There is a free public workshop sponsored by Archives of Ontario which I am watching at the moment - just on lunch break. The name of the workshop: Genealogy and Genetics.
I must admit my initial concern when we tested in 2006 was what would these results be used to look at. It was about six months before we actually did the National Genographic Test and submitted it. I have nothing to hide but taking the test implies on my part that I think this is a good idea to do DNA testing. As it has turned out the advent of DNA testing did a great deal towards teaching us that we are all a subset of African diversity; our footprint in Africa still shows up 60,000 years after our ancestors are said to have left Africa.
The database that is used by National Genographic has samples from indigenous groups from many many parts of the world. They particularly took DNA samples from groups of people who were static; i.e. had been in their location for thousands of years by their known history. It was such testing that let National Genographic create the haplogroup charts for yDNA and mtDNA showing the changes from the oldest samples to the modern samples found around the world although primarily in 2006 the purchased samples were from North America and Europe (including the British Isles). It was a gift to be able to see one's trek out of Africa and now, twelve years later, that trek is for the most part unchanged from the original map which we received with our results.
The introduction of autosomal testing though has brought to the forefront a dilemma with regard to who we are by our ethnicity. Having testing at all of the testing companies I can say quite assuredly that none of them are the same. They all use different comparison databases. Our personal ethnicity doesn't change but the way that they are calculated based on different reference points results in a variable ethnicity between companies. The reference points can and will become more or less precise. That is the amazing part of genetics and DNA studies. As you accumulate a greater number of samples than the chances of introducing another ethnicity from these new sample takers increases rather than decreases the number of ethnic origins because we are a migrant people. We keep moving; perhaps not in each generation but over time our people have moved.
When I started to work on genealogy, I had no idea on the birth places of my ancestors past grandparents except in the case of my Blake direct line and my Pincombe direct line. The other two lines were mired in stories partly to conceal and partly speculation generated by discussion of my parents with their parents in their childhood. It wasn't that that sent me to genealogy; rather it was my cousin who needed me to write a bio for the Westminster and Delaware History Books (published in 2005). He tried to get my sister to write it and she redirected him to me because Ed (my husband) does genealogy. As resistant as I was to becoming involved in genealogy a trip to Europe had stirred just a little of that interest. The suggestion that my grandfather had owned a grocery store on Wharncliffe Road (it was my uncle, his son) was enough to spur me onward to write the bio. I took 43 courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (best couple of thousand I have spent in a while!) and while taking the courses I did the needed research and produced the bio in time for publication (with the help of my siblings and Pincombe cousins that my cousin brought together for a research day). The information still stands as being correct even after 13 years of publication which I think might be amazing given the possibility of making a mistake in moving backwards in time.
Once into genealogy though I could not leave it alone. It has occupied my waking hours now for fifteen years and the fascination increases rather than diminishing. Have I solved all the problems? Absolutely not; nor will I in my lifetime. DNA has pointed out more possibilities than family lore ever did. The Ethnicity results have given credence to that family lore.
The misuse of ethnicity though is always in my thoughts. Living next door to the United States I am very conscious of what can happen in a society when one group decides it is better than another based on colour. It is a scary thought actually; one we must avoid at all costs. We are all equal under the sun.
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