Tracing History of Great Significance — Our Own October 10
At one point or another, we were, are, and will be students of history; but the history that most of us have come to know – and for some, begrudgingly remember – consists of remembering milestones and people that affected our community, our country, and our world as a whole. As such, we may all have knowledge of people and events that happened three, four or five hundred odd-years ago that had an impact of national or global proportions; but how much do we know about a miniscule portion of history – that of our own?
Please excuse the above tirade; it is the result of having read a recent feature by Rachel L. Swarns and Jodi Kantor on The New York Times, published last October 7, which told of genealogist Megan Smolenyak and the New York Times’ efforts at tracing First Lady Michelle Obama’s lineage, all the way back to the mid-1800s. Among other things, it confirmed the First Lady’s slave ancestry; a rather poetic proof of how much the passage of time has changed American society.
Is there really a need to trace one’s ancestry? What do we get out of this knowledge? For me, it is more than just getting to know long-lost gramps and grannies and coming up with yellowed photographs showing a hint of why one ended up with one’s nose. It is about understanding who we are and what we have become. It is about being able to learn from past mistakes and emulating previous successes. It is about drawing inspiration that can propel us towards achieving the goals that we have set for ourselves.
On a more global scale, National Geographic and IBM have joined forces for the Genographic Project, which aims to “map out the migration of human genes through the analysis of DNA samples”. The extensive multi-year study relies on the DNA testing of samples provided by people of various races and cultures, some of which are collected through events like the one to be hosted on Sunday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Michigan, where participants will take a moment to contribute their share in the research project through a quick swab inside the cheek.
Exactly how far back into our personal stories should we venture? The further we go, the wider our sense of family will become; the links will also most likely become more intricate. Who knows? We just might find out that we are more closely related to one another than we originally thought; it is a far fetched concept, but this knowledge may yet bring about more tolerance and understanding, as we bridge the gap between the past and the present and find similarities emerging from our differences.
Tags: ancestry mapping, ancestry tracing, dna test, DNA testing, genographic report
ashaindra Oct 11
As a journalist, I find the concept of history and heritage fascinating for the human interest angle. That having been said, someone’s heritage should have no bearing on their personal future. You cannot change what a great-great-grandperson did at any one point, and you are your own person irregardless of your background.
Genealogy is interesting, but there are uneducated people out there who use the past to judge someone in the present.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/michelle_obama_s_slave_roots
genographic Oct 22
just the idea that every living human on earth arose from a single lineage (based on mtdna data), blows my mind. We’re all just one big family that fights all the time…