Yes, that is one reason why the Sorenson foundation has been doing DNA testing. For a long time, you could get it done free and after a period of time, you'd find your results posted on their website. Well, you'd figure it out due to searching for a surname, and looking for the MtDNA that matches all over the world. Or the Y-DNA.
Their goal is to demonstrate that we all can trace our lines back to one human and are related. So yes! *group hug*
Actually, you need only go back relatively few generations to find someone related to you. There were much less people generations ago. It is always funny when candidates are running for president and some genealogist tells us that say Obama is related to Cheney or some such thing. :-D
Not sure if I remember who it was he was related to...but probably someone remembers.
I also learned here at PF that blue eyes were a mutation and that before the first blue-eyed person, all had brown eyes. I have blue eyes...well grayish blue.
BUT, if you are interested in the history between the first blue-eyed parent or even before that, the first man or woman, it's neat to see where your ancestors roamed. We may say we are from here or there, but we all came from someplace else. Our genes tell a migratory story, and history of us.
I was pretty sure my results would show I was from Eastern Europe, and would have the most typical MtDNA for Poles since my mother's mother's line is Polish. (Lewandowski, Bubacz, Chmielewska, and Nowak).
Yet, I was very surprised that when I traced every female back in my line with my MtDNA, it is one of the longest, (unbranched-out from another major European mother) lineages in Europe. Most scientists say that the only thing older in Europe would be Neanderthal!
So, I am from a blue-eyed indigenous European human stock. Closely related to the Saami reindeer-herding tribes. Unlike some who feel that they paid $200 to learn something they already knew, I learned something totally surprising to me. Of course, while not the most common Polish MtDNA, quite a few Poles have the same. U5.
I am thinking of asking my newly rediscovered 2nd cousin if she is curious as well, and take the test (as a gift from me). She carries my German grandmother's MtDNA which might give me some interesting history on that side of the family and maybe show some Kashubian or Dutch influence. Ultimately, it does make littlle difference in some ways though because culturally, I was brought up as an American with many traditions going back to Germans from along the Baltic and North Sea, and traditions of Poles from Gniezno, the heart of the Polish nation.
It is neat to know we are all one family! With lots of interesting cousins. :-)
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