Living Dna vs 23andMe for Albanian?

I'm a Kosovo Albanian. My tribe from my father side is Berisha as far as I know. My mothers tribe is Gashi. But the tribes in Kosovo are way more general and less specific I think as I have heard that people were able to join them in the same manner that people join political parties nowadays.

From which area are you from, village/town, and do you happen to know which Berisha brotherhood your family belongs to? There are quite few in Kosova, the most numerous though are Doda, Alshiqe, Deskaj, Gec and Mertur (in some instances Kuq also).
 
I see you're one of those types, but whatever, I still don't want you to waste your money. Both companies are useless, and overpriced for what they are selling, especially livingDNA who has been proven time and time again to be inconsistent in their services and also results they provide.
 
Last edited:
Also does anybody know of famous albanians haplogroups? (Skenderbeg, Pope Clement XI, etc)

I wonder the same. Has this been answered elsewhere? Even a theoretical living descendant just to get an idea would be nice.
 
When you say "tribes" do you possibly mean what we call "Fara- pl. Fares" in Greek regarding the Arvanites? Based on my autosomal testing and the K36 report by LM genetics plus our family history and regional history of our places of origin, I can assume that I have a rather big percentage of Arvanite admixture (being Greek). In fact, Albania and Kosovo seem to be very close to me genetically.
I know from family history that my maternal grandfather came from the Souliot family Markou which belonged to the larger fara of Bocari. They had fled to our current village in Ioannina in the beg. of the 19th century it seems. My father who comes from Kephalonia and Kea also seems to have some proximity to Albanians and a considerable number of Albanian DNA relatives. I read that the Bua and Spata families had settled also in Kephalonia. In fact, he has a Shpati among his dna relatives. Also, I read that the Byzantines had placed a big number of Arvanites on Kea which had been almost deserted at some point. So my high proximity must come from a combination of elements from both of my parents.
My two male cousins from my mother's side are the only ones who still carry the Y haplogroup of my grandfather...it would be interesting to know it...
 
When you say "tribes" do you possibly mean what we call "Fara- pl. Fares" in Greek regarding the Arvanites? Based on my autosomal testing and the K36 report by LM genetics plus our family history and regional history of our places of origin, I can assume that I have a rather big percentage of Arvanite admixture (being Greek). In fact, Albania and Kosovo seem to be very close to me genetically.
I know from family history that my maternal grandfather came from the Souliot family Markou which belonged to the larger fara of Bocari. They had fled to our current village in Ioannina in the beg. of the 19th century it seems. My father who comes from Kephalonia and Kea also seems to have some proximity to Albanians and a considerable number of Albanian DNA relatives. I read that the Bua and Spata families had settled also in Kephalonia. In fact, he has a Shpati among his dna relatives. Also, I read that the Byzantines had placed a big number of Arvanites on Kea which had been almost deserted at some point. So my high proximity must come from a combination of elements from both of my parents.
My two male cousins from my mother's side are the only ones who still carry the Y haplogroup of my grandfather...it would be interesting to know it...
Interesting. Thank you for sharing. What is the y-dna of your cousins from your mother's side?
 
Unfortunately, they haven't tested yet, but if I ever feel "rich" 😎 I will buy one of them a test as a birthday present. So the FTDNA y12 is enough in this case? I was a bit disappointed in their autosomal though...We have transfered our raw data to FTDNA and both me and my mom get 100% Southeastern European and that's it...😐 My dad's results with them are much better, with the normal breakdown one would expect.
 
I did a 23and me test, and thereafter i uploaded my raw data to MyHeritage and Ftdna.
So those three are the only ones i can help you with.
Ftdna is even worse. It will just tell you that you are something like 80-100% southeast european and maybe some British isles.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How is it worse? It is accurate to mostly get South East Europe. British Isles is probably Slavic.
 
When you say "tribes" do you possibly mean what we call "Fara- pl. Fares" in Greek regarding the Arvanites? Based on my autosomal testing and the K36 report by LM genetics plus our family history and regional history of our places of origin, I can assume that I have a rather big percentage of Arvanite admixture (being Greek). In fact, Albania and Kosovo seem to be very close to me genetically.
I know from family history that my maternal grandfather came from the Souliot family Markou which belonged to the larger fara of Bocari. They had fled to our current village in Ioannina in the beg. of the 19th century it seems. My father who comes from Kephalonia and Kea also seems to have some proximity to Albanians and a considerable number of Albanian DNA relatives. I read that the Bua and Spata families had settled also in Kephalonia. In fact, he has a Shpati among his dna relatives. Also, I read that the Byzantines had placed a big number of Arvanites on Kea which had been almost deserted at some point. So my high proximity must come from a combination of elements from both of my parents.
My two male cousins from my mother's side are the only ones who still carry the Y haplogroup of my grandfather...it would be interesting to know it...

The Albanian word for tribe is fis. Fiset Ilirë = Illyrian tribes. Fara in Albanian means literaly seed. Fara is used mostly in South Albania and has a broader meaning, but both are often used as synonyms. And here you have the example to illustrate the concept right from your post:
I know from family history that my maternal grandfather came from the Souliot family Markou which belonged to the larger fara of Bocari.
All you the nephews and nieces of Mr. Markou are one fis because you have an common ancestor, your grandfather. Meanwhile your fis from mother side belong to the fara of Boçari.
Another thing that i want to add is that your grandfather is Albanian meanwhile the descendants of Bue Shpata tribe in Greece are Arvanites.
 
Last edited:
Hello Laberia,
According to the family history, the Markou family had belonged to the broader Botsari family. I even have a Botsari DNA relative which might be confirming the oral family history. It is just that I cannot contact them because they haven't logged in for a long time.
How do you distinguish between Arvanites and Albanians? I mean, what makes you call the one fara Albanian and the other Arvanite? I am not an expert on the matter, I have just read (among some other things that I rejected of course) that Arvanites had been Toscs that settled in different places in Greece starting from the 11th-12th century and on. Although some sources mention an even earlier time (and others even later but I took the one in the middle as reference). So I would think that they all are Arvanites, namely Toscs that had settled here centuries ago. Is this idea wrong?
I am curious to know more details about the distinction you make between the two families as far as their origin is concerned. Thank you!
 
Hello Laberia,
According to the family history, the Markou family had belonged to the broader Botsari family. I even have a Botsari DNA relative which might be confirming the oral family history. It is just that I cannot contact them because they haven't logged in for a long time.
How do you distinguish between Arvanites and Albanians? I mean, what makes you call the one fara Albanian and the other Arvanite? I am not an expert on the matter, I have just read (among some other things that I rejected of course) that Arvanites had been Toscs that settled in different places in Greece starting from the 11th-12th century and on. Although some sources mention an even earlier time (and others even later but I took the one in the middle as reference). So I would think that they all are Arvanites, namely Toscs that had settled here centuries ago. Is this idea wrong?
I am curious to know more details about the distinction you make between the two families as far as their origin is concerned. Thank you!
200 years ago there was no distinction, all were Albanians. But now with Arvanites we mean the Albanians who moved to Greece during the Middle Ages.
I will quote you Miranda Vickers:
According to a Boston-based web-site which Albanians use to exchange ideas on current affairs, "the Albanians in Greece are divided into two distinct categories: Albanians who live on Albanian territory but who have remained outside the unjust borders which were drawn up by the Ambassadorial Conference (London, 1913), and those Albanians who departed Albanian territory during the first diaspora in the 14th and 15 centuries." (1)
Albanians of Epir are simply Albanians, those who live in Peloponnese, Attica, etc are Arvanites. Suliotes were Christian Çams. It's exactly the difference that probably will be in the future, let say after 50 or 100 years, between my descendants and the descendants of my first cousin who actually live in Athens.
And yes it's true, Arvanites are mostly Tosks but there are among them some Gegs. The same can be said even about Arbëresh in Italy. The majority of them are Tosks, some from South Albania, some from Greece and a small group from North Albania. Here i am talking about Arbëresh settlements in South Italy, Sicily, etc. Because many Gegs migrated in North Italy, Venice, etc.
 
Thank you for the clarification, Laberia.
 
I took 23andMe test and, well, I was surprised I did not get any Italian, as the 1/8 of my ancestry that is not Northwest European comes from Sicily. I did get 3% Balkan, which leads me to believe my Sicilian great-great-grandparents may have been Arberesh. Their name was Troncale. Their son Joseph, whom I was named after, was said by my father to have been tall, which is not the norm for a Sicilian but more likely for Albanians and other Dinaric people.
 

This thread has been viewed 20036 times.

Back
Top