Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

Origins

Archives and DNA trace Latino’s roots to Aztec royalty

Three years ago when he was ready to retire, Manuel Pacheco, emeritus president of the University of Arizona and University of Missouri, began researching his roots. Stories he had heard from his parents and relatives had piqued his curiosity for years.

“It made me interested in finding out a little more about who they were and where they came from,” he says. Little did he know that he descended from an Aztec king.

Pacheco first turned to several resources, including the famed Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (www.familysearch.org). He also tracked family branches through official government and church records.

“Part of the research was on the computer, part was actually researching baptismal and death records from the archives in New Mexico and the Hispanic Resource Center in Albuquerque,” says Pacheco, who lives in Phoenix.

Fortunately both the Spanish and Mexican governments kept good records which “made it doable.”

His research led him through 11 different branches in his genealogy, including one branch dating to 1530 and one traced to 1330 in Spain.

USING DNA MARKERS

Pacheco also took advantage of the newer high-tech methods (called biogeographical ancestry research, or genomics genealogy) to discover who his ancestors were.

Pacheco paid about $100 to join the Genographic Project, a study jointly created by National Geographic, geneticist Spencer Wells, the Waitt Family Foundation and IBM. Over the next five years, DNA samples will be collected to track the disbursements of global migrations. The project led Pacheco to an amazing discovery.

“I participated in the research project, but that just traces migration,” he explains. “But one of the services available is that data can be entered in databases more commercial in nature.”

He got more than a dozen DNA leads on potential relatives. Matching DNA markers, coupled with matching surnames, makes a true match extremely likely. Through an online posting, Pacheco found a DNA connection to an Albuquerque man.

“His last name is Chavez and we had the same DNA markers.”

But it didn’t end there.

Both Chavez and Pacheco found they shared the same DNA markers with a Juan José Pérez Pacheco, a Spaniard who lived in 1645.

“It was a double check. Both of us were on the right track,” Pacheco says. “It was a surprise to go back 400 years and find an ancestor.”

You can browse through the project’s web site at www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/ to learn fascinating genetic facts. For example, did you know that nearly all South Americans who have been tested are descendents of a single male, dubbed M3 by the project?
 
REGAL ANCESTOR

Another genetic research company, DNAPrint (http://ancestrybydna.com), offers three kits ranging from $199 to $399. After swabbing their inner cheeks, participants mail back swabs to the company. DNAPrint then sorts out the more prevalent markers (among 176 possibilities) in the DNA and, using statistical algorithms, can determine to which major bio-geographical ancestry groups an individual belongs to. Individual genetic mix is expressed in percentages. For example, 50 percent European, 30 percent East Asian, etc.

For Pacheco, determination and patience has helped him to uncover one last surprise. 

“Through the work I did, I found a direct link to Moctezuma in the family. The exact date is in the 16th century.”

Tracing his ancestry all the way back to the Aztec ruler was a big revelation, he says.

“To me it’s been well worth the money to support the research.”