Thomas Jefferson Shares Y Chromosome with Two Britons
Professor Mark Jobling of the University of Leicester has been busy! BBC News is reporting that he and colleagues have found two British Jeffersons who share the same rare Y chromosome as US President Thomas Jefferson. This finding shores up Thomas Jefferson’s claim to Welsh ancestry whereas previous evidence pointed to the Middle East and Africa.
Prof. Jobling:
Finding that Jefferson’s Y chromosome was one mutational step away from an Egyptian type makes you think ‘crikey, could he have a relatively recent origin in the Middle East?’
Our point is that we find, at lower frequencies, French, British and Iberian K2s and they are jolly diverse. His fits into that picture of a west European sub-population of K2.
More about Thomas Jefferson and his son by slave Sally Hemings as proven by DNA testing here.
Tags: thomas jefferson, mark jobling, dna testing, genetics, genealogy, genes, dna, health, y chromosome
I find I am realated to Thomas Jefferson through his Randolph side an Field family links. It would be more revealing to search these names for the K2 link I think. But I have noticed a physical characteristic shared by some Wesh, Lebanese, Palestinians, Maltese, Jews, Romanians and Greeks. That trait is the greek foot. The second toe is longer than the the first toe or big toe. It is called a Morton’s foot by pediatrists. I think it would intersting to know if that foot type is related to the K2 gene marker.
Unfortunately this toe configuration is also called “Celtic Toes”. Some use it to distinguish “Saxon Toes”. None of this is scientific. A discussion occured on the Genealogy DNA list:
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/GENEALOGY-DNA/2005-02/1108825384
As well as this from a Scots mag:
http://thecapitalscot.com/pastfeatures/feet.html
Search for “Celtic Toes” for lots more.
The Y chromo is the shortest of them all. To attempt to ascribe all (positive) human traits to this shrimpy little thing is very very silly. Most of our genetic traits come from the rest, which intermix each time an egg is fertilized.
I got Celtic toes from my English dad, of unknown Y type…though his ancestors were from Durham north of Yorkshire, so maybe he’s K2 too. But K2 is too rare to account for Celtic Toes.
I am a K2 (y) and my toes are normal. I am related to Jefferson, I suppose. I am 1 step away from his markers. My origins are Fulani. I am from the Caribbean though