This man discovered his ancestor 9000 years ago / Unbelievable

How would you feel if you happened to find a relative who lived about 9,000 years ago? That’s exactly what happened to Adrian Targett, a retired history teacher from Somerset, England. He noticed a familiar face on the front page of several newspapers. This was the image of the so-called Cheddar Man. (Sounds like cheese, doesn’t it? Anyway…) His skeleton was discovered in 1903 in Cheddar Gorge, near Somerset. (Now that makes sense.) Scientists used his DNA as a template to create a portrait of one of the oldest people found in Britain, who lived during the Mesolithic period (between 10,000 and 8,000 BC .). Initial DNA analysis of Cheddar Man showed that he was a typical representative of a Western European hunter-gatherer society. Years later, with the help of new technologies, scientists were able to establish that he had dark brown or black hair, dark skin and bright blue eyes.

In 1997, researchers analyzed genetic material taken from the cavity of one of Cheddar Man’s molars and compared it to samples taken from local residents whose families had lived in the Cheddar area for centuries. The test found that Mr. In fact, Target was a direct descendant of the Cheddar Man. Genes are passed from father to son over 300 generations. The only obvious difference in appearance between the two was the color of their skin. As humans migrated north from the harsh African sun many thousands of years ago, their skin became lighter to absorb more sunlight and vitamin D. But this process didn’t happen overnight. The Cheddar Man’s skin is therefore much darker than that of his offspring born under the cold British sun.

Mr. Targett admitted he didn’t know how he felt about the test results. But he was not surprised as he recognized the shape of his nose and bright blue eyes in the face of his ancestor. His name is in the Guinness Book of Records as the most distant descendant traced by DNA. The Cheddar Man study also uncovered new evidence for when and how farming arrived in the British Isles. The researchers conclude that the hero of the time was part of an extended family group of about 30 people. They appear to have arrived after the woolly mammoth had disappeared, but before agriculture was a thing in the area.

The oldest traceable family tree prior to Mr. Targett’s case stretches back 5,200 years, older than Rome. The lineage of the Chinese Kang clan spans over 80 generations. It includes more than 2 million people, and one of them is the famous philosopher Confucius! And it still holds the title of the most accurate longest family tree.

Have you ever wondered how many ancestors you have? Let’s do some math here. So, first, that’s 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great grandparents… Yes, if we keep multiplying by 2 and go back 10 generations, we have 1204 ancestors. It sounds like a big crowd, but 10 generations isn’t that many when it comes to thousands of years of human history. About 20 generations ago, or 400 years ago, each of us should have had about one million ancestors, and 800 years ago, one trillion ancestors! In theory, this leaves us with hundreds of trillions of people, which is practically impossible since there have never been so many people on Earth.

Imagine that a person lived about a thousand years ago. His daughter was his maternal grandmother to the 33rd degree (thirty-third degree), and his son was his father’s 33rd degree grandfather. This would mean that he is on two branches of his family tree, both on his mother’s side and on his father’s side. Most people living at that time would appear in our family trees not just twice, but thousands of times. At that time there were only about 200 million people on Earth. This means that each of them would have to appear 5,000 times in the family tree of each of us living today. But life is not so mathematical. Some people in the past never had children, and some people had many children, which means that they will appear on many, many people’s trees.

Steve Olson, author of Mapping Human History, uses the help of a statistician, a computer scientist, and a supercomputer to calculate how interconnected the human family tree is. If you go back in time 2000 to 5000 years, you will meet a man who can call everyone living today his descendants. Traveling back in time a bit, say 5,000 to 7,000 years ago, would allow anyone living today to know that their ancestors would be the same people. This supports the theory that our family trees are not inverted pyramids that get bigger and bigger, but diamonds. You start with yourself and as you go back a few generations, you see it grow and grow. Then at some point the tree begins to narrow down to just a few ancestors and even one person. This man probably lived several thousand years ago, during the reign of Tutankhamun or perhaps during the Golden Age of ancient Greece. They didn’t do anything particularly remarkable and never knew they would become the ancestors of the nearly 8 billion people living on our planet today.

So the next time you visit an exhibition of Egyptian art from the time the pyramids were built, remember that every hieroglyph and every piece of jewelry there was created by one of your great-great-great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers. And that mummy in the center of the room—it’s very likely your ancestor, too. On average, most of us can trace our ancestors with high accuracy back to the 17th century. If you decide to build your family tree, you should research and learn as much as you can about your ancestors. Start at home and study all the documents and photos you can find in the attic or basement. Letters, especially dated ones, diplomas, newsletters, diaries and postcards will be your best friends in the search. You can also consult your local library or archive. They should have census records that can help you. The results of your search will depend on your ancestors’ social status and past wealth. It’s always easier to find data about someone who is rich and important to your community.

In some cases, birth records may have been destroyed or lost. Their origins may also affect the search, as many cultures had oral histories and did not record anything in writing. In Western Europe, they began keeping genealogical records in the 16th century. Previously, family members memorized their entire lineage and, of course, mostly only remembered names. Sometimes they also remembered major events along with key ancestors. In some cases in ancient times, genealogy helped to find the rightful heir to the throne. Members of royalty and nobility who were candidates for the position submitted their family trees, just as you are now submitting your resume and letter of recommendation. The United States didn’t start keeping genealogical records until about 1910. Switzerland has records that go back more than 700 years. China, by comparison, has been doing this for over 2,000 years. Another invaluable source of knowledge is your older relatives. Any artifact you find and show them will most likely encourage a long and interesting story full of names and details.

There are many free sites that will help you organize the information you find. The more users the site has, the more likely you are to find some of your ancestors in someone else’s tree. You can also use your discoveries, especially stories you recover, to write your family history book. Be prepared that this research may take many years. The more ancestors you find, the more you have to discover. In case you prefer biology to documentation, you can try doing an ancestry DNA test. Scientists will analyze your genetic material to trace the migration routes of your ancient ancestors thousands of years ago and give you some information about your ancestral roots. But you won’t learn much about who your relatives were. Current tests cannot go back more than 8 generations. There are many testing services available, and if you choose one with a large database, you will be more likely to find a match with other people searching for ancestors. Happy searching!