Introduction
The term Flemings
(Dutch: Vlamingen) is primarily used to refer
to the ethnic group native to Flanders (the northern half of Belgium,
historically part of the Southern Netherlands), which in total numbers about 6
million people in Belgium (the majority of the 10 million Belgians). In addition, the term also refers to ethnic
Flemings in French Flanders (mainly in the Département du Nord of present-day
France), in the southern part of the Dutch province of Zeeland known as
Zeeuws-Vlaanderen and in other Flemish communities around the world. The Flemings have their language in common
with the Dutch, and thus remain relatively well aware of their northern
neighbours with whom they have shared significant parts of their history. It is generally believed, based on historical
linguistics, that the Flemings mainly descend from the invading Germanic
tribes, rather than from the Gaulish tribes who lived in the same region before
Roman times. At first sight, Flemish
culture is defined by its West Germanic language, Dutch, as opposed to the
language and culture of their mostly Francophone compatriots within Belgium.
The Flemish diaspora consists of Flemish emigrants and
their descendants in countries such as France, the United States, Britain,
Canada, I
During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, when the
territory of present-day Flanders was the setting for an impressive economic
and cultural boom, many artists and craftsmen sought to introduce their skills
elsewhere, particularly in southern Europe.
Flemish settlers introduced the first printing presses into Spain and
Portugal. The Flemish contribution to
the developing and populating of the Azores was so conspicuous that for a long
time the archipelago was referred to as the Flemish Islands.
Following in the wake of the explorers, Flemish
missionaries such as Pieter van Gent (1480-1572) in Mexico, Joos de Rijcke
(1498-1578) in Ecuador, Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) in China, Constant
Lievens (1856-1893) in India, Pierre-Jean De Smet (1801-1873) in the United
States, and Jozef de Veuster (1840-1889) in Molokai built a reputation in
various overseas countries that continues even to this day.
A combination of a demographic explosion and inadequate
economic growth resulted in an emigration from Flanders that started in the mid
19th century and continued up to the First World War. It was something that every family faced
sooner or later. Not only did it involve
the so-called lower classes of the population, but also non-lower-class people,
who found a future overseas in teacher-training colleges and colleges of
engineering and agriculture. Louis
Cruis, for example, was a Flemish engineer who led expeditions to lay down the
boundaries of Brazil and the city limits of the capital, Brasilia.
The destination of the majority of Flemish emigrants was
France. There are an estimated 1,250,000
people with a Flemish surname in France.
The Nord and Pas-de-Calais departments, however, were parts of historic
Flanders before France annexed the region in 1656.
In the United States and Canada today, there are more
than 1 million Americans who clearly have Flemish roots. In Michigan, the Gazette van Detroit
is still published by Flemings in Dutch and English (Wikipedia, 2007).
To improve our knowledge of the paternal origins of
the Flemish people, we undertook a population genetics study on a
representative sample of Flemings. The
resulting Y-
Methods
Buccal
swabs were collected from 113 unrelated Flemish males, representing the alleged
fathers from paternity cases. Flemish
identity was determined by family name and place of birth. Informed consent was obtained, allowing us to
use the data for population genetic studies, albeit anonymously.
For
each of these 12-marker haplotypes, the corresponding Y haplogroup was deduced
using
Results
The table in the Appendix
shows the 105 different 12-locus Y-
Concerning the reliability of the haplogroup estimates, the Haplogroup
Predictor yielded a median “score” of 67, with a standard deviation of 18. This implies a generally good “fitness”
score. Indeed, values above 50 indicate
a “good” fit, while values between 20 and 50 indicate a “fair” fit,
according to the program’s author. Using
the Bayesian approach, a priori
taking into account the northwest European origin of this population, the
median posterior probability for the predicted haplotype is 100% (!), with
a standard deviation of 5.6%. Another illustration of this issue is the
fact that 95 of the 113 Bayesian haplogroup probabilities exceeded 99%.
Table 1 and Figures
1 and 2 give the distribution of haplogroups in the
sample of 113 Flemish men. The most
frequent haplogroup, as is true for all of northwest
Table 1 Distribution of Y-haplogroups in 113 Flemings
|
Haplogroup |
Number |
% |
|
E3b |
5 |
4.4 |
|
G2 |
4 |
3.5 |
|
I1a |
22 |
19.5 |
|
I1b1 |
1 |
0.9 |
|
I1b2a |
9 |
8.0 |
|
J2a1b |
2 |
1.8 |
|
J2a1k |
3 |
2.7 |
|
J2b |
2 |
1.8 |
|
L |
1 |
0.9 |
|
R1b |
64 |
56.6 |
|
|
113 |
100 |
Figure
1 Graphical Representation of Haplogroup
Frequencies from Table 1
Figure 2 Distribution of Haplogroups Obtained by
Lumping Together the Subclades of Haplogroups I and J
Acknowledgement