Oxford Ancestors 2001 Ltd
A genealogical company using DNA to track ancestory and explore surname links, based on research by Professor Bryan Sykes at the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Professor Sykes and his colleagues have been studying human evolution and patterns of population origins for the past ten years using mitochondrial DNA and, more recently, Y-chromosome DNA which are inherited down maternal and paternal lines respectively. They were the first to recover DNA from ancient bones and have been at the forefront of human fossil analysis. The company currently offers three products:
- MatriLine™, which sequences a client's mitochondrial
DNA and places it in the overall framework of human evolution. Over
95% of native Europeans are maternally descended from one of only
seven women living between 45,000 and 10,000 years ago. MatriLine!"
identifies which of these seven is the client's own ancestor and describes
her imagined life.
- Y-Line™ builds a genetic fingerprint of the client's
Y-chromosome and is finding favour amongst genealogists who find it
enables them to establish, or refute links, between different branches
of a family-perhaps with the same surname.
- MyMap™ plots the UK distribution of surnames requested by clients.