Ancestry/Genealogy
Showing Original Post only (View all)DNA testing may establish lineage going back more than 500 years [View all]
to the death of King Richard III of England in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth.
As a long-time Ricardian (one who believes that the Richard III of history is less of a villain but more a victim of Tudor propaganda), I've been following the recent story of the dig in Leicester to find the church of the Greyfriars where Richard was supposed to have been buried. It reached an exciting turn yesterday with the discovery of a skeleton which may very well be that of Richard, and it's in good condition.
What happens next is mitochondrial DNA testing to try to determine whether this is indeed the skeleton of the last Plantagenet king of England. This excerpt from an article on the Richard III Society website explains about DNA testing:
"In terms of what happens next, our plan has been to extract DNA from the skeletal material and compare the DNA with a known living relative of Richard III and see if it matches. Discussions are underway to enable this. In reality this will be a long process.
"In the first instance we will be hoping that we can extract mitochondrial DNA of sufficient quality to be able to sequence it. Mitochondrial DNA is the piece of DNA of choice for this particular project for two reasons. Mitochondrial DNA is found in hundreds to thousands of copies in our cells so it's mitochondrial DNA that is the easiest to retrieve from ancient material. Whether we will be able to retrieve any DNA depends on the conditions of the burial - cold and dry is best for DNA preservation.
"Mitochondrial DNA is passed down through the female line (in the ovum). As it's being copied to be passed down through the generations, little typos happen in the DNA sequence such that not everyone has the same mtDNA type. Siblings will all have the same mtDNA type that their mother gave them, which is the mtDNA that her mother gave her. Daughters will pass on their mtDNA type but sons will not. This means that if we have any female-line relatives we can test them to see if they match one another. Fortunately, we have this in the form of Michael Ibsen whose genealogy –it has been claimed -makes him the 17th great grand-nephew of Richard III. We hope to use the latest technologies to sequence the DNA from these skeletal remains and compare them with those of Michael Ibsen to see if the results are consistent with them being related.".
(The royal family still have a drop of Plantagenet blood, but much of the inheritance has come from the male line, so it clearly wouldn't do.)
In theory, any of us could have our DNA tested to determine our distant ancestry – not just whether it's Celtic, Roman, Viking, Gallic or anything else, but even to the area our ancestors came from. In practice, I'm sure it would not only cost a fortune, but would drive scientists crazy - there would be millions of applicants, I'm sure. But wouldn't it be fascinating to know our background from way back beyone where all records stop - in fact, before records were even thought of.
And for anyone who's interested in learning more about Richard III and the archeological dig, here's a link to the Society' website:
http://www.richardiii.net/
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