My distant Loccisano grandfather was part of Haplogroup G2
on the human male family tree. This is a fairly rare haplogroup found mostly in men from the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, and the Middle East.  Some scientists currently think Haplogroup G may have originated in the Northern Middle East - Anatolia, Iraq, or nearby areas.  The highest concentration of Haplogroup G men is found today in the Caucasus Mountains,  just north of the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia, in a region called North Ossetia, where a full 80% of the men are Haplogroup G!    Today's Northern Ossetian's claim to be descended from the Alani tribe, some of who made their way to Europe during the Roman Era.   Could this be the source of my Loccisano ancestor?  Well, I compared my 12 marker results with those of known Northern Ossetians.   My 12 markers are different enough, that I don't appear to be descended from the Alani tribe, but rather am just "close cousins" with them.   However, Family Tree DNA also gave me results called Recent Ancestral Origins, which show that my 12 marker Y DNA test results match most closely with another Italian man and a man from Syria.  This is very interesting to me, but it doesn't mean that my original Loccisano male necessarily came to Italy from Syria.  These kinds of results come about because there is not a big enough representative sample of people from around the world yet.   As the database gets bigger, we should see more men close to my type turning up, and the pattern of their distribution should allow us to pinpoint more accurately the likely origin of my original Loccisano male.

My distant Agostino grandfather, was part of Haplogroup R1b1 of the human male family tree.  This group began as a brother haplogroup to R1a, but of staying in  the Steppes of Eurasia (north of the Black Sea), this group went west and settled in present-day Northern Spain, during the last glacial maximum (about 20,000 years ago, when ice sheets were covering Northern Europe, making it impossible for people to live north of what today is France).   When the ice started melting about 10,000 years ago, these "native Europeans" migrated up the Atlantic coast and east into Central Europe.   Today you see that about 80%-90% of modern-day men living in western Europe as being part of R1b.   Haplogroup R1b1 declines in frequency as you go South to North Africa and East to Poland.  Basque men and many Celtic speaking parts of Ireland and Wales have male populations that remain about 99% Haplogroup R1b1. 

My distant Ritorto grandfather was part of Haplogroup E3b1
on the human male family tree. This lineage indicates origins in North Africa or the Middle East.  The E Haplogroup is the largest Haplogroup in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of it's members stayed in Africa, but only one sub-branch of Haplogroup E, called Haplogroup E3b, settled to the north in the Sahara Desert and Middle East .  Most of Haplogroup E3b men today live in the Mediterranean and North Africa, ariving there most likely during the Neolithic, after 10,000 years ago.  E3b men are likely to have come to Calabria either as Greeks, Middle Easterners, or North Africans.  One possibility is that some E3b men came to Calabria during the years when it was ruled by the "Saracens" (North African Muslims).  As E3b is further divided into even more sub-branches, scientists will be able to distinguish which E3b "fingerprints" (based on 12 marker results) came from North Africa, the Middle East, or Jewish populations.

My distant Martino grandfather was part of Haplogroup K2 
on the human male family tree.   This is a rare Haplogroup that is found in low concentrations in the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Europe.  Geneticist Spencer Wells, of the National Geographic Society and the principal investigator of the Genographic Project, thinks K2 men may be the signature of "Ancient Pheonician" ancestry.   Although very rare in Northern Europe, President Thomas Jefferson was part of Haplogroup K2.  (This was made known by testing a present-day living Jefferson male descendant).

And my distant Papallo grandfather from Martone was part of Haplogroup R1a1.  This group began as a brother haplogroup to R1b, but instead of coming to Europe at the same time, the R1a group remained in the Steppes of Eurasia, north of the Black Sea in the present-day Ukraine and Russia, for a long time.  There, they may have been the first human group to domesticate the horse, which became a key aspect of their culture!  This advantage gave them the means to make their way into Europe during the Bronze Age (very recently, in genetic terms).  Today, they make up a substantial proportion of the people in Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and nearby areas of Russia and other countries.  You can see a gradual decline in R1a men as you go from  Eastern Europe to the West.  This is called a cline or genetic gradient. R1a is also found in Central and Southwest Asia, but is found in only a small percentage of Calabrians.  The closest Y DNA match to my Papallo ancestor lives in Russia.