The Genographic Project is a combined effort by the National Geographic Society, IBM, geneticist Dr. Spencer Wells and the Waitt Family Foundation to understand the human journey. Now, you can send them your DNA from a cheek swab and they'll tell you where you come from; how did you get to where you live and which places did your ancestors travel through before they reached where you live.
I sent them my DNA and the results are mind blowing. They have traced out my paternal lineage all the way to the first ancestors of all humans . These guys lived in Africa 60 -70,000 years ago.
What is interesting?
1.My Ancestors, among the very first Indians: My ancestry is characterized by the M69 genetic marker. This lineage represents one of the very earliest pre-historic migrations into India. My ancestor who gave rise to this lineage was born 30,000 years ago in India or in the closest part of Central Asia.
2. Uniquely Indian Lineage: This line of descent is uniquely Indian, i.e. it is rarely found outside India. This M69 marker is found in particularly high frequencies among the South Indians, 20-25%.
3. First settlers of India proper: The M69 people along with the M20 people were the first to settle India in a big way. The ancestors of the Australian Aborigines(M130) preceded both groups, but since their's was a coastal migration, they left behind small coastal communities only.
How do they know?
They know because they can read my Y chromosome.
The genetic code of a person greatly differs from either of his parents because he or she gets 50% of his DNA from one parent and the rest from another. This genetic code cannot be used to determine deep ancestry.
What is required is a code that remains pretty much the same from generation to generation but shows small variations over hundreds of generations. The Y chromosome and the Mitochondrial DNA are of this type. The former gets transferred from father to son without change and the latter from mother to progeny of either sex. They change occassionally due to random mutations.
These mutations will act as genetic markers or id cards. If I develop such a marker, all my descendants along male lines will have those markers and can be traced back to me even after hundreds of generations.
The people at the Genographic project identify these markers and try to identify the geographical locations where these markers first appear. That way, they can trace the migration routes.
To know more, goto
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic
My Markers
The markers in my Y-Chromosome are M168, M89 and M69.
The M69 appears in the background of the M89. The marker found in 90 to 95 percent of all non-Africans. The man who gave rise to this marker was born around 45,000 years ago in northern Africa or the Middle East.
M168 is the marker of my earliest ancestor. This man, who gave rise to the first genetic marker in my lineage probably lived in northeast Africa in the region of the Rift Valley, perhaps in present-day Ethiopia, Kenya, or Tanzania, most likely around 50,000 years ago. His descendants became the only lineage to survive outside of Africa, making him the common ancestor of every non-African man living today.
My Thoughts
It is overwhelming. My ancestors were among the first people to call India their home. My line has a 30,000 year old relationship with that country. If a new generation comes up every 30 years, then this is a bond spanning across a thousand generations. Is it going to end with me?
That is really overwhelming.
