(no subject)

[andrewducker]

Nice article on tracing ancestors genetically.

I'd love to see a decent map of ancestry, produced genetically. I suspect that a lot of people would suddenly find oout that they weren't related to who the thought they were...

Garrison also found out his blood carried traces of genetic material from 15 different tribal groups stretching across Africa, a fact that astounded and delighted him - for he believes studies like these will change the way black British people see themselves.

Analysis of his DNA, taken with that of 228 other black men and women living in Britain, revealed a startling secret: Garrison possessed a Y chromosome - the tiny bundle of human genes that confers masculinity - that is of European origin. Somewhere in his distant family history, a white male had 'helped' to conceive one of his ancestors - most probably a white slave-master who sired a child with a black slave.

The group found that English Y chromosomes are almost identical to those from Friesland, an area of the Netherlands from which the Anglo-Saxons originated 1,500 years ago. Those of the Welsh were markedly different, however - from which Thomas concludes that Anglo-Saxons invaded the area now covered by England, overcoming between 50 and 100 per cent of the indigenous population, but failed to move into Wales.

Or take the discovery of the startlingly high incidence of the A blood group among residents around Pembroke, Wales. Scientists believe this has a simple cause. Around 1108 AD, Henry I brought over many craftsmen from Flanders - which has a high incidence of the A blood group - and settled them in Pembroke. 'In short, in the blood of Pembrokeshire people today, the tell-tale signs of their Norman past lingers on,' says the geneticist Sir Walter Bodmer.