Genetic Genealogy: Applying Genetics To Traditional Genealogy Methods
When genetics are applied to the traditional methods of genealogy, it is said to be genetic genealogy which often involves using genealogical DNA testing in order to find out exactly how different individuals are related through their genes. The first known instance of investigation into surnames through genetics was attributed to George Darwin who was none other than the son of Charles Darwin. Thus, George Darwin began to use surnames in estimating how often first-cousin marriages took place and then came up with means to find how likely two people would be to marry while having the same surname.
Y-Chromosomes Testing
This was a very innovative study for its time, and we had to wait till the nineties before locations on Y-chromosomes could be identified and put to use in order to trace inheritances between males. And, once genealogical DNA testing began to be widely available as well as affordable, genetic genealogy took off rapidly and by the year 2003, testing surnames through use of DNA was officially deemed to have arrived and there was a consequent increase in the number of companies that began to offer such tests, and consumers too began to avail of such services in greater numbers.
Genetic genealogy really came to be accepted when another milestone in the form of Genographic Project took place, which was a five-year project for researching genes that was undertaken by the National Geographic Society in combination with IBM. In the present times, there are two common forms of genetic genealogy tests which are Y-DNA or paternal line and the mtDNA or maternal line which are genealogical DNA tests that involve comparing certain sequences of DNA pairs of certain individuals with a view to estimating whether there is any possibility of their sharing common ancestry in genealogical time period.
There have been many astonishing findings that show the link between the Phoenicians of ancient times with the present populace living in Malta. In addition, through genealogical DNA testing methods, it is possible to even trace over a longer period of time patterns of human migration and also find out when the first humans came to North America and even the means by which they arrived there.
As far as typical customers for genetic genealogy go, it is normal for males to go in for Y-chromosome testing in order to find out their paternal ancestors while women would more than likely begin by taking mitochondrial tests in order to find out their maternal lineage.
