Call it a genetic GPS.
Researchers at UCLA have created software that locates where in the world people ultimately came from — just by looking at their DNA.
The technology, called spatial ancestry analysis, pinpoints a person’s heritage through genetics, sometimes within 60 miles of their geographic origin.
“When people talk about science and genetics, it’s usually very abstract. This gives people the opportunity to learn about themselves on a fundamental level,” said Eleazar Eskin, a computer scientist whose team worked with Tel Aviv University on the project.
To create the program, they studied DNA samples from 3,000 people, each with four grandparents from the same region. Then they made a genetic map based on subtle genetic mutations.
The program works best when a person’s forefathers are European, since they collected the most DNA from that area. But as more samples become available, the program will become more accurate worldwide.
Eskin said the software was created to help discover how genes influence diseases and responses to drugs.
He put the program online (http://genetics.cs.ucla.edu/spa/) so people who’ve had their DNA analyzed by other companies can pin down their roots themselves.
The first human genome was mapped only 13 years ago and cost $3 billion. Within the past few years, companies have been analyzing people’s DNA for about $300.
All modern humans originated in Africa 200,000 years ago, but DNA results aren’t simply African. Because humans share virtually identical DNA, the analysis looks at the subtle genetic mutations of the last few hundred years. Those mutations differentiate populations and reveal ancestry, Eskin said.
The Post collected saliva samples from six New Yorkers and sent them to 23andMe, a company that analyzes DNA and reveals genealogical traits. Then Eskin ran the data through his gene machine. The results surprised many of our volunteers:
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Roman Garcia, 38
Long Island City, Queens
What he says: Garcia is a second-generation Texan whose family comes from northern Mexico. Many of his ancestors were born in what’s present-day Texas. He said his parents have researched their genealogy before and suspected the family had forefathers from Spain and Ireland.
What his genes say: He’s 65 percent European, 30 percent Asian (likely pointing to the people who became Native Americans after migrating from Siberia) and 5 percent African.
“Most people of Hispanic descent have European blood in them — but 65 percent, that’s really eye-opening,” Garcia said.
His DNA matches people in France, Peru, Morocco and Italy, but the results didn’t match his rumored Spanish and Irish links.
Eskin’s data confirmed that Garcia originated from Mexico but not a specific region.
“A lot of times, we segment ourselves in regard to who we are,” Garcia said. “This makes me want to go back with my parents and revisit the genealogy. Maybe we can expand our borders.”
Joe O’Brien, 50
Park Slope, Brooklyn
What he says: The Staten Island native is a second-generation Irishman. His paternal grandparents were born in County Clare, Ireland, and came to the United States in 1914. His grandmother was German, but little is known about the maternal side of the family.
There were rumors of having some Native American blood in the family.
O’Brien keeps a penny whistle that’s been passed on from ancestors in Ireland to his father, who was born in New York City in 1920 and went on to become an NYPD cop. He also has a photo of his father, William F. O’Brien, in front of O’Brien Castle on the Cliffs of Moher.
The O’Brien surname is among the most common in Ireland and comes from Irish royalty, he said.
What his genes say: He’s 100 percent European from two places: central Ireland and the Southern UK. It’s a shock for the musician, who, while growing up, played many an Irish rebel song with his dad.
“We are in agreement on central Ireland. That makes sense,” O’Brien said. “But my family has no clue about having English blood.”
O’Brien, who plays in the Irish rock group A Band of Rogues, joked the results may cause some problems. “Now I’ll have some explaining to do with my bandmates. We may need to adjust our set list a little.”
John Ricco, 34
Greenpoint, Brooklyn
What he says: Italy is in his blood. The pizzaiolo behind Grandma Rose’s in Greenpoint says his great grandmother came to Brooklyn in 1892 from the Bay of Naples. On his father’s side, the family came from Naples and Salerno.
“I don’t know much about where the lineage came from before that,” Ricco said. “My mother always said she didn’t know where the hell I came from — so I guess there’s something to that.”
He’s rumored to have some Austrian ancestry because of his light eyes and skin.
Ricco has a tattoo on his right arm with the lyrics to an Italian love song by Jimmy Roselli. Though misspelled, “piu forte di una categna” means “stronger than a chain.”
“I used to play his records with my grandmother,” said Ricco, who named his pizzeria after her. “I just love the song, so I woke up when I was 18 years old and thought, ‘I’m getting that.’ ”
What his genes say: Ricco is 100 percent European and is distantly related to several famous people — including Susan Sarandon — on his mother’s side.
His maternal DNA is very common and dominates in Europe, especially along the Atlantic Coast. Because of its frequency in the general European population, the DNA appears in generations of royalty.
Ricco is also distantly related to Napoleon Bonaparte and Prince Philip, according to his 23andMe results.
“It’s weird to hear, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Ricco said. “I do live my life based on my spiritual side. I’m driven by my beliefs.”
The rumors of his Austrian blood could also be true.
Ricco shares DNA with Marie Antoinette, an Austrian who married into the French royal family.
Eskin ultimately traced Ricco’s DNA to Rome, which is 142 miles from his known family origin of Naples.
“I always felt like I was a Roman emperor in my former life,” Ricco said. “No one in the family has ever said anything about Rome before, but maybe there’s something to it. It’s exciting just to get a little input about myself that I never would have known otherwise.”
Reed Kennedy, 38
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
What he says: Kennedy’s family has lived in northwest Alabama for generations. His mother, the family genealogist, has traced the bloodline back to current-day Ghana.
The descendant of slaves, Kennedy has some European heritage because one of his ancestors, whose surname was Summerhill, was a slave owner who had children with a former slave after the Civil War.
What his genes say: Kennedy is 77 percent African, 19 percent European and 4 percent Asian. Both his maternal and paternal DNA originated from West Africa, matching his mother’s research that the family came from the Gold Coast.
Part of his DNA matches someone from Sweden and the UK. He most likely inherited this ancestry from someone with Swedish ancestry who migrated to America.
“It’s a small world,” Kennedy said. “We’re all related in some way, shape or form if you pull [the DNA] out far enough.”
He knew he’d have some Caucasian blood, but didn’t know much else. The genetic link to the UK could reflect on his white ancestor, Summerhill, whose property in Alabama is still in Kennedy’s family.
He said the DNA test “clarified certain things.”
“A lot of my understanding came from the oral history of my family, which in many ways could be hearsay,” Kennedy said. “It was nice to get scientific confirmation of that oral history.”
The Asian portion of his genes, however, is a mystery.
Eskin said it could actually be a trace of Native American DNA, since Native Americans also intermarried with African Americans during the colonial era.
Or it could be a fluke in the analysis.
“Africa itself has a bigger genetic diversity than anywhere else in the world,” Eskin said. “It’s possible that he has some African segments that are distant from anything in our database, but might match Asian DNA a little bit more.”
Kim Yu, 26
Park Slope, Brooklyn
What she says: A San Diego native, Yu said her mother’s family goes back to 17th-century Taiwan, when the Dutch occupied the island.
There are rumors about having Dutch blood in the family, especially since her grandmother was nicknamed “Redhead” for her light hair.
Her father’s side is primarily from northern and eastern China, with family in Nanjing and Shandong, though his family escaped to Taiwan during the communist takeover after World War II.
Yu is holding her parents’ engagement photo in Taipei. Alder and Karen left Taiwan in the 1980s to pursue the American Dream, she said.
“They worked really hard,” Yu said. “They did everything from running a pizza shop to working at the flea market, until eventually running an import-export business.”
What her genes say: Yu is more than 99 percent Asian with a tiny percentage of European heritage — possibly the mysterious Dutch link, though it couldn’t be confirmed.
Her maternal DNA originated more than 50,000 years ago in Central Asia. Then, migrants crossing the land bridge connecting Siberia to Alaska 12,000 years back carried it to America.
That means the DNA in Yu’s family actually is common today among Native Americans from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
First, her genes crossed into America; then her family followed thousands of years later, Yu joked.
“Being Eastern Asian wasn’t surprising at all,” Yu said. “But it was an amusing coincidence that my [DNA] corresponded to the Southwest, especially because I was born in San Diego.”
Abby Meyerson, 30
Park Slope, Brooklyn
What she says: Meyerson has Eastern European Jewish heritage. Her grandmother came to the US from Poland when she was 5, and a few generations back have Russian and Lithuanian lineage.
She said her family story is relatively unknown. “My grandmother insists she’s from a town in Poland that doesn’t exist. You can’t even Google it,” she said.
What her genes say: She’s 100 percent European, Ashkenazi Jewish, and her genes go back to medieval times.
The term Ashkenazi refers to the first settlements of Jews in Europe, in the Rhine Valley around 700 AD. Researchers say their heritage can be traced back to a small group that migrated from northern Italy to Germany. Their population exploded over the next 1,300 years to more than 5 million.
The group migrated east to Poland and Lithuania following the Crusades to escape persecution. Ashkenazim account for about 80 percent of American Jews today.
According to the results, Meyerson shares her maternal DNA with 20 percent of Jews with Polish ancestry. That’s 1.7 million people. It’s believed that 40 percent of today’s Ashkenazi Jews descend from just one of four women who lived within the last 2,000 years.
“It’s the Jerry Springer reveal of gene testing!” Meyerson said. “It’s incredible that an entire subset of people is actually related in some way.”