mtDNA haplogroup U5a1b in Greece

[PaschalisB]

I recently had my DNA tested with 23andme and my mtDNA haplogroup was revealed to be U5a1b which was a big unexpected surprise to me. I have tracked my maternal ancestry as back as the second half of the 19th century to Pieria, Greece, where my maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother came from. According to my grandmother she belonged to the Sarakatsani group of Greeks. As far as I'm concerned U5 is pretty rare in Greece and not particularly common in the Balkans either. Could my great-great-grandmother be a direct descendant of the paleolithic population of the Balkans? Or could her maternal ancestors have moved to Greece from elsewhere? Are there more clues about U5a1 and U5a1b in particular than the fact that
"Haplogroup U5a1 originated in Europe during the Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago. At the time people were confined to small refuges in the southern part of the continent. When the glaciers began receding about 15,000 years ago people began migrating northward, carrying U5a1 and other haplogroups with them. Today U5a1 is most commonly found in places such as Norway and northern Germany.Other members of the U5a1 haplogroup moved south into the Near East, perhaps in search of a warmer, more hospitable climate than the dry, glaciated tundra of Ice Age Europe. Today their maternal descendants can be found at low levels (less than 2%) in Turkey, Iran, and Syria." (23andme)

According to some sources the Sarakatsani is are one of the most ancient populations of the Balkans. Is there any evidence of the predominant haplogroups among them?

[adamo]

11.5% of greek women are Mtdna U, and of those 1.5% are U5, so you are a rarity in Greece to say the least; you haplogroup moved long ago from the Middle East to Northern Europe where these first European women established Aurignacian culture with men of haplgroups y-DNA I. Somehow, one of these women of which the frequencies of this hg are highest in northern Norway, Finland, Estonia parts of the Czech Republic, made their way to Greece and is found in your mtdna. Paternally, your ancient y-DNA ancestors inhabited the Egypt/Libya region of North Africa, from here they migrated to the Levantine coast of the Middle East and would move from there to the Balkans near today's Albania/Greece region, affecting Greeks, Albanians, Serbians,Bulgarians at 20-30%, with Greece having the highest levels of E-V13. Some southern Italians may have it due to the Ancient Greek colonization of southern Italy. The father of E-V13 is the egypto-Libyan E-M78 mutation. ( As a side note, it is speculated that mtdna U may have originated near Greece and then migrated most successfully into Northern Europe, and some further into central/western Europe.)

[adamo]

U5a in particular reaches its highest % in Estonia Latvia a small fraction of Russia bordering the latter 2 countries and parts of north-central Belarus and Lithuania.

[Jackson]

I recently had my DNA tested with 23andme and my mtDNA haplogroup was revealed to be U5a1b which was a big unexpected surprise to me. I have tracked my maternal ancestry as back as the second half of the 19th century to Pieria, Greece, where my maternal grandmother's maternal grandmother came from. According to my grandmother she belonged to the Sarakatsani group of Greeks. As far as I'm concerned U5 is pretty rare in Greece and not particularly common in the Balkans either. Could my great-great-grandmother be a direct descendant of the paleolithic population of the Balkans? Or could her maternal ancestors have moved to Greece from elsewhere? Are there more clues about U5a1 and U5a1b in particular than the fact that
"Haplogroup U5a1 originated in Europe during the Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago. At the time people were confined to small refuges in the southern part of the continent. When the glaciers began receding about 15,000 years ago people began migrating northward, carrying U5a1 and other haplogroups with them. Today U5a1 is most commonly found in places such as Norway and northern Germany.Other members of the U5a1 haplogroup moved south into the Near East, perhaps in search of a warmer, more hospitable climate than the dry, glaciated tundra of Ice Age Europe. Today their maternal descendants can be found at low levels (less than 2%) in Turkey, Iran, and Syria." (23andme)

According to some sources the Sarakatsani is are one of the most ancient populations of the Balkans. Is there any evidence of the predominant haplogroups among them?

Glad to see another U5a1b. All the way in Greece!
I think all i managed to find about it was that it tends to be northern European, but i don't know exactly how common U5a1b is in southern and Greece in particular.

My U5a1b is from Kent in England.

[PaschalisB]

I have yet to find another U5a1b from the balkan area.

[adamo]

Your mtdna group reaches its highest % in the Baltic states and not in Finland, U5b has a Scandinavian distribution.

[lomo9]

I just got my 23andme report a couple days ago, and I also have U5a1b as my maternal haplogroup. I started searching online and tried to get more info about it, and happened to see this post. I want to say that, I am Chinese, born and raised in China for, gosh, I'd say generations, and now live in the US.
I am 84.5% of Chinese, 9.1% of Mongolia, 3.4% of Korean and to my most surprise, 0.2% of European.

[zagortenay]

I am half Turkish from mother side and half Bosnian from father side. My MtDNA group is U5a1b1 and Y-DNA Haplogroup is G-L42.

[bigsnake49]

According to Wegene (BTW be careful about them they might be hosting a virus), my maternal haplogroup is U5a1. I will be obtaining my living DNA results in about a month, hopefully they will have more detail about the subclade. My family on both sides come from Eastern Thrace but moved to Western Thrace during the Great Exchange of populations in 1922.

[JanineEcks]

Sorry to zombify thread, but I just thought I'd chime in that my MtDNA is also U5a1b, and I've traced my maternal lineage back to England in the 1600s.

[bigsnake49]

Mine is also U5a1b according to livingdna.com. Just got my results today. So PaschalisB, you're not alone.

[fightgenie]

Nope U5a is of north-eastern Europe origin which includes parts of Sweden, but U5b is from the Franco-Cantabrian region (northern Spain to Southern France).
“U5a is most common in north-east Europe and U5b in northern Spain.”
“U5b would have been found at a much higher frequency in the Franco-Cantabrian region”
“...modern Basques and Cantabrians possess almost exclusively U5b lineages.”
“Conversely, only U5a lineages have been found so far in Mesolithic Russia (U5a1) and Sweden (U5a1 and U5a2), which points at an eastern origin of this subclade.”
Quoted from Eupedia article: “Haplogroup U5 (mtDNA)” by Maciamo Hay
“Analysis of complete mitochondrial U5b-genomes indicates that the origin of the whole U5b1 subcluster can be associated with southern and central parts of Europe, because each part of U5b1-phylogeny demonstrates the presence of earlier subclusters of Mediterranean prevalence”
Quoted from “The Peopling of Europe from the Mitochondrial Haplogroup U5 Perspective” by:
Boris Malyarchuk et al.

[fightgenie]

Nope U5a is of north-eastern Europe origin which includes parts of Sweden, but U5b is from the Franco-Cantabrian region (northern Spain to Southern France)

“U5a is most common in north-east Europe and U5b in northern Spain.”

“U5b would have been found at a much higher frequency in the Franco-Cantabrian region”

“...modern Basques and Cantabrians possess almost exclusively U5b lineages.”

“Conversely, only U5a lineages have been found so far in Mesolithic Russia (U5a1) and Sweden (U5a1 and U5a2), which points at an eastern origin of this subclade.”

Quoted from Eupedia article: “Haplogroup U5 (mtDNA)” by Maciamo Hay

“Analysis of complete mitochondrial U5b-genomes indicates that the origin of the whole U5b1 subcluster can be associated with southern and central parts of Europe, because each part of U5b1-phylogeny demonstrates the presence of earlier subclusters of Mediterranean prevalence”

Quoted from “The Peopling of Europe from the Mitochondrial Haplogroup U5 Perspective” by:
Boris Malyarchuk et al.

[fightgenie]

My above reply was to adamo’s post. Sorry first time posting.

[dinamo82]

I have U5a1b1. Here in Croatia 10% of mtdna is U5, and total of U is some 19%. Probably it came from Baltic states during Slavic migrations in 5th-7th century

[tpb18]

I just got my 23andme report a couple days ago, and I also have U5a1b as my maternal haplogroup. I started searching online and tried to get more info about it, and happened to see this post. I want to say that, I am Chinese, born and raised in China for, gosh, I'd say generations, and now live in the US.
I am 84.5% of Chinese, 9.1% of Mongolia, 3.4% of Korean and to my most surprise, 0.2% of European.

Interesting thread Do you have any photos of your maternal grandparents going back a few generations? I too am U5a1b, ancestry is primarily European Irish scottish Swedish but showed some Native American/Yakut/Siberian which has since been removed by 23 and me. Ancestry shows none. I wondered if i had a relative who was Chinese since my uncle and grandmother looked a bit like someone from western China, eyes, face, ears etc. full head of hair etc. very hard to prove now though they are deceased. These ancestry sites seem to keep changing the percent composition a lot. Cheers!

[bigsnake49]

In the latest updates in both Ancestry and LivingDNA my autosomal profile is 70% Greek and 30% Eastern Europe. Given that my mtDNA is U5a1b, I am thinking that my mother's side of the family is the 30% Eastern European contributor. Have no idea of course when her side moved down from Eastern Europe.

[gargalnikos]

Hi all, I am too having U5a1b haplogroup according to 23andMe with 83% Greek estimated ancestry and 8.4% south Italian (autosomal). I am Greek from south Peloponnese with all four great grandparents originated from the same prefecture. One great recent finding from ancient DNA is that a Minoan skeleton was also assigned to U5a1b.

[bigsnake49]

Hi all, I am too having U5a1b haplogroup according to 23andMe with 83% Greek estimated ancestry and 8.4% south Italian (autosomal). I am Greek from south Peloponnese with all four great grandparents originated from the same prefecture. One great recent finding from ancient DNA is that a Minoan skeleton was also assigned to U5a1b.

I guess there are a few of us after all. What is your Y-DNA?