Hello,
I wanted to create this thread to see if I could have some assistance in deciphering the ancestry of my family as well as understanding the contemporary ancestry of the Albanian ethnicity.
I would like to give an introduction regarding my family’s background, and I would like to share some of the ancestry-related results that I have obtained from various ancestry testing websites.
My father’s surname is Kamberi and he comes from Peladhi, Diber, Albania. As far as I know, both sides of his family are ethnically Albanian. My mother’s surname is Dimo and she comes from Hocisht, Korce, Albania. Her father was ethnically Albanian and her mother was half Albanian (paternally) and half Greek (maternally). Her great grandmother hails from Thessaloniki, Greece.
Below are some results that I've obtained from various ancestry testing websites.
AncestryDNA
23andMe
FTDNA Big Y-700
Haplogroup Path:
J-M304>M172>M410>CTS7683>L26>PF5088>PF5160>L24>Z393>L25>Z438>CTS1192>L70>PF5430>Z435>Z2177>Z28698>FT370140>FT371266
IllustrativeDNA
Please see below the G25 Coordinates of my parents and myself.
Myself_scaled,0.119514,0.144205,0.018479,-0.009044,0.020619,-0.006972,0.00423,0.004384,-0.006136,0.010387,0.001299,-0.001049,-0.002081,0.004679,-0.011401,0.005701,0.015646,0.001014,0.005531,-0.001126,-0.009733,-0.006925,0.001479,0.00012,-0.004071
Father_scaled,0.126344,0.152329,0.009428,-0.019703,0.031083,-0.013108,0.000235,-0.004384,0.000818,0.027153,0.005684,0.003597,-0.010258,0.009221,-0.016558,-0.004641,0.007562,0.005954,0.002137,-0.008754,-0.006364,-0.000989,-0.006532,-0.001566,-0.001317
Mother_scaled,0.119514,0.146236,0.01697,-0.009367,0.026774,-0.008367,0,0.000231,0.001841,0.020957,0.004872,0.003597,-0.007284,0.001101,-0.016829,0.012861,0.029858,0.003674,0.002137,-0.000375,-0.008111,-0.008285,-0.002835,0.001928,-0.002155
Please see below some PCA plots from Vahaduo that I used to observe where my family and Albanian populations through the ages plot.
Questions
From my AncestryDNA results, I see that I am not as Greek & Albanian as my father but I am more than my mother. I also noticed that I have Baltic related ancestry but neither of my parents have this ancestry, is there a reason as to why I randomly obtained this Baltic ancestry? From my 23andMe results, I only have my results and did not do this test for my parents. If I am ethnically Albanian, why do I have the greatest genetic affinity to the Peloponnese region more than to Albania? After finding out that my paternal haplogroup was J2a-L70, I became interested in learning more about it. After looking over quite a lot of 23andMe profiles with Albanian surnames whom were categorized as DNA relatives, I never came across this haplogroup. I had even looked at profiles of people with Greek surnames that were categorized as DNA relatives and I never came across this specific haplogroup. Most of the Albanian profiles that I looked over had a paternal haplogroup of E (E-V13), J2b, R, I or on occasion haplogroup G. I had tried researching J2a-L70 quite a bit but did not find much information related to ancient populations related with this haplogroup. The only stuff I generally came across was a lot of unscientific and downright schizophrenic posts about it being related to the "line of Abraham" or being "ancient Israelite" so I went ahead and took the FTDNA Big Y-700. The results indicate that my paternal haplogroup is J-FT371266. Someone on 23andMe who was kind enough to translate the FTDNA nomenclature of my haplogroup to a general one stated that the general nomenclature is J-Y126749. Can someone please explain to me if my haplogroup is related to some ancient European population or if it descends from an ancient European population? Is there a possible explanation as to how this haplgroup ended up in the north region of contemporary Albania becaues I noticed on 23andMe that J2a is somewhat uncommon in Albania? After looking at the PCA plot from Vahaduo, I had some questions regarding Albanians in general and regarding Albanian continuity from a particular population called Illyrians. My understanding is that the Albania_IA sample is regarded as an Illyrian sample yet what I notice is that contemporary Albanians do not cluster with this sample. In fact, I see that some regions of Italy, Spain and Portugal cluster closer to Illyrians than do contemporary Albanians. When I look at the PCA plot, it seems Illyrians are plotted at an intermediate between contemporary Bosnians and contemporary Sardinians. If this is the case, what exactly are Albanians? What happened to Albanians that made them shift away from Illyrians? If I am interpreting the PCA plot correctly, there was a steppe-like population that went to South Eastern Europe, mixed with farmer populations and that formed the Albanian_EBA. Afterwards, there was more mixing with the farmer populations over time and this created the Albanian_BA_IA, Albanian_MBA, and Albanian_IA (Illyrians). Then, something happened in which for some reason, Illyrians got mixed up with some Levantine-like (non-European) population and this represents Albanian_Medieval. After that, the Modern_Albanian forms through some sort of mixing with Slavic people post the medieval era. Is this correct? Does this imply that it cannot be claimed that there is continuity between Illyrians and contemporary Albanians? Please note, I may be interpreting PCA plots completely wrong as I am not an expert regarding them or population genetics and would like to apologize ahead of time for any offense regarding this interpretation as I know Illyrian-ness is a touchy subject in the Balkans.
This may be somewhat of a vague question but do my genetics or that of my parents cluster with any ancient European culture? In addition, is there any information that can be deciphered regarding my connection to Indo-Europeans through my G25 coordinates? How related are my parents and I to Indo-Europeans relative to other ancient populations?
If any additional information/graphic from IllustrativeDNA would help, please let me know. I also have my DNA uploaded onto DNAGenics. Let me know if more information regarding my family history would also help.
Thank you for your time!
I wanted to create this thread to see if I could have some assistance in deciphering the ancestry of my family as well as understanding the contemporary ancestry of the Albanian ethnicity.
I would like to give an introduction regarding my family’s background, and I would like to share some of the ancestry-related results that I have obtained from various ancestry testing websites.
My father’s surname is Kamberi and he comes from Peladhi, Diber, Albania. As far as I know, both sides of his family are ethnically Albanian. My mother’s surname is Dimo and she comes from Hocisht, Korce, Albania. Her father was ethnically Albanian and her mother was half Albanian (paternally) and half Greek (maternally). Her great grandmother hails from Thessaloniki, Greece.
Below are some results that I've obtained from various ancestry testing websites.
AncestryDNA
23andMe
FTDNA Big Y-700
Haplogroup Path:
J-M304>M172>M410>CTS7683>L26>PF5088>PF5160>L24>Z393>L25>Z438>CTS1192>L70>PF5430>Z435>Z2177>Z28698>FT370140>FT371266
IllustrativeDNA
Please see below the G25 Coordinates of my parents and myself.
Myself_scaled,0.119514,0.144205,0.018479,-0.009044,0.020619,-0.006972,0.00423,0.004384,-0.006136,0.010387,0.001299,-0.001049,-0.002081,0.004679,-0.011401,0.005701,0.015646,0.001014,0.005531,-0.001126,-0.009733,-0.006925,0.001479,0.00012,-0.004071
Father_scaled,0.126344,0.152329,0.009428,-0.019703,0.031083,-0.013108,0.000235,-0.004384,0.000818,0.027153,0.005684,0.003597,-0.010258,0.009221,-0.016558,-0.004641,0.007562,0.005954,0.002137,-0.008754,-0.006364,-0.000989,-0.006532,-0.001566,-0.001317
Mother_scaled,0.119514,0.146236,0.01697,-0.009367,0.026774,-0.008367,0,0.000231,0.001841,0.020957,0.004872,0.003597,-0.007284,0.001101,-0.016829,0.012861,0.029858,0.003674,0.002137,-0.000375,-0.008111,-0.008285,-0.002835,0.001928,-0.002155
Please see below some PCA plots from Vahaduo that I used to observe where my family and Albanian populations through the ages plot.
Questions
From my AncestryDNA results, I see that I am not as Greek & Albanian as my father but I am more than my mother. I also noticed that I have Baltic related ancestry but neither of my parents have this ancestry, is there a reason as to why I randomly obtained this Baltic ancestry? From my 23andMe results, I only have my results and did not do this test for my parents. If I am ethnically Albanian, why do I have the greatest genetic affinity to the Peloponnese region more than to Albania? After finding out that my paternal haplogroup was J2a-L70, I became interested in learning more about it. After looking over quite a lot of 23andMe profiles with Albanian surnames whom were categorized as DNA relatives, I never came across this haplogroup. I had even looked at profiles of people with Greek surnames that were categorized as DNA relatives and I never came across this specific haplogroup. Most of the Albanian profiles that I looked over had a paternal haplogroup of E (E-V13), J2b, R, I or on occasion haplogroup G. I had tried researching J2a-L70 quite a bit but did not find much information related to ancient populations related with this haplogroup. The only stuff I generally came across was a lot of unscientific and downright schizophrenic posts about it being related to the "line of Abraham" or being "ancient Israelite" so I went ahead and took the FTDNA Big Y-700. The results indicate that my paternal haplogroup is J-FT371266. Someone on 23andMe who was kind enough to translate the FTDNA nomenclature of my haplogroup to a general one stated that the general nomenclature is J-Y126749. Can someone please explain to me if my haplogroup is related to some ancient European population or if it descends from an ancient European population? Is there a possible explanation as to how this haplgroup ended up in the north region of contemporary Albania becaues I noticed on 23andMe that J2a is somewhat uncommon in Albania? After looking at the PCA plot from Vahaduo, I had some questions regarding Albanians in general and regarding Albanian continuity from a particular population called Illyrians. My understanding is that the Albania_IA sample is regarded as an Illyrian sample yet what I notice is that contemporary Albanians do not cluster with this sample. In fact, I see that some regions of Italy, Spain and Portugal cluster closer to Illyrians than do contemporary Albanians. When I look at the PCA plot, it seems Illyrians are plotted at an intermediate between contemporary Bosnians and contemporary Sardinians. If this is the case, what exactly are Albanians? What happened to Albanians that made them shift away from Illyrians? If I am interpreting the PCA plot correctly, there was a steppe-like population that went to South Eastern Europe, mixed with farmer populations and that formed the Albanian_EBA. Afterwards, there was more mixing with the farmer populations over time and this created the Albanian_BA_IA, Albanian_MBA, and Albanian_IA (Illyrians). Then, something happened in which for some reason, Illyrians got mixed up with some Levantine-like (non-European) population and this represents Albanian_Medieval. After that, the Modern_Albanian forms through some sort of mixing with Slavic people post the medieval era. Is this correct? Does this imply that it cannot be claimed that there is continuity between Illyrians and contemporary Albanians? Please note, I may be interpreting PCA plots completely wrong as I am not an expert regarding them or population genetics and would like to apologize ahead of time for any offense regarding this interpretation as I know Illyrian-ness is a touchy subject in the Balkans.
This may be somewhat of a vague question but do my genetics or that of my parents cluster with any ancient European culture? In addition, is there any information that can be deciphered regarding my connection to Indo-Europeans through my G25 coordinates? How related are my parents and I to Indo-Europeans relative to other ancient populations?
If any additional information/graphic from IllustrativeDNA would help, please let me know. I also have my DNA uploaded onto DNAGenics. Let me know if more information regarding my family history would also help.
Thank you for your time!