DNA & ANCESTRY

The Motherland Group

The February 2004 meeting of The Motherland Group held at The Museum of London discussed DNA and Ancestry. Guest speaker Dr Peter Foster showed how the first human beings left Africa, and migrated throughout the world. He explained how the so-called races developed, creating many cultures and thousands of ethnics groups with different DNA.
Dr was born in 1967 and studied at the Universities of Kiel and Hamburg, gaining his Phd, entitled Dispersal and differentiation of modern Homo sapiens analysed with mitochondrial DNA, in 1997. After postdoctoral research at the Institute of Legal Medicine, Münster University, Dr Forster was appointed to a Research Fellowship at New Hall and became a Research Fellow at The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. In 1999 he was appointed Dean of New Hall. He is Editor of International Journal of Legal Medicine and is a founding member of the "Junge Akademie" of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina. In 2002 Dr Forster was appointed Praelector of New Hall, with the responsibility for presenting students to be recognised as junior members of the University (Matriculation) and presenting students at Congregations of the Regent House at which they receive their degrees (Graduation).

Dr Forster’s research interests range from bioinformatics, horse prehistory and reconstruction of proto-languages to the effect of natural radioactivity on human DNA. He specialises in mitochondrial DNA analysis, developing phylogenetic techniques to reconstruct ancestral genotypes from living genotypes. Dr Forster’s research on molecular genetic dating of ancestral nodes to determine prehistoric demography and migration was brought to the public eye on the BBC programme Motherland: A Genetic Journey. This showed how, using mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA from cheek cells, the African ancestry of African-Caribbeans living in Britain may be traced.


The Motherland Group was formed in March 2003

(a) To bring together the group of people who participated in the BBC TV documentary ‘Motherland’ to discuss the links DNA reveals about ancestry and heritage.

(b)To build a network of individuals who wish to share information that resulted from the Motherland project conducted by Takeawaymedia.

(c)To provide information to other African-Caribbean individuals who are interested in discovering the links DNA reveals about ancestry and heritage.

(d)To hold meetings and seminars to discuss ancestry and heritage.

(e)To communicate the information via telephone, mail, email and the Internet.

The next Motherland meeting is May 2004. Further information from arthurtorrington@hotmail.com

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