DNA Origins Corroboration
Nicholas Maiale is 57% Sicily, 19% Central Italy, 11% Southern Italy. Sicily matches the paper trail; Central Italy is the leftover the Sicilian towns do not explain.
Two different DNA products, two different Italian problems. Ancestry's Origins Journeys already match the Palermo-province in-laws. Ancestry's ancestral regions on the Maiale-line kit put a large, inherited Central Italy chunk next to that Sicily — numbers, not a vibe.
Ancestral regions — two kits on the same account
Side-by-side Ancestry comparison. Point estimates only (ranges not copied). The Italian-heavy kit is labeled Nicholas Maiale. The mixed kit is the other tester on the account.
| Region | Nicholas Maiale | Mixed kit |
|---|---|---|
| Sicily | 57% | 33% |
| Central Italy | 19% | 13% |
| Southern Italy | 11% | 0% |
| Sardinia | 1% | 1% |
| Levant | 3% | 0% |
| Ionian Islands | 2% | 0% |
| Northern & Central Greece | 2% | 0% |
| Southern Greece | 1% | 0% |
| North Africa | 1% | 1% |
| Leinster, Ireland | 0% | 15% |
| Munster, Ireland | 0% | 11% |
| Connacht, Ireland | 0% | 9% |
| Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe | 0% | 8% |
| Devon & Somerset | 0% | 6% |
| Sweden | 1% | 1% |
| Norway | 0% | 1% |
| Southern Germanic Europe | 1% | 0% |
| Sephardic Jews in the Eastern Mediterranean | 0% | 1% |
| Central West Africa | 1% | 0% |
The Irish and English on the mixed kit are the Fellman / Dowling side. They are absent from Nicholas. That is why Nicholas is the kit that can be read as the Italian inheritance.
"Northern Sicily" / "Palermo & Northern Sicilian Islands" (5+ ancestors)
Ancestry's Northern Sicily journey clusters on Palermo city and the area southwest toward Carini — matching the documented 300-year Mineo / Taormina / Cusimano / La Fata / Lo Grasso lineage in Carini, and the later Domilici / Tomasello / Mineo concentration in nearby Bagheria. The timeframe shown (1700–1975) matches the documented parish-register-to-emigration window almost exactly.
That journey is doing its job. It corroborates the in-laws. The 57% Sicily on Nicholas is the matching ancestral-region number.
What the percentages actually say
The documented Italian lines are Sicilian: Maiale in Mazara, Domilici / Mineo / Tomasello in Carini and Bagheria, Zito in Bisacquino. If that paper trail were the whole story, Nicholas should be mostly Sicily, with the usual Sicilian extras (North Africa, Greece, Levant, maybe some Southern Italy bleed). He is.
🟢 57% Sicily is the majority, and it inherited (33% on the mixed kit). Paper trail and DNA agree here.
🟡 19% Central Italy is the problem. It is the second-largest region on Nicholas. It inherited (13% on the mixed kit — more than a half-share of 19%). Carini, Bagheria, Bisacquino, and Mazara are not Central Italy. Ancestry’s 2025 split keeps Central Italy, Southern Italy, and Sicily in separate buckets. Lazio sits in Central Italy. Campania sits in Southern Italy.
⚪ 11% Southern Italy is real on Nicholas and gone on the mixed kit (0%). Campania would live in this bucket. So would Sicily mis-assigned to its neighbor — Ancestry says neighboring Italian regions share DNA patterns. This number is smaller than Central Italy, and it did not recombine onto the mixed kit. Treat it as a secondary signal, not the main one.
🟢 The Mediterranean traces on Nicholas — Levant 3%, Ionian 2%, Greece 2% + 1%, North Africa 1% — are ordinary Sicily, not a Central Italy story.
Recency, not a medieval leftover
A deep Maiale origin in Lazio, then five or six generations of Sicilian wives in Mazara, would leave a sliver of Central Italy. 19% is not a sliver. It is in the range of a grandparent (about 25%) or a very large great-grandparent share.
That is why this is a 19th-century question, not a Norman one. Nicolo Maiale was born in Mazara around 1864. For Nicholas to still show ~19% Central Italy, the mainland autosomal contribution has to sit close to Nicolo — his parents, or Nicolo himself as the son of mainlanders whose child happened to be born in town. A 1600s Fontana Liri household does not, by itself, put 19% Central Italy on a living kit.
The 1621 Fontana Liri event remains the oldest dated surname hit. It is not Nicholas’s 19%. Those can both be true.
Crossed with the stocks we actually counted
| Stock | Ancestry bucket | Fit to Nicholas’s 19% Central Italy / 11% Southern Italy |
|---|---|---|
| Fontana Liri (FR), 1621 Maiale event | Lazio — Central Italy | 🟢 Right bucket for the 19%. Oldest dated Maiale hit. Does not by itself explain a 19% share in a living person. |
| Maiali at Rieti, Torricella in Sabina, Rome | Lazio — Central Italy | 🟢 Right bucket. Related surname, not proven the same people. |
| Palmoli / San Salvo (CH) | Abruzzo — often drawn into Central Italy | 🟡 On the edge of the 19%. Thickest town-level density (24th in Palmoli). |
| Sannio — Sant’Angelo a Cupolo, Benevento, Pietrelcina | Campania — Southern Italy | ⚪ Would feed the 11%, not the 19%. Closest Campania pocket to Lazio. |
| Aversa plain — Curti, Trentola Ducenta | Campania — Southern Italy | ⚪ Same: 11% bucket, and that 11% did not inherit. |
| Sele / Cilento — Eboli, Castel San Lorenzo | Campania — Southern Italy | ⚪ Shipping-lane pocket on From the mainland. Matches the smaller number, not the one that inherited. |
| Mazara / Marsala | Sicily | 🟢 Right bucket for the 57%. Still the documentary starting town. Not an explanation of the 19%. |
Headcount still says Campania (~57% of living Maiales). Nicholas’s kit does not. The number that inherited is Central Italy. The number that could be Campania is smaller and dropped out in one meiosis. Town-by-town Campania counts: Campania Maiale.
What this moves, and what it does not
🟡 Moves the single-origin ranking. Lazio (Fontana Liri / Sabina Maiali) is the best genetic candidate for the 19%. Palmoli second. Campania is the living surname pile and a possible reading of the 11% Southern Italy — not the inherited mainland signal. Full re-rank: From the mainland.
🟡 Moves the date. 19% Central Italy is too big to be a medieval dilution. If the Maiale line brought that DNA across the Strait, the move is close to Nicolo.
🔴 Does not break the Mazara wall. Nicolo is still born in Mazara ~1864. 19% does not name his father’s town. A Mazara act that says “nato a Fontana Liri” (or Rieti, or Palmoli) would.
🔴 Does not collapse the Campania pockets into Lazio. Sant’Angelo a Cupolo still has 13 Maiale listings and 1870s conscripts. Independent occupational nicknames remain the documentary prior.
⚪ Autosomal, not Y. These percentages are ancestral regions, not a haplogroup. A Big Y (or even Y-37) match to a tester whose paper trail is Fontana Liri, Rieti, or Palmoli would be the male-line test. A match only to Sant’Angelo / Eboli would pull the 11% Southern Italy back up. No such match is in this file.
Not yet a surname match for Mazara del Vallo
The brick wall is still documentary. Sicily 57% corroborates the island paper trail. Central Italy 19% is a direction for a recent mainland contribution. It is not a named comune.
Fellman-side journeys
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ontario, and related Origins Journeys live on the Fellman research site: ancestry.fellman.us/dna/. The mixed kit’s Leinster / Munster / Connacht and Devon & Somerset numbers live there, not here.