Our family tree
Since one side of the family (guess which one) is way too complicated to fit in a tree, we decided to throw biology to the wind. So, here it is; our family tree as we see it.
(click for big)
DNA/Genography
There are family trees and then there are family trees...
Elisa and I had our DNA analyzed through the Genographic Project, mapping the route our ancestors took out of Africa. We both opted to have our maternal line analyzed. And it yielded some interesting results.
Wouter
As it turns out, I belong to a group called haplogroup K (referring to any person who carries this specific genetic mutation), which emerged about 50,000 years ago. Interestingly enough, haplogroup K gave rise to the Ashkenazi Jews. My family had always said that we descended from Jews, but no more was known about it. We still don't know any more than that, but at least part of it has now been confirmed. Go science!
Anyway, here's the map showing the route my ancestors took out of Africa before finally settling in good ol' Holland.
(click for big)
Elisa
Elisa's results were interesting too, though not quite what we expected. Elisa belongs to haplogroup J, which are nowadays mostly found in northeastern Europe. Elisa's ancestors must have finally ended up in southern Europe before hopping on the boat to Puerto Rico. What is interesting is that we expected to find some native American genes. But no, she's all European.
So, this is the route Elisa's ancestors took out of Africa before settling in Europe. Of course, with the advent of ever faster means of travel the route became convoluted and thus her ancestors' migration to North America isn't shown.
(click for big)
This constitutes only half of our genetic journey. In time we will have the other half analyzed as well to complete the picture.
The above applies to all family members who share this maternal line. To illustrate; Pim is an Ashkenazi too, but Jasper, Bodi and Cooper are not.
Some general information we all share...
Our story begins in Africa sometime between 150,000 and 170,000 years ago, with a woman whom anthropologists have nicknamed "Mitochondrial Eve."
She was awarded this mythic epithet in 1987 when population geneticists discovered that all people alive on the planet today can trace their maternal lineage back to her. But Mitochondrial Eve was not the first female human. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa around 200,000 years ago, and the first hominids—characterized by their unique bipedal stature—appeared nearly two million years before that. Yet despite humans having been around for almost 30,000 years, Eve is exceptional because hers is the only lineage from that distant time to survive to the present day.
Which begs the question, "So why Eve?"
Simply put, Eve was a survivor. A maternal line can become extinct for a number of reasons. A woman may not have children, or she may bear only sons (who do not pass her mtDNA to the next generation). She may fall victim to a catastrophic event such as a volcanic eruption, flood, or famine, all of which have plagued humans since the dawn of our species.
None of these extinction events happened to Eve's line. It may have been simple luck, or it may have been something much more. It was around this same time that modern humans' intellectual capacity underwent what author Jared Diamond coined the Great Leap Forward. Many anthropologists believe that the emergence of language gave us a huge advantage over other early human species. Improved tools and weapons, the ability to plan ahead and cooperate with one another, and an increased capacity to exploit resources in ways we hadn't been able to earlier, all allowed modern humans to rapidly migrate to new territories, exploit new resources, and outcompete and replace other hominids, such as the Neandertals.
It is difficult to pinpoint the chain of events that led to Eve's unique success, but we can say with certainty that all of us trace our maternal lineage back to this one woman.