eyes, like my mother but I can tan well if I spend time in the sun -going for the California blond look! My father has brown hair/ eyes but his brother is blond/ blue- go figure....I think it shows that we really cannot get all of who we are from just our Y and MtDNA- after all, there are other people in our genetic line with different Y and MtDNA Haplotypes but gave us many other characteristics from their autosomal genes and X chromosome which we are currently not taking into consideration.

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## Giuse

So sad nobody talk about mtn dna of Sicilians.... am J1c1... and find little or nothing about.
only traces in Northern Europe, Ireland, wales, Iceland...? How my maternal ancester get so south?
or she was already there, since.... ever? I'm frustrated of the lack of studies about. Someone.....?

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## agnieu

> Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the difference between Sicilians and mainland Italians is that Sicilians have sub-Saharan African Ancestry of at least 1% whereas the mainland has little to none. Not even the Calabrese have it.


Likely you're wrong.

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