WHAT IS YOUR REAL ORIGIN?
SOME THOUGHTS ON GENETICS, GENEALOGY AND DNA

EVELINA RIOUKHINA, UNECE

As we know, each country has a nationality law, which usually is considered jus sanguinis or jus soli. Jus sanguinis (latin: right of blood) is a social policy by which nationality or citizenship is not determined by place of birth, but by having an ancestor who is a national or citizen of the State. Jus soli (Latin: law of ground), or birthright citizenship, is a right by which nationality or citizenship is granted to an individual born in the territory of the related State. I will not go into further details of nationality, citizenship, naturalization, immigration, etc. But in this article, I will touch on some aspects which can be very typical for us as United Nations staff and international civil servants, and will share some of my own experiences.

Several times, often during travels and stay abroad, I had funny and quite unexpected episodes when on different occasions I had to prove that I do not have Chinese nationality, and further that I am not of Chinese origin. Although I was in fact born in China, to two Russian parents, it had never occurred to me that I could possibly be Chinese, jus soli. Once or twice I was asked if I am of Chinese origin in view of the fact that my mother had also been born in China. I couldn’t believe it, obviously I wasn’t Chinese. At least, so I thought. I have many photos of my mother, some of them taken in Beijing with students when she worked as a professor at Beijing University. I innocently showed the photos to some of my colleagues and friends. Their reaction surprised me: to them, my mother looked pretty much the same as the Chinese students, and some time later some of them told me that, after having observed me carefully, they saw Chinese features in me, or at least “definitely something oriental” in the eyes. I was stupefied. I had to find out the truth by undertaking the most detailed DNA tests. This set me off on an interesting journey through the past, as the test revealed me things I was wondering and/or doubting about (definitely, I am not of Chinese origin!). The test informed me of geographical locations I never suspected, where, surprisingly, I managed to discover – and am still discovering – several generations of my ancestry.

In the life of the United Nations staff members, the question of origin can be fascinating, but also very complex. Look around, the examples are all over the UN. Take a typical example. A certain UN colleague, say of Hungarian origin, born in the ex- Yugoslavia, after the split of the country, becomes a Serbian national, because of war, her parents immigrate to France and she acquires French citizenship. She finds a job at the UNESCO Paris and soon gets transfer to the UNHQ New York where she has a child. With UN mobility she soon comes to UNOG Switzerland. After twelve years of total integration in the Swiss society, her child becomes a naturalized Swiss, whose origin might be considered as French if registered with his parent’s passport (maybe at least of Serbian origin, some other parent’s document could be lost, say, during war, in this case the Hungarian origin will very likely never appear in any of the documents). At 18, this child decides to acquire American citizenship jus soli, and becomes American, of very probably Swiss (or French, but not deeper!) origin. What, pray tell, is the real origin of this dual national Swiss-American?

Let’s take this a step further. The child grows up and starts to work for the UN at some duty station, and soon marrying another UN staff member with no less fascinating ancestors, whose parents were Indian nationals, of Tamil origin, who immigrated to the UK and acquired British citizenship. As British citizens, the couple came to work at the UNHQ and also had a child there. Then they move to Switzerland. At best, they will have British passports that may show their Indian origin, but the Tamil will definitely disappear. Similar story, at 12, this child totally integrated in the Swiss society becomes naturalized Swiss (of what origin – British, Indian?), and at 18, also decides to acquire American citizenship (of what origin – Swiss, British?). These two children meet, both as dual Swiss-Americans, and their future child will be either “pure” Swiss or “pure” American (even though neither has ever lived in the USA!), from both Swiss and both American parents. What will be the origin of their Swiss-American child? The story can be continued, but it is hardly absurd. In fact, it’s a pretty typical UN story, and in fact, it is true of many children brought up here. In real life, the stories can be even more complex. Every UN staff comes from a different country, has to move two or three times over the course of a career to different duty stations. Some create families or have partners, some have children in some of these duty stations, and these future children will acquire jus soli as well as jus sanguini (and the problem will start here as this jus sanguini is that it might not at all correspond to their ethnic origin, but will reflect the mark in their document as “nationality”). How are we to learn about our real roots, our real origin? DNA can tell you exactly where you come from, and about your geographic and ancestral origins. Then there is the more complex genealogical research to undertake, and a host of questions, for starters:

What does a DNA test show? How reliable are the results? Are the results more reliable than the documents? What are the risks? What are the dangers? Can DNA be a political issue? Do we all have our own DNA code? Can this individual DNA code replace one day our passport or identity document? What does the future hold?

A few possible answers to these and other questions related to the most recent studies and some DNA halpogroups and subclides projects of the leading specialists and researchers in genetics genealogy will follow in the future issues of the UN Special. For those interested in traveling into the past, I can recommend visiting “Family Tree DNA”, based in the USA (www.familytreeDNA.com).