Distributions of Blood and Serum Groups in a Swedish Gypsy Population

Genetic structure of the Greek gypsies

“…With the exception of the Yugoslav gypsies, the frequencies approach those of India. Relatively low frequencies of cde and cDe, and high CDe, similar to the Indian frequencies are presented by the gypsies of Southern France (Nicoli & Sermet 1965) and Sweden (Beckman et al 1965).…”

“…Commercial preparations and antisera were used for these determinations. (Beckman et al 1965, Clarke 1973, Bernasovsky et al 1976). Of course, isolation and inbreeding may have contributed to these individual group differences.…”

Genetic markers in Welsh gypsies.

“…Apart from the recent large study from Czechoslovakia of Bernasovsky et al (1976) with a B gene frequency of 19-3 %, most later studies have produced contrary evidence, including those from Sweden (Beckman et al, 1965), Jugoslavia (Hocevar, 1965), and England (Clarke, 1973), all showing B gene frequencies comparable with the surrounding populations. Our own results on Welsh gypsies agree with this, showing a B gene frequency of 7-5 %, compared with frequencies of 7-17 and 6-68 % for corresponding areas in Wales (Kopec, 1970).…”

“…The French gypsies studied by Ely (1961;1966) were also members of small isolates, one group in Paris, another in Avignon; the latter group possessed only 5 surnames in the population and showed frequent consanguineous marriages. The Swedish gypsies reported by Beckman and Takman (1955) and Beckman et al (1965) formed an equally small and isolated group, with a total population of under 900, descended from a small group of founders. All these populations are likely to have been subject to random influences such as genetic drift and the founder effect which may have produced wide genotypic deviations from the population of origin, quite apart from any changes resulting from pressure of natural selection.…”

“…It is perhaps relevant that the studies showing the highest B gene frequencies were the earlier ones, while those showing lower frequencies were more recent, and were performed on isolated groups of relatively small size, in which genetic drift and related factors would be of particular importance. This might suggest that present day gypsy populations are increasingly diverging in genetic structure both from each other and from the original ancestral pattern, and would explain differences between loci in this respect; for example the Swedish gypsies (Beckman et al, 1965) show a low B gene frequency, unlike many central European gypsy populations, but have retained an extremely low Hp' gene frequency. The fact that Czechoslovakia, with its extensive and widely distributed gypsy population, has maintained a high B gene frequency supports this view.…”