For over 25 years I've researched my family history, and my blog Rueda y Fingerhut shares many ancestral narratives that I have pieced together. In this new blog, I will reflect on insights gained by analyzing my autosomal DNA through AncestryDNA and GEDmatch. Traditional family history and its supporting records present an ongoing narrative, an epic in which our ancestors become characters with grand story arcs. This exploration of my DNA will present a more fractured, cubist portrait of myself and my ancestors.
I use the "funhouse mirror" metaphor because there seems to be no single way to interpret my DNA. Admixture tests are accurate on a continental level but regional sub-groups depend on tests' reference populations. The wrong selection of populations could even yield false positives.
DNA testing also shows how multi-faceted people are, by considering all sources of our ancestry rather than the ones cherry-picked by family memory. I will determine the DNA I share with distant relations of unknown and people who lived in remote ages, thousands of years ago.
Geneticist Razib Khan of Insitome says in his post on US genetic variation:
"[G]enetics can shed lights on historical patterns. Unlike written text genetics is neutral. It does not present a particular narrative or agenda. Though the tale genetics tells is of the winners, there is no hiding this truth. In genetics the future belongs to those who procreate, and that is the foundation on which its logic is built."
There's a larger ethical concern which I acknowledge from the get-go, that my entering Ancestry's database will probably lead to my DNA being repurposed for commercial and possibly questionable pursuits. Roberta Estes's article on DNA-Explained.com thoroughly examines DNA data sharing and user agreements' legal loopholes. Unfortunately, I've already left a trail of "big data" that's been gobbled up by big business, given my two decades of Googling, 15 years on Facebook, and 8 years on Twitter. Perhaps this blog can also further reflect on this topic.
Trepidations aside, I am intrigued to see what these myriad of DNA analyses can tell me about my ancestors, and I hope to find fascinating nuggets of genetic inheritance in my genome.
Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut [at] gmail.com
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