Papa Was a Rolling Stone


So you want to know more about your paternal ancestry. Maybe you don't know your dad, or paternal grandfather. Maybe you know your paternal line for the last 10 generations, but want to connect to living cousins or get an idea about your genealogy from beyond written history. And maybe you don't know what the difference is in genetic tests and expect this to do something it won't. I'm here to help.

My Story
So I've talked about it before: my father's father (my paternal grandfather) was illegitimate. We knew it, but didn't talk about it. We had a surname possibility, but no leads and the man in question definitely denied paternity. Before genetic genealogy, this branch was essentially a dead end. Now that there are relatively affordable direct-to-consumer DNA tests, I can find out more about this line.... if I can get a male in the family to agree to do some testing. I can't test myself, because I'm female.

This is my family tree (my brother the home person). As you can see, I don't have information on my paternal grandfather's father. A Y-Chromosome test could potentially lead to some answers.

Why Men?
If you don't know Bryan Sykes, you need to get on the ball! He's pretty much "The Man" in genetic genealogy. He's also written several books that can go deeper than any one blogger could even imagine on the subject of genetics. There are many in the field, but he's going to be a name you need to know (like Anjou when talking royalty). At the very beginnings of genetic genealogy, Sykes researched men with his surname and looked at four markers on the Y Chromosome to see if they matched in any significant way. They did. Another study used the Y Chromosome information for men with clear Jewish lineages from the Cohen surname. Again, it was believed that these men would be more closely related to each other than to the average man off the street. They were and this lead to more refining of the methods of mapping and grouping the mutations of the Y Chromosome. The methodology was expanded and improved until it was finally offered to regular people by a company named GeneTree in 1997. In the early days, the market (and technology) was all about paternity testing. It's grown from those four simple markers to up to 111.

So why is this a male only test? Why did research focus on men only? First, the basics: the Y Chromosome is male-only. A father passes it to his son. The son passes it down to his son. The "markers" we talk about are STRs (Short Tandem Repeats). The longer the segment, the closer the match. Because the Y Chromosome is specifically from father to son, it was a perfect way to test theories on genetic inheritance. The 22 autosomal chromosomes can swap information between pairs and pass information from both parents down to the child, leading to confusing results. The first research used good old fashioned family history and new fangled DNA testing to prove men with the same surname were related. This was then expanded to prove how small groups of men were related farther in time to other groups of men (connecting people together to a time before surnames existed).

All men are considered to be related to "Y Chromosome Adam". This is the MRCA (Most Recent Common Ancestor) for all men in the entire world. Depending on the study and the theory in action, a DNA company's report will have "Adam" as living anywhere from 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. As "Adam" had sons, those men separated and populated the world. Occasionally a mutation would occur. These became haplogroups. These groups further broke down into smaller communities with their own mutations. When a man is tested, he finds out his haplotype. Basically, he learns what subset of what community of what group of what branch of "Adam" he belongs to.

Let's put this another way any genealogist will understand. Consider "Adam" to be Adam Smith. Mr. Smith has two sons, John Smith and James Smith. John travels to West Africa and starts a family there. James prefers Asia. John has two sons, Caden and Casey. Caden  heads to Europe; Casey sticks around in Africa. James also has two sons, Michael and Mordecai. Michael heads so far east, he ends up in North America. Mordecai heads from Asia to Australia. So you're doing your family research into the Smith line and you find out that your grandfather Moses is the son of Mordecai. You will be more closely related to the great grandsons of Michael than you will be the great grandsons of Caden. And because of this closer connection, you know more about the migratory pattern of your family. You can focus your efforts on other Smiths who have history in Australia even if they don't know how they connect to the tree of Adam. And any adoptee who uses DNA testing and finds out they are the descendant of Mordecai can compare their results to yours (if you choose to make them public). The closer you are related to the adoptee, the closer they get to knowing where their paternal line started.

 Choosing What Family to Test


S/P means the child died without producing a biological child. Assuming the rest of the tree represents living relatives, to find out about the common male (top), I would need to test a connected male relative. A daughter (or a child of a daughter) will do me no good.

So who should you test? Because this is a male-only test, women are excluded. If you are a woman, you'll need a male relative. Also, because this is father to son, having your brother tested to find your mother's father won't help. The pedigree chart can be helpful to visualise who is "eligible" for testing. Take the photo above as an example. The man at the top is our Mystery Father. He has 5 sons who live long enough to have children. (Note the S/P for "sans progeny". Those children didn't live long enough to produce children.) The daughters and their children are of no use as they won't have the Y Chromosome needed, so I crossed them out. The sons have their own children and I cross out the granddaughters. Grandsons, great grandsons, great great grandsons...... the better your research into the tree, the more possible tests. You only need one.... unless you worry about nonpaternity events (which I will discuss in "Caveats"). If you want mom's dad, you'll need mom's brother or uncle to test.

What Company to Choose
Family Tree DNA (ftdna.com) has a sale for their 12 marker test right now. That's only 12 markers, so it will give you cousin matches from 29 generations ago. Genealogically useless, but it's a start. And they store your tests so you can upgrade later or order a different test, so the intro price is a great way to store the DNA of older relatives who may not be around when you're actually ready to test. There are three other levels (36, 64, 111) that are progressively more expensive. The more markers tested, the closer your matches will be. The 111 marker test can match you within 4 generations.

National Geographic also has a Y Chromosome test. The bonus of their test is that for $200, they test your father's line, your mother's line and your autosomal chromosomes. The drawback is the wait. I'm on 2 months of waiting to hear if they've even received my sample. And from what friends have told me, it'll be a long time before I get my results. If you're impatient to know the truth, this isn't the test for you. Still, the value is worth the wait. While Nat. Geo. won't directly connect you to relatives (they are doing it as a scientific "how we all relate" kind of study), you can take your results to several other sites and connect to people who've taken tests on many platforms.

There are more, but these are the big two and should be the first you consider. With ANY large and important purchase like this, read as much as you can. Read their blogs, watch their videos. Find out how they test, how long results typically take, and what support they offer. Stick to sites that people know and trust. Watch out for sites with similar sounding names to popular companies. Make sure you are on the site you want to be on! Also note that some companies are strictly paternity tests. They will require two people to test to prove one is the father of the other (or that two men share a father). They aren't for genealogy research.

The Caveats
1. This is a male only test. If you are a woman, you can't take it. I'm sorry, I wish you could, but you can't. If you are an only child, this test will not be able to tell you about your father.

2. Because you may need to test another person, be ready to answer questions by doing a lot of research. Be able to tell that other person what company you are using. What the results may show. How they will participate (most tests require the subject not eat or drink before giving a sample). What the realistic turnaround time is. How you will use their results: Do you want to make them public so you can connect to living relatives or will you keep them private and are only satisfying your own curiosity. The more you know before you ask for their help, the more likely they will help.

3. The number of markers matters. Like I said, you can buy the introductory $49 test with 12 markers just to get your foot in the door, but you won't find much to help your research.

4. And more markers means more money. Even at the "high" prices, however, I'd like to point out how affordable DNA research has become in less than 20 years. We couldn't even dream of something like this a mere two decades ago. Be thankful that it costs as little as it does.

5. DNA test are non-refundable. Notice I used red, underlined an italicised bold-faced large font "non-refundable". If you don't like the results, tough tits. The labs aren't out to get you, that's your DNA.

Which brings me to my last caveat. The real big one.
6. Be as prepared as you can for a Non-Paternity Event (NPE). This means that someone's father isn't who you think it is. You could take the test and find out your father isn't your father. Or that your grandfather isn't your father's father. Or that a thousand years ago...... well, someone wasn't who they thought they were. And you can say all day you are ready and not be ready for it. I wish I could tell you how to prepare for such an event, but I can't. I can only tell you that it can happen and it does happen. If you can't see the man you called "father" as your father if your DNA says he isn't, then don't take this test! If you test someone else and find out they aren't related to the man they thought was their father........... God help you.

In the End
Now, I know about at least one NPE in my father's line. I've taken an autosomal test and my brother has taken the National Geographic "full service" test. When all the results are in, I'll be able to compare autosomal segments and confirm we are full siblings (really, we look like twins, and we both look like our father, so I'm not really worried). IF we are, I can then use his Y Chromosome results to connect to people who are related to our grandfather's real father. My father has no interest in knowing anything about this. In fact, he worries for everyone taking these tests, not myself specifically. He worries about those folks finding the NPE and having an identity crisis. And I tell him, "it happens". Some people can't handle it. But it's like taking a trip to a foreign country or learning to ski. You can either handle the challenge or you can't. And you don't really know until you try. Still, he doesn't want me to try. And I respect his opinions, but I'm still curious. He may not want to know about his "real" grandfather, but to be honest, neither do I. I am curious about the possibility of finding living relatives, but I asked my brother to take this particular test just to know without connecting to others. I had my brother tested via National Geographic and Family Tree DNA. Like I said, I'm still waiting on National Geographic. FTDNA, however, is a little quicker. I only did the 12 marker test, so again, not going to tell me about my great grandfather. BUT I did notice that the majority of matches had the same surname as the rumored father of my grandfather. Not conclusive proof, but encouraging. I could pay for the upgrade and know more, but I am willing to wait for the full results from National Geographic.

And what about telling dad? Well, I've decided not to. I've approached him about a test for his mother's maternal line (to be covered in the mtDNA test post to come), but even that is getting pushback. So he's not interested, fine. And if I find out my brother is not my brother? I've already made the decision to keep that to myself. My brother has no real interest, but supports my genealogy obsession. His reward will be to only hear the good stuff. I want to test some cousins on the Ancestry.com autosomal test. That isn't male specific and won't tell me about their paternal lines definitively, but could indicate they aren't related to me and/or my brother when I compare the results. Will I tell them of an NPE? NO. I may think my father is over worrying the situation, but I agree with him on one thing: it's not my place to break that news. I've asked my mother to choose some cousins on her side to test. I told her about NPEs. At first she said, "oh, well I have a half-brother, but we'll test my sisters' kids instead." I know what she was assuming. That being her sisters, we could all be sure that their mother was their mother and we weren't really worried about their father's side (at this point). I had to remind my mother that if her sisters have a different father, my cousins won't come up as a match to me. She agreed that if that happens, no one knows that but me. Even she doesn't want to know that one. But she still wants two cousins tested. If all goes well, she wants herself and two sisters (one half, one full) to be tested. And to know more about her father, we're trying to contact her father's very elderly brother. Again, with the understanding that I could find out that they aren't related and that no one but me will know that. You'll have to make that decision for your family too. Talk to your close relatives and be open to their concerns. You'll know best if they can handle the whole truth.

But first you need to know if you can handle it.
-Ana

DNA Basics

After much back and forth on how to continue my DNA series, I have come to one conclusion: if this series doesn't kill me, I am immortal. There is so much info, so many companies, so many misconceptions...... if I so chose, I could write about it for the rest of my natural life. My brain would explode from overwork, but as long as you understand what we're doing, right? As previously mentioned, I am in the waiting process on a few DNA tests and I will share those results when available. I also plan to discuss the different companies available in it's own post (along with how to avoid disreputable websites). I am writing three posts, one for each of the common DNA tests used by genealogists as well. On top of that, I also want to discuss privacy laws concerning DNA results and may have to make a separate post so as to not overwhelm you. And yet.... and yet today I find myself writing about what DNA is. I have been reading forums, blogs, Facebook pages, FAQs for a dozen companies, etc. and I have learned one thing: there are people who don't know enough of the basics of genetics to have any use for these tests. Today, I plan to give you something of a glossary or reference post that you can use to help you navigate words and concepts you may have not seen since high school (if at all).

Starting with the Base Pairs

Nucleotide pair
A Nucleotide pair (or Base Pair) is the starting point of DNA. There are four nucleotide molecules: Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine, and Guanine. Adenine pairs with Thymine, Cytosine with Guanine. This is important, because the order that the nucleotides are put in is the blueprint of everything. If a nucleotide is paired with the wrong partner during copying, the error becomes known as a Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP). It's these SNP's that are reviewed during a DNA test to determine your ancestors' possible origins and connect you with potential cousins. A gene is what we call a series of nucleotides. An allele is what we call versions of a gene. For example, there is a gene for the color of your eyes (a few actually, but let's keep this simple). While brown eyes are dominant, there is a mutation that allows for light colors like grey, blue and green. The color of your eyes indicates which allele you have (what version of the gene). Another way to put it: if computer operating systems were a gene, Windows 8, Vista, and Windows ME would be alleles. They all do the same thing. They all started off in the same place. But every new generation changed the basic code a little. (And just like a gene, if it doesn't make life easier, the organism dies.)

Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)
DNA is a series of base pairs held together by a sugar bond. When DNA is copied (for use in making proteins, or in making new DNA for new cells), the base pairs separate. New nucleotides attach to the "unzipped" DNA to copy the information. The most common shape that people recognise is the "Double Helix". When human DNA is compressed, it twists into the helix shape. However, DNA can come in many shapes. In the mitochondria, DNA is shaped into a circle.

Chromosome
Technically, the picture to the right is a Chromatid. However, many sources will use "chromosome" interchangeably with a single chromatid and a pair of chromatids, so it's important you know what we're really talking about. DNA is compressed into the chromosome shape when it's preparing to make a new cell (mitosis) or a gamete (meiosis). A gamete is the science-y term for a sperm or an egg. When a sperm or an egg is made, they get 23 chromosomes (chromatids). A human requires 46 total chromosomes in 23 pairs. You receive one set from your dad, and it's twin set from your mom. The first 22 chromosome pairs are what we call "autosomal". When we discuss ethnicity tests, we're going to be talking about the information found on these 22 pairs. The last pair is your sex chromosomes. Females only have X chromosomes. Men have one X and one Y. So, if you are a male, you received your father's Y chromosome. If you are a female, his X.


So if we want to know more about your father's specific line, a Y chromosome test would be helpful. But only if you are a male (since women don't have a Y chromosome to test). This test usually looks for Short Tandem Repeats (STR). DNA can carry a lot of "junk" and repeats. When a base pair is repeated in a connected sequence, it's known as an STR. Y chromosome testing that looks at the length and frequency of particular STRs helps to determine a man's haplotype. A haplotype is considered the more recent ancestry markers. There's also a haplogroup. Haplogroups are usually determined by looking at SNPs. A haplotype is usually grouped with similar haplotypes into a haplogroup. A haplogroup, therefore, is considered more ancient DNA. Now, because X chromosomes are passed down from both parents, it's not considered helpful for finding out about a mother's ancestry specifically. Mitochondria, however, is passed down only by women. So an mtDNA test will test the DNA inside of mitochondria (that circular DNA) to determine a person's maternal ancestry.

How DNA Can Change

Deletion
During the copy process, portions of DNA can accidentally be skipped. This is deletion. As long as what is deleted isn't necessary for proper functions of the organism, it's not lethal.







Insertion
Insertion is when new sequences of DNA is added to the strand. This is how STRs are born. For whatever reason, nucleotides are repeatedly copied in the same order, leading to an insertion of genes that are superfluous. Again, unless it's going to affect the proper functions of the organism, it's not lethal. Insertions are usually considered "junk" DNA because it's also not going to improve the functions of the organism.

Translocation
This is the really important one and I left it for last so you could let it sink in tonight after reading this post. When a gamete is being made, the chromosome pairs are copied. So there are 92 chromosomes. These 92 chromosomes are separated into four gametes. The crazy thing is, that the "autosomal" chromosomes have this stupid habit of swapping genes. So it becomes a genetic dice roll as to what chromosome will be in what gamete and which gamete will make one half of you. You can end up with 0% of any particular ancestor. And the farther back that ancestor is, the more likely you'll not receive any of their ethnicity markers. Also, because of this swapping, autosomal tests don't differentiate between your mother's side of your DNA and your father's. It's just not possible.

So you take an autosomal test hoping to prove you're Native American and it doesn't show up, or your test reveals more West African than your tree would suggest. Does that mean your family is wrong about your tribal heritage? Not really. It just doesn't help prove it. And really, if you have Native American DNA, it doesn't necessarily prove your great grandmother was actually a Cherokee. It can be an error (I'll talk about accuracy in testing ethnicities later) or ancient DNA that you were lucky enough to receive. While DNA can be fun, it's useless to a genealogist without documentation.

But that is a tale for another day,
-Ana

The Life of PIE

Around 3600 BCE (give or take a millenia or two), humans of an area that may have included India and Eastern Europe (give or take a few thousand miles in any direction) spoke what linguists call Proto-Indo-European (PIE). As people spread out, conquered or were conquered, and assimilated the indigenous people around them, they began to live too far or too isolated from other related tribes. Their new environment was different from their now-distant cousin's world. Because of those environmental differences, their language gained new words, invented slang, and deleted words no longer needed. I know what you're thinking... "Come on, lady! You said you were doing a DNA series!" Well, I assure you, this is a great tie-in. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

A (very) small representation of the "family tree" of Proto-Indo-European languages

Proto-Indo-European is essentially the mother-tongue of thousands of languages. PIE was the parent of Proto-Albanian, Proto-Armenian, Proto-Anatolian, Proto-Balto-Slavic, Proto-Celtic, Proto-Germannic, Proto-Greek, Proto-Indo-Iranian, Proto-Italic and Proto-Tocharian. To be sure, some researchers add more "children", some add less. Sadly, Proto-Anatolian and Proto-Tocharian have no living languages, having been replaced by the language of conquering peoples thousands of years ago. Proto-Albanian and Proto-Armenian mothered modern Albanian and Armenian, respectively (no siblings for these children!). All the others added several grandchildren (and a few great great great great grandchildren) to PIE's family tree. So what does this have to do with genetics? While a true scientific corollary between genes and language is still controversial, its hard to argue that a rough pattern doesn't exist. As man emerged from a singular origin point, he adapted to new environments. He became hairier in cold climates, had more sweat glands added in humid ones. He developed disease immunities and food allergies. Not every mutation is good, but any mutation that makes it to the next generation is a "winner".

I love talking languages almost as much as I like talking genealogy (sometimes it's a dead heat). One thing I enjoy using when talking about language is my first name, Starr. There is no language that I know of that doesn't have a word for "star". So it's a perfect way to illustrate the connectivity of language. And I can use that to illustrate some of the concepts of genetic genealogy that you need in order to set expectations and choose the right tests for your research. You'll note in the pictures above and below that some words are in red. Each is the word for "star" in the neighboring language. If the large tree above is too small (click to enlarge), Proto-Indo-European has the word H'ster. As you follow the branches, you'll see similarities follow through to almost every connected language. Because of accent, slang or some other mutation due to unique environments, each language changes the word just a little bit. But PIE still lives inside.



I put Persian and Urdu in their alphabet so you could see the spelling similarities and the other three in Roman characters to show a similarity of pronunciation.

Naturally, no one speaks PIE now. In fact, PIE existed (if it did exist) long before written word and we speak offshoots that have small similarities to PIE. So how do we prove PIE? Well, linguists noticed that Spanish, Italian, French and Romanian (and many others) all had similar words. This branch was easily connected to Latin (the language of Roman conquerors who tore through most of Europe all the way to England), because scholars and churches still used Latin. the gradual change from the mother-tongue to what's called the Romance Languages was documented by their written records. Knowing when a document was created, researchers were able to identify when a spelling or total word change (mutation) happened and connect it to an earlier form of the language until they reached the purer form of Vulgar Latin (there is a so-called Church Latin that is a bit more formal). Scientists took other languages and studied their words, grammars and date of first recorded use to help group the languages together and link them to similar but now dead languages. Parent languages were determined by having the same or similar words as all their resulting languages, but missing the differences of invented words. If 3 languages have the same or similar word for bicycle, but different words for car, then their parent language had no word for car, but a similar word for bicycle. As I point out in the photo above, Sanskrit uses the word Tara for "star". Vedic Sanskrit must have a similar word, because Sanskrit's sister, Prakrit, has children that use the same sounds in their words (Sitara and Takara). Also note that Persian is Urdu's 2nd cousin once removed, but their spelling for the word star is very similar. To be that close, linguists argue, Proto-Indo-European (or an intervening now dead language) had to have had a similar word and alphabet. By tracing when the differences pop up, linguists can get a rough guess of when a population diverged from it's siblings.

While language "mutation" doesn't follow gene mutation exactly, the way geneticists determine parent genes is very similar to how linguists determine parent languages. When a gene strand, let's call it Ted, mutates, scientists mark the mutation. So after generations, four people decide to test their DNA. Judy has TedAB, Frank has TedABC, Mikki has TedABD, and Bernardo has TedAE. Obviously, Judy, Frank and Mikki are related more closely since they have the A and B mutations. Frank's family tree is documented to, say, Italy. Mikki is from Russia and Judy has documented Indian heritage for at least 10 generations. So scientists reason mutation C is an Italian mutation and D is an Russian mutation. At some point in the past (probably earlier than Mikki's family has documented), Frank and Mikki's ancestors were in India. Bernardo's family is less connected because he doesn't have the B mutation. At some point in ancient unknown history, Bernardo's family left the main group with the TedA mutation prior to the B mutation. Using historical documents and as many living test subjects as one can, scientists build an algorithm that guesses the most likely migration pattern of the Ted gene. Bernardo's family is connected to a large population of E mutations who still live in China. A scientist's best guess would be that the original TedA group split up with some going to India and some to China. But where did A come from? With more tests, scientists find a group of West Africans who have TedF. No A. An isolated tribe in South Africa is discovered and tested. They have TedFG. Aha! So their family originated from somewhere in West Africa. But where is the original Ted gene? As far as anyone could tell, since no one has found an unmutated Ted gene, the origins have to be somewhere between North and West Africa. That's a lot of mileage to cover. The more people who are tested, the more who have good documentation of their own personal family migration, scientists can make the picture of when and how Ted began to mutate clearer.



Note how similar all those "sibling" languages are. (And not too far from their "cousin" Greek.)

When Richard III was recently discovered, scientists used two documented living relatives of Richard's sister and tested their mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is passed directly from mother to child with no interference from the father's side (with few exceptions). Their mutations are specific. One can watch the family tree of mtDNA grow and see where the changes were made. The more mutative markers that match between two people's mtDNA, the more closely related their direct maternal line. It's still a bit of a best guess, but because of matches in the mtDNA (and other physical proofs), scientists feel confident enough to declare they have found Richard III. When you have your own DNA tested, whether it be the ethnicity (autosomal) test, Y chromosome, or mitochondrial DNA, you'll be matched against living people who have taken the test. You'll be connected to people who have the same mutations. The more mutations in common, the closer you're connected to that person. To find out if you are related to someone who is deceased (whether it be your unknown great grandfather or Charlemagne), you'll be matched to living people who have a documented proof for their connection. If there is no hard proof that a living person is connected to the deceased person in question, you will not be able to prove a connection yourself.



Compare this to their Latin and Greek "cousins". Also note, Irish and Scot Gaelic have another name for "star" that is Seren or close to it. I wanted to show a variant that also has a similar "cousin".



Now, chances are you're reading this blog in English. Are you from England? Are your parents? If I went through your tree for 10 generations, would I find only English ancestry (1022 directly related people all from England)? I'm guessing not. English is of German origin. This is better seen in Old English rather than Modern English. Why? Because English has had influence from several languages since it's beginning. We no longer use "thee" and "thou", which interestingly were originally spelled with a letter that looked very similar to a y. When we dropped that letter, we replaced it with y (and that's how "thou" became "you"). We borrow from other modern languages for "taco", "kimono", and "aloha". We have thousands of borrowed or improved words from Latin, because it was the language of scholars and conquerors for so long. Prior to today's post, you may not have realised that English, Hindu and Albanian are cousins. But if you heard all three, you may have noticed similar sounds, words, or alphabets. Many people can mistakenly believe they are understanding a foreign language, because of these similarities that transcend written history.

In genetics, mutations come in several forms. A gene can be deleted (goodbye to "thee" and "panchymagogue"). Or a gene can be mistranscribed in only one spot (what's called an SNP or single nucleotide polymorphism). This would be like the confusion of there/their or your/you're in English. A gene can be inverted (copied upside down). Similar to my new pet peeve: people who literally use literally wrong. I've already mentioned borrowed words. In genetics, that would be translocation or insertion. Every human gets 23 chromosomes from mom and 23 from dad. One pair is the sex chromosomes of XX or XY. The other 22 pairs are called autosomal and they provide most of our genetic makeup. In a chromosome pair, sometimes a gene will be transferred from mom's gene to dad's gene (or vice versa). Sometimes they'll swap genes. What this means is that when a cell is divided to make the egg or sperm, the half that is made the egg/sperm may have more or less of mom or dad in it because of which chromosome makes it to the new cell. The child made from this combination isn't an exact 25% of each grandparent and can be missing an ethnicity marker or have more than documentation would allow. You'll notice in the photo above the different words in Irish and Scots Gaelic that don't really seem to fit. There are many words for "star" in many languages and Irish Gaelic also uses "seren" like Welsh does. And because of the influence of English (due to German invaders and modern prevalence), Welsh also accepts "star" in conversation. Irish and Scots share a different word that suggests an indigenous tribes of human predate Celts and were replaced (the now defunct father-language translocated it's native word into the Celtic mother-language). And the English word "star" has been inserted into the Celtic languages.



These are so close to each other, they might as well be the "John Smith" of language!



Ideally, both linguists and geneticists want to find isolated groups of people to test. The more remote and insular, the better. Because of the large influence of Latin, it shows up in English despite English's Germannic origins. The above enlargement of the Proto-Balto-Slavic branch of PIE's family tree shows what scientists really hate to find. Proto-Balto-Slavic covers Central to Eastern Europe and a great deal of Asia. Where did it start? How long ago did it break away from PIE? Is Macedonian really a cousin of Croatian, or are they siblings? Where's the conclusive proof? There is none really. It's all a best guess. Researchers look at when languages were first documented. They identify the earliest known ethnic identity that is specifically different from it's neighbor. And then they guess. (Seriously.) Anyone who has studied the history of the countries involved here knows that the borders changed more frequently than Taylor Swift's boyfriends. So where does one draw the line? Where does Lithuania end and Poland begin?

In genetics, this problem runs rampant. Anyone dealing with high Scandinavian or missing German ethnic markers knows what I mean. The Euro-Asiatic land mass was large and relatively accessible. People were coming and going and conquering and being conquered all of the time. One group would win today only to lose tomorrow. So testing for their specific location markers is difficult. A mutation may have originated in Scandinavia, but the vikings ran rampant all over the place (more than once). And we all know about Genghis Khan! While the labs get more tests and refine the algorithms used to decide where Central Europe turns into Eastern Europe, we just have to be patient. As far as Native American markers, many people want to know the specific tribe they belong to. That isn't possible, because so many tribes traded and intermarried leaving no definitive mutations that point to one tribe over another.



Albanian and Armenian have changed a bit from their beginnings, but have no siblings. All Proto-Anatolian and Proto-Tocharian languages are now extinct, but notice how close they are to others like Welsh!

 The photo above shows two still living languages (Albanian and Armenian) that have no siblings. Their respective orgin tribes remained isolated and insular to the point that they remained purer to the original PIE. Before you start pointing it out, Yll may have at one time been Hyll and before that something closer to H'ster. Note also the two dead branches of Anatolian (which had the documented language of Hittite among others before going extinct) and Tocharian. Both of them share similarities to other branches of the tree that were geographically isolated from them. Linguists argue that the only way that is possible is if they have a common ancestor. Researchers hope to one day connect PIE to it's sibling languages from around the world into a higher Proto language and go higher still. Few people give any credence to studies that try right now as there is so much we don't know that it's all guesswork. It'd be the genealogical equivalent of connecting your grandmother to Adam and Eve.

Geneticists are also trying to find our origins, but have the same problems. Humans move and mate a lot. It's difficult to detrmine if the markers in a group's DNA are exclusive to them or a larger group. It's near impossible to be definitive on whether it proves a connection to nearby neighbors or indicates a deeper, older connection to a long dead group. All reasonable research shows a common origin point of Africa and a general migration patern from there, but genealogists want something more definitive. And it's just not there yet. It really is more guess than science right now. Should we give up on it? Not at all! The more tests taken by more people, the more information we have to narrow down the results. The science, just like humans, is in constant evolution.

And I just realised I also illustrated why no one can define an origin point for a surname either. Dang, I'm good.
-Hoshi