The Roma of Barç

Four people buried at Barç, in the Korçë basin, carried something no other burial in the Balkans had shown before: alongside their Balkan ancestry, a strong inheritance from South Asia, and a paternal line found almost only among the Roma. They are the first ancient-DNA witnesses of the Roma in Europe — a settled family of the early modern countryside, five centuries after their ancestors' long road from India, buried among their Albanian neighbours.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient DNA evidence for the history of the Albanians.

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 Roma of Barç are your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who were the Roma of Barç?

  The Roma of Barç (c. 1500–1700 CE, Barç, Korçë, Albania) are one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by 4 sequenced ancient genomes published in the study "Ancient DNA evidence for the history of the Albanians".

• 02

  What does "matching" the Roma of Barç 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 Roma of Barç?

  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:

• The Albanians of Arbëriac. 1400–1700 CE

• The Retainers of Machu Picchuc. 1420–1530 CE

• The Black Death Londonersc. 1330–1360 CE

• The Jews of Tàrrega1348 CE

• The Jews of Medieval Erfurtc. 1270–1400 CE

• The Medieval Bosnians13th–15th century CE

• The Christians of Norman Segestac. 1120–1320 CE

• The Norse of Greenlandc. 950–1400 CE

• The Muslims of Segestac. 870–1170 CE

• The Medieval Docleansc. 800–1100 CE

• The Gaels of Kilteasheenc. 700–1300 CE

• The Christians of Sigtunac. 900–1050 CE