This is too cool! This article was in the September 2000 issue of Brill's Content. I'm just going to type the article as-is. Morgan [ Perina, Kaja. (2000), "Oxford ancestors: Online genetic history", Brill's Content, vol. 3, no. 7, September, pp.59-60 ] Oxford Ancestors Online Genetic History The "Seven Daughters of Eve" might sound like the title of a fairy tale, but the phrase refers to a recent and well-accepted addition to the science of genealogy. Oxford Ancestors, a company founded by Bryan Sykes, has taken molecular biology online with a website that can trace the maternal lineage of anyone of European ancestry to one of seven women who lived tens of thousands of years ago. Sykes, professor of human genetics at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University in England, made this discovery when he tested 6,000 Europeans' DNA and found that they divided into seven groups, each of which, in turn, derived from a single woman (mitochondrial DNA passes unchanged from mother to child). Now, with the click of a mouse, a mouth swab, and a $180 check, Oxford Ancestors will identify the woman to whom a person is related. Those of non-European extraction can receive the "appropriate continental context" for their mtDNA, and Sykes hopes to map the world's remaining genetic clans with the same precision he brings to Europe's seven groups. Oxfordancestors.com includes the likely birth date and regions for each of the seven women, based on mutations in the DNA sequence analyzed. "Xenia" (mother to group X) lived about 25,000 years ago near the Black Sea in what is now Russia, while "Tara" (group T) was born some 8,000 years later in Tuscany. "Helena" claims the most European descendants, while "Velda," though born in present-day Spain, is the progenitor of today's Scandinavians. All seven clans in turn derived from "Lara," one of three African "Eves." The DNA sampling kit can be ordered online; results arrive in a month, along with a certificate of European maternal ancestry printed on high-grade, frame-ready paper -- and the vow that your DNA sample will be destroyed. But you needn't submit to DNA-typing to appreciate its ramifications for contemporary society: "What all this means is that genetics offers no support at all to current ethnic divisions in Europe," the website states. "Our shared genetic ancestry goes back many thousands of years, far beyond political or religious division what are, in comparison, a much more recent phenomenon." Kaja Perina ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [email protected] Christian County, ILGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~ilchrist/ Grant Parish, LAGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~lagrant/ Rapides Parish, LAGenWeb http://www.rootsweb.com/~larapide/ CALVIT Surname Mailing List http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~morgan/calvit My personal genealogy http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~morgan/