African YDNA in my family
Sep. 2nd, 2012 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
transemacabreJust discovered that DNA tests have confirmed that my 8x great-grandfather, John CLYBURN, a French and Indian War veteran [That's part of the Seven Years' War, for the Yurpeens) had a R1b1c-V88 Y-chromosome strongly associated with the Chadic-speaking populations of West Africa. Although the general R1b YDNA tree is widespread across Eurasia, R1b1c is found in *tremendous* levels in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad. In some tribes it reaches frequencies of 95%. It's also found in low frequencies in Sardinia and Lebanon, likely spread there by Phoenicians who'd mixed with Sub-Saharan Africans.
Although I am white as snow, as my photo attests, I have documented African ancestry from the colonial period. This discovery is exciting as its the first *genetic* evidence (other than that some of my distant cousins have sickle cell anemia) for African ancestry. And it's male-line, at that. The aforementioned John CLYBURN was born about 1710, is documented in Henrico and Brunswick counties in VA, and had several children; one of his sons was a Loyalist during the Revolution. Quite possibly he, or his father or grandfather, was born to a white servant girl by her black lover, and were counted as free because of that.
Although I am white as snow, as my photo attests, I have documented African ancestry from the colonial period. This discovery is exciting as its the first *genetic* evidence (other than that some of my distant cousins have sickle cell anemia) for African ancestry. And it's male-line, at that. The aforementioned John CLYBURN was born about 1710, is documented in Henrico and Brunswick counties in VA, and had several children; one of his sons was a Loyalist during the Revolution. Quite possibly he, or his father or grandfather, was born to a white servant girl by her black lover, and were counted as free because of that.
