Revisiting the World Cup teams based on family history

 

Ancestry on Facebook. 7 Jul 2026.

Ancestry's Facebook post on DNA origins and the World Cup is a good reminder to revisit the last eight countries who might lift the trophy on 19 July. In May I shared a post on the 2026 World Cup teams based on family history. Ancestry's had the same idea to use the World Cup to generate interest in AncestryDNA and its ancestral origins tool.

Tomorrow France and Morocco are set for an epic quarterfinal clash. France has been amazing throughout the tournament, but I'm pulling for Morocco to make the last four. On Friday, Spain and Belgium play. Belgium knocked out the US, and has never won (they finished in 3rd place in 2018). I'm cheering for Spain to make the semi-final, and if Morocco is out, then for Spain to make the final.

On Saturday, the fun Norwegian squad plays England, followed by Argentina and Switzerland. I think Argentina and Messi are destined for a few more games in this tournament after their miracle comeback against Egypt (they really deserved more and it's too bad their run has ended).

Using 23&Me's Compare Tools

 

23&Me DNA Compare.

I'm looking again at segments in common across DNA matches. Above are three members of a mystery cluster of Beltran matches, with a verified Portillo connection in turquoise and a Bernal match in green. They all overlap on chromosome 3, with a segment about 20 cM.

I found the Beltran matches by first sorting on 23&Me by mtDNA haplogroup, for all of matches in common who were A2d. I thought this might pull in people who had tested on 23&Me and might have some connection to the branches with surnames Portillo, Diaz, Calles, Bernal, Flores, Quijada, Preciado, Grijalva, Lopez, Acuña, or Gradias. Because I do not know my Portillo branch of my 3rd-great-grandfather Manuel Portillo very well, I thought maybe using 23&Me's DNA compare tools might help identify some matches who shared my mtDNA haplogroup and appear to be potentially connected to this branch of the tree.

23&Me has some useful tools for filtering matches, as shown below by haplogroup.

There's more to do, and I am trying to see if these Beltran or Bernal matches appear on other platforms such as FTDNA, Gedmatch, MyHeritage or Ancestry.

4th of July

 

Made in Ideogram. America 250.

Wade in the Water

 

Shawn Pridgen. "Wade in the Water" 2020.

A photo from the Reflecting Pool, facing the Lincoln Memorial by photographer Shawn Pridgen.

Triple Digits

We've hit 102 in Northern Virginia. Dangerously hot outside, and definitely too hot for dog paws to be walking around. I have Spain vs Austria on one screen while working.

Some reading ahead of the weekend - a fascinating New York Times interactive article How a Nation of Immigrants Traces its Roots (1 July 2026, subscription may be required to read). See also the very cool census data map accompanying the article.