Genghis Khan ancestry is news to accountant

LONDON – Tom Robinson had long wondered about his family tree. He never suspected its roots might lie in the Mongolian steppe.

The Florida accountant knew his great-great-grandfather came to America from England – but beyond that the trail went cold. So he turned to “bioarchaeology” to test his DNA.

He was in for a surprise. According to a British geneticist who pioneered the research, Robinson appears to be a direct descendant of Genghis Khan, the Mongol warrior.

Some scientists say that claim goes too far, though few doubt Robinson’s DNA reveals a direct genetic link to Mongolia.

When he got the call from the British firm Oxford Ancestors about an unlikely ancestor, “My first impression was, ‘Oh no, who is it?’ – imagining it was Adolf Hitler or something like that,” said Robinson, 48. “So I was actually pleasantly surprised.”

The news has led Robinson to plan a trip to Mongolia, and to wonder whether he, an associate professor of accountancy at the University of Miami, could have any similarity to the 13th-century scourge of two continents.

Unlike the Mongol warlord, he has no military background. But he says he is comfortable in a leadership role.

“When I practiced as a CPA I ran the department,” he said.

Like Genghis Khan, who roamed across Asia and Europe, Robinson is a keen traveler. When telephoned by the Associated Press, he was on a cruise to Alaska.

Oxford Ancestors is a commercial firm established in 2001 by Oxford University geneticist Bryan Sykes, which offers DNA testing to roots-seekers around the world.

Sykes believes DNA can be used to map humanity’s common ancestry. In 1994, he extracted DNA from a frozen 5,000-year-old corpse found in the Tyrolean Alps, and identified a woman living in Britain as his descendant.

His book, “The Seven Daughters of Eve,” claims that 95 percent of Europeans are descended from seven tribal matriarchs who lived between 10,000 and 45,000 years ago.

For $335, Oxford Ancestors will map customers’ ancient maternal or paternal ancestry based on a sample of their DNA. The paternal test works by mapping patterns of DNA within the Y chromosome, the genetic material handed down from fathers to sons that changes little over generations.

Women don’t have a Y chromosome, so only men can take the paternal ancestry test.

One particular pattern within the Y, Sykes believes, indicates a genetic link to Genghis Khan.

He is not alone in this belief. Research by an international team of 23 geneticists published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in 2003 suggested that up to 17 million men, most in Central Asia, shared a form of the Y chromosome that indicates a common ancestor.

They said the obvious candidate is Genghis Khan.

“How this chromosome came to be so prominent was that when he conquered new territory, Genghis Khan would kill the men and routinely inseminate all the women,” Sykes said.

Lacking tissue from the Mongol ruler, whose burial place is unknown, the tests are based on probabilities, and some scientists are skeptical.

“It’s a little bit of a stretch as far as I’m concerned,” said Peter Underhill, a Stanford University geneticist. Genghis Khan’s tribe was closely interrelated, he said. “Genghis Khan had this marker, but Joe Smith in the Genghis Khan army also had this Y chromosome.”

Sykes said Oxford Ancestors had found the “Genghis chromosome” in several Mongolian customers. Robinson is the first client of apparently European ancestry to turn up with the connection.

“This is circumstantial evidence but it is very good evidence,” said Sykes. “I think it does mean that people who carry this chromosome are direct patrilineal descendants of Genghis Khan.”

Proven or not, it could make Robinson a celebrity in Mongolia, a vast country renowned for rolling grasslands, sturdy horses and nomadic herders.

This year Mongolia is celebrating 800 years since the birth of the warrior Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, meaning Universal Ruler.

Condemned during Mongolia’s 70 years of communist rule as a symbol of a backward past, Genghis Khan is now celebrated by Mongolians as their founding father.

If he gets there, Robinson said, he hopes to do what any self-respecting Mongolian does: ride a horse.