Trace Your Roots with DNA: Using Genetic Tests to Explore Your Family Tree

by Megan Smolenyak and Ann Turner

Book Overview

Written by two of the country's top genealogists, this is the first book to explain how new and groundbreaking genetic testing can help you research your ancestry According to American Demographics,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594860068
• ISBN13: 9781594860065
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Rodale Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.4" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent contribution in a new subject of growing importance

Even a decade ago, "genetic genealogy" barely existed as an almost science-fictional idea. Now, it's one of the most debated topics in our field and thousands of family researchers are involved in projects to identify ancestors through DNA analysis. (I'm in two projects now, myself.) It's a rather complicated subject, though, and for those (like me) who barely scraped through high school biology, the more books for beginners, the better. Smolenyak is a well-known genealogist and lead researcher for the PBS Ancestors series and Turner has become one of the principal popularizers of genetic genealogy on the Internet. The important point is that both have been pursuing family research since the days of manual typewriters and paper library catalogs, and that's the perspective from which they approach the discussion. They explain very clearly why DNA analysis can tell you only who your ancestors *aren't*, not necessarily who they *are*, and the strategic differences between researching your father's and your mother's lineage. They lay out the options and limitations among uncovering ethnic origins (what about that Indian great-grandmother?), global origins (Eastern European? or Scandinavian?), "deep maternal" ancestry (the "daughters of Eve" thing), and even African tribal origins. How do you set up a family or surname research project, attract participants, ensure their trust, and analyze and publish the results? And what do all those numbers in the lab report mean? This is very much a practical book and I strongly recommend it, perhaps in conjunction with Thomas H. Shawker's _Unlocking Your Genetic Heritage_ (2004).

Genetic Research and Genealogy Converge

This book explores the convergence of genetic research and genealogy, and provides its own convergence of the academic with the practical. Some people make a life's work of tracing their family roots. I'm not one of those people. But a few years ago, my sister researched our family's immigration on the paternal side and found the account we'd been told our whole lives simply wasn't true. So when I saw this book, I thought it might be interesting. That's exactly what it turned out to be--in spades. The authors took care to make the book readable to both novices and experienced genealogical researchers. As I have no experience in genealogy, I very much appreciated Part I. It gave me a good background, so I could understand and enjoy the rest of the book. Folks who already knew the basics could skip over Part I, without missing out on something of value to them. This modular organization of Trace Your Roots is something I want to explain a bit more, by looking for a moment at a different genre. One of my pet peeves with computer books is most of them are either extremely basic throughout so you get bogged down in boring detail, or they are so advanced you just can't move forward. The correct approach is to include a primer on the basics for those who need it, and then write the book as though everyone knows the basics. I was pleased that Trace Your Roots took this approach. Moving beyond the primer (which addresses genealogy and then genetics), the book takes one subject at a time and explains it in a clear and interesting way with examples and anecdotes. In Part II, we start with tracing roots along the paternal path. There are two basic reasons for taking this path. The first is biological--the Y chromosome. The second is cultural--many cultures, especially in the West--preserve the paternal surname. There are some twists in this approach, though, and the book explains what they are and how researchers handle them. The next topic is, as you might expect, tracing roots along the maternal path. The main reason for taking this path is biological--the mitochondrial DNA. I was fascinated by the explanation and implications of this. And here's a tidbit. The father's contribution (Y chromosome) contains nothing essential, which makes sense when you realize that female offspring don't have Y chromosomes (and so don't pass along the paternal line). The mitochondrial DNA, however, is very different in that respect and in other ways as well. Part II also explains where various genetic groups seem to originate and why. Chapter 5 contains a fascinating account of a man who had made his African American heritage a major part of his life and identity. But through genetic testing, he discovered he had no African American heritage--what he "knew" was based on faulty family lore. Where Part II delves into tracing next of kin relationships, the implications cover a wide area of interests. This kind of research affects everything from paternity suits to

Who would have believed it twenty years ago?...

Millions of Americans have become hooked on genealogy, the science or study of family descent. The popularity of pursuing one's ancestors through tracing one's roots backward generation by generation has soared since the advent of the Internet, which made it possible to rapidly search the world for even remote family members and set up family websites, and the creation of special computer software which enables anyone to use the power of the computer to trace his or her domestic roots. Now it is possible to go to the next level of searching one's family tree through the availability of DNA testing. And that is what this book, "Trace Your Roots with DNA," is all about. Co-author Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak (no, that's not a typo!) has been an eager genealogist for more than thirty years, is an authority on family history research, and was the lead researcher for the Ancestors series on PBS. She is also a contributing editor for "Heritage Quest" and the author of a number of books related to genealogy and ancestor historiography. The other co-author, Ann Turner, became interested in genealogy when she learned that her parents' ancestors had arrived in the United States on the same ship, yet went their separate ways until her parents met 300 years later. That sort of coincidence would also have piqued my interest in my family history if I knew something like that about my parents. Sometimes facts are really stranger than fiction. "Trace Your Roots with DNA" is not really for leisure reading, but it does contain very valuable information for those who want to use the new DNA tests for help in tracing their family ancestry. It contains a lot of technical material (although I hope that point does not scare anyone away), but the authors explain everything in terms which any ordinary person of average intelligence can understand and there are ample illustrations provided to help clarify what is being described. I suggest the reader do a rapid once-through-reading of the book and then consider it a sourcebook, guidebook, or resource to be consulted often. The authors provide a brief introduction to the fundamentals of genealogy and genetics, including a brief overview of classical genetics, blood types, phenotypes, genotypes, molecular genetics, the principles of DNA, and even a short section about mutations. I found their discussion of the Y chromosome and its ramifications to be especially interesting. The Y chromosome is inherited from fathers and occurs only in males. This was of particular interest to me, not merely because I am of the male gender, but because of the following statement made by the authors: "If we had a time machine, we could trace the Y chromosome of every man living today back to one man." Furthermore, say the authors, this "Most Recent Common Ancestor" of all men was a real person, not an abstraction, and is sometimes called "Y-Adam," almost certainly born in Africa less than 100,000 years ago. That to me means that in one imp

New Research Tool for Genealogists

I've been a genealogy hobbyist for about 15 years and tried DNA testing to see if it could help me out. It did. So I know it works. But the learning curve is very steep for most people interested in this tool. It was good news when I heard Smolenyak and Turner had written a book. I "met" them on the net when I was going through my learning process and they were very helpful. I heartily recommend this book to others interested in this subject. The first chapter even covers some basic genealogy for those with no experience in traditional "paper trail" research (this must be used in conjunction with DNA). There has been very little available to fill the gap between complicated scientific publications and the pioneer genealogists and testing companies (such as Family Tree DNA) who are learning to use this new resource. The book fills that gap and does it very well. "Newbies" in this subject have been begging for a DNA/Genealogy for dummies book and this user-friendly book does the job. It is also a handy reference book for those of us who now have some experience.

Very informative while still being interesting to read

This is an interesting book that examines the use of DNA to trace your ancestry. With the cost of such testing going down all the time this becomes a reasonable way to determine if you are related to someone or not. The text covers Y chromosome DNA testing to follow the father's side and mtDNA for information on the maternal side. Of course you really need to understand how all of this applies to ancestry and the authors provide an excellent discussion of the various types of DNA tests, what they show, and even places where they can be ordered. This includes a lengthy exposition of ancestry informative markers and their use. Ancestry informative markers allow the tester to determine the percentage of their ancestry that came from a specific area. So, the results of the test might indicate you are 70% Indo-European, 15% Sub-Saharan African, 10% East Asian and 5% Native American. This does not tell you anything about specific ancestors but it does give you an idea of the makeup of your family history. Since you are not going to be able to dig up ancient ancestors and test their DNA to see if you are related, the predominant use of the system at this point seems to be to determine if you are related to someone else who has the same surname (although you may never figure out exactly how) or to determine your ancestry mix with the information markers. This book completely demystifies the use of DNA as a genealogical tool. The appendixes include a glossary, where you can get specific tests performed, places where you can add your results to surname projects, sources for genealogical information, etc. Trace Your Roots with DNA is highly recommended for anyone interested in their ancestry or genealogical research in general.