Ancestry.com - apparently I am extremely & blindingly white

[Mott the Hoople]

Very true. That being said, since humans have been studying and recording info about other species, we have lost vast numbers of them to true extinction.

Oh that’s been going on far longer than that.

Humans chief survival skill isn’t just our ability to adapt to our environment but also our ability to adapt our environment to benefit ourselves and that has always caused other species unable to adapt to humans to go extinct.

[Mott the Hoople]

An appreciation I am getting for the science of human evolution is 1) how complex the scope, diversity, and genetic overlap of the homo genus was in Africa, 2) how human evolution was not linear at all; and 3) how much we still don't know - in part, because there were and are actually relatively very few evolutionary scientists doing field work in Africa, and also critical parts of the geologic record from the all-important time frame of 4 to 8 million years ago is rare or missing.

Science would predict we can never know it all because we weren’t there to observe it and the physical processes that leave the evidence are rare and random.

[Cypress]

Science would predict we can never know it all because we weren’t there to observe it and the physical processes that leave the evidence are rare and random.

With a bewildering array of 15-20 species of paleohumans spawned in Africa, there is undoubtedly decades of work left to do in sorting out hominid evolution, let alone clarifying the common ancestors linking us to the great apes.

I did learn recently that Professor JRR Tolkien has been vindicated and proven correct. Hobbits were discovered in Indonesia!

Origins of Indonesian hobbits finally revealed

The most comprehensive study on the bones of Homo floresiensis, a species of tiny human discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, has found that they most likely evolved from an ancestor in Africa and not from Homo erectus as has been widely believed.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-04-indone...ealed.html#jCp

[Cypress]

LMAO. My kids and I all have ~4% Neanderthal genes. Sub-Saharan African as well.

Now, I actually kind of feel bad for mercilessly mocking Mitt Romney as being the whitest white man in presidential history.

All of my DNA is basically almost sub-arctic, almost none of it from south of latitude 50 degrees north, skin a pasty, translucent white, and abominable on the dance floor, an absolute menace. I hate to admit it, but I am pretty sure Willard Mittens Romney would totally smoke me on the dance floor!

[Cypress]

According to anecestry DNA, at seven generations back, less than 1% of your DNA is likely to have come from any given ancestor.

That is a possible explanation for why there were not positive detections for Nordic Swede, or Central Asian on my test. I thought historical mingling of the Swedish Varangians with the native Slavic tribes of White Russia/Ukraine/European Russia - and the purported connection of Tatars with Russian Cossacks might register on the DNA test. But those are historical events from the 11th through 14 centuries - and that would be at least 15 to 20 generations back. I presume that no DNA test is going to register genetic data from a Swedish Varangian from 20 generations ago.

On a sidebar, I totally blew it not taking the Neaderthal test, but I was able to track down some factoids about our low-browed, knuckle-dragging cousins:

As our modern human ancestors migrated through Eurasia, they encountered the Neanderthals and interbred. Because of this, a small amount of Neanderthal DNA was introduced into the modern human gene pool.

Everyone living outside of Africa today has a small amount of Neanderthal in them, carried as a living relic of these ancient encounters. A team of scientists comparing the full genomes of the two species concluded that most Europeans and Asians have approximately 2 percent Neanderthal DNA. Indigenous sub-Saharan Africans have none, or very little Neanderthal DNA because their ancestors did not migrate through Eurasia.

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/neanderthal/

[Jack]

According to anecestry DNA, at seven generations back, less than 1% of your DNA is likely to have come from any given ancestor.

That is a possible explanation for why there were not positive detections for Nordic Swede, or Central Asian on my test. I thought historical mingling of the Swedish Varangians with the native Slavic tribes of White Russia/Ukraine/European Russia - and the purported connection of Tatars with Russian Cossacks might register on the DNA test. But those are historical events from the 11th through 14 centuries - and that would be at least 15 to 20 generations back. I presume that no DNA test is going to register genetic data from a Swedish Varangian from 20 generations ago.

On a sidebar, I totally blew it not taking the Neaderthal test, but I was able to track down some factoids about our low-browed, knuckle-dragging cousins:

Did you ever notice that in the Bible there is an inclination to trace their ancestors? This guy begot that guy and that guy begot this other guy, etc. . Must be a Human Trait to want to 'know'.
In the End, it really doesn't matter ... we're all related at some point.

[StoneByStone]

All northern European, which probably explains why I cannot get a tan and tend to blind people when I take off my shirt.

Ancestry.com

66% Eastern European & Russia
18% Baltic States
11% Germanic Europe
5% Scotland, Ireland, or Wales

The Russian DNA was obviously unsurprising.
The Baltic states DNA is likely explained because my paternal relatives come from Belarus, which historically was once part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, undoubtedly contributing to a mixed brew of Slavs and Balts. Since my maternal side comes from an old Cossack family in southern Russia, I was surprised to not see any Tatar or Central Asian - but either the amount of Tatar DNA is too small to discriminate, or Ancestry.com simply does not have the database to screen for trace amounts of central Asian DNA.
There is a McClintock somewhere in my background, obviously a contribution to the Sottish DNA.


My favorite DNA ancestry stories are actually when Trump-supporters find out they have sub-Saharan African ancestry.

Most real Nationalists know that nobody is 100% racially pure. It's a distraction that I couldn't care less about.

[Jack]

Most real Nationalists know that nobody is 100% racially pure. It's a distraction that I couldn't care less about.

History is nothing but one group fighting another group, then intermarrying. (I would guess the Victors fucking the Women of the Defeated)

"Once Used as Sex Slaves by ISIS, These Yazidi Women Are Rebuilding Their Lives"
"Aveen, along with nearly 7,000 Yazidi women and children, were captured by ISIS fighters in the summer of 2014, according to U.N. investigators. Many of the women were turned into sex slaves for the militants."
https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/is...ilding-n801226

[Cypress]

Did you ever notice that in the Bible there is an inclination to trace their ancestors? This guy begot that guy and that guy begot this other guy, etc. . Must be a Human Trait to want to 'know'.
In the End, it really doesn't matter ... we're all related at some point.

The premise of the mitochondrial Eve is sometimes mistakenly interpreted to mean that all modern humans can trace back a direct unbroken line back to one female. Obviously not true, but is seems unequivocal that all modern humans come from a relatively small population of homo sapiens in ancestral Africa.

I am not sure how much interest other people have for knowing about their heritage and their ancestors. Obviously, ancestor worship is a big part of some cultures, vastly moreso that in America. I myself was not that interested until I got older. Standing on the grounds of my ancestral village in Byelorussia electrified me. 500 years of family history maintained by archival records and oral tradition was a precious gift I did not fully appreciate until I walked on same the grounds my ancestors did when they were in the service of the Rus princes of the 14th century. My next mission is the Don River region, and probe my maternal line connection to Don River Cossacks.

[Jack]

The premise of the mitochondrial Eve is sometimes mistakenly interpreted to mean that all modern humans can trace back a direct unbroken line back to one female. Obviously not true, but is seems unequivocal that all modern humans come from a relatively small population of homo sapiens in ancestral Africa.

I am not sure how much interest other people have for knowing about their heritage and their ancestors. Obviously, ancestor worship is a big part of some cultures, vastly moreso that in America. I myself was not that interested until I got older. Standing on the grounds of my ancestral village in Byelorussia electrified me. 500 years of family history maintained by archival records and oral tradition was a precious gift I did not fully appreciate until I walked on same the grounds my ancestors did when they were in the service of the Rus princes of the 14th century. My next mission is the Don River region, and probe my maternal line connection to Don River Cossacks.

It seems the more you get involved in the research ... the MORE you get involved. It could be a Curse.
You know, at 7 generations back, you literally have 64 'families' to sift through.
I went back to the early 1700s and found all these Quakers, each having 10 kids, and then finding they would all marry each other. The same thing happened in New England in the 1600s with these other early settlers, large families, and same surnames inter-marrying. THEN ... finding so many 'DNA Matches' from these same early arrivals. It's interesting and a fun pastime, but you have to draw a line somewhere or you will be totally consumed.

[The Anonymous]

No, No pork stretched cracka goyim

So you don't eat pulled pork sandwiches. Do you also not eat apple pie or watch baseball?

[Cypress]

It seems the more you get involved in the research ... the MORE you get involved. It could be a Curse.
You know, at 7 generations back, you literally have 64 'families' to sift through.
I went back to the early 1700s and found all these Quakers, each having 10 kids, and then finding they would all marry each other. The same thing happened in New England in the 1600s with these other early settlers, large families, and same surnames inter-marrying. THEN ... finding so many 'DNA Matches' from these same early arrivals.

It's interesting and a fun pastime, but you have to draw a line somewhere or you will be totally consumed.

My cousin Marina spent three years researching in the national archives in Saint Petersburg, spent countless hours interviewing people, and wrote an 800 page book on five centuries of our family history. So there is no question, it can become an obsession with some people. I would not have the energy or the time to do what Marina did. Although I do consider her work a precious gift.

I frankly would get totally bored with just a family tree - names on a sheet of paper, linked in linear, branching patterns.

A total snooze fest to me.

What interests me is not just knowing who these people were, but what the world they lived in was like. The broader historical, social, and cultural context that bound them to their times - and in some small way, to me. That is why I make it an effort to understand the geography, history, and culture through the centuries in the Medieval Kievan Rus principalities, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Imperial Russian Empire, and the Don River Cossack Host. That is where the real action is at, man!

[Jack]

My cousin Marina spent three years researching in the national archives in Saint Petersburg, spent countless hours interviewing people, and wrote an 800 page book on five centuries of our family history. So there is no question, it can become an obsession with some people. I would not have the energy or the time to do what Marina did. Although I do consider her work a precious gift.

I frankly would get totally bored with just a family tree - names on a sheet of paper, linked in linear, branching patterns.

A total snooze fest to me.

What interests me is not just knowing who these people were, but what the world they lived in was like. The broader historical, social, and cultural context that bound them to their times - and in some small way, to me. That is why I make it an effort to understand the geography, history, and culture through the centuries in the Medieval Kievan Rus principalities, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Imperial Russian Empire, and the Don River Cossack Host. That is where the real action is at, man!

My Grandmother left me a 'written narrative' of the ancestors. Coming across the Plains, 'naked Indians', going across the Isthmus of Panama, being a Cook in a Mining Camp in California. I agree, just Dates are pretty mundane. I appreciate the effort she put into the Narrative, ... women dying in childbirth, children dying of Cholera, men going to war and never seen again.

(I haven't paid the extra money to go 'International'. I'm good at stopping here in Los Estados Unidos)

[Jack]

Oh. On a political note. I'm glad you mentioned the Rus and Kiev. I doubt most Americans realize the connection between Russians and Kiev/Ukraine.

My cousin Marina spent three years researching in the national archives in Saint Petersburg, spent countless hours interviewing people, and wrote an 800 page book on five centuries of our family history. So there is no question, it can become an obsession with some people. I would not have the energy or the time to do what Marina did. Although I do consider her work a precious gift.

I frankly would get totally bored with just a family tree - names on a sheet of paper, linked in linear, branching patterns.

A total snooze fest to me.

What interests me is not just knowing who these people were, but what the world they lived in was like. The broader historical, social, and cultural context that bound them to their times - and in some small way, to me. That is why I make it an effort to understand the geography, history, and culture through the centuries in the Medieval Kievan Rus principalities, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Imperial Russian Empire, and the Don River Cossack Host. That is where the real action is at, man!

[Cypress]

Oh. On a political note. I'm glad you mentioned the Rus and Kiev. I doubt most Americans realize the connection between Russians and Kiev/Ukraine.

Extra points to you for even being aware of Kievan Rus.
What most Americans know about Russia comes out of Hollywood - or out of the mouths of ill-informed politicians. I actually enjoyed the preposterous movie "Red Dawn" but I guarantee you there were some barely educated wingnuts who thought it was a reasonable depiction of reality. On a similar tangent, I thought Bedtime for Bonzo's "evil empire" caricature was an insult and a disservice to thinking, sentient people everywhere.

Wolverines!