Come to think of it, my personal experience with DNA-analysis in the course of genealogical investigations about a decade ago was probably my first experience with the MRCA concept. Considering how often companies like Ancestry.com are even advertising on TV, I wonder what percentage of the American general public now recognizes the term MRCA.
I noticed that the media coverage (and even late night comedians’ jokes) about Elizabeth Warren’s Cherokee ancestry and DNA testing results has brought about a lot of relevant education to the American public. Even political cartoonists are making jokes about the “1/1024th Native-American” actually being less than the average American’s NA genetic component. As a result, millions of Americans are now aware that most of us probably have Native-American heritage somewhere in our family tree if we go back far enough. Surely this is a good thing: that people are becoming more aware of just how “mixed” we all are.