Percentage Sicilian

[darkerhorse]

Has anyone had a DNA test result which reports an actual percentage of Sicilian ancestry?

[darkerhorse]

How about a mention without a specific percentage?

[MarcuccioV]

The closest I get from all my uploads is from DNA.LAND, which only breaks it down as far as "Mediterranean Islander", which includes Sicily, The "boot" of the peninsula, Cyprus and a small portion of North Africa. It gives me 19%.

Most other matrices lump Sicilian in with Southern Italian or Greek/Balkans (or both). Sometimes it only includes it as "Italy". Of course I have reasonably high percentages of all of these.

23 & Me gives me a map of my Italian heritage, using shaded areas (strength of recent ancestry are darker shades, more distant or lesser lighter). It gives me Sicily as about 2/3 on the scale, to the darker end. It also lists Campania, Abruzzo and Lazio (all slightly darker) and Puglia lighter. The rest of Italy is the lightest shade.

Probably the most detailed but hardest to comprehend is GEDMATCH. It also gives me a very good readout for Sicilian. In checking all the different projects with which are there oracles, almost all show some percentage of Sicilian but they vary widely between them.

Lastly, my mtDNA results, U3b2, is almost unique to Southern and SW Sicily.

That's the best I can do...

[darkerhorse]

What percent Sicilian are you by paper trail?

[MarcuccioV]

What percent Sicilian are you by paper trail?

0%. I can only go back to the mid 1800's, and everyone I can find comes from the same part of Lazio. Some of the surnames start out fairly rare, and get more populous with successive generations, leading to the probability that they were recent arrivals prior to the paper trail.

My grandfather's surname can be found in Agrigento. My grandmother's mtDNA comes from the same area.

I would have never guessed it had it not been for the DNA...

[darkerhorse]

What do you think I can expect from DNA testing if I'm 50% Sicilian back to the mid 1700s, and no reason to think it doesn't extend even further?

[MarcuccioV]

What do you think I can expect from DNA testing if I'm 50% Sicilian back to the mid 1700s, and no reason to think it doesn't extend even further?

I suppose it depends on the testing company or the matrix uploaded to. It should find plenty.

For me, 23 & Me was better on separating Sicilian (by region, as I explained above) than Ancestry, which for me broke it down as "Greek and South Italian".

If you do either of those tests, I recommend also uploading to the following:

MyHeritage
FTDNA
DNA.LAND
GEDMATCH

Some have plans with nominal cost for more features, but all are free for basic service. I pay for some, others not. Again, many mix Sicilian with other regions, so I'd suggest gathering as much info as you can & make your comparisons to see which appear the most accurate.

[darkerhorse]

One thing I was looking to do was to compare percent Sicilian (or Italian) with my siblings. The theory was that I had more because there's some facial resemblance and I'm the only one with my father's coloring.

However, If my father was, in fact, 100% Sicilian (or Italian) then from what I've learned all of us will be 50%. My mother was 0% Sicilian (or Italian).

It would still be interesting to see what the underlying ethnic background is on my father's side - whether there's Italian, Greek, or North African heritage. They come from the east coast of Sicily and most seemed to have more of a Greek than Roman nose. My father was an exception. My grandfather's passport reads "naso Greco".

[MarcuccioV]

One thing I was looking to do was to compare percent Sicilian (or Italian) with my siblings. The theory was that I had more because there's some facial resemblance and I'm the only one with my father's coloring.

However, If my father was, in fact, 100% Sicilian (or Italian) then from what I've learned all of us will be 50%. My mother was 0% Sicilian (or Italian).

It would still be interesting to see what the underlying ethnic background is on my father's side - whether there's Italian, Greek, or North African heritage. They come from the east coast of Sicily and most seemed to have more of a Greek than Roman nose. My father was an exception. My grandfather's passport reads "naso Greco".

Yes, you should all be 50% of your parents, but can vary greatly with regard to grandparents. I'd say you most likely got more DNA from your father's parents, your brothers from your mom's or a combo thereof.

My grandfather had kind of a hybrid of Greek & Roman noses. I have more of an Arabic nose with a bit of a "hawk bump" at the bridge. My mother had a Greek nose, very well proportioned. My grandmother had a snub nose.

[darkerhorse]

How could I get more from my paternal grandparents if I got only 50% from my father?

I may not have gotten 25%/25% from them but it has to sum to only 50%.

I may have gotten more from my paternal grandfather than my paternal grandmother, but i couldn't have gotten more from my paternal grandparents than my maternal grandparents.

[darkerhorse]

Snub nose doesn't sound Italian. You may want to investigate further.

[MarcuccioV]

Snub nose doesn't sound Italian. You may want to investigate further.

I've always thought she looked more Franco-Germanic feature-wise. She did have olive skin, albeit to the medium range at darkest. Dark brown eyes. Yet her mtDNA is Sicilian. It's all above my pay grade at this point...

[darkerhorse]

Some Sicilian surnames suggest heritage.

There's a Fraulino in my family tree, likely German heritage and a Zimmitti likely Hebrew Zimmer or Zimmerman.

I imagine some Northern Italians have French and German heritage as well as Eastern European, perhaps there's some clues in their surnames or given names.

I recall the Italian Olympic skier Gustav Thoni.

[MarcuccioV]

Some Sicilian surnames suggest heritage.

There's a Fraulino in my family tree, likely German heritage and a Zimmitti likely Hebrew Zimmer or Zimmerman.

I imagine some Northern Italians have French and German heritage as well as Eastern European, perhaps there's some clues in their surnames or given names.

I recall the Italian Olympic skier Gustav Thoni.

The only surname like that in her line is Marsili/Marsilj (Marseilles), which is also the only relative in the paper trail that may possibly be from outside of Valmontone (that surname is found in high concentration in the neighboring commune of Labico). Her surname originates from one of the founders of Bologna.

Oddly, two groups of people she was not very fond of were Sicilians & Germans. How's that for irony..?