One of the newest and popular programs on PBS follows the
genealogy of celebrities – recently Stephen King.
Not long ago my cousin applied to a commercial DNA
service to determine her family roots – her countries of origin. To me (especially
since I have no idea of my paternal line,) the idea of following my ‘roots’
means virtually nothing.
I have always considered the whole process of genealogy
research an exercise in vanity. Our
blood lines, are in fact, counted exponentially – doubling with each prior
generation; so the idea of following only one line back to a
patriarch/matriarch is like picking one number at bingo.
It is nice to know that my great-great grandfather from
Kentucky served in the Union Army and died at Shiloh. But the fact is, there were eight great-great
grandfathers four generations back and I have no idea who, or what the other
seven were doing.
Going back ten generations would produce 1,024
grandparents equally sharing my DNA – 512 tenth generation grandfathers and 512
grandmothers.
Twenty generations back my
and your predecessors numbered 1,046,016 (one million, forty-six thousand and
sixteen.) We share equal DNA from our
blood line in that generation – no one outranks another. It makes you wonder what the world population
was twenty generations ago, and to what percentage of that world we would show
a direct linage?
And then there is the DNA test. I had a blood transfusion after a car
accident. I wonder how that effects my
DNA – another whole set of unknown line?
At what point are we all kin?
the Ol’Buzzard
For over 50 years I never realized I had great grand parents, then a daughter found them & gave me some history. Later I did visit their resting place and realized that I had roots.
ReplyDeleteIt was different.
I had the same feeling when I returned to Kentucky after more than thirty years away and found my sir-name in the cemeteries; but again that is only one line of many.
DeleteFascinating, because I am very interested in anthropology. I don't find genealogical narcissistic, at least as far as I am concerned. I'm not concerned with my "noble" lineage, but I think knowing where I came from helps me to define myself. I have a cousin who is obsessed with genealogy of the maternal branch of my family. About a week and and a half ago, I had the experience of standing on the ramparts of the Citadel de Brouage, which once was the biggest military naval fortresses in France. Today, the citadel is actually located a few kilometers from any access to the ocean because the entire estuary of the Charente river silted up. The entire area is an amazing series of canals and marshes. This is also where Cognac is produced. The main street of the village is the Rue de Quebec.This is where the my direct ancestor left for Canada in 1631. Joseph-Osanny Nadeau was born about 30 kilometers away from Brouage. His children and grand children married native Americans. It is a very rich tapestry, the pattern of which I am uncovering a little at a time.
ReplyDeleteI can explain the entire DNA thingy to you....transfused blood is a temporary substance. You were lucky to find a donor whose blood you could accept, but it didn't alter your physical organism, that only happens in comic books. In comic book science, a radioactive spider spider bit could change into Spiderman! Another great thing about living where I do is the real connection with prehistory. I live near a huge cave system...La Grotte de Rouffignac which was inhabited by Cro Magnon humans for perhaps 10,000 years. They left a rich legacy of cryptic art deep in the earth. The system extends for over 3 kilometers. For a long time the art in the cave was considered a hoax, because it depicted animals which did not live in this part of France at the same time as the humans who lived in cave did and it depicted anatomical details which were not known until, actual frozen mammoths were taken out of the glacial ice in Russia. Now we realize that the artists were depicting images that were part of the tribal "mythological memory". The wooly rhinos and the mammoths with the anal "flaps" they depicted were like the religious art of modern man. When did cromagnon man become homo sapien? What happened to the Neanderthals? The science of the 19th century tried to wrap up everything into neat answers, but now we know so much more. Neanderthal genes still live in us all, the Ainu population of Northern Japan, the Lapps and Northern Siberians all share tribal religions that preserve some of the rituals we now know that the Neanderthals observed, like bear worship. I find this one of the most fascinating areas of knowledge that is just beginning to be revealed and the scientific DNA research is what is really unlocking the doors!
I enjoy the study of evolution and have taught it even when it was banned in the Kentucky school where I was substituting. It is just the following of one line that dilutes by half with each generation removed that seems less relevant to me.
DeleteO'B
I enjoy genealogy because it's my family's own little slice of the vast historical pie. But you're right -- at some point, "generational collapse" occurs and we're all just related to each other. But isn't that kind of a neat concept too? Doesn't stop us from killing each other though. That would be too much to expect.
ReplyDeleteActually there is a point of diminishment where the triangle becomes a diamond.
DeleteO'B
I have always assumed my ancestors cage fell out of the transport while it was being loaded for a trip back to the mother ship way back when and whatever was in it got friendly with the locals and half a million years later, here I am! ha ha ha or some comet crushed carrying the necessary ingredients to make amino acids and "fertilized" in the incubator of primordial ooze! Next thing you know "here's Johnny!" ha ha ha Sorry- Good post!
ReplyDeleteI have always felt that at some point I fell out of the tree.
DeleteO'B
My younger brother is interested in anthropology and genealogy and got me hooked. I have always been interested in where people came from and how they got to where they are - the journeys of humankind across the planet, both prehistorical and historical. He, with help from other family members is doing three "family trees". My father's (our surname), my maternal grandmother's (her surname) and my father's mother's mother's surname, mostly to keep track of the generations beginning with great great grandparents. Yes, if you go backwards from YOU, the number of ancestors increases exponentially but if you go forwards from eg your great grandfather (pick one) the numbers also increase at a tremendous rate. It is simply a huge jigsaw puzzle trying to sort it all out, mostly for the same reasons we do jigsaw puzzles.
ReplyDeleteMy dna has been on this planet for billions of years and I'm not interested in figuring it all out.
ReplyDelete