Mexican Women’s Mitochondrial DNA Primarily Native American

Amy Tilden

 Mitatwe’eptes (aka Amy Tilden) – Nez Perce – circa 1910

In the paper, “Large scale mitochondrial sequencing in Mexican Americans suggests a reappraisal of Native American origins,” Kumar et al provide a piece of information I find extremely interesting.

“For mtDNA variation, some studies have measured Native American, European and African contributions to Mexican and Mexican American populations, revealing 85 to 90% of mtDNA lineages are of Native American origin, with the remainder having European (5-7%) or African ancestry (3-5%). Thus the observed frequency of Native American mtDNA in Mexican/Mexican Americans is higher than was expected on the basis of autosomal estimates of Native American admixture for these populations i.e. ~ 30-46%. The difference is indicative of directional mating involving preferentially immigrant men and Native American women. This type of genetic asymmetry has been observed in other populations, including Brazilian individuals of African ancestry, as the analysis of sex specific and autosomal markers has revealed evidence for substantial European admixture that was mediated mostly through men. In our 384 completely sequenced Mexican American mitochondrial genomes, 12 (3.1%) are of African ancestry belonging to haplogroups L0a1a’3’, L2a1, L3b, L3d and U6a7; 52 (13.6%) belong to European haplogroups HV, JT, U1, U4, U5; and K and the majority (320, 83.3%) are of Native American ancestry.”

If you have Mexican ancestry or your direct matrilineal line, meaning your mother’s mother’s mother’s line, on up the direct maternal line, please test your mitochondrial DNA, here, and join the American Indian project at Family Tree DNA.

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You Might Be A Pict If….

…if what Dr. Jim Wilson, announced via press release instead of the more standard academic publication, is true.

Pict Daughter

“A Young Daughter of the Picts” attributed to Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, circa 1585.

Dr. Wilson indicates that he, in conjunction with Scotland’s DNA, an ancestry testing company that he is affiliated with, a new SNP, S530 has been discovered and it is a Pict marker.  He says that this marker is evidence that the Picts are living among us today and can be identified genetically.  As proof, he offers that 10% of the 1000 Scottish men tested carry this marker, while it is found in only .8% of English men and about 3% of the men in Northern Ireland.  Dr. Wilson indicates that this marker is 10 times more prevalent in men with Scottish grandfathers than men with English grandfathers.  You can read the articles in “The Scotsman” and “The Telegraph and the press release by Scotland’s DNA here.”

The Picts were Scotland’s earliest known people.  It’s unknown what the Picts called themselves, but the Roman’s gave them the name Picts, meaning “painted ones.”  They were Celts, but their early history in the British Isles is unclear.  By the time they entered recorded history, they were in Scotland, north of the Forth and Clyde, beyond the stronghold of the Roman empire with whom they fought bitterly on their borders.  Their kingdoms in about 800 and 900 CE are shown on the map below.

pict map

Eventually, in about the 1100s, and rather gradually, the Picts disappeared from the records as a separate people, having assimilated as fully Gaelic Scots, their Pictish heritage forgotten, into the mainstream of the British Isles, along with other Celts, Angles, Saxons and Vikings.

Dr. Wilson says that S530, the newly discovered Pictish marker parallels the Pictish locations, in Fife, Perthshire, Tayside and the Northeast and around Moray Firth coastlands.

Normally, this kind of an announcement would be met with an extremely positive reaction in the genetic genealogy community, but in this case, not so much.  It seems that Dr. Wilson along with Britain’s DNA and Scotland’s DNA have been involved in some less than reputable actions recently, and one has to wonder if this is legitimate.

By legitimate, I mean whether, if provided with the same data and opportunities, another independent academic researcher could reproduce the same results and if unbiased, would come to the same conclusions.  This, of course, is part of the purpose of peer review during the academic publication process.  This isn’t the first time this has happened, either.  For more information about these companies, their issues, their scientific announcements via the media and resulting scuttlebutt, check the following links.

http://dna-explained.com/2012/12/20/britains-dna-caveat-emptor/

http://www.genomesunzipped.org/2012/12/exaggerations-and-errors-in-the-promotion-of-genetic-ancestry-testing.php

Be sure to read the comments by Debbie Kennett on the link above, and the article below, on Debbie’s blog.

http://cruwys.blogspot.com/2013/06/britainsdna-times-and-prince-william.html

I checked the Scotland’s DNA website, and fully expected to find a new “Pict” test, but it’s not there yet.  Unless I’m terribly off the mark, I’m betting it will be soon, which might have something to do with circumventing the academic publication process, aside from the minor details of peer review and accuracy.  Academic publication takes about 18 months to write the paper and shepherd it through the peer review process.  Not trivial, and there is no “big splash” so to speak about an academic paper appearing in a little known scientific journal.  Much bigger splash this way and one can offer a product immediately, no waiting.  The problem is that science isn’t a “trust me” type of field and this type of science-in-the-media announcement with no documentation flies against all of the safeguards built into the scientific publication process.

So, you just might be a Pict if Jim Wilson is correct and you carry S530….but until an academic paper is published, there is no way to know for sure unless of course, you’re into “trust me.”

However, if you’re dying to know, and can’t wait, I have a hint for you, this SNP was discovered earlier this year, at Family Tree DNA.  It’s also called SNP L1335, and is equivalent to S530.  Kind of sheds a different light on the big announcement doesn’t it.  If you need to know, and you’re a haplogroup R1b male, just order this SNP for $39 from Family Tree DNA and you’ll know if you carry this marker, or not.  However, until Dr. Wilson publishes a paper and makes his data available for review, you won’t know if you are a Pict or just another L1335 Scottish male.

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Acadian Maryland Historical Marker Unveiling

Fort Royal

Acadians, as we know, are a French-Canadian people who settled at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, in 1605 (replica above) and intermarried with the Native people, primarily Mi’kmaq. They were expelled from Canada by the British in 1755 and set adrift, winding up literally dispersed to the winds, landing in various places in the US, Europe and in the Caribbean, before they congregated in Louisiana and became known as Cajuns.

A group of about 900 of these displaced people, now refugees with nothing to their name, arrived in Maryland, a Catholic colony, and spent several years living there, many trying to make their way back to Canada.  With the end of the war in 1763, these Acadians desperately wanted to settle among their own people.  Some did return to Canada, but the rest found their way to Louisiana, the last group leaving in 1769.

Marie Rundquist, an Acadian descendant and founder of the Amerindian – Ancestry Out of Acadia DNA project, lobbied for 2 years for a sign commemorating this forgotten episode in Acadian and Maryland history.

Marie says, “One of my personal goals is to assign dignity to the heritage that I have learned is truly mine.  To have a sign like this brings an Acadian history into the mainstream, and recognizes a people whose ancestry has not always been held in the highest esteem, and whose integral role in early American history has been largely dismissed by traditional scholars.

That the DNA of Native Americans of Canada rolled into Louisiana, and other parts of the United States, by way of this diaspora is at the heart of the Amerindian Ancestry out of Acadia project.  The British didn’t pick and choose among whom they would toss into the Ocean…all went; it mattered not if your family had been in the area 150 years or 18,000!”

On July 28th, 2013, on the day of the Acadian Memorial and Remembrance, when Acadians around the world recall the expulsion of 11,000+ Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, Marie celebrated by unveiling the sign in Princess Anne, Maryland.  Way to go Marie!!!

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British Royal DNA

In an article recently published, Bradley Larkin has done an excellent job of sorting through the various DNA results from different companies and locations and assembling them together for a paper on British Royal DNA titled Y-DNA of the British Monarchy, A Review on the occasion of the birth of the Prince of Cambridge.

Paper Abstract

A review was made of existing genetic genealogy findings that infer characteristics of the Y-DNA of members of the British Monarchy. Nine sustained Y-DNA lineages since the year 927 CE were noted as dynastic groups. Haplogroup and haplotype characteristics of three of the dynasties were presented with two more dynasties noted as testable but unpublished. Cultural and geographical origins of these dynasties were considered as context for their DNA haplogroups. Specimen candidates for further testing were identified noting that some will require Ancient DNA (aDNA) recovery and analysis.

dynasties

Brad covers 8 major dynasties dating from 1603-2013, the Mountbatten, Hanover, Windsor and Stuart.

dynasties 2

After discussing each dynasty, Brad ends his article with a summary table of the dynasties, monarchs from that dynasty, the Patriarch, origin and known DNA.  It’s a great paper and an interesting read.  Take a look.  Who knows, this just might be relevant to you!  Good job Brad!!!

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Black, White or Red – Changing Colors

henry finding your roots

The Root recently published the article, “Did My White Ancestor Become Black?”, written by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Eileen Pironti.  We all know who Henry is from his PBS Series, Finding Your Roots.

America is the great mixing bowl of the world, with Native American, European and African people living in very close proximity for the past 400 years.  Needless to say, on the subject of admixture and race, things are not always what they seem.

Henry Gates sums it up quite well in his article, regardless of what your ancestor looked like, or your family looks like today, “the only way to ascertain the ethnic mixture of your own ancestry is to take an admixture test from Family Tree DNA, 23andMe or Ancestry.com.”

Interestingly enough, in an earlier issue of The Root, Henry talks about how black are Black Americans.

In that article, Henry provides this information.

* According to Ancestry.com, the average African American is 65 percent sub-Saharan African, 29 percent European and 2 percent Native American.

* According to 23andme.com, the average African American is 75 percent sub-Saharan African, 22 percent European and only 0.6 percent Native American.

* According to Family Tree DNA.com, the average African American is 72.95 percent sub-Saharan African, 22.83 percent European and 1.7 percent Native American.

* According to National Geographic’s Genographic Project, the average African American is 80 percent sub-Saharan African, 19 percent European and 1 percent Native American.

The message is, of course, that you never know.  Jack Goins, Hawkins County, Tennessee archivist,  is the perfect example.  Jack is the patriarch of Melungeon research.  His Goins family was Melungeon, from Hawkins County, Tennessee.  Jack founded the Melungeon DNA projects several years ago which resulted in a paper, co-authored by Jack (along with me, Janet Lewis Crain and Penny Ferguson), cited by Henry Louis Gates in his above article along with an associated NPR interview, titled “Melungeons, A Multiethnic Population.”

jack goins melungeon

Jack, shown above with the photo of his Melungeon ancestors, looks white today.  His family claimed both Portuguese and Indian heritage.  His ancestors and family members in the 1840s were prosecuted for voting, given that they were “people of color.”

But Jack’s Y DNA, providing us with his paternal link to his Goins male lineage, is African.  No one was more shocked at this information than Jack.  Jack’s autosomal DNA testing confirms his African heritage, along with lots of European and a smidgen of Native in some tests.

When in doubt, test your DNA and that of selected relatives to document your various lines, creating your own DNA pedigree chart.  For a broad spectrum picture of your DNA and ethnicity across of all of your heritage, autosomal DNA testing is the way to go.  Without all of these tools, neither Jack nor Henry would ever have known their own personal truth.

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Gene By Gene Acquires Arpeggi

gene by gene logoGene by Gene Acquires Arpeggi, a StartUp Health- and GE-Backed Company, to Build World’s Leading Genetic Testing and Genome Diagnostics Company

— Merger will make DNA testing more accessible and affordable for consumers, researchers and healthcare providers —

HOUSTON–Aug. 7, 2013 ­­ Gene by Gene, Ltd., the world’s first company to develop consumer DNA testing products for ancestry and genealogy applications, announced today the acquisition of Arpeggi, Inc., a StartUp Health- and GE-backed company that develops solutions for genome sequencing, data management and computational analysis.

The combined company will enable the acceleration of an innovative suite of more affordable genetics testing and diagnostics services available to consumers, researchers and healthcare providers.

“The acquisition of Arpeggi’s technology and world­-class team of data and technology experts will enable us to accelerate Gene by Gene’s plan to make next­-generation DNA sequencing and clinical genomics accessible and affordable to all,” said Max Blankfeld, Managing Partner of Gene by Gene. “We are on a mission to transform healthcare by dramatically speeding up the process, and reducing the costs, of genetic tests, which today are often far too expensive for the average consumer.”

Founded in 2012, Arpeggi develops solutions for genome sequencing, data management and computational analysis. In April, the company released GCAT ­ Genome Comparison and Analytic Testing, a free community driven platform for evaluating the performance of next­-generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis methods. The platform has gained tremendous traction and was recently showcased at Bio­IT World and the Clinical Genome Conference. Arpeggi has developed proprietary sequencing tools, designed for scale, that enable accurate, fast, and cost-­effective analysis of genomes. This year, Arpeggi was selected as one of 14 startups, out of 400 applicants, to join the StartUp Health and GE Entrepreneurship Program to help grow, commercialize and scale new innovative healthcare technologies.

“We are thrilled by the acquisition of Arpeggi and excited to continue to help Gene by Gene on its mission to lead the rapidly advancing genetics testing and sequencing market,” said Unity Stoakes, co­founder and President of StartUp Health. “This acquisition represents a significant combination of technologies, expertise and infrastructure that we believe will make an important impact on the future of the genomics sector and how many people have access to these innovations.”

Rafael Torres, Senior Managing Director, GE Ventures- Healthcare said, “The deluge of data generated from genomic testing and the ability to store, analyze and interpret it efficiently has been a bottleneck for organizations focused on large scale sequencing. Arpeggi’s solution provides an infrastructure that helps human genomic and bioinformatics companies get the most out of their data. We’re proud to have Arpeggi involved with our Entrepreneurship Program with StartUp Health and cannot wait to see them further advance DNA testing through the marriage of science and technology.”

The entire Arpeggi team and technology platform will be incorporated into Gene by Gene. Additionally, Arpeggi’s founders will join Gene by Gene’s management team, effective immediately. Arpeggi’s Nir Leibovich was named Gene by Gene’s Chief Business Officer, Jason Wang was named Chief Technology Officer and David Mittelman, Ph.D was named Chief Scientific Officer.

Gene by Gene’s Doron Behar, M.D., Ph.D. was also named Chief Medical Officer.  Gene by Gene’s Blankfeld and Bennett Greenspan continue to serve as the company’s Managing Partners.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Gene by Gene Ltd.

Founded in 2000, Gene By Gene, Ltd. provides reliable DNA testing to a wide range of consumer and institutional customers through its four divisions focusing on ancestry, health, research and paternity. Gene By Gene provides DNA tests through its Family Tree DNA division, which pioneered the concept of direct-­to­-consumer testing in the field of genetic genealogy more than a decade ago. Gene by Gene is CLIA registered and through its clinical­-health division DNA Traits offers regulated diagnostic tests. DNA DTC is the Research Use Only (RUO) division serving both direct­-to­-consumer and institutional clients worldwide. Gene By Gene offers AABB certified relationship tests through its paternity testing division, DNA Findings. The privately held company is headquartered in Houston, which is also home to its state­-of-­the­-art Genomics Research Center.

###

Media Contacts:

For Gene By Gene, Ltd. and Arpeggi, Inc.:

Kate Croft

Casteel Schoenborn

croft@csirfirm.com

888-609-8351

For StartUp Health:

Unity Stoakes

President

StartUp Health

unity@startuphealth.com

646-416-4121

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Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

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Autosomal DNA, Ancient Ancestors, Ethnicity and the Dandelion

 dandelion 1

Understanding our own ancient DNA is a little different than contemporary DNA that we use for genealogy, but it’s a continuum between the two with a very long umbilical cord between them, then, and now.  And just when you think you’re about to understand autosomal DNA transmission and how it works, the subject of ancient DNA comes up.  This is particularly perplexing when all you wanted in the first place was a simple answer to the question, “who am I and who were my ancestors?”  Well, as you’re probably figured out by now, there is no simple answer.

Inheritance

In a nutshell – we know that every generation gets divided by 50% when we’re talking about autosomal DNA transmission.

So you inherit 50% of the DNA of each of your parents.  They inherited 50% of the DNA of each of their parents, so you inherit ABOUT 25% of the DNA of each of your grandparents.

Did you see that word, about?  It’s important, because while you do inherit exactly 50% of the DNA of each parent, you don’t inherit exactly 25% of the DNA of each grandparent.  You can inherit a little less or a little more from either grandparent as your parents 50% that you’re going to receive is in the mixer.

This is also true for the 12.5% of each of your great-grandparents, and the 6.25% of each of your great-great-grandparents, and so forth, on up the line.

The chart below shows the percentages that you share from each generation.

Relationship to You Approximate % Of Their DNA You Share
Parents Exactly 50%
Grandparents 25
Great-grandparents 12.5
Great-great-grandparents 6.25
Great-great-great-grandparents 3.125
Great-great-great-great-grandparents 1.5625

Ethnicity

So, here’s the question posed by people trying to understand their ethnicity.

If I have 3% Melanesian (or Middle Eastern, Indo-Tibetan or fill-in-the-blank ethnicity), doesn’t that mean that one of my great-great-great-grandparents was Melanesian?

There are really two answers to this question.  (I can hear you groaning!!!)

If the amount is 25% (for example) and not very small amounts, then the answer would be yes, that is very likely what this is telling you.  Or maybe it’s telling you that you have two different great-grandparents who have 12.5 each – but those relatives are fairly close in time due to the amount of DNA that came from that region.  See, that was easy.

However, the answer changes when we’re down in the very small percentages, below 5%, often in the 1 and 2% range.  This answer isn’t nearly as straightforward.

The Dandelion – Your Ancestor

The answer is the dandelion.

dandelion 2

The dandelion is one of your ancestors who lived in the Middle East, let’s say, 20,000 years ago, maybe 30,000 years ago.  In case you’re counting generations, that is 800 to 1200 generations ago.  The percentage of DNA you would carry from a single ancestor who lived 20,000 years ago, assuming you only descended from that ancestor 1 time, is infinitesimally small.  There are more zeroes following that decimal point than I have patience to type.  Let’s call that ancestor Xenia and let’s say she is a female.

However, you did inherit DNA from many of your ancestors who lived 20,000 years ago, thousands of them, because all of them, through their descendants, make up the DNA you carry today.  So infinitesimally small or not, you do carry some of the DNA of some of those ancestors.  It’s just broken into extremely small pieces today and their individual contributions to you may be extremely small.  You don’t carry any DNA from some of them, actually, probably most of them, due to the recombination event, dividing their DNA in half, happening 800 times, give or take.

Now, given that your ancestors’ DNA is divided in every generation by approximately half, and we know there are about 3 billion base pairs on all of your chromosomes combined, this means that by generation 32 or 33, on average, you carry 1 segment from this ancestor.  By generation 45, you carry, on average, .00017 segments of this ancestor’s DNA.  And for those math aficionados among us, this is the mathematical notation for how much of our ancestor’s DNA we carry after 800 generations: 4.4991E-232.

But, we also know that this dividing in half, on the average, doesn’t always work exactly that way in reality, because some of those ancestors from 20,000 years ago did in fact pass their DNA to you, despite the infinitesimal odds against that happening.  Some of their DNA was passed intact generation after generation, to you, and you carry it today.  The DNA contributed by any one ancestor from 800 generations ago is probably limited to one or two locations, or bases, but still, it’s there, and it’s the combined DNA of those ancient ancestors that make us who we are today.

The autosomal DNA of any specific ancestor from long ago is probably too small and fragmented to recognize as “theirs” and attribute to them.  Of course, the beauty of Y DNA and mitochondrial is that it is passed in tact for all of those generations.  But for autosomal DNA and genealogy, we need hundreds of thousands of DNA pieces in a row from a particular ancestor to be recognizable as “theirs.”  When we measure DNA for genealogy, what we are measuring is both centiMorgans, a measure of distance between chromosome positions (length) and the number of contiguous SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) base locations that match (quantity).  The values from these calculations tells us how closely we are related to people, because remember, DNA is divided in each generation so there is a mathematically predictable amount we will share with specific relatives.

Here is an example from a Family Finder comparison table showing both centiMorgans and matching SNPs with a second cousin.

family finder table

The matching threshold for genealogical significance is either 5 or 7 cM depending on which of the major companies you are using.  At Family Tree DNA, if you match above the threshold, then you can view down to 1cM, which is the case above.  Another match criteria is the number of SNPs, or locations, matching contiguously.  Anything below about 500-800 is considered to be a population match, not a genealogical match, unless you also have a significant number of genealogical matches at higher cMs and segments with this person.

OK, where is all of this going?

Dispersion

Think of your ancestor 20,000 years ago as the dandelion.  Now, blow.

dandelion 3

Xenia lived in the Middle East.  Where might her descendants land, over time, with every new generation?  In Europe?  In Asia?  In India?  In America via the Native Americans through Asia?  In North Africa?  Where?

So let’s say that groups of descendants settle across the globe.  Let’s say that her mitochondrial haplogroup is X.  Yes, haplogroup X is found both in Europe and in Asia and in the Native Americans, so this is actually a good example.  So Xenia carried mitochondrial haplogroup X and we know for sure via mitochondrial DNA testing that indeed, Xenia’s seeds were scattered to all of the winds.  The only place we haven’t found Xenia’s children is in Subsaharan Africa and the Australian archipelago, at least not yet.

Ok, so now that we know where her children and their children went, let’s go back to ancient DNA.

Predictive DNA

The way ethnicity is determined is by studying the frequency with which a specific allele or group of alleles is found in any particular population.  Two “pure” examples come to mind.

The first example is the Duffy Null allele that is only found in the Subsaharan African populations.  Currently this marker is found in about 68% of American blacks and in 88-100% of African blacks.  If you have the Duffy Null allele, you have African heritage.  Of course, you don’t know which line or which ancestor it came from, or how far back in time, but it assures you that you do in fact have African heritage.  It could have been from an ancestor long ago.  It could have been very recent.  This is one of the factors considered when determining percentage of ethnicity.

A second example is the STR marker known as D9S919 which is present in about 30% of the Native American people.  The value of 9 at this marker is not known to be present in any other ethnic group, so this mutation occurred after the Native people migrated across Beringia into the Americas, but long enough ago to be present in many descendants.  There is also no other known marker that is only found only among Native Americans, although I expect as we move into full genome sequencing we will discover more.  You can test this marker individually at Family Tree DNA, which is the only lab that offers this test.  If you have the value of 9 at this marker, it confirms Native heritage, but if you don’t carry 9, it does NOT disprove Native heritage.  After all, many Native people don’t carry it.  Again, you don’t know how long ago this marker was introduced into your ancestry.

These two examples are very unique because the markers are found only in certain groups.  Generally, with the rest of the DNA values, they are found in different amounts, or frequencies, in different parts of the world and ethnic groups.

So, if you’re trying to determine the ethnicity of an individual, you’re going to compile a huge data base of percentages of DNA values found of Ancestrally Informative Markers (AIMs) in different parts of the world.

So, you would compare the participant’s values against your data base and you will come up with those regions or ethnicities that are present most often in your comparison.  This is exactly what the products and services that provide you with your ethnicity percentages do – and how accurate the results are depend highly on the data base itself, the amount of data, and the quality of data.  Dare I mention Ancestry’s issue that they’ve had since they first began offering their autosomal product over a year ago where everyone seems to have Scandinavian ancestry?  Ancestry doesn’t share with us their sources, so as a community we have no idea how they have come up with these numbers.

You can easily compare your autosomal results in nauseating detail at both 23andMe and Family Tree DNA by testing with both companies, or by testing with either 23andMe or Ancestry and transferring your autosomal results to Family Tree DNA.  All 3 of these companies will give you a somewhat different result, but they should be in the same ballpark.  You can also then download your raw data file from any of those vendors and upload it to www.gedmatch.com where you can then do ethnicity comparisons using a variety of tools.  These tools, an example shown below, will have much more variance and detail than the vendor’s tools or results.  And because of that, they tend to be more confusing as well.

gedmatch example

Many people with small amounts of minority admixture are disappointed with the results through the vendors, especially if their Native American admixture doesn’t show.  I wrote extensively about this in my series, The Autosomal Me, so I won’t rehash it here, but using the GedMatch tools is very enlightening, as you can see above with my results.  And do I really have Indo-Tibetan and Indo-Iranian ancestors?

Where’s Xenia?

Back to Xenia and her descendants.  Let’s say that Xenia’s descendants settled in four primary locations.  One is in the Middle East – they never left home.  One is in Asia and from there, to the Americans to become the Native Americans and lastly, to Europe.  Now let’s say there is a pocket of them in the Altai region of Asia and a pocket in France.  The Altai is the ancestral home of the Native Americans and could explain the Indo-Tibet result, above.  We’ll call that Central Asia.  And France is where my Acadian ancestors were from.  Hmmm….this is getting confusing.  To make matters even more confusing, I might well descend from both groups, who originally descended from Xenia.

Let’s say that I do in fact carry small segments of Xenia’s DNA.  Now let’s say that this same DNA is found in a group of people in Central Asia, maybe in Tibet, it’s published in an obscure journal someplace, and it finds its way into a data base.  Voila – there you go – I now have a match in Central Asia in a place called Indo-Tibet.  But do I really?

Does this mean that my ancestor was from Central Asia?  Not necessarily.  And if so, maybe not recently, but the people from that location for some reason share some of the DNA that I carry.  The question of course is why, how and when?

What this really means to you is a matter of degrees.  If you have a few matches from obscure regions, along with very small percentages, it is likely a result of the dandelion’s dispersion.  If you have a lot of matches, meaning a high percentage hit rate, from a particular region, pay attention, it probably has some genealogical significance.

It’s no wonder people are confused by this!  Now, just think how many dandelions you have.  In 15 generations, you have 32,768 ancestors.  In fact, this is how we know for sure that we all descend from the same ancestor multiple times.  Our number of ancestors quickly exceeds the world population.  In 30 (25 years) generations, in about the year 1263, we reach about 1 billion ancestors.  In 1750, there were 791 million people on Earth, in 1600, 580 million, in 1500, 458 million and in 1000, 310 million.

Ancestors - Years

We know that we very likely descend several times from a much smaller group of ancestors from isolated local populations.  However, just looking at the 32,000+ ancestors in 15 generations, it’s still an entire dandelion field!!!

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I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

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Kitty Cooper’s Chromsome Mapping Tool Released

I haven’t had time to try this yet, but I can hardly wait.  Kitty Cooper’s chromosome mapping tool enables those who have taken one of the autosomal tests from Family Tree DNA or 23andMe and downloaded matches to map the segments that you know are associated with certain ancestral lines on your chromosomes with a color key.

The genetic genealogy community has been anxiously waiting for this tool.  You can find it here:  http://kittymunson.com/dna/ChromosomeMapper.php

Until now, we were relegated to keeping this kind of information on a spreadsheet.  I covered how to do this in my blog on Autosomal Triangulation and also in one of the Autosomal Me segments.

vannoy table 1

But thanks to Kitty, we can take the information above and make it look like the example below from Kitty’s blog.

kitty's chromosome mapping

We can’t think you enough Kitty!!!  Way to go!  Woohoo!

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Disclosure

I receive a small contribution when you click on some of the links to vendors in my articles. This does NOT increase the price you pay but helps me to keep the lights on and this informational blog free for everyone. Please click on the links in the articles or to the vendors below if you are purchasing products or DNA testing.

Thank you so much.

DNA Purchases and Free Transfers

Genealogy Services

Genealogy Research