Genetic Kinship Research, Determination of Biological Relationships within the Medieval and Post-Medieval Cemetery of the St. Plechelmus Church in Oldenzaal using Ancient DNA

During the excavation at the St. Plechelmus church in Oldenzaal between 2011 and 2013, six skeletons were found in a single burial context and were interpreted to be family members buried in a ‘family grave’. Ancient DNA recovered from these individuals yielded information that is used to determine if there are genetic indications which can prove or disprove this interpretation. Furthermore, 81 surrounding skeletons were incorporated in this research for the determination of possible additional family relationships from a larger area of the cemetery. Short tandem repeat amplifications for 16 autosomal markers and 22 y-chromosomal markers provided reliable polymerase chain reaction products with no contamination. With allele frequency data from present-day Dutch people, and allele frequencies from all the Oldenzaal samples, statistical analyses were performed with the programs Relpair and Familias to reconstruct kinship relations. The results found no genetic indications for possible...Show moreDuring the excavation at the St. Plechelmus church in Oldenzaal between 2011 and 2013, six skeletons were found in a single burial context and were interpreted to be family members buried in a ‘family grave’. Ancient DNA recovered from these individuals yielded information that is used to determine if there are genetic indications which can prove or disprove this interpretation. Furthermore, 81 surrounding skeletons were incorporated in this research for the determination of possible additional family relationships from a larger area of the cemetery. Short tandem repeat amplifications for 16 autosomal markers and 22 y-chromosomal markers provided reliable polymerase chain reaction products with no contamination. With allele frequency data from present-day Dutch people, and allele frequencies from all the Oldenzaal samples, statistical analyses were performed with the programs Relpair and Familias to reconstruct kinship relations. The results found no genetic indications for possible kinship relations between the six individuals from the ‘family grave’. However, this cannot exclude that these individuals were biologically related to each other. For the surrounding 81 skeletons, the results indicate eight possible kinship relations. A Harris matrix showing all the excavated skeletons revealed that three out of the eight possible kinship relation pairs were spatially linked to each other; an aspect upon which the interpretation of the ‘family grave’ was based in the first place. This thesis demonstrates the successful use of aDNA from the Oldenzaal cemetery to reconstruct family relationships.Show less

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Genetic Kinship Research, Determination of Biological Relationships within the Medieval and Post-Medieval Cemetery of the St. Plechelmus Church in Oldenzaal using Ancient DNA