La genealogia come disciplina ausiliaria della genetica

Abstract

Genealogy as an auxiliary discipline of genetics. Beyond their historiographical interest, genealogical studies have long been attracting the interest of geneticist as they can provide emnpirical support or contribute to falsifying purely mathematical models of population dynamics. We briefly trace the history of the interactions between genealogy and genetics starting from the end of the XIX century, focusing in particular on matrimonial isonymy and on the distribution and disappearance of surnames. We analyze critically the theoretical models adopted, pointing at their conceptual limits, that history studies have allowed to identify. We then analyze some recent experiences and research proposals, in paricular the studies on the repetition of the ancestors (MRCA), carried out in vivo by exploring quantitatively the genealogically well-known complex constituted by the European nobility in the modern age.