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.

Haplogroup A and the Nicarao People

My wife's genetic test from National Geographic finally came in and she belongs to the mitochondrial Haplogroup A.


This group originated in Asia and is shared by a 10% of the Han Chinese, 7.7% of Koreans and Japanese, and the Chukchi people of Siberia.


In North America it accounts for the majority of the Eskimo-Aleut populations. In the Southwest United States it's assosiated with the Apache and the Navajo. In Central America with the Maya and in South America with the Inca.

Since my wife is Nicaraguan (Central American), it's safe to say she's of Nicarao descent. There is linguistic evidence that the Nicarao people are related to the Mayans. Although the Mayan empire didn't really reach Nicaragua (there are no Maya ruins in the country) it seem a large group broke of and headed south. Pretty awesome!