The Cretans of 1941

When German paratroopers took Crete in May 1941, the island's villagers — farmers, shepherds, boys beside their grandfathers — fought back with shotguns and pruning hooks, and paid for it in reprisals. On 2 June 1941, eighteen men and boys of Adele, aged sixteen to sixty, were executed at Sarakina on the orders of the invasion's commander. Eight decades later their own community asked scientists to give the unmarked remains back their names; these are those men, identified and returned to their families. They stand here in remembrance — Cretans of the same soil as the island's ancient dead, and among the newest people in this catalog.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Identification of the 18 World War II executed citizens of Adele, Rethymnon, Crete using an ancient DNA approach and low coverage genomes.

Every Ancestrify Global25 report includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because these are a small group of real individuals, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances — that is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that the Cretans of 1941 are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who were the Cretans of 1941?

  The Cretans of 1941 (1941 CE, Adele, Rethymno, Crete, Greece) are one of the Historical figures entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 12 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Identification of the 18 World War II executed citizens of Adele, Rethymnon, Crete using an ancient DNA approach and low coverage genomes".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Cretans of 1941 mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Are they my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near theirs in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to the Cretans of 1941?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestrify Global25 report — never sold separately. Order the G25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers — browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• Gregor Mendel1822–1884 CE

• The Grande Armée of VilniusDecember 1812 CE

• The Fallen of Le MansDecember 1793 CE

• Ludwig van Beethoven1770–1827 CE

• Jean-Paul Marat1743–1793 CE

• The Kronan Sailor1 June 1676 CE

• George Bähr1666–1738 CE

• The Soldiers of the Reapers' War1652 CE

• Philip Calvert1626–1682 CE

• Bishop Peder Winstrup1605–1679 CE

• The Báthory Family1550–1600 CE

• Prince Christophorus Corvinus1499–1505 CE