Why do my DNA matches look like a map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

Hi everyone,

I’m from Türkiye, my family is from Central Anatolia, closer to north, and I did a DNA test. Later on, I found something quite surprising and I’m trying to understand if this is common or not.

I have a relatively strong DNA match (right after the people from our little town whom we already knew their family names) with someone from Hungary:

Shared DNA: 0.6% (42.8‎ cM)

Shared segments: 2

Largest segment: 36.1‎ cM

We also share 40+ mutual matches. On top of that, we have triangulated segments with some of our mutual relatives (~15 cM), which suggests a shared ancestor around 5th generation?

I have additional matches from:

- Hungary (multiple people)

- Czech Republic / Austria / Slovakia / Croatia / Southern Poland / Western Ukraine (shared matches within the same cluster)

- Greece especially Pontic families (with triangulated segments on another chromosome, apparently from my mom’s side)

- Greece (Thessaloniki)

- And some lower-level matches from Western Europe such as France, Germany, Sweden etc.

Within of course lots of Turkish people.

Based on the shared matches and clustering, it seems like this Central European connection might come from my paternal grandpa’s side. Interestingly, this is also the side of the family we know the least about. In our town, there is very little information about them, and our family records don’t go back more than 150 years. It is also generally believed that they arrived in the region as migrants.

So I keep wondering, could all of this somehow be coincidental? Or is this kind of clustering generally considered as a real shared ancestry?

Although, considering that a 5th-generation connection goes back roughly 200 years, and it is well after the end of Ottoman rule in Hungary, I can’t quite explain it with that narrative. However, at this point, my matches are starting to look like a map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire!

Fun fact: I currently live in Italy, and I’ve met quite a few people who told me that I look Hungarian / Croatian, or generally “from that region.” I’m not sure what that really means, since I don’t think these people look that similar to each other and our physical appearance reveals only a small part of our genealogy. However, considering how far apart we seem, it’s still interesting that we may be much more connected than we thought.

I am very curious if you’ve had any similar experiences, and I’d really appreciate any insights.

Thanks!