Today is DNA day. It was created by the World Genome Research Institute to encourage people to learn more about the stuff that makes us truly unique. Although I’m not sure how much we can learn.
I have had family members do some pretty extensive family trees for various parts of the family of the past decades. I have a pretty good idea of where we came from and who was involved. Not that there can’t be surprises. But while the idea of getting one of those quick DNA tests done does seem interesting, I have my doubts about what I might learn from it.
There are things that can be learned that can come in handy. Like finding out about possible disease that could run in a family. Or maybe you have a distant relative who is secretly a sought after criminal, in which case it could come in handy to have he or she arrested before the next family reunion. But you do wonder how much you can learn from some of these home DNA tests.
You see stories about people who are related who take tests that come back with completely different results. While it might be possible that there was something going on in the family tree, it might be just as likely that something was a bit off in the reading of the test results.
I have never done one. My daughter did. Somewhere in her distant background, she has family of south Asian origin. We’re not sure where that came from. There is nothing to indicate it should be there. No good reason for it. It may exist. Or it could be a simple mistake. It really is hard to tell, from several generations away.
So it remains a bit of a mystery. Unfortunately, the tests do not specify exactly what was going on. There is no note on the results that says, “your great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother had a fling with a travelling salesman that came through her village somewhere around the 1300’s.” Although that would be pretty cool to know. But they don’t tell you anything quite so specific.
While these tests might be fun, I’m not sure how accurate they are. And don’t we all secretly want to find out we were related to some great king or something like that? Just something to brag about. Not that there’s anything wrong with coming from the illegitimate child of some unnamed land owner who knew he had no chance of a successful life in Europe so picked up and moved to a new place. Not that I know of anyone like that.
Although you sometimes have to be careful what you wish for. Maybe we’re better off not knowing what’s hanging on our family tree.
