Chicago Sun-Times, December 10, 2000
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/dna10.html

The Bible tells us Eve was mankind's first mother.

And the descendants of Eve, if you buy the news from Oxford University,
branched off over thousands of years into 33 clans. Each of us descends,
on our mother's side, from one of these clans.

Oxford researchers call the female founders of these Ice Age clans the
"Daughters of Eve." Researchers have given names to Eve's daughters and
imagined what their lives were like. Eve's daughters gave rise to every
race and ethnic group on every continent.

It's written in our genes.

Want to know who your great-great-great . . . grandmother was? Just send a
swab of cells from the inside of your cheek--and $180--to Oxford
Ancestors, Oxford, England (www.oxfordancestors.com).

The Chicago Sun-Times, which footed the bill, asked four Chicagoans to
give it a try. They were alternately amused and surprised by the results.

Tina Tchen, a Chinese-American attorney, learned she is a descendant of
the clan of Bibi, which came out of east Asia to colonize North and South
America.

Carmen Velasquez, who is Mexican and director of the Alivio Medical
Center, descends from Aiyana, founder of another one of the four clans that
colonized the Americas.

Edward Moskal, president of the Polish National Alliance, and Maria
Pappas, the Greek-American Cook County treasurer, descend from Tara, whose clan
originated in central Italy and spread through Europe.

"Whatever you think you are," Pappas marveled, "you could be something
else."
 

Knowing your genetic ancestry gives you "a depth to your own heritage,"
Oxford Ancestors geneticist Bryan Sykes told the Times of London. "And
it's entirely democratic--many people could trace their ancestry back if
they were an aristocrat, but this work has nothing to do with that. This
is deep, deep ancestry."

All of us--from Britney Spears to Saul Bellow--descend from a small
ancestral population in Africa--Eve's clan.

About 150,000 years ago, the theory goes, this population split into
different branches. Modern humans began walking out of Africa and colonizing the
rest of the world about 50,000 years ago. They replaced Neanderthals and
other archaic human species. (Not all scientists accept this view of a
relatively recent origin of modern humans. A competing theory states that
humans originated 2 million years ago in African and spread across the
world as a single species.)

Oxford Ancestors analyzes fragments of DNA taken from mitochondria,
cellular structures outside the nucleus. You inherit mitochondrial DNA from your
mother, who got it from her mother. It "provides a direct and undiluted
link to our maternal ancestors," Oxford Ancestors said. "We all inherit
many other genes from many other ancestors, but only mitochondrial DNA
traces this direct maternal line."

Usually, a mother passes an exact copy of her mitochondrial DNA to her
child. Occasionally, however, DNA mutates. These mutations accumulate at a
steady pace. Think of it as the ticking of a slow molecular clock.

Two people with very similar mitochondrial DNA likely have a more recent
common ancestor than two people who have larger differences. The variation
is greatest in Africa, where humans have lived longer than anywhere else.

Oxford Ancestors has analyzed DNA from people throughout the world. Using
this data, the company has turned back the molecular clock to construct
mankind's family tree. There are 33 branches, each represented by a
Daughter of Eve.

The drawback, of course, is that mitochondrial DNA does not reveal your
paternal ancestry. Moreover, Oxford Ancestors' database for non-Europeans
is a bit thin.

For example, Tchen's report was vague about the origins of her ancestor,
Bibi. "We think Bibi herself lived in eastern Asia, but we are not yet
sure exactly when or where," the report said.

Of the 33 world clans Oxford Ancestors has identified, 13 are found mostly
in Africa, 11 are in West Eurasia, eight are in East Eurasia and the
Americas and one spans Eurasia and the Americas.

Oxford Ancestors has the most detailed information about the seven
Daughters of Eve who are ancestors of most Europeans.

Ursula lived about 45,000 years ago in northern Greece. "She was slender
and graceful, in marked contrast to the thick-set Neanderthals with whom
she and her clan shared the land for another 20,000 years."

Xenia lived 25,000 years ago in the Caucasus Mountains. She ate mountain
goats and was "wary of wolves and the ferocious cave bears which competed
for the best shelters."

Helena lived 20,000 years ago near the border of France and Spain. Her
children have reached every corner of Europe. Katrine lived 10,000 years
ago on the southern slopes of the Alps. Velda lived in Spain 17,000 years
ago. Jasmine grew up on the Syrian savannah.

Tara lived in the Tuscany region of Italy 17,000 years ago. Sykes, who
descends from Tara, imagines she had brown hair, clear blue eyes and olive
skin. She was physically fit and could hunt if necessary.

The Oxford professor told a Scottish newspaper he is so taken with Tara
that he's thinking of changing his name to Bryan Tara Swain Sykes. Swain
is the medieval name for offspring.

***

His origins are Polish, DNA is Italian

Ed Moskal has fond memories of a trip he once took to Tuscany.

"The countryside of Italy is quite beautiful," he said.

But Moskal never imagined he came from Italy. He is, after all, the son of
Polish immigrants and president of the Polish National Alliance and Polish
American Congress.

But Moskal's genes tell a story that goes back much further than Poland.
Oxford Ancestors, which analyzed Moskal's DNA, reports his maternal
ancestry dates back 17,000 years to the clan of Tara. The clan originated
in Tuscany and spread through Europe.

The finding, Moskal said, "is quite surprising."

When his parents came to the United States, they left Poland behind. He
knows little about his ancestors: "I never had the slightest inclination
to go back there."

But after becoming active in Polish organizations, Moskal visited Poland
in 1976. He was depressed by grim soldiers, dingy hotels and stores with
long lines and empty shelves.

He has been back 10 times since and has seen great improvements. But he's
still glad to be an American. For that he can thank his parents, who, like
Tara's clan, were not content to stay put.

***

Greek, with an Irish twist

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas couldn't wait to tell John Daley the
news--he's family.

Daley, a county commissioner and the mayor's brother, has been a political
mentor to Pappas.

He may be Irish and she may be Greek, but, as it turns out, their
ancestors may have crossed paths in the deep past.

According to Oxford Ancestors, Pappas descends from the clan of Tara,
which spread from central Italy to France, then across the English Channel
all the way to Ireland.

"I had so much fun with this," Pappas said.

"I called John Daley and said, `Listen to this. You cannot disown me.
We're related. It's official.' "

Pappas traces both sides of her family back 400 years to the Greek island
of Crete. She speaks Greek fluently and has visited her motherland 18
times.

Her grandfather's name, Yiannis Papadakis, was changed at Ellis Island to
John Pappas.

Pappas has always considered herself a Greek American.

"But in light of Oxford's findings, I may be a diverse American," she
said.

***

Maternal ties trace to Asia, not Spain

Like many people, Carmen Velasquez claims a mixed ancestry of indigenous
Mexicans and their Spanish conquerors.

She takes fierce pride in her Mexican roots. But despite her Spanish name,
Velasquez is not proud of her European side.

Velasquez, director of Alivio Medical Center in Chicago, doesn't consider
herself a Mexican American. She is, she says, a Mexican who happens to
have been born in the United States.

Velasquez's father was born in Mexico and came to America as a migrant
farm worker. Velasquez's mother was born in Iowa to Mexican parents.

According to an analysis of Velasquez's DNA by Oxford Ancestors, she
appears to be a descendant of Aiyana, founder of one of the four clans that
colonized the Americas.

Aiyana's clan moved from Asia across the land bridge that at the time
joined Alaska and Siberia. Surviving extreme cold, the clan migrated to
the Great Plains.

Velasquez was relieved her maternal ancestry did not trace back to Spain.

"It is absolutely important for an individual to take pride in the people
they came from," she said.

***

Test traces blacks' roots

Beginning sometime next year, African Americans will be able to trace
their genetic origins back to Africa with a simple blood test.

Maybe.

African Ancestry, founded by Howard University researchers, will trace
paternal and maternal ancestries for a fee.

Some customers will learn the general region of west or central Africa
where their ancestors lived before being captured as slaves.

But not everyone will trace back to Africa. About 30 percent of black men
trace their paternal ancestry to Europe, due in large part to sexual
relations between slave owners and slaves.

Howard geneticist Rick Kittles said that, according to his DNA, his
maternal
ancestors came from northern Nigeria and his paternal ancestors came from
Germany.

The service won't be able to pinpoint the village in Africa--and in many
cases, not even the tribe--where a person comes from.

"But it's better than not knowing anything," he said. "The vast majority
of African Americans have no idea where in Africa they came from."

On the Web: www.african ancestry.com

***

Journey may have mirrored ancestor's

It was 1949, and the Chinese Communists were closing in on Shanghai.

A young Chinese woman planned to evacuate with her American employer. But
she didn't want to leave without her fiance.

So on the morning of her departure, she married him so they could leave
together. Peter and Lily Tchen spent their wedding night in the airport.

Tina Tchen, their Harvard-educated daughter, today is a partner in the law
firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.

"I'm a highly Americanized Chinese American," Tchen said. "Having that
depth and richness and diversity in my background has been profoundly
influential in my own development."

Tchen's DNA has added another layer of diversity. Oxford Ancestors has
traced Tchen's ancestry to Bibi, founder of one of the four major clans
that colonized Polynesia and North and South America.

Bibi appears to have lived in eastern Asia. Her clan may have reached
North America by sailing around the coast of Siberia and Alaska. Ten
thousand years later, Peter and Lily Tchen made a similar journey to the
new world in search of a better life.

"Bibi must have been Chinese," Tchen said.

POWRÓT