Gitanas in Santo Domingo: Small DNA admixture Segments

There is a common word you will hear in the genetic-genealogy world which is "noise".

What is noise? Noise in the DNA world can be very small ancestry segments that have a possibility of being "fake" or from another ancestry. For example in Ancestry.com most Native Americans get some "Central Asian" admixture <2%. As more and more of the worlds diversity is added to these tests, the more refined they become to get rid of these "noisy" segments. Most noise segments are under 1%.

Are all small segments <1% noise?: Absolutely not, in either case you should always try to prove or disprove the validity of small segments. Using multiple DNA companies or tools is the best way to be absolutely sure, and even better if combined with genealogy.

The Case of real South-Asian (east-Indian) ancestry in my grandfather Antonio

ADMIXTURE Painting

23andme shows him having 0.2% which can be in the noise range. All of this 0.2% is located on the X Chromosome (The 23rd chromosome).

ADMIXTURE  location of south-asian segment:

23andme Spanish Romani mixed person who match me on the X:

• If you notice me and Antonio Victor share on the very same exact spot on the X which I also have south-asian confirming that my south-asian is via romani's and he is my closest romani match @ 16 cm , 1001 SNP. 
• I also match 7 Romani peoples who have much higher south Asian and all overlap on the very same spot on the X 

X Chromosome Positions and Locations in gedmatch: 

• The positions are from 2.7k to 9.6k which is exactly within the 23andme range shown  above for my south-asian segment 2.7k - 11.6k 
• Visually it also matches with the 23andme location above which all the way to the left,

X Chromosome Matches List View:

• Match sizes are ranging from 16.8 to 21.3 cm and 800 - 1000 snp's.
• Additionally you will see the mtdna M5a1b in the matches which is uniquely Indian and carried by many romanis (gypsies)

Admixture Profile of 3 of these matches using HarrapaWorld on Gedmatch:

• It is clear these matches are a mix of eastern European and east-Indian which is the common profile of the Romani people also known as Gypsies. 
• It is safe to assume that my south-asian segment on 23andme is a segment I very much have in common with these Romani matches

Connecting this to my genealogy:

• Using GenomeMatePRO I pulled up the list of Antonio's ancestor's on the X chromosome which are all via his mother Benardina De Jesus
• Eliminating the least probable ancestors i'd take out Juana Bonilla and her parents Nicolas and Catalina. This also ends up eliminating Martin De Jesus who is the son of Juana Bonilla. The reason is because my ancestor Martin De Jesus was described as very much pure African as where his parents Juana and Bernardo while his wife Micaela Jose
• We are only left with Micaela Jose and her ancestors, the  Hernandez,  Jose and Germosen surnames. Micaela was described as light skinned and the Jose's are said to have distant Spanish ancestry.
• Give the MRCA as 3rd to 4th great-grandfahter to my Grandfather the possiblie ancestor's are Leocadia Hernandez's father's mother or mother. Francisca Hermosen, or Mateo Jose's mother. Jose and Francisca both born in the 1750s would be strong candidates for having a mother who was indeed Gypsy. 

Historical connection of the Romani and the colony of Santo Domingo:

• There have been gypsies for hundreds of years in Spain and have mixed with local Spaniards by choice and by force in some cases. A Spaniard could have had some gypsy ancestry and come to the colony of Santo Domingo from the 1500s-1700s.
• The canary islands just like Spain received many gypsies coming from Spain, and these canarians would have this in their mixture, the Canarian immigration to Santo Domingo where mainly from 1680 - 1760.
• There was a decree in the mid 1700s that imprisioned and separated many Gypsy families as Spain was on the war path with the Gypsy people, in 1749 there was a particular decree that started to deport select Gypsy women to certain colonies such as Santo Domingo, Cuba, Puertorico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Louisiana. The age of the women was said to be 17 and under and that they where to marry and conceive with non-gypsy men in order to "Stop" the procreation of this "race". This meant a man and his wife of Romani ancestry would have been sent to totally separate colonies.

Conclusion:

1. There is substantial evidence that my grandfather's small 0.2% south-asian segment on the X chromosome is actually real. So far it doesn't look directly Indian but rather via the Romani (Gypsies) of Europe who are a mixture of European and East Indian.
2. The position of his segment overlaps perfectly with the positoin of 4 matches which are Romani (Gypsy) and have quite alot of east-Indian ancestry
3. Genealogically for me this means that the this is most likely through the ancestors of my 2nd great-grandmother Micaela Jose, who in her genealogy so far bears Hernandez, Jose, Germosen
   
4.  While my Romani ancestry may very well be from almost any time period the 1749 time period seems very likely as it would fit well with my last known ancestors who may have been of this lineage as well as with the fact that the X segments are of a sizeable portions 17 - 21 cm's the mid 1700s is a likely date. Had my Romani ancestry been from much further back I would except smaller segments.
5. I match many more Romani peoples on 23andme but my closest match which matches with the history is a Spanish man named Antonio who tells me he has Gypsy ancestry via his mother and he is very proud of being descendant of a very highly academic, artistic, spiritual and grounded peoples.