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Archiver > GENMTD > 2001-01 > 0980430028


From: Lesley Robertson <>
Subject: Re: GENEALOGY-DNA mailing list
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2001 05:40:28 -0800
References: <94cgep$g5s$1@bw-5.rootsweb.com> <94i3ni$m3q$1@bw-5.rootsweb.com>



"Richard A. Pence" <> wrote:
>
> The author said that Prince Philip was a "descendant" of the last
> Czar of Russia (I don't think so, am I wrong?) and that testing his
> DNA and others against bones and other remains found in a mass grave
> in Russia "proved" that those in the grave were the Czar and his
> family.

He shares a common "direct female ancestor" with them (mother's,
mother's etc), and thus his mitochondrial DNA was among those used
for comparison with the bones of the Romanovs. What the DNA actually
showed was that he and the skeletons all had the same female
ancestor, not who the people were. That took other, more
circumstantial evidence.

The trouble with all of this is that DNA analysis as we now have it
cannot prove a family tree. It CAN tell you if you're related to
someone if you do a complete match (remember the "bar codes" from
the OJ Simpson trial?). What most of the systems do at the moment is
to check mitochondrial DNA which is passed down from the egg
cytoplasm and not the chromosomes. This gives the "direct female"
line. Males can also be tested on their Y chromosome, which would
give the "direct male" ancestor. It won't tell anything about any of
the other lines. It'll also only show that two individuals share a
common ancestor - not who that ancestor was. I can see a lot of "his
family legend and my family legend both say that we descend from
Bonnie Prince Charlie and the DNA confirms we're related so it must
be true" claims starting up.

Without a DNA sample from BPC, you can't prove anything much.
There's not even a lot of point in grave-robbing (if you can find
the grave) since may graves were re-used and you can't be sure who
you're digging up!

{snip}

>
> I spent several years early in my life editing scientific
> publications at two major research universities and can flat-out
> tell you that some very strange inferences are being drawn for some
> rather modest tests and examples, such as the two cited above.
>

Especially once the non-specialist media get hold of them.
Lesley Robertson

Lesley Robertson <>

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