Saturday, March 14, 2009

Mayorga and Haplogroup R1b1b2

Marge’s dad just got back the Y-DNA results from the National Geographic's Genographic Project and it turns out he is Haplogroup R1b1b2 (formerly R1B1c), which is pretty common throughout Europe, but very common in the Iberian Peninsula. Here are some stats from Wikipedia:

Welsh 89%, Basque 88%, Irish 81%, Northern Portuguese 81%, Catalan 79%, Scottish 77%, English 75%, other Spanish 70%, Dutch 70%, Belgians 63%, Southern Portuguese 60%, Ossetians 43%, Italian 40%, German 39%

While doing some research on the Mayorga surname, which comes from a town in Spain and is a common surname in Nicaragua, I found this possible ancestor:

"Don Alonso Diaz de Mayorga y Arregui was born in Seville during the first half of the sixteenth century. His father was from Old Castile and his mother was Basque. He arrived in Nicaragua around 1608 and actively participated in the design of the new city Santiago de los Caballeros de León as the previous city had been destroyed by the eruption of the volcano, Momotombo, which forced the residents and authorities to seek a new site for relocating the city. It was relocated as the new town, consolidated on the site is now known as Santiago de los Caballeros de León. Don Alonso was one of those who collaborated on the layout of the streets of the new city, the location of the new church and buildings that would house the offices of the new authorities."

It seems most Nicaraguen Mayorgas are decended from Don Alonso Díaz de Mayorga y Arregui. The "Díaz de Mayorga" surname survived for like 9 generations before getting shortened to just Mayorga.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am from Nicaragua. I am Mayorga from Alonso Diaz de Mayorga. There are many Mayorgas but few who can trace their ancestry to Capitan Don Diaz de Mayorga. I am looking for the ancestry of Don Diaz de Mayorga.

Alex Hernandez said...

I got the ancestry info from this document (check out page 14):

http://www.ancgweb.org/boletin12.pdf

If you ever do a DNA test let me know which haplogroup you belong to.

Anonymous said...

I know a direct descent of the Diaz de Mayorga, the real Mayorgas the wealthy Mayorgas of León, Nicaragua. His grandmother Justa Mayorga married with a portuguese prince in 1930's

Anonymous said...

im not trying to sounds racist but the real Mayorgas of Nicaragua are the only who look like europeans, "whites", there some still in Nic anothers in Costa Rica and America

Anonymous said...

They might look "white" but most of them are mestizos as well. You just have to look at the mitochondrial DNA which tends to be Haplogroup A (Native American). Trust me, looks can be deceiving DNA is not.

Anonymous said...

I know some Mayorgas from Nicaragua who lives now between London and Chile, Leon Nicaragua used to be their farm.

phyls gene said...

Any more data on the Mayorga family, how they got to Mexico and finally to Brownsville, Tex

phyls gene said...

Any updated data on the Mayorga family, its migation to Mxico and finally Texas?

Alex Hernandez said...

No, I've been focusing on my own family and haven't kept up the research into my wife's family. I really should get back to it.