Baseline

I‘ve found, as an amateur genealogist and family historian, that researching ancestral roots and capturing stories to bring life to mere facts requires many competencies and skillsets. A family historian must wear many hats, including that of a: genealogist, historian, reporter, researcher and archivist. In that way, I liken my efforts for discovering the past to a Historical Investigator. As a Historical Investigator, I’ll need to conduct many activities in parallel: interviewing living relatives to establish a baseline of knowledge of our family history, searching for ancestors, validating their connections to my tree, documenting and archiving family artifacts (photos, heirlooms, antiques), finding historical context for my findings and finally, figuring out a way to write about my discoveries in a cohesive manner. The internet ushered in a new era in access to information, making genealogical research much easier than what our grandparents endured in their quest to learn about their past. Even so, the wealth of information at our finger tips makes the verification of the data we find, difficult.

In an effort to understand my ancestry from a genetic perspective, I have taken two DNA tests, the AncestryDNA test from two years ago, and one from 23andMe, the sample of which I submitted today. As described in an earlier post, I the AncestryDNA test focuses on Autosomal DNA matching, which provides a nice overview of genetic testing for cousin matching and integrates with their family tree features. AncestryDNA recently also came out with their Health DNA report, but, I wanted to get the 23andMe DNA test because it includes the Y-DNA and MtDNA reports for Ancestry, along with the Health, and VIP Health DNA reports. While DNA is 99.5% identical from person to person, it's the small differences in our chromosomes that make us unique. Our DNA passes from our parents and their parents, going back generations and the DNA testing companies find variants linked to certain health conditions, traits and ancestor groups. However, as 23andMe.com notes, genetics reflects only part of the story when it comes to health and traits. The other variables that influence a person's trait profile and health predisposition includes: Environment (pollution, sun exposure), Genetic (DNA, ethnicity) and Lifestyle (smoking, exercise).