“Who Am I?”
As DNA testing becomes more and more common, surprises are popping up everywhere. This article from BBC is about two Englishwomen who discover they have Native American blood when they send their DNA in for testing.
It’s fascinating to think that migration and trade has left it’s traces generations later. I love the work that is being done with bloodlines these days.
Native American DNA found in UK
DNA testing has uncovered British descendents of Native Americans brought to the UK centuries ago as slaves, translators or tribal representatives.
Genetic analysis turned up two white British women with a DNA signature characteristic of American Indians.
An Oxford scientist said it was extremely unusual to find these DNA lineages in Britons with no previous knowledge of Native American ancestry.
Indigenous Americans were brought over to the UK as early as the 1500s.
It rocked me completely. It made think: who am I?
Doreen Isherwood
Many were brought over as curiosities; but others travelled here in delegations during the 18th Century to petition the British imperial government over trade or protection from other tribes.
Experts say it is probable that some stayed in Britain and married into local communities.
Doreen Isherwood, 64, from Putney, and Anne Hall, 53, of Huddersfield, only found out about their New World heritage after paying for commercial DNA ancestry tests.
Mrs Isherwood told BBC News: “I was expecting the results to say I belonged to one of the common European tribes, but when I got them back, my first thought was that they were a mistake.
“It rocked me completely. It made think: who am I?”
You can read the rest of the article at BBC Science/Nature News, here.
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If you Find this topic interesting then let me recommend you a book i have read a while back. ” The seven daughters of eve” written by Bryan sykes.
He is a proffesor of human genetics from Oxford university. As i recall he pioneered extracting mitochondrial DNA from ancient human remains and acomplishing direct ancestral liniages to current living people.
the advantage of this type of DNA is that it is always carryed over from mother to child unchanged through the generations. on the other hand the regular nuclear DNA is everchanging due to the mix between father and mother ( thats why children come to look like both parents rather than a carbon copy of one of them ).
I think it would be a nice read, with a LOT of very interesting information.
I just looked him up and he actually has a website, so anyone intersted to know his ancestry a thousand years ago can apply for a test,, !! š
http://www.oxfordancestors.com/
Hello, Abdulaziz, and welcome back. Is the Eve he is referring to the ancestor of all women? I remember a study using mitochondrial DNA that linked every female back to one female referred to as “Eve”.
Looks like an interesting book!
And thanks for the oxfordancestors.com reference – I understand having your DNA analyzed is evidently very trendy, very hot in the western countries these days. Have you heard anything about this?
Thanks dear, and yes the eve he referred to in his title is the mother of all women, he traced her back to ~200,000 years ago origenating somewhere in africa.
As for the 7 daughters of eve (which is the bulk of the book) they were living in different places and different times in neolithic europe. he counted them as 7 because most of the inhabitants of europe nowadays fall within 7 main groups of mitochondrial DNA thus each group went back to a certain and specific “woman” .
As for being trendy to get your DNA checked to know your ancestry i think it was because of the media focusing on several famillies claiming thier “lost royal blood”.
I believe when a person is well off, the next thing to persue is being of royal pedigree, and since it is available in the market why wouldnt they go do some tests ?
i mean its cool to be rich but how cool would it be if you can prove your blue blood ?!
i went over the prices for doing a DNA test and it wasnt that expensive ~ 300-400 BP ,, i might do it one day ( maybe claim some long lost throne:P Haha )
Ha ha ha ha ha haha hah aha hahah!
We have royal blood – and we also have scoundrels! I bet most families could say the same.