Greetings Why should all people move from their origins? The fact is that they do not. Whilst Cheddar man's mother had her origins in the Middle East it also allows for the fact that some of her descendants still remain in the Middle East. DNA signatures are common. eg; Crusaders left their Y-DNA signatures in the Middle East during the crusades. I believe that only a small number of local people {20} were tested in the study by Sykes in Cheddar and in that study three people were found to be closely related. I suggest that that makes the point quite strongly. Relatively speaking, there is a very small amount of DNA to go around so we all share a relatively small DNA heritage. My own family history underscores this evidence very clearly. My ancestors were Angles or Saxons that came to the area around Cirencester in Gloucestershire circa C5 from what is now northern Germany. There are people in Germany today who are related to me. Members of the family still live around Cirencester today, but after the industrial revolution, many began moving to other parts of the UK and also abroad. Wherever my family go, a DNA footprint will be left. It is the same for everyone else and that is how genetic genealogy allows deep ancestry to be traced. Genetic genealogy also allows family connections to be found amongst today's populations. I have found family connections in the US about which I previously had no knowledge. Some do not bear the same family name, because our common ancestor was alive before names were adopted. Regards John Message: 2 Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 11:12:23 -0000 From: "Giles" <gilesoakley@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: Re: [B&S] Cheddar Man To: <bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <0C5E96A6A6EE4E1B987EDE9A7085B869@userPC> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original I didn't see the Breakfast programme, but I would have thought that the presenter's surprise at people living in the locality today having the same DNA as Cheddar Man would arise from amazement that there would be genetic continuity in one place over so many centuries, rather than surprise that we are all descended from ancient folk. After all, if Cheddar Man's DNA points to a Middle Eastern origin, which suggests considerable movement over time, why would one expect to find his direct descendants still living there today? I don't even live where my parents lived, nor where my grandparents lived, or my great grandparents, or great great grandparents, let alone anyone from thousands of years ago.To me it's mind-boggling that descendants of Cheddar Man are still to be found there. He must have been a helluva Big Cheese! Giles Oakley ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Ritchings" <johnr@stnectan.demon.co.uk> To: <bristol_and_somerset@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 10:13 AM Subject: [B&S] Cheddar Man > Greetings > > On the same Breakfast programme one of the presenters expressed great > surprise that people living in the locality of where Cheddar man was found > had the same mtDNA as he did. Why is this so surprising? Everyone of us > alive today had an ancestor living at the time of Cheddar man. If that > were not the case, we would not be here! Tests had shown that he was > haplogroup U which appears to have been of Middle Eastern origin. > >> From where does the BBC believe that our DNA arises if not from our >> ancestors? It is this very fact that allows genetic genealogy to trace >> our deep ancestry. The same surprise has previously been registered by >> the BBC for other similar examples. > > Regrettably I cannot claim any relationship to Cheddar man as I am mtDNA > haplogroup H. > > Regards