Mark Humphrys - Masters project ideas

Computers and Genealogy

Undergrad project ideas

Masters project ideas

Computers and Genealogy
  1. Large-scale simulation of the genealogy of the west, 500 AD - 2000 AD.

    Answer the question: Is the entire population of the West descended from Charlemagne?

    Background: Everyone knows that all humans are related. But when we think of common ancestors of all humans we tend to imagine they are in pre-history. Recent work in mathematics and computer simulations indicates that the Most Recent Common Ancestor of all living humans on earth (or at least in the West) may actually be in history, even AD. For example, almost everyone in the West may descend from the 8th-9th century AD figure Charlemagne.

    Computer simulations are the best way to address this. Use A-Life, "agents"-type technology. Hard programming problem. How do we run a simulation with 500 million agents?

    And as for the answer to the above question - no one knows, whether they use DNA, historical records or mathematical models.

    Background reading:

    Your aim would be to do something similar to Rohde's computer simulation.
    1. DONE BEFORE - Ireland only

      Explicitly model features of Irish history - the Norman invasion, the plantations, emigration, the Catholic-Protestant division, the Pale v. Connaught, etc. Your computer simulation would aim to answer the following questions. Strangely enough, no one knows the answers to these, and recent math and computer simulations for the world (see above) suggest the answers may be surprising:

      1. When did the Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) of everyone on the island (*) live?
      2. Does everyone on the island (*) descend from Norman settlers?
      3. Does everyone on the island (*) descend from Elizabethan settlers?
      4. Does everyone on the island (*) descend from Cromwellian settlers?
      5. Does everyone on the island (*) have Protestant ancestry?
      6. Does everyone on the island (*) have Gaelic Irish ancestry?
      7. Does everyone on the island (*) have Irish Catholic ancestry?
      8. Does everyone on the island (*) have Irish Catholic ancestry after the Reformation?

      (*) Apart from recent immigrants.

      If the answer to these latter questions is "Yes", it is probably too much to hope for that it would affect tribal attitudes on this island, which seem to me to be based on ignorance of genealogy. (**) But it should still make the news. And it would make a nice article for a journal somewhere.

      (**) For example:

      1. Terence O'Neill, Harold McCusker and Ken Maginnis are obviously Irish in their male-line ancestry.
      2. Gerry Adams, Bobby Sands and John Hume are obviously British in their male-line ancestry.
      3. The entire British Royal family since 1377 descends from the Gaelic Irish.
      4. All these Irish rebels - Garret Mor Fitzgerald, Garret Og Fitzgerald, Silken Thomas, The rebel Earl of Desmond, Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, William Smith O'Brien, Charles Stewart Parnell - all of them descend from the British Royal Family.

      People researching the genetics of Ireland:

      • TCD Molecular Population Genetics
        • Dan Bradley
        • Brian (or Brien) McEvoy
        • Their research suggests the Irish are not Celts. i.e. That the Celtic invasion was a small invasion that did not change the DNA pool much. Other studies have suggested that most invasions are invasions of memes more than genes (invaders are warrior and adventurer males who then marry local women, etc.). Irish DNA, therefore, is mainly pre-Celtic. Similar studies have shown British DNA as pre-historic too.
        • On the other hand, we are interested in all ancestors, not just ancestors whose DNA has survived. And that would indicate that everyone in Ireland has Celtic ancestry.
    2. NEW PROJECT: Do the world

      Do the world like Rohde. Except do literature search to find out was anywhere in the world really hermetically sealed off for long periods? Tasmania? Pacific Islands? Papua New Guinea? Amazon? Would need to study latest thinking on boat technology, sea levels, Vikings in N America, SE Asians going into Australia, etc.

      If places were almost sealed off, then the rare incomer's DNA would be lost, and in genetics it would look hermetically sealed off.

      But in genealogy, we need hermetically sealed off in order not to be descended from people.
  2. Computer simulation to examine Descending from someone without inheriting any DNA from them.

    This is the interface between genetics and genealogy. Geneticists tend to study DNA that survives. Genealogists are interested in your descent from Edward III even if there is no physical evidence of it.

    First, literature search. What do geneticists say about probability of inheriting no DNA from an ancestor? No doubt there are theoretical models. Probably no computer simulations though.

    Answer the question: How far back do you have to go before probability greater than 50 percent that you have inherited no DNA at all from an ancestor in that generation? I suspect the answer is in historical times.

    Same question with 90 percent, 99 percent.
  3. Computer simulation - "Who has slept with who"