Is your genome geo-tagged?

James Wilson of the University of Edinburgh, co-author of a short report "Genes predict village of origin in rural Europe" in European Journal of Human Genetics is quoted by the New Scientist saying "It might be possible to take mixed urban individuals and work out which parts of their genome came from which rural places."

The EJHG article looked at the genomes of people whose four grandparents originated from the same rural villages in either Croatia, Italy or Scotland. In the case of the Italian and Scottish villages, while geographically close there were physical barriers to communication, mountains and ocean.

At present the only such geo-tagging I know of is a coarse (Europe (blue)/Asia (yellow)/Africa (green) ) classification of client results by 23andMe. There were indication from presentation at the SCGS Jamboree had more detailed resolution classification is coming. It will need a lot more people taking tests before resolution gets down to the village level.