by Diahan Southard
Lately, it seems to be very difficult to have any discussion on family history without mentioning three little letters: D-N-A. While family history enthusiasts and serious genealogists are flocking to testing companies like AncestryDNA to help them further their family history efforts, there are plenty of other individuals being tested who have never considered researching their family’s past. This trend reveals a nearly universal interest in what our own DNA holds, and it may be just the thing your family needs to invigorate your family history research and bind even the most skeptical among you to a common pursuit of documenting your family. What better place to start this conversation than at your next family gathering?
You might want to begin your discussion with a magic trick. Prepare a batch of lemon water and have everyone write messages with it on white paper. Then bring on the heat—a candle or iron will do—and watch the message appear! This activity naturally leads into a discussion of DNA, because when we are trying to tell the story of our ancestors using our DNA, it is almost as if we are reading a story written in vanishing ink. We have a very small window in which to capture the story before it disappears. This vanishing act comes courtesy of the way our DNA is inherited: half from Mom and half from Dad. But what about the other half? The half they didn’t give you? It vanishes. However, all is not lost! Testing multiple members of your family can help recover parts of that lost story.
As summer approaches and you pile into minivans, pack coolers, and congregate in rented picnic pavilions or Aunt Carroll’s backyard, take a minute to consider how your relative’s DNA might help you fill in the parts of your story that have vanished. Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Test the oldest generation first. Note that not everyone needs to be tested if your focus is on family history. Remind your family that testing the oldest generation first is key to helping preserve the genetic record of your ancestors. Anyone who does not have both parents living should have an autosomal DNA test completed. Gather up your cousins and pool together resources to make sure that Grandpa, Grandma, and Great-aunt Ida are all tested. Men should be tested on the YDNA at Family Tree DNA, and everyone should get an autosomal DNA test from AncestryDNA, MyHeritage, Family Tree DNA, or 23andMe.
- Use evidence to get their attention. As you well know, not everyone vying for a piece of Uncle Everett’s chocolate sheet cake will be equally interested in this whole genealogy and DNA thing. Show them the ethnic pie chart first, and if you have been tested at AncestryDNA, your Ancestral Communities. These two kinds of results, with their geography and interesting graphics, seem to have the most universal appeal. Remind them that this is your DNA talking, not the family history research you have done. It is this DNA, on its own, that is identifying you as a member of these population groups. Usually that gets their attention.
- Find DNA connections on your match list. As fascinating as the percentages are, don’t neglect the match list when you are sharing your own DNA testing experience. It is often overlooked, but its message is remarkable. The people on that list are relatives. It doesn’t matter if you can identify your common ancestor or not. If they make the list, you share an ancestor, and that makes you family. That means there are physical ties, in the form of our DNA, linking one generation to the next. These same physical pieces of DNA lived the life of your ancestor. That DNA crossed the plains, or built railroads, or survived cholera, or fought in a war. This DNA connects us to our ancestors and their stories, so even though we have lost our connection on paper, we are still very much connected biologically.
- Fill out your family health history. There are some fantastic tools out there to help you start conversations about your family’s health history. (Try familyhealthhistory.org, for example.) Being aware of what diseases or conditions have affected your family in the past is an important first step to living healthier lives. Take the opportunity to fill out your family health history while you have everyone together at your family gathering this summer.
- Test the kids too. I know I just spent the last several paragraphs telling you not to test the kids, but if one of your goals is to spark interest in family history among the younger generations, seeing their name listed among other biological relatives might be just the thing to help them feel connected to their past (or to that sibling they just can’t believe they are related to). Of course, with DNA testing, as with any other kind of investigation into our past, there is always the chance of finding out something unexpected, so please be sure the child is old enough to understand what DNA testing is all about.
As you pack your bags for your next trip to see Uncle Joe and Aunt Karin, throw in a DNA kit or two right next to the Parcheesi board and dog leash. Then, over the potluck potato salad and baked beans, try to fit in a little discussion about vanishing ink and how, thanks to our DNA, each one of us can play a part in telling the stories of our ancestors.
