Some of you may have just read (or heard) about the new five year project announced by the
National Geographic Society to gather 100,000 blood samples from indigenous populations
around the world. Dr. Spencer Wells is leading the program (he wrote "The Journey
of Man" and was featured on a PBS production in the past). This project is tracking
ancient, "deep" ancestry (haplogroups) - before there were surnames. If you
are fuzzy on this "deep" ancestry thing - links to some maps are at the end of
this post.
The project includes a "Public Participation Kit" for others to join the project
for about a hundred bucks - for a Y or mtDNA test. The "public" kit will not
require a blood sample - just a simple inner rubbing inside cheek (that's what we use
in our project). The blood samples will be processed at 10 facilities through out the
world and the "public" kits will be processed by the lab we use in our DNA
project. The results will be anonymous but will be on a public web site (as long as one
does not loose the secret code assigned - because once assigned, even the project
won't be able to send you a new one).
Many of us who admin DNA surname projects - and subscribe to the rather formidable
RootsWeb discussion list - are looking at all the news reports (some are confused!) and
are eagerly awaiting more details. For example, one can already test for 12 (Y STR)
markers in a group project for the same price as the above "public" kit - but
haplogroups determine "deep ancestry" and require a SNP test. Those of us
using DNA for contemporary genealogy want STR markers and don't care much about SNP
tests. Here's a link to a post by the admin of the RootsWeb DNA with links to several
of the articles about the new project (cut and paste if it wraps):
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2005-04/1113443580
If you have been thinking about DNA for your contemporary research and think the
project's "public" kit is the way to go -wait until a bit until more is
known (and/or send me an email).
Georgia
Georgia Kinney Bopp
Kinney, McKinney & Variations Surname Project
Lenhart & Variations DNA Surname Project
English & Variations DNA Surname Project
Deep ancestry is the type of thing underlying the "Daughters of Eve" (mtDNA)
book that some of you have read.
Links to these maps may "wrap" so be sure to cut and paste if need be
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/050200sci-genetics-evolut...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/photogalleries/journey_of...
And/or
If you want to see some Y (SNP) and mtDNA haplogroup distributions - go here (keep paging
to see both maps)
http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mcdonald/WorldHaplogroupsMaps.pdf