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Prince William may have little to no Indian ancestry

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  • Prince William may have little to no Indian ancestry

    Discover Magazine
    June 15 2013


    Prince William may have little to no Indian ancestry

    By Razib Khan | June 14, 2013 5:33 pm

    The British media is blowing up today about Prince William's Indian
    ancestry. Here's a representative headline: Hunt is on in Gujarat for
    a distant cousin who shares Prince William's Indian blood. The science
    here is straightforward. Apparently some British researchers found
    third cousins of Lady Diana Spencer. These individuals, like Diana,
    are descended from a woman named Eliza Kewark. This woman, William's
    great, great, great, great, great grandmother was an ethnic Armenian
    who was resident in India. She was also the housekeeper of William's
    ancestor Theodore Forbes, a Scottish merchant. At some point he sent
    his children by this woman to be educated in England, and there
    William's ancestress married into native British lineages. Since
    Diana's cousins share the same unbroken matriline as she does they by
    definition share an mtDNA lineage. As it happens these individuals
    carry haplgroup R30b, a very rare lineage found only in South Asia.
    But that's not all. Diana's cousins also are 0.3% and 0.8% South Asian
    on their autosomal genome. The intersection of these two facts does
    convince me that William's genealogical ancestress, Eliza Kewark, did
    have South Asian ancestry (not totally surprising even in notionally
    ethnically distinct groups like Armenians or Parsis who have been long
    resident in India). But please note that I said genealogical
    ancestress.

    Observe the large variance in ancestry of Diana's two third cousins
    presumably derived from Eliza Kewark (though there is always the
    chance that these segments come from different South Asian ancestors,
    the typically South Asian mtDNA match across the two reduces the
    probability of that being the answer in this case). Beyond eight
    generations the chance of a genetic segment being passed from an
    ancestor down to a descendant is small. Diana's cousins are seven
    generations down from Eliza Kewark, so it isn't totally implausible
    that a segment should get passed down. But William at eight is at the
    boundary, and he may carry no segments (in fact, Diana may have
    carried no segments). Of course I did note that their mtDNA is likely
    to be passed down, because there is no element of chance in that. You
    have your mother's mtDNA. But one can debate whether mtDNA, which is
    not present in the nucleus, really counts as ancestry. I believe that
    heritable genetic material is heritable genetic material. Assuming the
    lines of descent are as they are recorded I accept that we know for a
    fact that William likely has South Asian mtDNA. But we most certainly
    do not know if he has any South Asian autosomal DNA.

    But in the end how much does this matter? People will make of it what
    they will. And yet there is an important aspect to note: this seems
    like another instance of the firm BritainsDNA hyping genetic findings
    to increase their profile. You see that the screenshot of their
    website shows that they're promoting the story about William's
    ancestry, and, they're also claiming that they are offering the
    world's most advanced genetic ancestry test. First, I have to observe
    that their price points are very high, and second, if they are going
    to claim the most advanced test in the world they should actually do a
    point-by-point comparison with other services, which they don't seem
    to do.

    Perhaps more importantly this outfit now has a history of getting
    caught up in, and frankly stoking, hype. I don't begrudge anyone their
    livelihood, or financial success, but scientists do have an implicit
    and explicit honor code. Jim Wilson has been involved in some
    interesting work, which is what I knew him from. But a third time will
    be a trend, and Wilson shouldn't be surprised if rather soon he
    becomes thought of as a `tabloid geneticist,' rather than a scholar
    who popularizes serious science to the broader public.


    Addendum: For American readers I should make it clear that it isn't
    totally surprising that the British upper classes and gentry have some
    Indian ancestry, because so many of them have had ancestors associated
    with the British Raj. The book White Mughals explores this period and
    people in extensive detail. For some specifics, recall that Robert
    Jenkins, later Lord Liverpool, and Prime Minister of the United
    Kingdom for 10 years, 1817-1827, was 1/8th Indian by ancestry. The
    British actress Nicollette Sheridan is also 1/8th Indian. And finally,
    my friend Dan MacArthur clearly has South Asian ancestry, due to the
    same historical circumstances as the individuals above. This is
    perhaps the British equivalent of `Native American ancestry.'

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/06/prince-william-may-have-little-to-no-indian-ancestry/#.UbzHvefI3p8

    Related Stories:

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/royals/Researchers+reveal+evidence+Prince+William+Indian+ heritage/8526579/story.html

    http://www.asianage.com/newsmakers/uk-princes-dna-eliza-surat-513

    http://www.firstpost.com/world/guess-whos-got-indian-genes-britains-future-king-prince-william-871547.html

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/407683/DNA-tests-reveal-Prince-William-has-ancestors-in-India

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    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/people/Prince-William-is-part-Indian/articleshow/20604588.cms

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