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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2006-05 > 1147776486


From: "Lawrence Mayka" <>
Subject: RE: [DNA] RE: Amazing article about genetics -- please help
Date: Tue, 16 May 2006 05:48:06 -0500
In-Reply-To: <44693C0F.9020302@mchsi.com>


> From: Rebekah [mailto:]
> Then there is the size of the particular gene pool any one of our
> ancestors was in fifteen generations ago. I am sure that for
> some of My
> ancestors it was a tiny little puddle.;-)

Good point. For example, an Eastern European serf living on a small manor
owned by a minor lord probably had to pick a spouse from one of the other
serf families on the manor--a rather small gene pool, particularly during a
population bottleneck such as a plague or famine.

On the one hand, this does mean that the descendant of such a small
community may have a rather small number of ancestors in each earlier
generation, and hence may have inherited a significant number of genes from
each.

But on the other hand, this casts further doubt on the Charlemagne
('everyone is royalty') hypothesis. It means that for some people, ancestry
has stayed within a small community for hundreds or even thousands of years.
The Samaritans are one well-known example.


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