Ancestry and Ancient DNA

[Astronuc]

I recently took a DNA test in parallel with collecting family records, government records, and church records (many of which are used by local/regional governments). I knew about many ancestors, but I've confirmed many more through discovering other family lines through DNA tests. I've identified more than 200 ancestors, and several hundred descendants through shared DNA, and hundreds, if not thousands, more by records of families of those with whom I share pieces of DNA.

Edit: I just discovered I have DNA matched to more than 18K persons, so far, with 433 close matches (4th cousins or closer).

I received DNA results in terms of number of cM (centi-Morgans) and numbers of segments.
https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Centimorgan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centimorgan

A niece shares more than 1600 cM, while three first cousins, 1x-removed, share 415, 350 and 286 cM, and some second cousins, 1x-removed share between 200 and 260 cM. Dozens of Extended family members share 45 to 170 cM of DNA, and there are hundreds of distant relatives with down to 8-10 cM of DNA. Some DNA may come from Poland, Ukraine and/or Russia/Belarus, and some appears to originate from the Mediterranean region.

The descendants are certainly more diverse than the ancestors, having scattered across the world. One relative has DNA from Europe and Africa, with the latter very diverse: Cameroon, Congo & Western Bantu Peoples, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Benin and Togo. Other relatives have Asian and South American Ancestry.

Seems parts of my ancestry love to go places.

In some cases, I'm wondering if there is common DNA that many of us share.


While looking at some DNA research, I stumbled across the following:

David Reich, Professor, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Senior Associate Member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

2018 - Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past

 

[Astronuc]

Some papers from David Reich's presentation

Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe​

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5048219/

The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia​

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/292581v1

Reconstructing Native American Population History​

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3615710/


I also learned of what would be a complementary studies done in the UK and Ireland

The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland​

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17124-4

Studies of ancient Irish genomes suggest that the modern Irish genetic landscape was established about 3,500 years ago in the Irish Bronze Age. Furthermore, a number of genetically-related diseases are found in the Irish population, and apparently, in the UK in those who live further north. "Several traits are found to be at high frequencies within the Irish, compared to the mainland European populations, including; cystic fibrosis, lactase persistence, coeliac disease, galactosaemia, and multiple sclerosis."

https://www.peopleofthebritishisles.org/publications

The fine-scale genetic structure of the British population​

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14230 (purchase or subscription required)

The genetic landscape of Scotland and the Isles​

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1904761116

 

[Astronuc]

Using DNA to identify skeletons from a Himalayan Lake (Elevation: 5,020 metres (16,470 ft)).
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/14/the-skeletons-at-the-lake

In the winter of 1942, on the shores of a lake high in the Himalayas, a forest ranger came across hundreds of bones and skulls, some with flesh still on them. When the snow and ice melted that summer, many more were visible through the clear water, lying on the bottom. The lake, a glacial tarn called Roopkund, was more than sixteen thousand feet above sea level, an arduous five-day trek from human habitation, in a mountain cirque surrounded by snowfields and battered by storms. In the midst of the Second World War, British officials in India initially worried that the dead might be the remains of Japanese soldiers attempting a secret invasion. The apparent age of the bones quickly dispelled that idea. But what had happened to all these people? Why were they in the mountains, and when and how had they died?

In 1956, the Anthropological Survey of India, in Calcutta, sponsored several expeditions to Roopkund to investigate. A snowstorm forced the first expedition to turn back, but two months later another expedition made it and returned to Calcutta with remains for study. Carbon dating, still an unreliable innovation, indicated that the bones were between five hundred and eight hundred years old.

. . . .
People in the villages below Roopkund had their own explanation, passed down in folk songs and stories. The villages are on the route of a pilgrimage to honor Nanda Devi, a manifestation of Parvati, a supreme goddess in Hinduism. The pilgrimage winds up through the foothills of the Trisul massif, where locals believe that the goddess lives with her husband, Shiva. It may be the longest and most dangerous pilgrimage in India, and a particularly perilous section—the Jyumra Gali, or Path of Death—runs along a ridge high above Roopkund. . . . .

It's an interesting story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roopkund

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanda_Ghunti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisul