High Y-chromosomal diversity and low relatedness between paternal lineages on a communal scale in the Western European Low Countries during the surname establishment

Abstract

There is limited knowledge on the biological relatedness between citizens and on the demographical dynamics within villages, towns and cities in pre-17th century Western Europe. By combining Y-chromosomal genotypes, in-depth genealogies and surname data in a strict genetic genealogical approach, it is possible to provide insights into the genetic diversity and the relatedness between indigenous paternal lineages within a particular community at the time of the surname adoption. To obtain these insights, six Flemish communities were selected in this study based on the differences in geography and historical development. After rigorous selection of appropriate DNA donors, low relatedness between Y chromosomes of different surnames was found within each community, although there is co-occurrence of these surnames in each community since the start of the surname adoption between the 14th and 15th century. Next, the high communal diversity in Y-chromosomal lineages was comparable with the regional diversity across Flanders at that time. Moreover, clinal distributions of particular Y-chromosomal lineages between the communities were observed according to the clinal distributions earlier observed across the Flemish regions and Western Europe. No significant indication for genetic differences between communities with distinct historical development was found in the analysis. These genetic results provide relevant information for studies in historical sciences, archaeology, forensic genetics and genealogy.

The Paternal Landscape along the Bight of Benin – Testing Regional Representativeness of West-African Population Samples Using Y-Chromosomal Markers

“…The large difference of Y-chromosomal variation in one community in comparison with the regional variation in Western Africa is in sharp contrast with the situation observed in other well-studied areas, e.g. small communities of Western Europe exhibited the same Y-chromosomal variation as a similar sample of individuals from the whole region (defined by a circle with diameter 30 km) in the late Middle Ages [ 64 ].…”

The Dutch Y-chromosomal landscape

“…An extensive database of genetic variation and detailed insight in genetic-geographic population substructure is essential for forensic investigation, epidemiology and historical, archaeological, evolutionary and genealogy studies within a nation (see for example [1]). For the Netherlands there are several databases available on autosomal data from which inferences have been made about Dutch population (sub)structure.…”

The black legend on the Spanish presence in the low countries: Verifying shared beliefs on genetic ancestry

“…For Belgium, we focused on the population in contemporary Flanders, the northern half of Belgium, since most of the Spanish Furies happened in this region and the general willingness to participate in genetic research is highly limited in Wallonia, the southern part of the country (Larmuseau et al, ). To avoid any confusion with anachronisms, we define “Flanders” in this study by the political region, which is so‐called nowadays.…”

“…In this genetic genealogical sample of Flanders, we further selected those individuals which had their genealogical roots in one of the four cities where a well‐known Spanish Fury occurred within the period 1576–1578, namely in Antwerp, Mechelen, Aalst, or Zichem. A DNA donor was associated with one of the four cities according to the criteria for communal samples given in Larmuseau et al (), namely (a) their surname was present among the inhabitants of that city in circa 1600 based on archival documents (e.g., parish records, burgher lists, penningkohieren , gichten , etc) and (b) their ORPA was born before 1700, in a place <5 km away from the center of that city.…”