GenealogyDNA.com

Simply put, genetic genealogy is the use of DNA to ascertain a genetic relationship between individuals.  The Father of Evolution, Charles Darwin, is also credited with the early study of genetics, before the discovery of microscopic cell part deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA.

Darwin’s son George was able to study surnames in Britain and determine the rate of incidence of marriage among people with the same last name.  Interestingly, upper-class families were more likely to marry a cousin than the lower classes.  In fact, Charles Darwin himself was married to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood.

It wasn’t for another 100 years that major advances would be made along Darwin’s theory and it took an unlikely American running for U.S President to thrust the issue in the public eye.

Barack Obama is reported to have German roots that go back to the 1700s.  According to a popular ancestry website, Obama’s great, g, g, g, g, grandfather Johann Conrad Woelflin was born in Besigheim, Germany in January, 1729.  He emigrated to America in 1750 and settled in Pennsylvannia under the name of Wolfley.

This is intriguing because the findings follow another report that Obama bears some Irish ancestry.  No one who looks at Barack Obama would doubt he is anything but the product of a white American mother and a black Kenyan father, but Obama’s family tree is a common one.  Many Americans believe they have only a few national strains in their DNA when in fact they have the influence of several countries in their family tree.

When told the charismatic American President was a descendant of Germany, the country responded with cheers.  This isn’t the first U.S. President to be so named.  Dwight Eisenhower also had German roots.

Dive into your genetic genealogy and prepare yourself for wondrous information about your family you never believed possible.

Your ancestry by DNA is available with a few hundred dollars, four weeks and a simple cheek swab.  Finding ancestors via a genetic highway to the past is the most exciting breakthrough in the field of genetic research in decades.

The process begins with a kit from a laboratory that tests DNA and establishes a database for comparison.  The kit includes a plastic scraper which painlessly scrapes off loose cells in the lining of the check called buccal cells.  These cells contain the building blocks of life called DNA.

It only takes a few seconds and does not break the skin or cause any pain.  You place the sample into the tube that is provided in your kit and you send it to the pre-addressed envelope.

When the lab brings in the sample, workers will separate your cells from the plastic swab by use of unique buffers to suspend the cells in a sterile liquid.  In a series of washes the cells are purified and isolated further through a high speed spinning process called centrifugation.    This step occurs several times to create a pure DNA sample, separate from all other matter in the liquid transport.

The next step in the process is called “lysis” in which cells are heated to such a degree that the cell membrane breaks open.  Once the cell is breached the DNA leaches into the solution.  This is when the matching with other individuals occurs.

In a process called PCR, or polymerase chain reaction, DNA strands get separated, are combined with primers specific to each Y-chromosome and are annealed or stuck to the DNA strands.  Over the course of several repetitions, another chemical process takes place that amplifies Y-chromosome markers of interest to the researchers.

From here scientists can unlock the mysteries of ancestry by DNA and “unite” you with your ancestors in just a matter of hours.

If you want DNA genetics it is not necessary to test every member of your family.   The Y-chromosome present in the cells of all males will yield results for all male members of your family.  Women lack the Y-chromosome and have only X chromosomes.  In this case, the mitochondrion of women is tested and findings apply to the female family members.

Popular media such as the television crime dramas show conclusive proof of DNA guilt or innocence.  DNA used for genealogy is not as fool proof.   Populations have been mixing since humans first left Africa 150,000 years ago, so while a DNA marker reveals a strong link of origin to a single group, it is not 100 percent guaranteed proof since no marker has been found to lie exclusively in one group.

Researchers believe every person on earth originates from only 100,000 early individuals and in some ancient way we are all related; your neighbor, your colleague, your best friend:  Even famous and infamous individuals like President Roosevelt or Henry VIII !

In spite of the scientific advances in DNA technology, the test is relatively simple.  A painless cheek swab is sent to a lab for analysis.  Technicians extract, amplify and analyze the cellular sample and then compare and match it to DNA samples from a database of other samples.  At this point they are looking to link it to a particular haplotype which is a grouping of closely linked genes.

When a person is found to share maternal or paternal ancestry lines with other people it is called lineage testing.  There is another kind of analysis called admixture testing which centers on 22 pairs of chromosomes not related to gender such as the Y which is exclusive to men and the X present in men and in women.

Regardless of the method you choose, DNA genetics will yield far more information about your ancestors than mere historical records can show.