DNA and Family History - what's it all about?
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This work has been
released into the public domain
by its author brian0918.
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DNA‑NEWBIE and GENEALOGY-DNA.
The former is at about my level and has fewer posts (45 posts in August 2012), the latter is more technical and has more posts (over 700 in the same period.). I don't understand everything on GENEALOGY-DNA but it's a good way of picking up the jargon and the issues. If there's any jargon I don't understand I just look it up on Google - the answers come up pretty quickly!
There are also some good blogs on the subject such as Your Genetic Genealogist, DNAeXplained, and The Genetic Genealogist. So I've been slowly going up the learning curve.
Not all DNA testing is the same
One thing I have discovered - genealogical DNA testing is not at all the same thing as forensic DNA testing or medical DNA testing. The tests are quite different and are specific enough for companies to specialise in their own particular fields.One company that consistently seems to have good reports for genealogical DNA testing is Family Tree DNA (FTDNA). So when I heard that FTDNA were having a flash sale this weekend (ending 30 September 2012) I jumped at it.
Why DNA test?
Well, why am I doing family history at all? Partly because of all the fascinating family stories. Not just the success stories, but also the dramas - the sudden deaths in war and peace. Not just the people who stayed at home and brought up families in town and country, but also the intrepid ones who emigrated to new lands. Not just the ones who owned land and left a clear paper (or parchment) trail behind them, but also the illiterate farm labourers who were their tenants.There's also the fascination of the way in which their stories run parallel with the history of their times; the changes - political, economic and social - through which they lived. For example, my own father was born before the Wright brothers' made their first flight and lived to see the first humans land on the moon.
But my main reason is to be able to leave to my children and, more particularly, my grandchildren, as much as I can of their roots. The same goes for all close family members, especially my siblings and their descendants, who are interested.
William Dollarhide said, "A relative is someone with all the information about the family you want, but who died last week." This actually happened with me in 1989 with a cousin, the last of her line. We hadn't met before but had agreed to meet that summer holiday and talk family. When I finally had a suitable date I phoned her to confirm that it would suit her. I was greeted with an unfamiliar voice. My cousin had died the previous week and they had just that morning burned all the family photographs and items which could not go for sale in the house clearance. So William Dollarhide's quotation is not just a dry comment; it really can happen.
I see my DNA data in a similar way. The story it tells may be more general than the oral tradition and the written stories, but it can go back much further. As with my own memories my DNA travels with and, for all practical purposes, dies with me. So, so long as I don't pop my clogs before I have sent my swab samples off, that story will be available to my descendants. It's too late for my children to get the story told by their grandparents' DNA but it won't be too late for them to have mine.
What next?
First thing, I had to pay for the test. Ouch! Still, at least a substantial offer price eases the pain. I chose the Family Finder + mtFullSequence package while it was on discount. FTDNA say that this uses "the Full Mitochondrial Sequence (FMS) test to learn about the maternal line origin and find matches in your direct maternal line" and the "Family Finder Test to help you find family across all your lines lines up to 6 generations back".
Next, FTDNA will send me swabs so that I can collect cheek samples and sent them back for analysis. This can take some time, partly because FTDNA end the swabs off in rotation; I am not sure how long the queue is but no doubt it will take a good week or two since they have the promotion on. Then there is the time taken for the package to arrive here in the UK from Houston, Texas; the time taken for the parcel to arrive back there from here after I have taken the swabs; and finally the time taken for FTDNA to process the samples. Then they email me to let me know my results. Could be quite a while...
Watch this space!
"The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world."
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
"It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood."
Alexander McQueen
