Dave
I refer to your question "how do you collect DNA from the past - my father,
grandfather etc.....". We don't need to do that - to all intents and purposes,
the heritage DNA you have in your own body is the same as your father's, his
father's and so on - that was the inheritence I tried to explain in my previous
e-mail. So, when we compare say your DNA and mine, we are virtually comparing
all of your male ancestors with all of mine. Perhaps it's easier to understand
if you think about what happened to me. My DNA proved to be a match with the
descendants of John Chandler born 1600 in England who migrated to Virginia in
1610. It is the careful research done by the Chandler Family Association that
enables us to say that the Americans do descend from around that time. And for
my part, as far as I am aware none of my ancestors ever went to America and had
children. So the two lines - mine and the "Virginia" Chandlers - have been
separated for 400 years. So you could liken the comparison to comparing two 400
year old bodies, since the important DNA markers in 1600 John and my 16th
Century ancestor are virtually the same as those in the bodies of today's
participants in the Chandler Project who matched with me.
I hope that makes sense.
Best wishes
Dick
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