Family ancestry is beginning to take advantage of the new medical science that gives insights into our past history through the study of our genes. The Following is taken from the Daily Mail, Thursday, April 20 2000:
“We Europeans have a great deal more in common than even the most ardent Brussels official dare imagine!
We are all descended from just seven women, according to a startling genetic breakthrough.
Oxford University’s Institute for Molecular Medicine has revealed that human DNA bears the genetic signature of just seven distinct families, each of which can be traced back to one mother.
The ‘Seven Daughters of Eve’ have been identified – and given names- by Professor of Human Genetics Bryan Sykes. They lived up to 45,000 years ago, surviving wolves, bears and an ice age.
Professor Sykes, who used samples taken from 6,000 people in 20 countries, said yesterday: ‘This cuts through the hard science of genetics to show that these were real people, who lived real lives.’
He traced the maternal ancestry of all 6,000 subjects through a type of cell DNA which is passed down the maternal line.
Researchers were able to identify how long ago the mothers were alive by identifying the number of mutations in the DNA. These occur roughly every 10,000 years.
Professor Sykes, who has been working on the project since 1996, said: ‘Each time a European takes a breath, he or she is using the same genes to metabolise the oxygen as one of those seven women. It brings it all alive to think that these were real people who had to survive, and that we have a direct, unbroken line to them.’
With the help of archaeological information, he was able to build up a picture of the Seven Daughters of Eve.
Helena had the most abundant offspring. They have settled in every corner of the continent. She lived near the glacier-covered Pyrenees, with her family reaching Britain about 12,000 years ago.
The oldest was Ursula, who lived approximately 45,000 years ago in northern Greece. Tara lived in the forested Tuscan hills 17,000 years ago. Professor Sykes has traced his own DNA back to her.
Xenia lived 25,000 years ago in the Caucasus Mountains near the Black Sea, with her clan spreading as far afield as America.
The descendents of Katrine, who lived 10,000 years ago near Venice, still live in the Alps.
Valda lived 17,000 years ago alongside Ursula’s clan in Spain. As the ice age ended they both pushed north, becoming the Lapps of northern Finland and Norway.
Jasmine was born in Syria. Her clan was one of the first to inhabit semi-permanent settlements, teaching agriculture to others as they spread across Europe.