Over the past two decades, genetic research has advanced significantly, fueled by a surge in genomic data collection from hundreds of thousands of individuals, including both modern populations and ancient lineages.

The research combined data from eight databases, totaling 3,609 genome sequences from 215 populations, including ancient genomes that date back over 1 million years.

Dr. Yan Wong, an evolutionary geneticist, highlighted that the team has constructed a large family tree for humanity, modeling genetic diversity and relationships among individuals.

The findings are bolstered by geographical data, which help infer the locations of common ancestors and recapitulate significant events in human evolution, such as migration out of Africa.

The 'tree sequence' concept employed in this research traces genetic variation through time, identifying common ancestors within evolutionary trees.

Researchers are striving to create a comprehensive global map of human genealogy to enhance our understanding of human genetic diversity.

Notably, the earliest identified ancestors are traced back to a region in modern Sudan, suggesting a much older origin for some human lineages than previously understood.

However, two major challenges were encountered: integrating genome sequences from various databases and developing algorithms capable of processing large datasets.

To address these challenges, a new method developed by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Big Data Institute aims to integrate data from multiple sources and scale to millions of genome sequences.

The research team plans to continuously integrate new genetic data to enhance the genealogical map's comprehensiveness, with the potential to accommodate millions more genomes.

Additionally, the methodology developed in this study is applicable to other organisms, including medical genetics, helping to distinguish genuine genetic associations from spurious connections.

This family tree allows researchers to visualize the ancestry of specific genomic regions, tracing genetic segments back to their ancestors.