Your ancestors aren't who you think they are

 

YouTube. David Reich interview. 21 Apr 2026.

There's a fascinating talk from Harvard geneticist David Reich that was recently uploaded to YouTube. The talk is 49 minutes, but it is broken into sections. Reich published a book in 2018 titled Who We Are and How We Got Here, and the YouTube interview is based on his team's research and the themes of the book.

Nature article on DNA and Indigenous Americans

A new article published 22 April 2026 in Nature describes the Evolutionary History and Unique Genetic Diversity of Indigenous Americans. This is the largest genomic dataset of Indigenous Americans to date, helping researchers trace the threads of early migration across the Americas.

It will be interesting to see if this dataset improves future versions of ancestral regions reports from Ancestry, MyHeritage and others. These companies use reference populations in their models, and as the data improves, this can provide more accuracy to these ancestral regions reports.

Through the brick walls

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Farnham, UK. 23 Apr 2026.

Haplogroup path to Dorothea Sophia

 

Ideogram. Dorothea Sophia about 1820.

Our daughter's mtDNA results have finally arrived, providing a maternal haplogroup back to Dorothea Sophia Gagelmann, who lived in the Province of Saxony from about 1800. I previously shared a story in February describing what her life might have been like in Saxony and in the town of Gardelegen in 1817. It will take another week (hopefully less) for the Mitotree result and Discover report, but for now the legacy haplogroup is H3-T152C!.

H is a very European haplogroup, based on the description in this 2014 publication titled Neolithic mitochondrial haplogroup H genomes and the genetic origins of Europeans. 

Guildford on Saint George's Day

 

Photo by Patrick Jones. Guildford Castle. 23 Apr 2026.

Thursday morning before meetings I was able to walk down the hill into historic Guildford and see the castle gardens. I didn't know at the time this also aligned with Saint George's Day in England.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Guildford Castle gardens.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Guildford Castle. 23 Apr 2026.

Photo by Patrick Jones.

Photo by Patrick Jones. Wildflowers on the Mount. 23 Apr 2026.