Another US Pacheco Joins Surname Project

Click Post title to see the distribution of Pacheco Families in the Unites States in 1920 according to census records.

Pacheco Coat of Arms

A second Pacheco male from the United States has joined the Pacheco Surname project with Family Tree DNA. This Pacheco male belongs to Haplogroup R1b and the genetic distance between the New Mexico Pacheco and this new member was rated 12 by Family Tree DNA. This distance means that these two members are definitely not related. This new member has been invited to contribute to this blog, and so hopefully we can learn about his Pacheco family history in the near future.

Haplogroup R1b is the most frequent Y-chromosome Haplogroup in Europe. Its frequency is highest in Western Europe and North America. In Southern England the frequency of R1b is about 70% and in parts of Spain, Portugal and Ireland, it can go as high as 90%. The majority of men of European descent belong to R1b.

Click Post title to see the distribution of Pacheco Families in the Unites States in 1920 according to census records.

New Mexico Pacheco Y-Chromosome Mapped

Don Jose Andres Pacheco 0f Santa Fe, New Mexico

I am a direct male descendent of Andres Pacheco, born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, December 1, 1872. This New Mexico Pacheco family's history is traced back to the resettlement of New Mexico by the Spanish in 1692. At that time, members of the Pacheco family settled in the area of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, about twenty miles north of Santa Fe and now part of the City of Española.

I recently had the Y-chromosome of this Pacheco family's DNA analyzed by scientists from the University of Arizona, in cooperation with Family Tree DNA. This Pacheco family's Y-chromosome identifies with members of haplogroup J2, a lineage defined by a genetic marker called M172, which originated in the Fertile Crescent and marks a major milestone of the human journey.

Haplogroup J2 is found today among populations from North Africa, the Middle East, and southern Europe. In southern Italy it occurs at frequencies of 20 percent, and in southern Spain ten percent of the population carries this marker. The J2 haplogroup also contains the Cohen modal lineage which is found in about 5% of those with this origin. About 28% of Sephardic Jews and 43% of Ashkenazi Jews have this origin.