Genealogy and Technology

Some countries, especially those with more homogeneous populations, find Americans’ tendency to describe their heritage using percentage points to be rather silly. In a place as diverse as America, however, I think it makes perfect sense. 

My grandmother and aunt happen to be very interested in genealogy, the study of family history. I stumbled upon it on my own when I was pretty young and immediately began working online to create my family tree. Admittedly, I did not get very far at first. Some of my family members gave me paper records and family trees. I also worked hard and did plenty of research to find information to break through genealogical brick walls.

Over ten years later, I’ve learned so much about my family. My family tree goes as far back as my 18^th great-grandfather, most likely born in the 12^th century. I connected with cousins that I didn’t even know I had. And this is all thanks to collaboration with genealogists from all around the world. The power of technology, right?

Though genealogical research may sometimes result in the discovery of some unwanted information or unforeseen secrets, there is substantially more upside than downside. Learning about your family allows you to learn more about yourself. Maybe you’re related to a celebrity or have royalty in your blood. Or maybe you want to learn where your name came from, or if your heritage subjects you to certain health risks. Maybe you’re just interested in learning about or preserving your family’s history. All these things, and more, can be learned from just a little bit of genealogical research. 

The internet has forever changed the study of family history. It almost makes it too easy to start a family tree. For reasons that need not be explained, the Mormon Church substantially contributed to technological advancements in genealogy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds the world’s largest collection of genealogical data in the world. It is available for free to the public at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. 

For obvious reasons, it is not exactly practical to fly to Utah every time you want to look up some records. To solve this problem, over 100,000 volunteers are involved in the large-scale conversion of the Family History Library’s microfilms to digitalized searchable records. These records are available for free online at FamilySearch.org. Without FamilySearch, my family tree would not be nearly as complete as it is now. The site also has the world’s largest shared family tree with over 1.2 billion people. 

The Mormon Church even went so far as to develop the GEDCOM file format. The GEDCOM (.ged) is the most widely used format for storing and sharing genealogical data. It is completely open source and is used by a variety of programs and web applications. As far as I am aware, this is the only file format created by a religious organization.

While FamilySearch is a great website to learn more about your family, other sites are also extremely useful. Websites like Geni (where my main tree is found), Ancestry.com, and others with large membership bases allow for collaboration with others on the site. I have been able to connect with family from New York City to Norway. Merging family trees is as simple as clicking a button.

Consumer DNA testing is something that genealogists have been interested in for a while now, but in the past few years these products have become more and more popular. Many companies, like 23andMe, Family Tree DNA, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage DNA now provide this sort of testing. I think DNA testing is a great idea. However, at this point I am not so sold on the technology.

There are three types of DNA tests typically offered to consumers: autosomal, mtDNA, and Y-DNA. Out of all three tests, autosomal testing is the most popular, most informative, and typically the cheapest. This test looks at genetics provides a percentage breakdown of a person’s ethnicity based on geography. mtDNA is passed down from your maternal ancestors, and Y-DNA is passed down from your paternal ancestors. As Y-DNA is only passed down to those with Y chromosomes, only men can take a Y-DNA test. Both mtDNA and Y-DNA organize people into something called a haplogroup, which allows people to see if they have a common maternal or paternal ancestor.

DNA testing is awesome, but I think it's a scary thing to give to a company. Last year, DNA allowed for the capture of the Golden State Killer, a serial criminal who had evaded justice in California for nearly 50 years. Joseph DeAngelo, the suspect, was arrested simply because a distant relative uploaded their DNA to a service called GEDMatch. 23andMe has stated that they will indefinitely store your DNA and have admitted to allowing outside organizations access the information. 23andMe has also received a lot of criticism for their DNA-based health testing. It has not been approved by the FDA and it can be dangerously inaccurate. Also, imagine what would happen if a database full of thousands of customers’ DNA was compromised. At this point, I am not willing to provide my DNA to a company for testing. But considering that others in my family have already done so, maybe my genetic data is not so safe.

 

Has this post inspired you to create a family tree of your own? Have you already done some genealogical research and found anything interesting about your family? Would you be willing to provide your DNA to a for-profit company for testing? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!