Genealogy and DNA LIMITATIONS: Understanding exactly how tests reinforce folk ideologies.
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Genealogy and DNA LIMITATIONS:
Understanding exactly how tests reinforce folk ideologies.
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DNA testing for Genealogy
. . .
"The tests are not yet accurate enough to prove
100% the exact generation in the family tree."
. . .
"By using average (or soon, individual) marker mutation
rates it is possible to compare two profiles and back-
calculate how long ago their most recent common
ancestor lived. This method is derived from
anthropological science and although of some use,
has a margin of error that reduces its usefulness
in individual family history studies."
. . .
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/bigmisc/DNA.html
Showing Who They Really Are:
Commercial Ventures in Genetic Genealogy
Paper presented at the American
Anthropological Association
Annual Meeting November 22, 2003,
by Deborah A. Bolnick
University of California, Davis
[Ph.D. Candidate, UC Davis (Biological
Anthropology), Lecturer in Anthropology,
University of Texas, Austin.]
"Over the past decade, a number of private
companies have been established that make
genetic testing available to the general public.
At least 17 such companies currently exist in
the United States and Britain, and additional
ones can be found elsewhere in Europe. These
companies provide a wide array of services
and products, but the most common are genetic
tests for reconstructing one's personal genealogical
history. These genetic genealogy tests will be
the focus of my paper today. After briefly
describing the variety of tests available, I will
discuss three specific examples in more detail
to illustrate how such tests reinforce a number
of folk ideologies about the structure of the human
gene pool."
. . .
"They oversimplify and misrepresent the pattern
of human genetic variation, and they suggest
that genetic units are more congruent with racial
and cultural ones than they actually are."
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:pX_tD9OcSH4J:shrn.stanford.edu/workshops/revisitingrace/Bolnick2003.doc+using+dna+to+trace+genealogy+and+family+history+accuracy&hl=en
Native American DNA? Tests:
What are the Risks to Tribes?
. . .
"The science of Native American DNA testing
. . .
The tests can fail to detect Native American
ancestry in individuals with Native American
ancestors, and incorrectly identify it in others
who do not have such ancestors."
. . .
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:reoVhVlgrLgJ:shrn.stanford.edu/workshops/revisitingrace/TallBear_Bolnick.doc+%22Deborah+A.+Bolnick%22&hl=en
Genealogy and DNA LIMITATIONS:
". . . the limitations of the genetic technology. Two main
techniques are currently being used: mapping polymorphisms
on the Y chromosome to trace paternal ancestry and on
mitochondrial DNA to trace maternal lines. . . . Both
techniques take advantage of the fact that some genetic
material is passed down unchanged from parent to child---
in the case of the Y chromosome, from father to son;
and in the case of mitochondrial DNA, from mother to child
(both male and female). The problem is that mapping Y
chromosome and mitochondrial DNA polymorphisms
will trace only two genetic lines on a family tree in which
branches double with each preceding generation. For
example, Y chromosome tracing will connect a man
to his father but not to his mother, and it will connect
him to only one of his four grandparents: his paternal
grandfather. In the same way, it will connect him to
one of his eight great grandparents and one of his 16
great great grandparents. Continue back in this manner
for 14 generations and the man will be still be connected
to only one ancestor in that generation. The test will not
connect him to any of the other 16 383 ancestors in that
generation to whom he is also related in equal measure."
. . .
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/325/7378/1469?etoc
Alan Savin has an article on the subject,
[Genetic Genealogy: An Introduction], posted 14 JAN 2005.
Alan Savin "has been a genealogist since 1986 and initiated
the world's first DNA surname study in 1997."
http://www.newenglandancestors.org/education/articles/research/special_topics/genetics/genetics_intro.asp
PLEASE NOTE: "as long as there has been an unbroken
father to son transmission throughout the lines." Thus,
scientific DNA studies appear to be subject to historical
marital happiness within the set of any given ancestry.
"DNA testing relies on unbroken male lineages. It can be foiled by
unknown breaks in the blood line. Sources of breaks include
(1) hanky-panky with the neighbor,
(2) a pregnant bride marrying the wrong man, and
(3) unrecorded adoptions."
http://www.martindna.com/
"Again, if the husband had been absent from his
wife for a number of years, and she had a child
in his absence, was it a bastard? According to Coke,
as long as the father was alive and in England, the child
was his and legitimate (Burn, I, p. 110). Or, what was
the position of a woman impregnated by one man who
then proceeded to marry another man and the child
was born after the wedding to the latter? It was
apparently believed that the child was legitimate
and must be accepted as his by the man who married
the pregnant woman. (16) If there was doubt about
the paternity, but both 'paters' were legitimate, when
a husband died and the wife remarried, for example,
then the child could choose which husband was to be
his lawful 'father' (Burn, I, p. 110). Thus there seems
to have been an attempt to ensure that the child had
a legally recognized father wherever possible, even
though it might be well known that he was not the genitor.
The situation is quite different in certain African societies
where the physical genitor is of very little importance and
where illegitimacy in the European sense is practically
impossible since the child is always welcome and always
belongs to somebody. (17)" PAGE 4 AND PAGE 5
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:2Q1mEoyPQJAJ:www.alanmacfarlane.com/TEXTS/BASTARDY.PDF+history+of+illegitimate+children+statistics&hl=en
A study of the List of extinct states suggests also that
the family was reshaped by powerful outside forces:
changing national boundaries, even down to modern times.
List of extinct states
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinct_states
REFERENCE: REGIONAL GENEALOGY - WORLDWIDE
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/regionalgenealogy.htm#regionww
CONCLUSION:
Early Church - Civil LAWS and historical
common group PRACTICES present a great
hindrance in accepting DNA projections
as conclusive or genealogically practical.
Respectfully yours,
Tom Tinney, Sr.
Who's Who in America, Millennium Edition [54th] - 2004
Who's Who In Genealogy and Heraldry, [both editions]
Genealogy and Family History Internet Web Directory
http://www.academic-genealogy.com/