Explore the Family Name Silvas

Possible origins of the surname Silvas

Your DNA provides clues about where your recent ancestors may have lived. Having many distant relatives in the same location suggests that you may all share common ancestry there. Locations with many distant relatives can also be places where people have migrated recently, such as large cities. If a large number of individuals who share your surname have distant relatives in a specific area, it could indicate a connection between your surname and that location, stemming from either recent ancestral ties or migration.

Based on 23andMe data, people with last name Silvas have recent ancestry locations all within Mexico.

What Silvas haplogroups can tell you

Haplogroups are genetic population groups that share a common ancestor on either your paternal or maternal line. These paternal and maternal haplogroups shed light on your genetic ancestry and help tell the story of your family.

The top paternal haplogroup of people with the surname Silvas is O-F2415, which is predominantly found among people with East Asian & Indigenous American ancestry. Haplogroup O-F2415 is descended from haplogroup O-M1359. Other common haplogroups include E-M183 and O-F2859, which are predominantly found among people with European and East Asian & Indigenous American ancestry.

The most common maternal haplogroups of people with Silvas surname are: B2, H, A2. These most commonly trace back to individuals of European ancestry.

Your paternal lineage may be linked to the Cham

One of the many populations harboring members of haplogroup O1b1a1a1a1 is the Cham ethnic group, a group of people who speak Austronesian languages in Mainland Southeast Asia. Austronesian languages make up a language family that is extremely large and widespread, comprising over 350 million people on islands such as Madagascar, Easter Island, and many others. However, Austronesian languages are less common on mainland Asia, with a notable exception being the Chamic language. Research suggests that ancestors of the Cham people migrated from Southeast Asian islands to the mainland around the year 500 BCE, and that early Cham populations quickly began mixing with indigenous southern Vietnamese populations. As a result, the Chamic language now has words that were borrowed from languages spoken by indigenous Vietnamese people. It is likely that an ancestral Kinh population was one of the populations that mixed with the Cham people shortly after their migration to mainland Asia.

Your maternal lineage may be linked to the Ancestral Puebloans

Haplogroup B appears to have been a fixture in the Southwest at least since the introduction of agriculture to the region from Mesoamerica 2,500 to 3,500 years ago. In some areas the haplogroup is found in 100% of the Native American population and sometimes multiple populations share the exact same branch of B, as is the case for the Navajo, Zuni, Jemez and Seri groups.Haplogroup B reaches levels of 75-90% among the Pueblo groups of New Mexico and Arizona, which are thought to descend from the cliff-dwelling Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the Southwest from the 8th century AD until their sudden disappearance in the early 12th century. The Ancestral Puebloans didn't literally disappear; modern Pueblo people and most scholars believe warfare or environmental catastrophe forced them to abandon their elaborate cliff dwellings for settlements in the Rio Grande valley. Recent studies of DNA extracted from 2,000-year-old remains have supported that view by establishing the presence of haplogroup B among the Ancestral Puebloans.