DNA and genealogy : related or not related that is the question

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When are you family? when are you related? Does the same surname (even with variations) mean that you are related? IS it important to know whether or not you are related to a total stranger?

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Kinship represents who has a biological link to someone else. This usually coincides with "family" but that is not always the case. Someone who has been adopted is family but not related. And sometimes kinship can be important, for marriages or relationships and any children thereof or if certain genetic characteristics can pose a problem (disease, abnormalities, ...)

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By participating in the projects "de GEN-iale stamboom" and" MAMA-mito" and having been fortunate enough to be selected for further research, I have obtained information for both my ancestors and foremothers from where they came 1000s of years ago and some more specific information about the genetic material of (my branch of) the Kempeneers-en.

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The analysis of the genetic material shows that the haplogroup on the male side can only be found in 1% of the native Flemish families and that the haplogroup on the female side only occurred in 10% of the participants and the subhaplogroup did not even occur otherwise. in the total group studied.

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Where were those ancestors? The ancestor (the first grandpa, so to speak) walked from Africa to South Asia about 60,000 years ago and then, about 27,000 years ago, to the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. The foremother (the first grandmother, so to speak) followed a similar route, passing through Mesopotamia, and her descendants were among the first farmers to arrive here during the Neolithic period about 8,000 years ago. How the migration from there to Europe took place is still the subject of research.

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sub-haplogroup J1-P58* and subhaplogroup T2f1a1 : They seem to be references to stars or galaxies, but they are the male (J1) and female (T) genetic groups that were found during DNA research.

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More information about "De Gen-iale stamboom" on this site CSY Leuven by Dr Sofie Claerhout

From the project "De Gen-iale stamboom" several studies originated amongst which  A Historical-Genetic Reconstruction of Human Extra-Pair Paternity by Prof. Dr. Maarten Larmuseau et al is one of the most important .

Prof. Dr. Maarten Larmuseau, Departement Human Genetics, KU Leuven

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid.) : a very long macromolecule containing all information about a living organism : how it develops, how it functions, how it reproduces, grows....

mtDNA or mitochondrial DNA, is derived only from the maternal side and is located in mitochondria and not in the cell nucleus. Mitochondria convert our food into energy to that our cells can use to do their job.

Haplogroup groups a genetic variant found in cell that are the same for a set of individuals. Haplogroups can be based on the Y-chromosome from the DNA (mostly from the male side) or based on the mtDNA (mostly from the female side)