Wednesday, March 29, 2006

DNA Gives Wheres But Not Whys

(Sweetest Heart of Mary Church, main altar)

Tracing one's ancestry via DNA is a fascinating concept. If it weren't for the exorbitant cost involved, I'd be jumping on the band wagon myself. I'd like to see the areas my ancestors came from, I guess. I mean, I know they all came from Poland. Presumably they migrated to Poland from somewhere else since no one has identified Poland as the land of the first humans. Who knows how or why they ended up in Poland. There probably was a good reason at the time but I doubt I'll ever know what that reason was. DNA test results can't tell me that.

Heck I'm even having a hard time trying to figure out how and why my more recent ancestors ended up in Detroit. I can and have traced many individuals from my ancestor's ancestral villages to various parts of the U.S. but I've yet to come across the document that explains why my grandparents came to Detroit when others from their village ended up in Buffalo, Chicago, and Wheeling. So just like with DNA results I can see patterns but I still don't know the whys.

Now if the DNA results could give me the whys instead of just the wheres, I'd probably think the $100, $200, $300+ fees were reasonable. But as it is, I just can't see the value. If the price of having my DNA processed were $10, $20, $30... I'd probably do it just for the heck of it. But to get me to spend hundreds of dollars they'd have to give me more than what I'm seeing offered.

http://www.ancestrybydna.com ($219-$399)
http://www.familytreedna.com ($75-$995)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/ ($99.95)

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