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Archiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2007-10 > 1191907464


From: Gabriela Novak <>
Subject: Re: [DNA] 60 Minutes Genetic Genealogy Segment
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 01:24:24 -0400
References: <d54.15e8b218.343c66df@aol.com>
In-Reply-To: <d54.15e8b218.343c66df@aol.com>


Considering that for most of history people didn't move around much
and that for the most part they married within close community (as I
see over and over in my family history), the Y-DNA and mtDNA
information is probably quite indicative of one's origins. I suppose
they didn't figure that into their math.
Maybe they should have reviewed a few topics from this list!
Gabriela


On 9-Oct-07, at 1:08 AM, wrote:

>
> My favorite part of the 60 Minutes transcript was:
> .
>> Hank Greely, a law professor at Stanford University,
>> has studied this new field. He worries that people don't
>> realize just how many ancestors they actually have.
> .
>> "Eight generations ago both you and I had 256
>> great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents,"
>> Greely points out. "It doubles every generation.
>> So you've got two parents. You have four grandparents.
>> You have eight great grandparents. Sixteen great-great
>> grandparents. And it adds up fast. It adds up so fast in
>> fact that if you go back 20 generations you've got over
>> a million grandparents."
> .
>> 1,048,576 to be exact. And in each generation, DNA testing
>> can provide information about only two of them.
> -----------
> If we believe Hank Greely's and Leslie Stahl's math, going
> back 40 generations would give us more than one trillion
> ancestors in that generation which would be about 10 times
> the number of people who have ever lived on earth.
> .
> See:
> _http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/02_Articles/0ct-Dec02/
> How_Many_Peopl
> e_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm_
> (http://www.prb.org/Content/ContentGroups/02_Articles/0ct-Dec02/
> How_Many_People_Have_Ever_Lived_on_Earth_.htm)
> .
> Maybe it is only Stanford law professors and news correspondents
> "who don't realize just how many ancestors they actually have."
> .
> Kathy J.
>
>
>
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