• Question: Can you tell me who my ancestors were from 1000 years ago just by using my dna?

    Asked by virtnack to David, Luna, Mark, Melanie, Probash on 17 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Luna Munoz

      Luna Munoz answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Well, I can’t but I’m sure someone can. There is a lot that DNA can tell us.

      Just something I’ve learned: Did you know that there is less variation among individual human’s DNA than among most of the individuals in other species? So, chimpanzees are very different from each other in terms of DNA than humans are – even from opposite places on the globe!

    • Photo: David Pyle

      David Pyle answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      In principle, yes I believe so!

    • Photo: Probash Chowdhury

      Probash Chowdhury answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      It’s not really my field of expertise, but what I understand is that DNA can be used to identify relatives only if there are two sets of DNA to compare. If DNA exists or can be extracted from remains of people from 1000 years ago then your DNA could be compared to theirs to see if there is a match or not. If there is no DNA from the ancestor, then I don’t think a relationship can be established.

    • Photo: Melanie Stefan

      Melanie Stefan answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Excellent question. If you think about it, you share 1/2 of your DNA with each of your parents, 1/4 with each of your grandparents, 1/8 with your great-grandparents etc. If you compute it back, you really don’t have that much DNA in common with every single one of your ancestors 1000 years ago.

      There is one exception: A small bit of DNA (mitochondrial DNA) is passed on directly from mother to child. So you have the same as your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother etc. (except for a few mutations, probably). Using this, you can figure out where your great-great-great-great-great-etc. grandmother came from. But that’s just one ancestor out of thousands!

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