A Comparison of Parent – Offspring and Marital Migration Data as Measures of Gene Flow

Abstract

In studies of human genetic structure, parent – offspring migration data give a direct and reliable estimate of gene flow between subdivisions. It is frequently more expedient to compile marital migration data from marriage registers, using the residence of the bride and groom prior to marriage as the origin of their genes and the postmarital residence as the destination of their genes. The Mormon settlement of Utah began in 1847. The symmetrical matrix is then transformed into a backward column – stochastic transition matrix by dividing the elements of each column by the column sum. Effective population sizes in each time period were calculated as one-third of the census size. While the correlations between parent – offspring and marital migration are high, the correlations between parent – offspring and fertility-adjusted marital migration are even higher.