Genealogy and Ancient History
Below are genealogy and family history news stories related to ancient history. Click on the links for the full articles.
Ancestors of Modern Scandinavians Immigrated to Region - A new DNA study from ancient remains has thrown into question the origin of modern Scandinavians. The study just published in the journal Current Biology suggests that modern Scandinavians do not come from ancient hunter-gatherers who inhabited the region more than 4,000 years ago. Until now, it had always been believed that modern Scandinavians were the direct descendants of people who had always lived in the region...[More]
Native Americans Have a Common Ancestry - New genetic data suggests that Native Americans from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska across to Greenland and down to the southern tip of Chile all share a common ancestry...[More]
Did Cleopatra Have African Ancestry? - Cleopatra (69 BC - 30 BC) was the last Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. She is perhaps best remembered for her looks and her personality, as well as her liaisons with both Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony...[More]
West African Pygmies Share a Common Ancestry - Short people known as pygmies are scattered across the forest regions of central Africa. These hunter-gatherers of the forest belong to different ethnic groups, speak different languages and exhibit a great deal of cultural and physical diversity. However, given their shared short stature, researchers have often wondered whether they have a common ancestry...[More]
Migration across South Pacific Started from Taiwan - Scientists have come up with a new theory on how people originally populated the South Pacific, the region roughly defined from Taiwan to New Zealand to Hawaii...[More]
Genetic Testing of Galileo’s Eyes? - Genetic testing has been a great boon to genealogists who want to trace their family history. Now Italian and British scientists want to use it to potentially rewrite history...[More]
Old Manuscripts Dated by Genetic Testing - Genealogists fortunate enough to have very old books or manuscripts in their possession will be happy to know that a new technique is being developed to determine the age of ancient documents...[More]
First Native Americans Arrived in Two Separate Migrations - An international group of genetic researchers from the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah working with scientists from the University of Pavia in Italy have released a study that questions the traditional view of how the Americas were originally populated...[More]
Gene Study Questions Spain’s Ancestry - There have always been two views of Spanish history: one that says Spain is a Catholic civilization that has been influenced by Jewish and Muslim cultures; another that says Spain is a melting pot of Catholic, Jewish and Muslim cultures...[more]
View Ancient Rome in 3-D - Google has come up with a tantalizing new tool that allows anyone to view ancient Rome from a totally new perspective...[more]
Did the Vikings Settle Scotland and Ireland? - English history is ripe with tales of Viking marauders raiding and plundering the English countryside...[more]
The Human Family Tree Has Many Branches - One of the most useful outcomes of modern genetic testing is that it allows scientists to discover the many branches of the human family tree...[more]
A 3,000 Year Old Family Tree - Most genealogist are happy if they can accurately trace their family tree back 150 years, or about 5 generations...[more]
A Really Old Joke - Academics at Wolverhampton University have found what they believe to be Britain’s oldest joke...[more]
History of Neanderthals Revealed with DNA Sequence - The first complete genome of a Neanderthal has been sequenced from a 38,000 year old Neanderthal bone...[more]
Human Genes Used to Map European Origin - Many people have a European background, although most people do not know exactly where in a particular country their ancestors originate...[more]
