Ancestry DNA

[Richard Tarleton]

But isn't that precisely why it is utterly pointless?

Well....genetics, medicine, pathology....but I certainly won't be buying one of the genealogy kits.

[Richard Tarleton]

... ah - but then who hasn't?



.

BBM and I are related........

I have been scrolling back through my tree on the Geni website. This links you with other already uploaded family trees. I was looking at my American 4xgreat grandfather Ephraim Reed Snelling (1788-1872) - I've posted his picture before - and on through the extensive family tree put up by the Snellings, on back to my 11th great grandfather Thomas Snelling, 1554-1644. His mother's mother was one Jane Specote née Grenville, who was the daughter of Sir Roger Grenville, who went down with the Mary Rose (and was my 14th great grandfather). And so on back through my 17th great grandmother Margaret Greville - at which point I spotted a familiar name, Edward I, who would appear to be my 20th great grandfather, making Henry II my 23rd and William the Conqueror my 25th.

As that genealogist apparently said in the Danny Dyer programmes, there is a vanishingly small chance that anyone alive today is not descended from royalty, though it's nice to see what the relationship is.

So, BBM, we're definitely cousins.

[french frank]

All it took was for the Queen/Countess/whoever to have a fling with her handsome young Italian lute player

The reason why historically (and reflected in medieval literature) the uncle-nephew (sister's son) relationship was often closer than father-son. The blood relationship couldn't be doubted …

[Richard Tarleton]

A fascinating insight, new to me!

[ardcarp]

Probably not 100% relevant to the thread, but this week's Inside Science on R4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cg5

had an item about genetic investigations among the population of Spain and Portugal. The 'discovery' was that DNA analysis showed vertical lines of ancestry up and down the Iberian peninsular as opposed to East/West ones. African/Middle East influences were less in the Basque country and Catalonia but present in Galicia. It was able to date genetic influences to historical dates (e.g. the Arabic invasions of the 8th century). I probably haven't explained it well, but this was a fascinating item in the programme showing, if nothing else, the power of present-day DNA analysis.

[french frank]

Probably not 100% relevant to the thread, but this week's Inside Science on R4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cg5

had an item about genetic investigations among the population of Spain and Portugal. The 'discovery' was that DNA analysis showed vertical lines of ancestry up and down the Iberian peninsular as opposed to East/West ones. African/Middle East influences were less in the Basque country and Catalonia but present in Galicia. It was able to date genetic influences to historical dates (e.g. the Arabic invasions of the 8th century). I probably haven't explained it well, but this was a fascinating item in the programme showing, if nothing else, the power of present-day DNA analysis.

i wonder if that ties in with Stephen Oppenheimer's theory (based on genetics) that the 'Celts' didn't come to Britain from Central Europe ("the Pripet marshes") in the Iron Age, but some millennia earlier - the Ice Age - via an Atlantic sea coast route up through Spain and the Basque region; and later waves bringing the origins of the present day Celtic languages came via the same route in Neolithic times.

[Richard Tarleton]

Probably not 100% relevant to the thread, but this week's Inside Science on R4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cg5

had an item about genetic investigations among the population of Spain and Portugal. The 'discovery' was that DNA analysis showed vertical lines of ancestry up and down the Iberian peninsular as opposed to East/West ones. African/Middle East influences were less in the Basque country and Catalonia but present in Galicia. It was able to date genetic influences to historical dates (e.g. the Arabic invasions of the 8th century). I probably haven't explained it well, but this was a fascinating item in the programme showing, if nothing else, the power of present-day DNA analysis.

That would fit in - wouldn't it? - with the distribuition of languages in the Peninsula, which is also in vertical stripes - Portuguese/Galician, Castilian, and Catalan/Valencian. I thought it had long been established that the Basques were genetically distinct (inc. blood group, bone structure etc.) with a language which long predates the Indo-European languages elsewhere, the topography of their homeland having helped them to survive as distinct with everything bypassing them....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Roncevaux_Pass, etc......

[Richard Tarleton]

Thank you - saved for further study....