mt DNA results

[gilmore]

I haven't had mine tested either. We discovered my wife's maiden name on my side of the family tree! No, none of our family are from West Virginia! We may, nevertheless, be distant cousins.

We are all cousins. It's a question of degree. The most recent common ancestor of all humans lived sometime between the 6th millemium BCE and the 1st millenium CE. The most recent common ancestor of all Western Europeans may have lived as recently as 1000 CE. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_re...ommon_ancestor


Also we all descent from one women, whose mitochondrial DNA we all carry, and one man, whose Y DNA we men inherited from our fathers. "Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived about 140,000 years ago. Y-chromosomal Adam is estimated to have lived around 60,000 years ago. The MRCA [most recent common ancestor] of [all] humans alive today would therefore need to have lived more recently than either."

It has been estimated that every human shares at least one common ancestor with every other human who was no more than about 50 generations in the past. In other words, there is no one on earth who is not your 50th cousin, if not more closely related. At 25 years per generation, that is about 750 CE.

[Chas]

Just a quick question to anybody who has had this done. Roughly how much does it cost? Thanks.

Regards

Chas

[gilmore]

Just a quick question to anybody who has had this done. Roughly how much does it cost? Thanks.

Regards

Chas

From $100 to $700, depending which one(s) you want, and how much detail you want. See http://www.familytreedna.com/products.aspx

There is a discount if you order through a surname project, and allow the results to be shared with others.

FTDNA has the largest database of the several testing companies, and therefore the most useful.

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

[QUOTE=gilmore;756673]We are all cousins. It's a question of degree. The most recent common ancestor of all humans lived sometime between the 6th millemium BCE and the 1st millenium CE. The most recent common ancestor of all Western Europeans may have lived as recently as 1000 CE. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_re...ommon_ancestor

Put another way, I have read that with a 99+% certainly, any human alive in western Europe in Charlemagne's time either died sine prole (or their descendants died sine prole,thus ending the line), or is the ancestor of every last one of us.

As the number of our ancestors doubles every generation we go back, it doesn't take very many generations to get to a greater number of ancestors than all the humans who have ever lived.

[gilmore]

[QUOTE=Ozark Ridge Rider;758896]

We are all cousins. It's a question of degree. The most recent common ancestor of all humans lived sometime between the 6th millemium BCE and the 1st millenium CE. The most recent common ancestor of all Western Europeans may have lived as recently as 1000 CE. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_re...ommon_ancestor

Put another way, I have read that with a 99+% certainly, any human alive in western Europe in Charlemagne's time either died sine prole (or their descendants died sine prole,thus ending the line), or is the ancestor of every last one of us.

As the number of our ancestors doubles every generation we go back, it doesn't take very many generations to get to a greater number of ancestors than all the humans who have ever lived.

Right, Charlemagne lived in the 8th and 9th Centuries, and the estimates are that the most recent common ancestor was some 200 years after that.

I have never come across an estimated date of the most recent common ancestor of those of British descent, but I would guess it would be even more recent, since the British Isles are separated from the continent, and the gene pool more isolated.

Some one famously said, "We (Europeans) are all descendants of Charlemange, but we are also all descendants of his stable boy." I don't remember how many reliable descents I have from Charlemagne---that is, how many times over he was an ancestor of mine--- but it's in the dozens, or scores. That may seem like a lot, and that my blood is excessively blue, but I have read that Prince William of Wales' traceable descents from Charlemagne are in the millions.

I am not particularly proud of my ancestry, since being born into it was done with no effort on my part, and was something that I had no control over (well, certainly not in this life, though who knows how karma generated in previous lives comes to fruition?) I am, however, a bit proud of the work that my family and I have done in genealogical research over the years. It can be fun, rewarding, and a project that a family can work on together.


It's much easier to trace ancestry through the royal, noble and famous, since the evidence---wills, evidence of marriage, inheritance, etc---are essentially documenation of the transfer of wealth. The poor---that is, the vast majority of our ancestors--- left no, or very little, of such evidence. It's also more challenging to research the more humble folk, since it's usually in virgin areas that few have worked before.

BTW an interesting and informative resource for medieval genealogy is http://groups.google.com/group/soc.g...edieval/topics

[BoldHighlander]

I am, however, a bit proud of the work that my family and I have done in genealogical research over the years. It can be fun, rewarding, and a project that a family can work on together.

Indeed! I've been assisted by a number of cousins from around the globe that I've found in my search/research & who have aided me greatly.

Some of my finds, the Scottish, Irish, Ulster-Scots & English, were of no great surprise; but recently the discovery of more Dutch than I ever suspected (early founders of New Amsterdam), along with traces of Norwegian, Belgium, & French (a noble family that escaped the Spanish Inquisition into the Netherlands) was a great surprise, as was discovering distant cousins in both presidents Roosevelt's (FDR & Teddy), & to the Duke of Wellington (incidentally that line by the way also spawned a cousin who was an infamous pirate captain ).

I can't wait to see what discoveries I make next!