Voorwoord
Genealogie Agtergrond

- saamgestel deur Ferdie Jansen
opgedateer deur Simon Jansen''

Genealogie Agtergrond, Navorsing en Geskiedenis

In 2001 het Professor Bryan Sykes van Oxford Universiteit, ‘n kenner op die gebied van DNA en menslike evolusie, ‘n uitsonderlike samevatting van sy werk oor die kartering van die genealogie van die mens gepubliseer. Sy navorsing was gebaseer op die DNA in die mitokondria van die menslike sel.

Mitokondria is klein struktuurtjies wat in elke sel van die menslike liggaam voorkom. Hierdie struktuurtjies word buite die selkern in die sitoplasma van die sel gevind en nie soos verwag sou word, in die selkern waar die menslike chromosome gehuisves word nie. Mitokondria se hooffunksie is om die sel te help om suurstof aan te wend om energie te produseer. In die middel van elke mitokondrion is ‘n kort spiraal van menslike DNA, ‘n mini-chromosoom, drieduisend keer korter as die bekende dubbel heliese spiraal van gewone DNA, die meganisme van oorerwing, wat in die kern van die menslike sel gevind word.

Professor Sykes en sy span het bevind dat mitokondriese DNA slegs deur die moeder na haar kinders oorgedra word, en nooit vanaf die vader na sy kinders nie. Hierdie bevinding het ‘n totaal nuwe konsep en begrip vir die genealogie van die mens bewerkstellig. Voorheen is sonder meer aanvaar dat familiename, oftewel vanne, wat terugdateer tot in die 1500’s en selfs tot in die 1100’s, in die geval van die Europese adel, die enigste verwysingspunt vir familie- en genealogiese navorsing was. Hierdie begrip is later verwetenskaplik nadat bewys is dat vaders, deur hul y-chromosoom, oor die basis van oorerwing beskik. Vadersname (die familie se van) word tot vandag toe as die uitgangspunt vir die konstruksie van genealogiese tabelle en familiestambome gebruik. Ons weet nou dat moeders oor ‘n soortgelyke oorerwingsfaktor, en net so akkuraat soos vaders se y-chromosoom, naamlik mitokondriese DNA, beskik (etal). Gevolglik kan die toekomstige genealogiese navorsing verander maar tot dan volg ons maar die hierargiese stelsel aan vader kant.

Professor Sykes het bevind dat alle lede van die menslike ras, deur mitokondriese DNA, ‘n direkte moederslyn sou hê tot by die Oer-moeder van die hele menslike ras. Soos wat die y-chromosoom van vader na seun van geslag tot geslag oorgedra is deur die eeue, so is die mitikondriese DNA slegs deur moeders van geslag tot geslag oorgedra. Ons kan tereg praat van die genealogie van vaders en eweneens ‘n aparte genealogie van moeders. In genealogiese navorsing is die moeders dus netso belangrik soos die vaders.

Nie Europese Banier

Professor Sykes het die volgende pragtige model in sy boek, “The Seven Daughters of Eve”, gebruik om hierdie erg afgeskeepte helfte van ons voorouers te demonstreer:

“I am on a stage. Before me, in the dim light, all the people who have ever lived are lined up, rank upon rank, stretching far into the distance. They make no sound that I can hear, but they are talking to each other. I have in my hand a thread which connects me to my ancestral mother way at the back (linking all the women in my line, daughter to mother, from generation to generation). I pull on the thread and one woman’s face in every generation, feeling the tug, looks up at me (and their faces lit up, one after the other, through the generations). Their faces stand out from the crowd, and they are illuminated by a strange light. These are my ancestors. I recognise my mother in the front row, and my grandmother in the next row, but in the generations behind her the illuminated faces are unfimiliar to me. I look down the line. The women do not look all the same. Some are tall, some are short, some are beautiful, some are plain, some look wealthy, others poor. I want to ask them each in turn about their lives, their hopes and their disappointments, their joys and their sacrifices. I speak, but they can not hear. Yet I feel the strong connection. These are all my mothers who passed this precious messenger (mitochondrial DNA) from one to the next through a thousand births, a thousand screams, a thousand embraces of a thousand new-born babies.

A thousand rows back stands the ancestral mother of my clan (The last to pick up her face in my line). She in turn (Now becoming the first in line) pulls on the cord she is holding. In the great throng a million descendants sense the tug in lines that radiate from her source. I feel the pull in my own stomach. On the bright stage of the living, I look right and left and sense that others feel it too. These are all the people descending from the one clan mother. We look at each other and sense our deep umbilical connection. I am looking at my (genealogical) brothers and sisters. Now that I am aware who they are, I feel we have something very deep in common. All of the people in our clan share the very same piece of mitochondrial DNA, carried through the millenniums from generation to generation, through the family tree of mothers. We are family!

Nie Europese Banier

TERUG