Dear Cousins,
I copied this from the LEENET-L mailist that I subscribe to. What do all of
you think? I am sending part of an article about genealogy DNA research that
recently appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper. There are now two services
available to help families determine kinship through DNA testing. It sounds
intriguing and certainly enticing. Wouldn't it be neat if we found we were
all related. Ha! Maybe we could at least solve some lingering puzzles in
our extended Carnahan family. Family Tree DNA has a website. I have not
checked the other site. You might want to explore the idea that this site
presents. Briefly, they charge $219 for a male ancestor match test and $299
for a male and female ancestor match test. They will tell you if you have a
match to anyone in their database.
Respectfully,
Alice Benson
Here's the article!
We are family
Tracing our roots has gotten easier with the help of DNA test
By Michael Kranish,, 6/24/2001
For years, Brian Glennon of North Quincy and a business acquaintance who
happened to have the same last name, Tom Glennon of Milford, kiddingly
called each other ''cousin,'' even though a check of their family trees
showed no overlap. But both men remained curious about their heritage, so
when they were offered a chance to use a new home test that could
identify their DNA - and thus determine who, exactly, did belong in their
family tree - they took it.
Each swabbed his cheek with Q-tips for DNA material, and sent the swab in
to a laboratory for analysis. The response: Their Y-chromosomes scored an
identical match on 12 out of 12 items. Somewhere up the ancestry tree,
they shared a common male ancestor. They were, in fact, cousins.
''It was fantastic,'' Brian Glennon said. ''We just sort of shook
each
other's hand and said, `I'll be damned, we are cousins after all.'''
The Glennons are among the first people to use a recently available
commercial service that tests DNA for genealogical purposes - and thus
seeks to answer one of the most important questions in anyone's life: Who
am I? Or, put another way, where, exactly, did I come from?
In the Glennons' case, the answer exceeded their highest hopes. But as
the use of such tests inevitably expands, it is bound to raise many of
the same ethical and moral questions that have accompanied the use of DNA
testing for other purposes. Like any use of DNA, which is the nucleic
acid that contains the genetic code and transmits one's hereditary
pattern, the results might provide unexpected answers. For example, the
test could reveal that you are not the biological child of your mother or
father. Sisters might not be biological siblings. Families could be
reunited - or torn apart.
''A lot of people could find out they are not related to whom they
thought they were,'' said Robert Tamarin, author of the textbook
''Principles of Genetics'' and dean of sciences at the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell. ''There is an awful lot of concealed illegitimacy.
People are going to find things they don't want to know.''
But supporters of the use of DNA testing for genealogical purposes say
the benefits far outweigh the risks, especially if people are genuinely
prepared to learn discomfiting information. Brian Glennon never worried.
''As far as I am concerned, any answer is a good answer. I never
envisioned any negatives at all.''
DNA tests have become common in paternity suits and criminal cases, and
they are starting to be used more to determine whether an individual
carries a gene for everything from breast cancer to Huntington's disease.
All of those uses have their own set of ethical issues. But the use of
DNA tests for genealogy is so new that even genetics specialists have
only recently become aware of it.
Until just a year ago, you would have had to be part of a scientific
research project to obtain such a DNA test. That changed after Bennett
Greenspan, a Texas real estate broker, tried to conduct a DNA test to
determine whether he was related to someone in Argentina. Greenspan
tracked down a researcher who was conducting DNA tests to determine the
migration patterns of Jews in Eastern Europe. Greenspan asked the
researcher how to get his own DNA tested for genealogical purposes.
Greenspan was told that no commercial service was available.
So Greenspan, sensing a business opportunity, created a company called
FamilyTreeDNA, which conducts its tests in conjunction with the
University of Arizona. (At least one other company, GeneTree of San Jose,
Calif., also performs the service.) So far about 1,000 people have used
the FamilyTreeDNA tests, primarily Jews seeking affirmation of their
heritage. As word has slowly spread about the service on the Internet,
members of other ethnic groups, including the Irish, have begun to use
it.
Californian Doug Mumma, who has a database of 46,000 relatives, is widely
recognized as one of the trailblazers in the use of DNA for genealogy.
Mumma coordinated testing of many potential relatives, eventually
determining that his DNA was a perfect match with some people named Momma
in Germany. But Mumma also has seen the downside of the tests; one of his
potential relatives found out that he wasn't a Mumma at all. ''It was a
little devastating to him,'' Mumma said. ''You always thought that was
your surname, then someone tells you you are not a Mumma, it kind of
takes a little of the breath out of you. That happens as a result of
adoption'' and people who have had a child out of wedlock.
To determine whether two people are related, each typically swabs the
inside of his cheek, enabling a series of DNA ''markers'' to be produced,
typically the ''Y'' chromosome that determines male ancestry. If those
markers match up identically, then the two people are almost certainly
related. If Y markers do not match, then the two do not share the
biological father. Some more complicated tests can also be used to
determine female ancestry.
This story ran on page D1 of the Boston Globe on 6/24/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.