I understand Eve just a bit better now. I just could not help zipping from it. After having seen documentaries, such as the ones about "Genetic Adam" and the Genographic Project, I knew I would not be able to resist the temptation of also putting The One Cup against my lips. Indeed, I had the Cocktail That Is Me investigated. I decided to start modestly with just my paternal and maternal lines. Because giving one's entire genome to some laboratory abroad one never set foot in just seems a bit awkward, with all these 3D-printers being around and not knowing what the next step wil be...
 

Ancestry and DNA

Your ancestry is pretty much like a triangle, balancing on its tip. The tip being you. When investigating your maternal and paternal lines, only two sides of the triangle are (partly) revealed. That's a very small part of the triangle. What about the surface of the triangle: everyone who is not a fathersfather or a mothersmother? I'm no big fan of numbers, but here we go. It helps to get an idea. Assume I assign myself number 1, because I am at the tip. Then my father is nr. 2 en my mother nr. 3. Accordingly my father's father is 4, his wife is 5, whilst my mother's father would be nr. 6 and his wife nr. 7. (This kind of numbering is quite commonly adapted in Western European pedigree's.) So, researching my father's direct male line effectively means researching pedigreenumbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 265, 512, 1024, 2048 and so on. Researching my mother's direct female line means targetting numbers 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, 264, 511, 1023 and 2047. Which means: when you arrive at generation 11 (arond 1700) you've found only 22 people that represent the recorded direct male and direct female line.But simple math tells you that theoretically in your 11th genearation, you've got 2047 (theoretically unique) individuals. These 2047 fathered and mothered all the people in the younger ten generations, all adding up to a stunning amount of about 5000 ancestors in only eleven generations who lived and died before you and who donated their genes to your specific DNA-cocktail.The exact genomes of all those people are lost to us now. Because every time a new human being is made, only the Y-chromosome and the X-chromosome remain virtually unchanged. The rest of the ancestral genome is sliced, mixed and scrambled into a nevertheless completely authentic genome. Again, except for the outlines: Mr. Y and Mrs. X. For instance, I've got twelve recorded Y-fathers and nine X-mothers, which equals a total of 21 people. The genomes of all my other 2045 ancestors living in 1700 are present in my DNA, though chopped up basically unrecognizably.

 

The Y

Okay. Now here is this cute little thingy that passed to me a unique code, the Hoekstra-DNA, so to speak. It contains a kind of How To Build a Son-kit: the Y-chromosome, only passed from father to son. I passed this very virile little organic machine on to my three sons, Gjalt, Doeke and Hidde, like Harmen passed it to his son Jelle in about 1660 - like many, many of his direct male ancestors, now unfortunately unknown, before him. The list of my direct male "Hoekstra"-ancestors can be found on the page My Paternal Lineage. History yields about 13 generations, as you can see. Not bad. But my Y-chromosome recorded a lot more. This tiny timecapsule allows me to go back in time along my direct male line of descent, all the way down to "Genetic Adam", who lived some time between 100.000 and 140.000 years ago. He is the direct paternal ancestor of all men alive today.

About the testing. I had some tests done by Family Tree DNA and took part of the well known Genographic Project. I proved to be a member of the Haplogroup R, which is in fact quite dominant in Europe. Nothing exotic or surprising there. R, or better R1b, originated probably in West Asia, some 20.000 year ago. This group is estimated to have come to Europe later on. More specifically I appear to be a member of the "clan" R-U106, a  variation on the R-theme that must have originated in Europe, just some 4.000 or 14.000 years ago. In fact, according to information provided by the Genographic Project, this is the first R-subclade to have originated not in Africa, not in Asia - but in Europe.R-U106 (also referred to as R1b1a2a1a1a*) can be found in abundance around the shores of the North Sea. And why would that be? My guess would be: because some 11.000 years ago there was no North Sea. Sea levels were far much lower then and people lived, loved, hunted  - and gót hunted in that area, that scientists now call Doggerland.Afther the end of the last great ice age, around some 8000 BP, the Ocean bursted into that furtile valley and the North Sea came into existence. Those who managed to save themself, seem to have settled along the shores of this new Sea. Perhaps even the cataclysmic event of the flooding of Doggersland may have influenced the mutation of genes? 

Some scientists claim R-U106 appears to be extra present in Frisian genomes. Some even called it the Frisian haplogroup, partly based on 1) the invasion of Saxons, Jutes and Frisians of Britain during the 5th century and 2) the Frisian hegemony in seatrade during the 6th and 7th century, establishing many tradeposts and settlements in Britain and along the other North Sea shores. I'm not sure though. I think that these events indeed had their genetic impact on Britain's DNA-cocktail. But, the mutation that resulted in the rise of R-U106 is far older and to me it seems families were simply ripped apart by the flooding of what we now call the North Sea. This perhaps explains why my closest (participating) Y-relatives can be found in the coastal area's of England en Schotland.

 

Before R?
OK. But where did the R-line come from? Of course the line ends some 140.000 years ago, with "Genetic Adam." But in between? Some 75.000 years ago a new genetic branch came into being in Affrica (M42), followed some 5000 year later already by yet another new branch (M168), perhaps in Asia even. This branch can still be traced in far off places like Australia and South America. 50.000 years ago, somewhere in Asia the new haplogroup M89 emerged, giving birth to group P128 no later than 5.000 years, somewhere in South Asia. From that point, small tribes and bands of people spread all over the planet, resulting in the mutation dubbed M45, that originated in either South or Central Asia some 35.000 years ago. In Central Asia M207 and, later, P231 came into existence, both around 30.000 years ago. Next branch: M343, Asia, some 20.000 years ago. This group would eventually venture into Europe, though some appear to have returned to South Asia or even Africa, perhaps due to the global cooling that shaped the great ice age. My Y-line would seem to have stayed in Central Asia and explore Europe during the retreating of the ice.

 

The X
Mothers are much more generous towards their children then fathers are. Like fathers they pass on a specific chromosome, the X-chromosome, but they are less specific in choosing their heirs - both their sons and daughters receive the rich gift that is the X-chromosome. One significant detail though: sons don't pass that chromosome, only daughters do. So – as much as I may have wanted it, I couldn’t bestow upon my sons this ancient gem. Unfortunately, the X-chromosome is somewhat more difficult to 'read' than the X; it's substiantially bigger and sometimes, even today, it's not even clear which part of the chromosome came from which parent. For researching the maternal line, therefore, the so called mitochondral DNA is far more reliable. 

Mt-DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is part of your DNA that realy tells the story of your direct female ancestry. It's not affected by male genome in any way in the process of creating new life. That way it's a very reliable source for lokking back into history for thousands and thousands of yeares. 
You can check out my straight maternal lineage here. The maternal line of my sons, their Mt-line, is of course completely different to mine then. Theirs is their mother's, and of her mothers before her. However different my Mt-line may be to that of my sons, all mitochondral lines end up with a "Genetic Eve" as well. DNA-research revealed that Aafjen Jacobs, my oldest known maternal megagrandmother, descended from haplogroup U, which seems to have originated somewhere around 45.000 BP in Asia. In other words: in some 47.000 years ago, there was a woman in Asia from which all U-women today descend in an unbroken, direct female line. Some 30.000 years ago  mutation to that  lineage occured: U5. It colonized Europe around 15.000 years ago, roughly roughly the same time my Y-line arrived. It may very well be that this line of females were part of tribes or small bands of people that followed the retreating ice of Europe, towards the north, into "new" lands. U5 gave rise to a subclade U5a that is not yet very well understood, that is: the Genographic Project entertains broad estimates as to the origines of this mutation, that must have occured somewhere between some 22.000 and 5000 years ago.

 

Before U? 

From whom did the 47.000 year old Asian lady descend? She was descended, in an unbroken line, from the lady who started hapologroup R, some 55.000 years ago in West Asia, who in turn was a great-great-granddaughter of the woman who first carried the mutation that gave rise to haplogroup N, which originated some 60.000 years ago, in either East Africa or Asia. The source of all this: a single woman living in Africa in about 67.000 year ago, sometimes called "Mitochondral Eve". Why? Mitochondral DNA is the DNA-bit that passes on to you via your mother and in a sense this woman was some kind of genetic Eve; she is the female ancestor to all men and women alive today, all over the word, and all women alive today are descended from her with an unbroken, direct female line. Beware: she was not the first woman on this planet, nor was she the only woman in her time. She was "just" the first common ancestor to us all.

 

The rest
When following your direct paternal and maternal lines, you almost forget the fact that between those two extremities, a whole lot more of genetic information can be found. X and Y are just the two sex markers, what of the rest? As mentioned above, tiny bits of ancestral DNA are chopped op in what is called autosomal DNA and cannot be pinned on specific ancestors or ancestral lines. Not even to one of your parents, for that matter. What can be found is certain markers that help you compare your particular mix of DNA to other groups in the world. The Genographic project analysed and stated my recipe as follows: 45% Northern European, 36% Mediterranean and 17% Southwest Asian. A fairly normal mixture for northern Europeans. Apart from that, I carry 2,4% Neanderthal DNA in me and 3,6% DNA of the newly discovered Asian hominid Denisovan. Both are normal percentages in northern European humans alive today. To me this is clear proof of the fact that, whilst my direct paternal and maternal ancestors came to Europa thousands of years after Neanderthals had become extinct, they intermingled with other homo sapiens, probably Cro-Magnon Man, that had entered Europe far earlier, around 45.000 years before present. They had lived alongside Neandertheals and even interbred with them. Blood tells joke nor lie.

 

So, what does it all add up to?

Both my paternal and maternal lines seem to have left Africa somewhere between 70.000 and 60.000 years ago, did whatever they did in different corners of Asia between 60.000 and 15.000 years ago and then came to Europe during and/or shortly after the great ice age. Is this surprising? In a sense it is, because there were earlier and later exodi from Africa, and there were many earlier and later migrations to Europe as well. Homo Eructus and Homo Heidelbergensis (believed to be the common ancestor to Homo Sapiens (us) and Neanderthals had, several hundred thousand years earlier, also left Africa for Europe. And a first migration into Europe of Homo Sapiens  took place 125.00 years ago, so just 15.000 years after "Genetic Adam" and some 60.000 years before both my direct paternal and maternal ancestors would leave Africa. And of course there is Cro Magnon Man, who appears to still have been in Africa around 60.000 years ago, because some skeletons were found to belong to Haplogroup N, but reached Europe thousands of years earlier than my two lines did.They, my direct male and female lines, appear to be Second Wavers, following the retreating ice into a new world in which they firmly planted their fresh, genetic footprint.

I think one should always try to kwow the personsswimming in their blood. Nice to know them a little bit better now.

___________

References

Want to know more about genetics in relation to history and / or genealogy? The above information is roughly based on what you can find here: Information provided by projects I'm participating in: www.familytreedna.com | The National Geographic Genographic Project 

Documentaries: The Incredible Human Journey | The Search for Adam

Wikipedia: Y-chromosomal Adam | X-Chromosomal Eve | Haplogroup | Doggerland | Anglo-Saxon MigrationWebsites other: