GENEALOGY-DNA-L Archives

From: OrinWells <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] 500 years of DNA
Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2003 06:37:56 -0800

At 06:42 PM 3/1/2003 -0500, wrote:

>How do you get DNA back that far?

This question was in response to my comment we now had a line traced to
about 500 years back into Warwickshire, England.

The simple answer is, you don't get DNA back that far back. You have next
to no chance of finding an ancestor's grave in the year 1500 let alone
obtain permission to dig it up. You can only infer the DNA pattern for the
ancestors based on the current day descendents and genealogy.

What we have is one group of individuals who know through good old
genealogical research that their line goes back two generations beyond
their first American ancestor who was born in 1590 in Stourton,
Warwickshire. Some of the descendents are still living in the "village" in
Connecticut where this ancestor settled in 1635.

The new participant is in the UK and has genealogy that traces his branch
back to an ancestor also born in Stourton, Warwickshire in 1610 and we know
who his father was from parish records although at this point we don't have
much on the father but can reasonably estimate he too was born about 1590
and thus was contemporary with the American ancestor. We know the American
branch's ancestor did not have a brother named William (father of the
documented UK ancestor) and we are reasonably sure that William's father
does not fit in the family as currently known. This means we can back up
at least 3 generations from 1590 or about 75 to 105 years (using either 25
or 35 years per generation as one pleases). This puts us right at about
1500 or roughly 500 years.

The significance is that the two descendents tested (actually more) match
EXACTLY. So we know this family has branches that have not experienced any
mutations in at least 500 years. There are a couple of participants who do
have a single mutation, but from the common data we can ascertain what the
original DNA pattern was.

It is just as likely that the family may have experienced no mutations in
the previous 100 to 500 years. There is no way to tell. The basic point
is that if you match someone exactly you can use the MRCA (most recent
common ancestor) calculatoins to estimate how closely related you are, but
the range is huge. It could be anywhere from them being brothers to 20
generations or more. There simply is no way to be certain. You MUST put
the pieces together with the help of the old fashioned Genealogy. There
is no way you can step up and say "here is my DNA, please tell me what my
genealogy is"





Orin R. Wells
Wells Family Research Association
P. O. Box 5427
Kent, Washington 98064-5427
<>
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wellsfam/wfrahome.html
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• Re: [DNA] 500 years of DNA by OrinWells <>