Y Chromosome Adam
There is a scientific theory that if we trace our Y-Chromosome DNA (that is carried by men and passed from father to son) we eventually reach somebody that is the Y-Chromosome ancestor of every single male on the planet currently living.
This person, who lived in around 60,000BC has been nicknamed Y-Chromosome Adam. But unlike his Biblical namesake, this Adam:
He applies only to my Y-DNA, male line. So if I were to trace my father, his father, his father, his father, his father, his father etc all the way back 60,000 years, I would eventually get to Y-Chromosome Adam who lived in what is now Kenya.
That doesn't mean to say I would arrive at him if I traced my mother's father's mother's mother's father etc etc - he only applies to the purely male line.
From Y-Chromosome Adam we get all the various DNA mutations (haplogroups) that exist today.
Authors Bryan Sykes and Stephen Oppenheimer have designated retrospective names to some of the haplogroup founders.
This person, who lived in around 60,000BC has been nicknamed Y-Chromosome Adam. But unlike his Biblical namesake, this Adam:
- was not the only person alive in his time
- was not the only person who left descendants still living
- was not the first man
He applies only to my Y-DNA, male line. So if I were to trace my father, his father, his father, his father, his father, his father etc all the way back 60,000 years, I would eventually get to Y-Chromosome Adam who lived in what is now Kenya.
That doesn't mean to say I would arrive at him if I traced my mother's father's mother's mother's father etc etc - he only applies to the purely male line.
From Y-Chromosome Adam we get all the various DNA mutations (haplogroups) that exist today.
Authors Bryan Sykes and Stephen Oppenheimer have designated retrospective names to some of the haplogroup founders.
Oisin Ruisko
Oisin is the name given to the Y Chromosome ancestor of the R1B haplogroup (our line is specifically R1b1a2) by Sykes. Oppenheimer calls him Ruisko. This person probably lived around the Steppes of Russia in around 23,000BC.
Oisin is named after the Gaelic folk hero Oisin.
Oisin is named after the Gaelic folk hero Oisin.
Mitochondrial Eve
Eve is the equivalent of Y Chromosome Adam. If every woman traced their mother's mother's mother's mother etc etc back far enough, they would all eventually reach one woman who lived in Kenya circa 200,000BC.
There is a scientific theory that if we trace our Y-Chromosome DNA (that is carried by men and passed from father to son) we eventually reach somebody that is the Y-Chromosome ancestor of every single male on the planet currently living.
But unlike her Biblical namesake, this Eve:
They are sometimes called the "seven daughters of Eve" but like "Eve" herself there was nothing special about them at the time, they just have female lines still existing today.
My mitochondrial DNA line comes from my mother Carol, her mother Louisa, her mother Isabella, her mother Annie, her mother Ann.... and so on.
Unlike the Y-Chromosome line (which in my case, and the case of most people reading this website) the surname is through the Keegan line, whereas the mitonchondrial line has constantly changing surnames because of course daughters tend to take their father's rather than mother's surname.
And of course where my father is called Keegan, his father was called Keegan, his father was called Keegan etc we can easily look at this and suggest an Irish origin, whereas with my mother's line I am faced with all sorts of surnames - none of which were passed from mother to daughter - like Nilsson (Swedish), Molloy (Irish), Buchanan (Scottish), Brighouse (English) and Meadow (English) - but for all I know Ann Meadow's mother could have been Chinese!
So whereas my Y Chromosome genetically responds to the Keegan name, I can say with some confidence that the ancestors of the Clann MacAodhagain were the ancient North Africans who migrated to Israel and Mesopotamia and inhabited the Celtic regions of Spain before coming to Ireland - it is much tougher to do that with my mitochondrial line.
There is a scientific theory that if we trace our Y-Chromosome DNA (that is carried by men and passed from father to son) we eventually reach somebody that is the Y-Chromosome ancestor of every single male on the planet currently living.
But unlike her Biblical namesake, this Eve:
- was not the only woman alive in her time
- was not the only person who left descendants still living
- was not the first woman
They are sometimes called the "seven daughters of Eve" but like "Eve" herself there was nothing special about them at the time, they just have female lines still existing today.
My mitochondrial DNA line comes from my mother Carol, her mother Louisa, her mother Isabella, her mother Annie, her mother Ann.... and so on.
Unlike the Y-Chromosome line (which in my case, and the case of most people reading this website) the surname is through the Keegan line, whereas the mitonchondrial line has constantly changing surnames because of course daughters tend to take their father's rather than mother's surname.
And of course where my father is called Keegan, his father was called Keegan, his father was called Keegan etc we can easily look at this and suggest an Irish origin, whereas with my mother's line I am faced with all sorts of surnames - none of which were passed from mother to daughter - like Nilsson (Swedish), Molloy (Irish), Buchanan (Scottish), Brighouse (English) and Meadow (English) - but for all I know Ann Meadow's mother could have been Chinese!
So whereas my Y Chromosome genetically responds to the Keegan name, I can say with some confidence that the ancestors of the Clann MacAodhagain were the ancient North Africans who migrated to Israel and Mesopotamia and inhabited the Celtic regions of Spain before coming to Ireland - it is much tougher to do that with my mitochondrial line.