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| Frank Lesko, 23andme Ancestry Report Click on the picture if you have trouble reading the text. |
Intro
I sat at the dining room table several weeks ago spitting
into a vial for what seemed like an eternity. After I had produced an ample sample of saliva, I sealed it up and mailed it off
to 23andme.com for a comprehensive genetics test. Thankfully, the provided return box didn't require any spit to seal.
Several weeks later, a computer spit back a report.
MTHFR Gene
My primary goal was to test for methylation issues. Because of the way I respond to stress and interact with
certain vitamin supplements, I am almost certain I have the infamous (and comically named) MTHFR
gene. I will be exceedingly surprised if the test does not confirm this. The
MTHFR gene is only the first in a long line of potential methylation issues in
the body, so it is good to have a thorough test to build a targeted approach to
addressing it.
The initial report arrived in my inbox recently. I need to
submit the data into another program to get the methylation results, and I may
blog about that in the future.
However, what did come back in the initial report is, among
other things, a detailed description of my probable ethnic ancestry. It caught me off guard, as I was only half aware that the test would deliver this information. There were some major surprises that have
left my imagination swimming since then!
Family oral history
Let's start with what I've always been told. Family tradition has been consistently straightforward: My dad is
100% Slovak, and my mom is 50% Polish and 50% Slovak.
My dad’s parents met in Cleveland, OH, but were from neighboring
towns outside of Košice, a city in eastern Slovakia. My Polish ancestors were from southeastern
Poland, not far from Košice, as well. I
think my mom’s Slovak ancestors were also from this region, but I need to confirm this.
Somewhat reliable family tradition also says that somewhere
in the double or triple great-grandmother level was a German ancestor, both on my
mom’s Polish side and somewhere on my dad’s side.
Other than that, though, my background seemed darn near homogenous. It sure looked like my immediate family came from a very specific
region of the world! We were peasant class folk who had been living in the same area for as long as anyone knew.
At first glance, the test seemed to corroborate with what I've always been told. However, the more I looked, the more surprises I discovered.
Bombshell #1
I was somewhat disappointed to find that I tested almost exclusively European. I seemed to have a predominately Eastern European ancestry. There were no traces of African, no Ashkenazi (Jewish), no Middle Eastern, no Native American, no Asian—well, except for one small exception.
What drew my attention immediately was that the test showed I have a small
representation of genes from East Asia. Granted, it is an extremely small amount, but it’s there! 0.3% of my genes are specifically from the
Siberian population of the Yakut people, with an additional 0.2% classified as unspecific
East Asian (which could include Chinese, Mongolian, Japanese, Korean or
Yakut).
The
mind wonders and wanders how in the world did 0.5% of my genes come from East
Asia. Granted, it is a small number, but
it is there.
I started imagining scenarios as to how this could have happened. Did a Yakut migrant wander into East Europe? Did a European missionary interact with the Yakutz population? Then it hit me: This could be a living remnant of the Mongolian invasion of Europe in the 13th century. I remember reading in James Michener’s Poland that many Poles to this day have noticeable Mongolian features. I researched and sure enough, the Mongolian army would have included people from the Yakut population. Chilling.
This kind of genetic report has a margin of error. In fact,
there is a sliding bar where you can adjust the algorithms for a more
conservative or risky estimate of your ancestry. However, even on conservative
settings, a portion of the Yakut genes remained. Wow.
Bombshell #2
At first glance, my ethnic ancestry on this report seems to
match what my family had always told me.
The test showed me as predominately Eastern European, what we might call
northern Slavic. No surprises there,
right?
Well, not so fast. When I looked closer, a very different portrait of my
ethic ancestry emerged.
The test only showed me as 63.7% Eastern Europe. By all accounts, I should have been a whole
lot closer to 90% or more.
By far, the biggest surprise was that the test showed that I
have an ethnic makeup of 21.2% from Southern Europe. This includes a whopping 14.7% from the Balkan
region, 0.5% Italian and the remaining 6% as broadly Southern European (meaning: the test couldn't drill it down any further).
Absolutely nothing in my family history corroborates this in
the least.
21.2% is a large swath—it is almost the portion of a
grandparent! The Balkan region
identified by this test includes everything as far south as Greece/Crete on up through
Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Albania, Bulgaria, Moldovia and Macedonia. Perhaps this explains my longstanding fascination
with all things related to the Ancient Greeks! Romanians are Slavic people from the Balkan region but also have a Roman heritage, so perhaps that is a connection?
Again, my mind wonders and wanders through scenarios. My grandma Lesko used to tell me stories of
encounters with the Gypsies and the tensions between them and the local Slovak
population. She was often not very polite about the problems between these groups. Had there
been any mixing with the Gypsy population, given the tensions and stigma, it is highly possible that it would
have been hushed and the child raised as Slovak. But would the test regard Gypsy ancestry as
“Balkan?” I am not sure about that. I’m actually surprised "Gypsy" doesn’t have
its own category, given what must be a very unique genetic history. I think 23and me is working to expand and develop its genetic database and may include more categories in the future.
The Balkan region includes some of the poorest parts of
Europe--Albania and Bulgaria come to mind. It would have made sense for people
in this region to migrate looking for work or as war refugees. For a thousand years prior to the 20th century, most of
Eastern Europe had been united first under the
Ottomans and then under the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. As a result, it probably
would have been easier to migrate within this empire than elsewhere.
Perhaps Slovakia saw an influx of people from South Europe who just blended in
over time. Perhaps it was individual
workers or even whole families who came to call themselves “Slovak” or “Polish”
over time.
The test cannot show which parents the specific genes come from, but it can suggest whether the genes are from a single parent or from both parents. In this case, it seems that both of my parents have some of these South European genes. It seems safe to say that there
was more than just a single person of Balkan ancestry who got mixed into the
family. [If another family member took the test and linked up with mine, the test could better determine which side of the family the genes come from.]
My Polish great-grandfather said that before coming to
America, he and his brother (Karol and Kasimir) were often farmed
out—literally—across western Europe. Since the family was “poor as church mice”
back in Poland, they followed the harvests as migrant workers in France and
Germany in the early 20th century. It is well within reason that
people from the Balkans did the same thing in earlier generations, either as individuals
or as whole families, and either settled or left some offspring in Slovakia or
Poland. There has been far more genetic mixing in the "Old World" than most of us are willing to consider.
Despite family tradition, the test showed no decisive traces
of German ancestry. However, there is a category of Northwest European, which could
include German. This accounts for 5% of my ancestry: 2% Scandinavian, 0.4% British/Irish, 0.2% Finnish and 2.5% Broadly Northwestern European. So perhaps this piece does corroborate oral history.
The small portion of Scandinavian ancestry could also have
a wartime origin. The Vikings were well known for invading the British
Isles, but they also terrorized Poland centuries ago with a war as recently as the mid 1600s. Given the close geographical proximity, though, there are
other more benevolent possibilities for how those genes got mixed into the
family line. Perhaps
a missionary, soldier or a traveling royalty mixed with the local population.
Further Reflection
It is very unnerving to discover that my ethnic ancestry may be quite different from what I have always been told! I spent a day or two just finding my footing. Still, I have to wonder: Is this test accurate? Am I getting carried away for no reason? Did the test "sensationalize" my ancestry, creating a more imaginative background than reality? If these other ancestries are true, how far back could those genes come from?
A concept like "ethnic ancestry" is a constantly moving target. All of humankind is ultimately related, and some say that every human on the plant shares at least one common ancestor going back perhaps as recent at 5,000 years ago. That seems hard to believe until you do the math.
A test like this only shows ancestry going back maybe 10 generations, which would probably have been around 250 years ago (if you average 25 years per generation). 10 generations ago, there were 1024 people who were my direct ancestors--each of them would have been my grandparent with 8 "greats" in front. Each one of those people accounts for slightly less than 0.1% of my total genes. The test doesn't drill down any more than 0.1%. And that only takes us back to the mid 1700s.
If you keep doubling the amount of ancestors every 25 years, then there would have been about 8 thousand ancestors during the most recent Swedish invasion of Poland and a whopping 536 million people who were my direct ancestors at the time of the Mongolian invasion of Poland. That assumes that there was no "overlap" in the family tree, which is impossible. It is doubtful that there were 536 million people in East Europe at all during that time. I am unclear whether the genes I have today would match a modern Yakut or Scandinavian person or whether those genes would have come from something much more recent.
So I'll continue to brood over this and share more insights. Whether this test is accurate or not, it is fascinating to imagine what could have happened and where we all come from!
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