A man from the Balkans carrying Y-DNA variants associated with subclade E-BY4793 migrated to Swabia about two millennia ago. One of his Swabian descendants subsequently originated the E-BY165986 variant.
on Swabia
This is a visual summary involving the hypothetical recruitment by the Roman Legions of a man of the E-V13 haplogroup and E-BY4793 subclade, likely born in the Balkans early in the first millennium and assigned to military duty in the area historically referred to as Swabia in modern Southwestern Germany. Also represented are some of the subsequent mutations and resulting subclades, along with earliest known ancestors who carried such mutations and the 21st century Y-DNA testers at Family Tree DNA who carry them. The graphic is adapted from the The Timeline at Family Tree DNA with the addition of our notes highlighting the most active period of Roman recruitment in the Balkans and the earliest known male lineage ancestors of the relevant Y-DNA test subjects.
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Note that while the man who migrated to Swabia would likely have been in subclade E-BY4793, there is a chance (perhaps about 1 in 10) that the E-BY165986 mutation occurred among that migrant’s recent ancestors, or at his own conception before leaving the Balkans. This 10% is a rough estimate, considering that the variant could have occurred very early within the probability interval assigned by Family Tree DNA and rather late in the period of Roman recruitment in the Balkans.
Moreover, while all of our testers’ identified ancestors in Swabia have carried the E-BY165986 variants, this does not preclude the possibility that other lineages, with as yet unidentified mutations, might have branched off from our E-BY4793 lineage after our migrant arrived in the region but before the defining E-BY165986 mutation occurred. Such a branch would have most or perhaps all of the variants identified with E-BY165986 but would have one or more additional variants not found in E-BY165986 and its subclades. While we have not encountered evidence of this, with several hundred years predicted between the arrival of our E-BY4793 ancestor in Swabia and the E-BY165986 mutation, such other lineages and subsequent mutations would have to be considered likely. If so, we anticipate ongoing Y-DNA testing would show this to be the case.
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