When National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Robert Ballard, best known for his discovery of the R.M.S. Titanic, first participated in the Genographic Project, he expected to confirm what he already knew of his British-Dutch ancestry. But could his DNA tell him more about his ancient relatives?
Dr. Ballard decided to “swab” with National Geographic’s Genographic Project to see if there was more to his ancient ancestors than he originally thought. And indeed, there was more to learn. Dr. Ballard connected with his fellow Explorer and the Genographic Project Director Spencer Wells to discuss his results. Listen to their conversation and learn about how Dr. Ballard’s roots really do go back to the bottom of the Ocean.
Ask your genealogy questions and talk about The Genographic Project, DNA, and human migration this Friday, September 13 at 12pm ET. To join, follow Spencer at @spwells and make sure to tweet your questions with #NatGeoLive. And be sure to follow @Genographic.
Now in its 7th year, the Genographic Project has over 600,000 participants. While traditional genealogy may help fill in some branches of your family tree, National Geographic’s Genographic Project uses advance DNA technology to help answer fundamental questions about where humans originated and how we came to populate the Earth. Everyone is invited to trace their own ancient ancestry by purchasing a Geno 2.0 test kit. After taking a simple cheek swab sample and sending your DNA sample to the Genographic Project laboratory for analysis, 6-8 weeks later you will receive your results, including a personalized map of the path your ancient ancestors took out of Africa and a percentage breakdown of your ancestry.