I missed Lesley Stahl’s piece “On The Hopes And Limitations Of Genetic Genealogy” on 60 Minutes yesterday. Fortunately, CBS put it online: Rebuilding The Family Tree.
Category: Genetics
Viking History
DNA test puts Viking experts on horns of a dilemma
Physorg.com, Aug. 31, 2005
For more than 500 years, historians have believed that the last Viking king, Sven Estridsen, was laid to rest with his mother, Estrid, after his death in 1074.
The funereal tribute was appropriate, given that Sven carried his mother’s name in honour of her royal lineage — she was the daughter of Sven Forkbeard, a legendary Viking chieftain who also fathered King Canute of England.
But a test on the pulp of molars extracted from skeletons in the tomb at Roskilde Cathedral, on the island of Sjaelland, shows that the two sets of remains are unrelated, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday’s issue.
Jorgen Dissing, at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Copenhagen, tested the samples for mitochondrial DNA, a component of cells that is exclusively handed down through the maternal line.
But the samples from the male skeleton did not match those from the female one, thus proving that the buried “Estrid” was not Sven Estridsen’s mum.
In addition, the teeth and bones suggest that the woman was around 35 when she died, whereas historical records say that the king’s mother died aged around 75.
Dissing believes that the entombed female may have been one of the king’s daughters-in-law, coincidentally also called Estrid.
Haplogroup R
Haplogroup R1a
This lineage is believed to have originated in the Eurasian steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas, perhaps in a population of the Kurgan culture. The Kurgans were known for the domestication of the horse (approximately 3000 BCE). They are believed to have been the first speakers of an Indo-European language. This lineage is currently found in central and western Asia, in India, and in the Slavic populations of eastern Europe.
Brian Sykes used the name Sigurd to represent the founder of Haplogroup R1a (Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, 2006). Sigurd is a legendary Scandinavian hero. Stephen Oppenheimer used the name Rostov (The Origins of the British, 2006).
Somerled, who defeated the vikings and established a kingdom in the Hebrides, was a member of this haplogroup.
Haplogroup R1b
This lineage is the most common haplogroup in European populations. It is found in about 90% of Basques, 80% of Irish and Welsh, 70% of Scots, 60% of English, 50% of French, 50% of Germans, but only 25% of Norwegians and 1% of Syrians. It is believed to represent the main pre-Ice Age population of western Europe, which expanded throughout Europe as humans re-colonized after the last Ice Age 10-12,000 years ago.
Brian Sykes used the name Oisin to represent the founder of Haplogroup R1b (Saxons, Vikings, and Celts, 2006). Oisin is a legendary Irish hero. Stephen Oppenheimer used the name Ruisco (The Origins of the British, 2006).
Studies on Scottish and Irish families have shown that Colla Uais and Niall of the Nine Hostages, the putative ancestors of many clans and septs, were probably members of this haplogroup.
The French Haurys belong to Haplogroup R1b1b2* (R-M269), the most common subgroup in western Europe. Further testing would refine this result.
Read More
- Wikipedia, Haplogroup R (Y-DNA)
Famous Studies
There have been many studies using yDNA analysis to answer historical questions. Here are a three of the most famous.
Sykes Study
Dr. Bryan Sykes, a geneticist at Oxford University tested men all over England who have the surname Sykes and variants. Genealogists had theorized that the surname Sykes was used by dozens of unrelated families. However, the study showed that about 50% of the Sykes men tested had the same y chromosome. Assuming an infidelity and adoption rate of about 2% or 3% per generation since the Middle Ages, this is about the percentage of modern Sykes men who should have the Sykes y chromosome if there is only one Sykes family. So, instead of showing that there are dozens of different Sykes families in England, the study seems to show that there is only one Sykes family — but not everyone who belongs to the family is biologically descended in the male line from the first Sykes.
Jefferson-Hemings Study
The descendants of Sally Hemings have an old tradition that Thomas Jefferson was the father of her children. In 1998 Eugene Foster undertook to test the tradition using yDNA analysis. He compared samples from male-line descendants of Sally Hemings’ son Eston Hemings with samples from male-line descendants of Thomas Jefferson’s uncle Field Jefferson. The test results proved that Eston Hemings’ father was a Jefferson, but the test cannot show whether Eston’s father was Thomas Jefferson himself. Most historians now accept that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, and that Jefferson was probably the father of all six of Sally Hemings’ children. The Jefferson family belongs to Haplogroup T* (fomerly K2). See Wikipedia, Jefferson DNA Data.
Cohen Study
Michael Hammer, a geneticist at the University of Arizona tested a large number of Jewish men who have the surname Cohen or who have a family tradition that they are cohanim. Jews believe that the surname Cohen indicates that a man is a cohen (priest), descended in the male line from Aaron, the brother of Moses. A high percentage of the test subjects share the same y chromosome and apparently have a common origin in the Middle East. Researchers suggest that these men descend in the male line from the Biblical Aaron, confirming tradition. Critics point out that a single prolific Rabbi living 1,000 years ago could account for the matches. The Cohen lineage belongs to Haplogroup J2. See Wikipedia, Y-Chromosomal Aaron.
Frame mtDNA
Limits of Paper Genealogy
From doing paper genealogy, I know that my female line (mother to daughter) goes back to Margaret, wife of John Frame. Margaret’s maiden name is unknown. She was probably born about 1725, but there is no record of her until 1742, when she and her husband were living in Augusta County, Virginia. She died sometime after 1797, probably at Birch River in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. She might have been Margaret Hogshead, daughter of John Hogshead and Nancy Wallace, of Augusta County, but the identification is controversial.
That’s about all I will ever know about Margaret. The records that might link her to earlier generations don’t exist. I can make a few educated guesses, however. For the sake of simplicity, I omit some of the variables about what could have happened and focus on the most likely scenario.
Margaret belonged to a well-defined ethnic group, the so-called Scotch-Irish. The different ethnic groups in colonial America rarely married outside the group, so I can guess that her parents and grandparents were also Scotch-Irish and probably came to Pennsylvania from northern Ireland sometime between 1680 and 1740, the period of heaviest Scotch-Irish immigration.
Knowing the history of the Scotch-Irish, I can guess that Margaret’s ancestors came to Ireland from the lowlands of Scotland sometime after 1608 as part of the Ulster Plantation. The Ulster Plantation was an English project to subdue the rebellious Catholics in northern Ireland by taking their land and giving it to Protestant Scots. A generation later the English raised the taxes. When the Scots couldn’t pay, the English took the Scot’s farms, forcing thousands of them to go to America, where they became the Scotch-Irish. Northern Ireland is still suffering from these short-sighted policies of 300 years ago.
So, Margaret’s female-line ancestors were probably living in the Scottish lowlands in the late 1500s. Using paper genealogy, the trail ends there. Margaret’s ancestors could have been Picts, Scots, Norse, Saxons or any of a half-dozen other ethnic groups that combined to create modern Britain. However, using genetics, I know a quite a bit more about Margaret Frame’s very distant ancestry.
Similar Families
If I find someone with the same variations from the reference series, I will know that we share the same deep female-line ancestry — say, within the last 12,000 years. I haven’t yet discovered any specific information about my haplotype, but it seems clear it must lie in Ireland or Scotland, perhaps in the Hebrides — that is, somewhere in the islands off the western coast of Scotland. I also haven’t yet found anyone else with the same mtDNA test result. When I do, the match could be genealogically useful. If, for example, another female line descendant of Nancy Wallace had the same mtDNA result, that fact would tend to prove that Mrs. Margaret Frame was the daughter of Nancy (Wallace) Hogshead, resolving an old question. Genealogists can enter and compare mtDNA test results at Mitosearch.org. (Note: Family Tree DNA shut down both Mitosearch and Ysearch in May 2018.)
I find the following near matches:
- (Mrs.) Margaret Frame (1725-1797) Scotland (ABY52). 16270T 16292A 16298C HVR2 Not Tested. Confirmed Haplogroup V.
- Phoebe Hendricks (1809-1854) Virginia (FNCX4). 16270T 16298C 072C 195C 263G 309.1C 309.2C 315.1C. Haplogroup Unknown.
- Nancy Norris (1817-1876) Ireland (WWY5A). 16270T 16298C HVR2 Not Tested. Haplogroup Unknown.
- Annie Gordon Fox (1825-?) Ireland (MU34H). 16270T 16298C. HVR2 Not Tested. Confirmed Haplogroup V.
- Mary Kenney (1826-1872) Ireland (55RJT). 16270T 16298C HVR2 Not Tested. Confirmed Haplogroup V. She was not one of the Kenney descendants of Mrs. Margaret Frame.
- Unknown (KP6U7). 16270T 16298C HVR2 Not Tested. Confirmed Haplogroup V.
Revised to remove broken link.