DNA links accountant, legendary conqueror

MIAMI — A British research firm recently combed 25,000 DNA samples searching for a modern descendant of Genghis Khan from outside the Mongolian warlord's ancient empire.

They found one: a University of Miami accounting professor with a receding hairline.

Tom Robinson, 48, of Palmetto Bay, Fla., has taken the odd news with amiable modesty. In some quarters, he's being treated like the guy who walks into a store and finds out he's the millionth customer. The Mongolian ambassador to the U.S. plans to invite him as an honored guest to his Washington embassy.

They're an unlikely pair, the emperor and the accountant. Genghis was known as the type of guy who would conquer villages across two continents, murder entire tribes and take thousands of female partners. Robinson, on the other hand, just returned from a cruise to Alaska with his wife of 25 years.

"I think I do have a certain number of administrative skills," Robinson said, noting he once was president of a local financial-analyst society. "I haven't done any conquering, per se."

Despite their disparate lifestyles, the link is backed by strong genetic evidence, said Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University geneticist who conducted the research for his private company, Oxford Ancestors. Robinson's Y chromosome bears seven of nine genetic markers identical to the Genghis genetic signature, remarkably close, considering the two men lived more than 700 years apart, Sykes said.

The Genghis genetic mark was discovered in 2003 by a group of 23 international geneticists that found that 8 percent of all males in large parts of Asia carry startlingly similar genetic markers. Those markers are historically traceable to areas ruled by Genghis and his sons.

Women can only learn if they are descended from Genghis through male relatives because only men have a Y chromosome.

No one has tested Genghis' actual DNA because his tomb has never been found. Although Genghis is believed to have 16 million Asian descendants, Robinson is the first Caucasian linked to the 13th-century marauder, Sykes said.

Father of 20,000?

The history of the world from Genghis Khan to Tom Robinson begins with a sexual appetite rivaled only by that of boastful basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain.

"With every people who he conquered, Genghis Khan set up a large harem, and he took as many women as he wanted," said Nicholas Wade, a New York Times writer who recently published "Before the Dawn," a book on recent human evolution that devotes a chapter to the Genghis genetic phenomenon.

Wade notes that 13th-century Persian historian Ata-Malik Juvaini claimed Genghis fathered 20,000 children in an empire stretching from Eastern Europe to China. Among the Hazara tribe along the Pakistan and Afghanistan borders — a group that long has claimed it is Genghis' descendants — 30 percent of all men bear his genetic mark, according to the groundbreaking 2003 study called The Genetic Legacy of the Mongols, published by the American Society of Human Genetics.

How did those genes make it to Robinson's ancestral home in England's bucolic Lake District near the Scottish border?

That remains a mystery. Robinson's ancestors may have traveled from Ukraine — the edge of the Mongol empire — on Viking slave ships, Sykes said. But he admits that's mere conjecture.

"It's a very good demonstration of how we all have a mixed ancestry," Sykes said. "We don't think we do, but we do."

Genetic link

Genetics are big business for Sykes, who wrote a best-selling book, "The Seven Daughters of Eve," which fueled an international interest in genetic familial ties. He has attracted 25,000 male customers and even more females since he founded Oxford Ancestors in 2001.

For $320, Sykes tells customers which ancient tribes they may be linked to, based on genetic markers. For example, many Irish trace their lineage to the High Kings of Ireland who made their living taking hostages, he said.

Customers swab their mouths and send away for results. The Genghis genetic analysis was not part of the program when Robinson sent his DNA in early 2003. Robinson had been researching his family and had read Sykes' book.

His initial report suggested a possible link with Central Europeans, but Robinson had many unanswered questions. Sykes began looking for more Genghis descendants among previous clients.

Last month, one of Sykes' assistants left word on Robinson's answering machine that he had some special news about Robinson's ancestry.

"My first reaction was, 'Oh God, who is it? Who would be the worst?' " Robinson said.

Robinson was pleased to learn it was Genghis Khan and since has read more about his long-lost ancestor.

"I have a little more respect for him now than simply a Mongol warlord," Robinson said. "Of course, I'm biased now that I'm related to him."

In fact, many historians have put in a good word for Genghis in recent years, painting his vast empire as progressive.

The ruler's enemies did a lot to sully his reputation in earlier years, said John Woods, a University of Chicago historian who has been searching for Genghis' tomb in Mongolia for a decade. In addition to destroying enemy tribes, Genghis espoused religious tolerance and created a free-trade zone, Woods said.

Mongolia is celebrating the 800th anniversary of the empire, and much of the world has been swept up in a bit of Genghis-mania.

Robinson is the first to admit there are probably many more descendants of Genghis, of all races. He plans to travel to Mongolia soon to meet his brethren.

"Maybe I have a yak and a couple of acres of land somewhere coming to me," he said.