Our Ancient Heritage

My obsession with history continues, except that with this writing it takes a slightly different turn. 

When shopping for Christmas presents this past holiday season I spent a little time looking through the National Geographic Catalog.  They have many unique gifts and at this stage of the game, gift giving between Pete and I has become a little difficult.  There is nothing we really ‘Need’.  We have all the gadgets, and clothes and appliances, etc, etc. that we will need for a good long while.  So finding a gift for him can be something of a challenge. 

This year however, while thumbing my way through the catalog I happened up a listing for their Genographic Project.  I’ve known about this project for a while.  It is where they take DNA samples from you and trace your DNA back through prehistoric times to your earliest ancestors and then track their migration route out of Africa into wherever your branch happened to wander.   For me, this is like striking a gold mine of an idea for a gift.  Wasn’t sure if Pete would be as excited, but I was about to find out.

You see, in addition to my interest in history I have spent approximately 40 years working on the family genealogy.  Not full time, but over the years, when the spirit moved me, I would go back to my files and pick up where I left off.  I started long before computers were generally available and have spent time in libraries from the Library of Congress to the state library of California in Sacramento.  Today my files rest on my computer and I am looking for the perfect relative to pass them onto in that generation coming up behind me.  I have traced the Hallsted family back to the 1100’s and the Poffs back to the 1700’s.  It has been an exhilarating journey!

Pardon me, I digress.  It just seems like between my interest in history and genealogy tracing our ancestry back to prehistoric times would be an interesting side bar.  So, I asked Pete….yep, he was interested.  At that point he had a couple of choices for his ‘big’ gift for Christmas, and he chose the Genographic Project. 

So, I ordered the kit from National Geographic, it arrived before Christmas, Pete followed the directions and sent in his samples.  It was the end of January when we received the results on-line.  To be honest, I can’t say that I understand every aspect of the information provided, but I did get the gist of things. 

The results are presented in three categories, your Maternal Line, your Paternal Line and then a section called Who Am I.

The Who Am I results indicate that Pete’s DNA is 45% Northern European.  The results state that …

“This component of your ancestry is found at highest frequency in northern European populations—people from the UK, Denmark, Finland, Russia and Germany in our reference populations. While not limited to these groups, it is found at lower frequencies throughout the rest of Europe. This component is likely the signal of the earliest hunter-gatherer inhabitants of Europe, who were the last to make the transition to agriculture as it moved in from the Middle East during the Neolithic period around 8,000 years ago.”

Pete is also 35% Mediterranean and 15% Southwest Asian.  Which the results said…

“This reference population is based on samples collected from people native to Spain and Portugal. The 48% Mediterranean and 13% Southwest Asian percentages reflect the strong influence of agriculturalists from the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East, who arrived here more than 8,000 years ago. The 37% Northern European component likely comes from the pre-agricultural population of Europe—the earliest settlers, who arrived more than 35,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic period. Today, this component predominates in northern European populations, while the Mediterranean component is more common in southern Europe.”

For his Maternal Line the results indicated that….

“The common direct maternal ancestor to all women alive today was born in East Africa about 180,000 years ago. Though not the only woman alive at the time, hers is the only line to survive into current generations.

From East Africa, groups containing this lineage spread across Africa. Between 60 and 70 thousand years ago, some groups moved from Africa to Asia. Your line traces to one of these groups.

Your ancestors first settled West Asia. From there, they expanded toward the Levant region and toward Europe. Some lines traveled to South Asia.”

And his Paternal Line said ….

“The common direct paternal ancestor of all men alive today was born in Africa around 140,000 years ago. He was neither the first human male nor the only male alive in his time. He was the only male whose direct lineage is present in current generations. Most men, including your direct paternal ancestors, trace their ancestry to one of this man’s descendants.

Your branch of this lineage took part in out-of-Africa migrations. Your ancestors traveled to West Asia where they lived by hunting wildlife and gathering wild fruits and berries. Over time, groups containing this branch spread west toward Europe and east to Central Asia, then south into the Levant region.”

The results become much more detailed and there are pages and pages of information.  I find it fascinating that we have science capable of providing this kind of in-depth analysis.  While there were no surprises, the information confirmed what we discussed and suspected, it was interesting to get the details provided. 

In addition to Pete’s Northern European lineage, the site lists all the possible lineages that have been discovered to date.  The listing below illustrates how varied the human race actually is.  To me it is like gathering a bouquet of all the different flowers together to marvel at their uniqueness or gathering all the different birds together and wondering at their differences.  Humans are no different and while maybe not as visible, certainly at the DNA level the differences are striking. 

Think of the list below as a listing of all the different flower names, or bird names, but in this case, it is a listing of all the human lineages that have been identified to date.   

AFRICAN-AMERICAN, ALTAIAN (SIBERIAN), AMERINDIAN (MEXICO), BERMUDIAN, BOUGAINVILLE-NASIOI (OCEANIA), BRITISH (UNITED KINGDOM), BULGARIAN, CHINESE, DANISH, EASTERN INDIAN, EGYPTIAN, FINNISH, GEORGIAN, GERMAN, GREEK, HIGHLAND PERUVIAN, IRANIAN, JAPANESE, KHOISAN (SOUTHERN AFRICA), KINH (VIETNAM), KUWAITI, LEBANESE, LUHYA (KENYA), MALAGASY (MADAGASCAR), MEXICAN-AMERICAN, MONGOLIAN, NI-VANUATU (VANUATU), NORTHERN CAUCASIAN, NORTHERN EUROPEAN,  NORTHERN INDIAN, PAMIRI (TAJIKISTAN), PAPUAN (PAPUA NEW GUINEA), PERUVIANS FROM LIMA, PUERTO RICAN, ROMANIAN, RUSSIANS, SARDINIAN, SOUTHERN INDIAN, TATAR (RUSSIA), TUNISIAN, TUSCAN (ITALY), WESTERN INDIAN, YORUBAN (WEST AFRICAN)

 

On top of all the other information provided, the DNA sample also provides information on how our Homo Sapiens ancestors cross-bred with our homind cousins, the Neanderthals and the Denisovans.  In Pete’s case he has 1.2% Neanderthal DNA and 1.9% Denisovan DNA.

Pete is one of 580,770 individuals who have participated in this study and of course with more participation the information will become more and more specific.  We are keeping the link to the site as a favorite to go back and check on from time to time. 

I plan to participate as a birthday present to myself this year.  So soon, in a few months, I will have my results as well.  I can’t wait.  While I don’t expect my results to be much different from Pete’s, again the details will be fascinating…no doubt.