Our ancestors traveled widely. Scientists have detected the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East. The team says they found a particular DNA signature, which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades.
The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA. Details of the research have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. A layman’s interpretation has been published by the BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7316281.stm.
My thanks to John Rees for telling me about this story.
Nothing new here. We locals tend to assume that this is where the occasional red-headed Arab comes from.
Posted by: Israel Pickholtz | March 28, 2008 at 03:18 AM
My husband and I are two of the 250,000 people who have bought and returned kits. I don't know what the number is of persons who have been tested free by the geno project. My mtDNA results brought some interesting results. One, that I am proud of, is that I have a 75% chance of being Jewish....which would really surprise my Southern ancestors. Another surprise is that my relatives back then are mostly eastern European. All of this can not help my current genealogy search, of course, but it does enrich my history and give me an additional interest in these areas.
Posted by: Nancy Hamilton | March 28, 2008 at 04:09 AM