December 29, 2010

Use your DNA to complete your family tree

The internet offers a great range of possibilities to search for and find information from known and forgotten ancestors and family members. Filling the leaves of our family tree has become easier than ever before. However, the next breakthrough does not come from Google labs but from the scientific advances that have made it possible to perform personalized genetic testing and DNA sequencing easily and affordably.

Besides the now famous (or infamous for many) paternity DNA testing kits, DNA testing companies are now offering tests to probe the ethic origin of the person whose DNA is being analyzed. Without getting to the point of the personal genome, ancestry DNA kits are simple, fast and inexpensive. These tests are not so powerful to provide name, address and eye colour of all your ancestors back to King David, but they can give you a good idea of where in the world your DNA was around maybe a few hundred years ago. This may come very useful to confirm (or discard) a tip of a distant relative in a specific region of the world.

Click here to find more information about ancestry DNA testing, or consult these excellent references: