mt DNA results

[gilmore]

I haven't had mine tested either. We discovered my wife's maiden name on my side of the family tree! No, none of our family are from West Virginia! We may, nevertheless, be distant cousins.

We are all cousins. It's a question of degree. The most recent common ancestor of all humans lived sometime between the 6th millemium BCE and the 1st millenium CE. The most recent common ancestor of all Western Europeans may have lived as recently as 1000 CE. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_re...ommon_ancestor


Also we all descent from one women, whose mitochondrial DNA we all carry, and one man, whose Y DNA we men inherited from our fathers. "Mitochondrial Eve is estimated to have lived about 140,000 years ago. Y-chromosomal Adam is estimated to have lived around 60,000 years ago. The MRCA [most recent common ancestor] of [all] humans alive today would therefore need to have lived more recently than either."

It has been estimated that every human shares at least one common ancestor with every other human who was no more than about 50 generations in the past. In other words, there is no one on earth who is not your 50th cousin, if not more closely related. At 25 years per generation, that is about 750 CE.