Groundbreaking GPS tool finds your ancestors and genealogy

[koheli]

The University of Sheffield in the UK, on May 1, 2014 announced a revolutionary new Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool, created by Dr Eran Elhaik from the University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences and Dr Tatiana Tatarinova from the University of Southern California, which can locate your actual ancestor's home from 1,000 years ago.

Though previous research could locate your DNA to within 700km, this new “satellite-like” navigation system can pinpoint your origins worldwide, down to the exact village and island of your ancestors.

http://www.examiner.com/article/groundbreaking-gps-tool-finds-your-ancestors-genealogy-family-tree-and-history

[verdel]

Very interesting. Does this GPS place a specific haplogroup in a specific location more recently than 1,000 years ago?  Is it possible to locate an unknown ancestor?  What information must be provided to the GPS  tracker?

[koheli]

I believe a lot of those questions are answered in their FAQ - and you can also open a ticket here http://support.prosapiagenetics.com/kb/index.php

GPS doesn't appear to use Mitochondrial or Y chromosomal haplogroups -

This is from their FAQ:
What is GPS?

Geographic Population Structure (GPS) is a biogeographic tool that analyzes your autosomal DNA data and predicts your most recent geographical origin with a resolution of up to 1,000 years. This origin may be the village, city, or country where your DNA was formed by the combination of several gene pools. GPS does not use Mitochondrial or Y chromosomal haplogroups because they provide a limited geographical resolution of the past 15,000-20,000 years.

To understand that, think of the Vikings. The Vikings arrived in Scandinavia from North Germany and mixed with the local population. Due to this mixture, their Germanic DNA signature changed to a Scandinavian-Germanic signature. The more and longer time the Vikings mixed with the locals the faster their German DNA signature decayed. When they moved to England and again mixed with the locals to various degrees, their DNA signature changed again. So, if you are British of Viking descent, the place where your DNA was last mixed may be England or Scandinavia.

[verdel]

Thank you for providing this information and the links.  I'll try to learn more about it.