Richard III: The DNA Analysis and Conclusion - Professor Turi King
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- Опубліковано 3 гру 2024
- turiking.co.uk/
Podcast: The genetic analysis of King Richard III • Video
The identification of the remains of King Richard III can be thought of as a historical missing person’s case. Richard III last seen, according to historical records, in the choir of the church of the Grey Friars Friary, in Leicester.
However, since that time, the Friary had been torn down during the dissolution of the monasteries. The excavation that we carried out in 2012 was to first see if we could find what if anything was left of the friary and then from that hopefully home in on the area where he could be. In terms of what we were looking for: we knew Richard was aged 32, in 1485, when he died in battle. And, from looking at the historical sources, he may have had a spinal abnormality.
We carry out the excavation and find the skeletal remains of somebody that looks like it could be him. All of the information from the analysis of the bones is consistent with these being the remains of Richard III. So how does the DNA analysis figure into this case. Well, just as in any missing person’s case, you compare the DNA of the person you’ve found with that of a known relative.
It's important to remember that Richard has no known living descendants, so any present-day living relatives are descendances of Richard's own relatives, not Richard himself.
And it’s important to say here that not just any old relative would do for the DNA analysis. The DNA we inherit is a complex mixture of just some of our many, many ancestors. Given the number of generations since Richard III was alive, I had to concentrate on looking at parts of our DNA that’s passed down through the generations in a really simple way.
I was particularly interested in analysing three different segments of DNA from the skeleton as part of this project.
So, the first of these was mitochondrial DNA. Now mitochondrial DNA was interesting for the project for two reasons: first of all, it's in lots and lots of copies in each of our cells, so if you're going to find any DNA left in skeletal remains it tends to be mitochondrial DNA. The second reason why it's really useful for this case is it’s passed down just through the female line, so mum passes it down to all of her children - boys and girls - but only daughters can pass it on.
So, it means that if I can find a female line relative of Richard, and it can be a boy or a girl, so long as it's all female line all the way through the rest of that line, I can use them to act as a comparator. I can look at the mitochondrial DNA of the living relative and see if it matches those of the remains.
The next segment of DNA I was interested in was the Y chromosome. So, the Y chromosome also has a very simple pattern of inheritance - it is passed down only through the male line, so all men related through the male line should have an identical or near identical Y chromosome types.
The third bits of DNA that I was interested in are sections of our DNA that can help predict a person’s hair and eye colour. And the reason why that is interesting is because there are no contemporary portraits of Richard. So, what I was interested in doing was looking at what the DNA was predicting about his hair and eye colour and then comparing that against the portraits that we’ve got and seeing which is the closest match.
So how to find those relatives to compare the DNA to. Well, one of them was already known: Michael Ibsen. He is a female-line relative of King Richard III.
We had to be certain that the genealogy was correct, it’s vital to know how a relative is related to the missing person and be certain of that. This is because if there wasn’t a DNA match, how do we know that it isn’t just because the genealogy was wrong. This entailed Professor Kevin Schürer and his team looking at a range of documents including sources such as centuries-old wills, as well as marriage and birth records. Together they helped reconstruct family trees and give documentary proof, as far as you can obtain it, that the family tree is correct.
It also allowed us to trace another female line relative, distantly related to Michael but also descended from Anne of York. This was a woman called Wendy Duldig, who, thankfully, also agreed to take part in this research. Michael Ibsen and Wendy Duldig are 14th cousins twice removed. They are both descended from Anne of York who is Richard's eldest sister, and they share the same common ancestors for a couple of generations and then they split off and it's all female line as you'd expect down through the generations until you get to the both of them.
I was able to take DNA samples from them and look at their mitochondrial DNA. First and foremost, they matched each other, which meant that the family tree linking them was correct and then they matched the skeletal remains, which again showed that the DNA evidence, as well, was pointing to these being the remains of Richard III.
Absolutely spellbinding stuff! I don't know whether it's be done already but would love to see a forensic reconstruction expert build up a facial likeness on a replica King Richard III skull.
Its 2:16 Am in texas and here I am listening to Professor Turi King😃
Fascinating, especially after tracing my parents common direct descendant as being his brother Edward IV
Fabulous. Thanks so much. I saw the TED talk and loved it . Thanks again
hi i am actually related to richard the 3rd his cousin 13 times removed also warwick the kingmaker. and also should have been
at richard the 3rds funeral
I just discovered I am also a decedent of uncle Otzi the iceman, paternal haplogroup is G-L91, which comes out of G-M201. 1 in 3,200 23andMe customers share your haplogroup assignment. I understand I may also be linked to Stalin, Al Capone and of course Richard. I would love to know if you can help with ant info. I have been looking around and found your video, thanks. Looking forward to finding out more.
*(But, what does the DNA reflect in ethnic heritage?, English/Basque Iberian, or Germanic?)* Lineage is answered and this is Why the Lineage should be focused on the Mother, as it always has been in the Jewish lineages.
Professor Turi King, there was always a story in my family that we could be descended from one of Richard´s illegitimate children. I don´t know whether that´s true, and I know that they left no KNOWN descendants. But if it STILL proved to be true, then how would you determine whether I - or somebody from my family - was related to Richard III? Since he had his children with unknown women (possibly Katherine Haute and Alice Burgh, but that´s just speculated), the maternal DNA of the illegitimate kids would be probably different from Richard´s own, no? I heard that the paternal DNA of Richard III is G2a. But HOW MUCH DNA would have somebody like me, whose descent MIGHT be from Richard´s bastard offspring, IN COMMON with Richard? I saw how you compared Michael Ibsen´s own DNA line (the jagged one - the DAGGGAC... you know what... dunno what that is called, pardon my idiocy) with Richard III´s sister. Would I have SOMETHING LIKE THAT at least PARTLY COMMON with Richard? Thank you for your answer. P.S.: Anyway, I think that it´s likely just a family story and that I am really some close or distant cousin, but anyway... 🙂
Misleading title, wot no analysis or conclusion, let alone a statement of the results, say "found mitochondrial DNA haplogroup J1c2c3". Only an overlong and vague description of the method. Grade: E (Perhaps the arts will better suite, say a career as a UA-cam influencer, as lacking any evidence of the rigorous application of the scientific method).
Prince William did not father Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis. Kate’s 6’10” blonde bodyguard did. 🎭🩰🎨