From: Mark Odegard
Message: 4632
Date: 2000-11-11
----- Original Message -----From: Piotr GasiorowskiThe identification of the "ten fathers" with actual mass migrations is crazy. Here's an authentic example to illustrate what I mean. My Y chromosome DNA comes from just one of my four great-grandfathers; he came from what is now the Czech Republic. The other three, whose overall contribution to my genetic constitution is three times as great, were Polish; so were all my greatgrandmothers. This means that my Y chromosome tells just a tiny fragment of the entire story of my genome, and not even a particularly important one.
In no way do I dispute the flawless validity of Piotr's point.But I also make the point that these tests are combined with careful geneaological investigation, their validity becomes more interesting the further back you can go, for the simple reason that people did not move that much in times past. I've seen something (someplace) that suggests most of those who claim to be a Jewish Cohen (Levites, priests) indeed all share common male-line descent, while those who do not make such claims mostly don't share this Cohen trait.An extremely interesting experiment would be to test the genealogically attested descendants of Hugh Capet, in the direct male line (including acknowledged bar sinisters). There would of course be some suprises, but it is certain we would get a snapshot of HC's Y-chromosome. I wonder what Luis Alfonso (by primogeniture, the (legitimate) heir-male of HC) and the rest of the Capet clan would say to such a request.Mark.