Do you know that for as little as a $100 and a DNA swab of your cheeks, a company can reveal your family tree and ancestral homeland?

Well, don’t believe them! Don’t believe a company who will tell you you’re descended from Genghis Khan, or Napoleon Bonaparte or some (in)famous person in history.

  According to researchers who analyzed genetic ancestry testing, it’s a common misconception that the test can reveal information about an individual’s ancestry. In reality, genetic tests will only tell you that there are people in the world who share your DNA pattern, but these tests can not tell you where your ancestors lived or the ancient somebody you’re related with.

Unless of course, they have DNA on those people too.

In fact, genetic ancestry test can not also tell you about your complete family tree unless everyone that’s remotely related to you also take the test, or you’re a member of the royal families!

A genetic family tree, also known as pedigree, like the one shown above, require every member of the family to submit their DNA and other relevant personal information. But if you think submitting your cheek swabs will tell you what specific part of the world your ancestors came from, forget it. Save your $100. Your grandparents can probably tell you more.

Image: University of Wisconsin

Tracing back family trees and genetic histories can be quite an experience. Some of us have probably fantasized about being related to some ancient royalty or well-known personality. Or maybe you wondered where you got that blazing red hair but not your cousin’s true-blue eyes.

I had quite a small discovery when my mother drew our family tree some years back. We found distant relations to the wife of a national hero, and though it sounds shallow, that’s become a source of family pride. Ha-ha, indulge me. But other than this, and a possibility that we may have come from some Portuguese immigrant, nothing really pops up about my past.

At least nothing quite like the family history of Sir Paul Maxime Nurse, the noted biochemist, Nobel Laureate, Knight Bachelor and president of Rockefeller University in NYC.

In this humorous storytelling, Paul Nurse recounts how he discovered the source of his exceptional talents. Nurse begins by saying he’s always felt like the oddball of the family. He was the only one to pursue academic excellence while the rest of his family had left school at 15.

The mystery started to unravel with his daughter’s school project – tracing the family tree and his mother’s ashen-face confession that she and Nurse’s father were born out of wedlock. So there was no way to trace back Nurse’s lineage.

But the shock of his life came when Nurse was 58 years old, at the height of his career, and rejected for a US Green Card. He dug up a secret that his family has kept from him for half a century.

Here is the full story as told by Paul Nurse at the World Science Festival on June 12.

Image: Newscom/ HT: The Scientist

Did you know that Angelina Jolie is a distant cousin of Camilla the Duchess, Madonna, Shania Twain AND Hilary Clinton?

Man has an innate itch to find out where he came from, be it by evolution or ancestry. In a way it helps us connect with people from our past and gives us roots. So it’s no surprise that DNA testing for ancestry or population of origin has mushroomed in the past few years with the growth of direct-to-consumer companies.

Now, the American Society of Human Genetics is concerned about the implications of carrying out such tests without guidelines and oversight. The society presented a recommendation paper to the academe, and to the 30 companies involved in ancestral genetics testing.

Image credit: Newscom

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