Comments on: Rebuilding The Family Tree

Lesley Stahl Reports On The Hopes And Limitations Of Genetic Genealogy

[mdeshazer-2009]

As the story aired I grabbed a pen and pad hoping, during the segment, to pickup a few nuggets of additional information that would enlightened my own efforts in researching my family tree(already had DNA done by Rick Kittle''s organization). Instead, I came away really disappointed and aggitated because Leslie appeared to be trying to discredit the progress made in genetic genealogy. Why is that? I was also disappointed that you didn''t tie-in the National Geographic Project, the Genographic Project. This project, based on on-going genetic research, has direct relevence to understanding the relationship among humankind, and understanding migration patterns that have impacted all of our lives. You could have done better...

[tbrahm18]

I have recently submitted my DNA for testing through the National Geographics Genographic Project. I am very curious to see if it will tell me about my European Ashkenazi Jew and Christian genetic make up.
Your story on Genealogy was very informative. We have no idea who we are related to in this world. It would be a wonderful world if we could all see each other as relatives. Showing kindness and respect towards one another.
Please keep the world informed on your show about genealogy and genetics. Maybe more people would show an interest in knowing where they come from and who they may be related to.

[fitzhugh44]

I was very disturbed by Leslie Stahl''s one droppist comment to Vy and Marion. She stated that both Vy and Marion looked nothing alike. I feel her comment was racist and was made only because Vy''s skin color is brown. It was quite obvious that Vy and her daughter and cousin who submitted the DNA were of mixed descent and multi-generational mulattoes like so many african american are but liberals deny this notion and hold on to the one drop rule. I was extremely offended and feel this should be addressed.

[scottsgen]

Yes, I agree, that was a heart warming story. I think if you have read about DNA Genealogy and Archaeology, you would see that we all (**** sapiens sapiens) originated in the African Rift Valley. Therefore, we all have African ancestors.

I just hope that this story doesn''t make other people hesitant to participate with DNA Genealogy. For genealogists, we hope that other people will participate more and more. How else will we find a match? So far, I only have one match, but with time and more people every day having their DNA tested, I may eventually find more matches.

Yes, the mtDNA is a difficult test to interpret, however the Y-DNA test is a good indicator for the direct paternal line (your surname only). That brings up another point of the origin of surnames. When you go so far back, there weren''t surnames. But so far, this is what we have, and you have to take for what it''s worth.

I just hope this program doesn''t deter people from testing. I sure would like to discover more relatives.

[whjohnsonjr]

It''s nice to think that black and white people are connected by a distant benign white ancestor. Unfortunately, most of those white men were rapist of black slave women.

Don''t worry; I''m not calling for anything from whites. I only hope that the criminality of their distant ancestor has been sufficiently diluted. Maybe whites do as well.

[greeneyes222]

"Greely says he has looked at several companies that are doing these tests. Asked if he thinks that they adequately explain the limitations, Greely says, "No. I don''t think any of them does as good a job of pointing out the limitations. But, you know, businesses often don''t go around telling you how weak their product is." "

That''s an important point, and applies to all ancestry, black, white, whatever.

These companies are pushing their services and databases to various family groups, and certain groups are using them to exclude rather than include family members. It''s a hot trend in genealogy, and like so many other things it''s prone to abuse and misrepresentation.

As it happens I have at least one black cousin, found the old fashioned way through documentation. Believe me, that''s fine - a cousin is a cousin. But as I hear more and more stories of people being told they "can''t" be related based on these services despite documented evidence to the contrary, I really question why these operators aren''t forced to disclose their limitations.

[forestdean]

I''m afraid your publish button isn''t working properly.

[forestdean]

I''ve been researching my family for over 40 years. Fotunately we had members from five generations living until I was a young man. I remember my first conversation with one of my great-grandmothers when I was seven years old, she wasa born in 1860.That was the first time I started to record my family history. Later I recorded the voices of some of our older family members. With the information I had gathered I was able to construct an accurate family tree not only listing family members but stories about them. When Genetic Genealogy became available it was very helpful in proving some of the earilest data I had gathered, primarily because places were mentioned. The Y-DNA and mtDNA can be very helpful if you use it along with the documention/records, history and other information you have gathered. I used Family Tree DNA and I was fully aware of fact that I could only trace my diect male and female lines..but that is what I wanted. I think you should do a program showing how these tests along with other research can be extremely helpful. Genetic Genealogy can be very helpful in helping African-Americans learn more about their ancestry if it is used along with other research. The results that you showed on your show gave me clues as to the heritage of Vy because I use a method that takes the results and narrows the likely core family group. That information was best presented by the family tree results which showed all of the matches....good for them!

[forestdean]

I''ve been researching my family for over 40 years. Fotunately we had members from five generations living until I was a young man. I remember my first conversation with one of my great-grandmothers when I was seven years old, she wasa born in 1860.That was the first time I started to record my family history. Later I recorded the voices of some of our older family members. With the information I had gathered I was able to construct an accurate family tree not only listing family members but stories about them. When Genetic Genealogy became available it was very helpful in proving some of the earilest data I had gathered, primarily because places were mentioned. The Y-DNA and mtDNA can be very helpful if you use it along with the documention/records, history and other information you have gathered. I used Family Tree DNA and I was fully aware of fact that I could only trace my diect male and female lines..but that is what I wanted. I think you should do a program showing how these tests along with other research can be extremely helpful. Genetic Genealogy can be very helpful in helping African-Americans learn more about their ancestry if it is used along with other research. The results that you showed on your show gave me clues as to the heritage of Vy because I use a method that takes the results and narrows the likely core family group. That information was best presented by the family tree results which showed all of the matches....good for them!

[forestdean]

I''ve been researching my family for over 40 years. Fotunately we had members from five generations living until I was a young man. I remember my first conversation with one of my great-grandmothers when I was seven years old, she wasa born in 1860.That was the first time I started to record my family history. Later I recorded the voices of some of our older family members. With the information I had gathered I was able to construct an accurate family tree not only listing family members but stories about them. When Genetic Genealogy became available it was very helpful in proving some of the earilest data I had gathered, primarily because places were mentioned. The Y-DNA and mtDNA can be very helpful if you use it along with the documention/records, history and other information you have gathered. I used Family Tree DNA and I was fully aware of fact that I could only trace my diect male and female lines..but that is what I wanted. I think you should do a program showing how these tests along with other research can be extremely helpful. Genetic Genealogy can be very helpful in helping African-Americans learn more about their ancestry if it is used along with other research. The results that you showed on your show gave me clues as to the heritage of Vy because I use a method that takes the results and narrows the likely core family group. That information was best presented by the family tree results which showed all of the matches....good for them!

[forestdean]

I''ve been researching my family for over 40 years. Fotunately we had members from five generations living until I was a young man. I remember my first conversation with one of my great-grandmothers when I was seven years old, she wasa born in 1860.That was the first time I started to record my family history. Later I recorded the voices of some of our older family members. With the information I had gathered I was able to construct an accurate family tree not only listing family members but stories about them. When Genetic Genealogy became available it was very helpful in proving some of the earilest data I had gathered, primarily because places were mentioned. The Y-DNA and mtDNA can be very helpful if you use it along with the documention/records, history and other information you have gathered. I used Family Tree DNA and I was fully aware of fact that I could only trace my diect male and female lines..but that is what I wanted. I think you should do a program showing how these tests along with other research can be extremely helpful. Genetic Genealogy can be very helpful in helping African-Americans learn more about their ancestry if it is used along with other research. The results that you showed on your show gave me clues as to the heritage of Vy because I use a method that takes the results and narrows the likely core family group. That information was best presented by the family tree results which showed all of the matches....good for them!

[OrdinaryFolks]

A recent article about European, African and American ancestors (Part 3).

My research also took me to Ghana. I tracked down dozens of ancestors and collected DNA from Ghanaian families whose names matched nicknames still used in my family. I spent a lot of time on the linguistic research, and DNA confirmed the connection. As far as I know, I was one of the first people in the world to use DNA in this way.
I''ve written a book about my research but publishers seem to think it''s too contentious to publish. Talking about black ancestors who rebelled apparently goes against how Americans see these people - slaves were victims, not rebels. Editors are happy to accept stories about slaves who escaped one at a time, but they don''t like the idea that they grouped together and stood up for themselves. That''s too threatening.
I''ve also learned that many black Americans are afraid, as I was initially, of finding a slave trader in their family tree, so they don''t really want to talk about their European ancestors. I got into trouble with my black friends for saying that John Smellie was a more caring man than many other colonials because he left a record of his child.
When you start looking into your genealogy, you have to come to terms with admirable and despicable behaviour, and that''s what I''ve done.
As told to Sarah Ebner.

[OrdinaryFolks]

A recent article about European, African and American ancestors (Part 2).

My Jamaican grandmother''s name was Rebecca Smellie and her ancestor was John Smellie, a Scottish merchant. In 1726 in Jamaica he had a child, George, with a "free negro" whose name was Ann Roberts. Even though there were penalties at that time - huge fines, deportation, imprisonment - for keeping records of black children, John Smellie left birth and baptism records with George''s name on them.
Three of John Smellie''s Scottish descendants settled in Jamaica on land he left them. One of them was called William Smellie and he died in 1800. He was an abolitionist, and when I found his will it showed that he left the maximum amount allowed under the slavery laws to his mixed-race children and their mother. Finding out about both these men changed everything for me. I had thought I was learning about the awful people who owned slaves, but instead I was discovering heroism, and people who stood up for what they thought was right.
I followed up these discoveries with research in Scotland, hiring Scottish genealogists and local historians. It turned out that John Smellie was of noble birth. I sent the records to the Court of The Lord Lyon, the heraldic authority for Scotland, which said I qualified for a coat of arms. I now have one that reflects the diversity of my ancestry.

[OrdinaryFolks]

A recent article about European, African and American ancestors (Part 1).

Financial Times, UK, Weekend Magazine -- First Person: Pearl Duncan -- "My Scottish ancestors were heroes"
By Sarah Ebner, Financial Times
Aug 18, 2007
When I started to look into my family tree, I couldn''t have imagined the conflict it would cause. I spent 10 years researching my ancestors, and a lot of people didn''t like what I had to say at the end of it. I''d tracked the cultural history that shaped my DNA in America, Europe and Africa, and discovered that not all white men in the British colonies who fathered children with black women in the 18th century were evil slavers. I found at least one ancestor who was an abolitionist and who did not abandon his children.
My family emigrated from Jamaica to New York when I was young, and I was always fascinated by where I had come from. My parents told me we were descended from the Maroons, or runaway slaves. Years later, when I went to our old family graves just outside Kingston, Jamaica, I couldn''t believe it when I found our birth and baptismal records dating back to the 1700s.
I now know that my roots are incredibly diverse: I am descended from slaves; from free people who worked and bought their freedom; from Maroon warriors who waged military rebellions in Jamaica against slavery; also from British merchants, and European and African nobility.

[OrdinaryFolks]

Telling the story of American ancestry, particularly African-American ancestry, will always be a challenging task. As someone who did my African-American ancestors'' genealogy and found specific ethnic groups in specific villages in specific families in Ghana, then confirmed the people I found, using DNA comparisons in 2000, I was surprised to see that the CBS didn''t review the history of African ethnic groups -- of which groups are related in their history, migration and DNA, but are now settled in different countries. I recommend "The History and Geography of Human Genes," by population geneticist, L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza and others. CBS''s report on the Evening News in 2002, about how I used genealogy and DNA to find ancestors in Africa had a better tone about the hope for this new science.

These are stories about people who built families, and survived, against incredible odds. My genealogy and maternal and paternal DNA revealed three dozen African ethnic groups, one Middle Eastern and one European, yet reporters tell my European ancestors'' story in the most positive light -- despite the history of slavery. And few reporters other than CBS''s Russ Mitchell on the Evening News, Susan Saulny of the New York Times, and Alan Boyle of MSNBC.com, (which showed one of my Ghanaian cousins), have told the full African ancestry story, or the blended Colonial American ancestry story. I have to do that myself, and I am doing so in a book.

[kinfolkarsc]

As one of those persons researching their family history and have used DNA test results as part of the research, I was looking forward to 60 Minutes tonight. I was extremely disappointed at what was shown. I found it quite interesting that the test used to determine Ms. Higginsen''s Caucasian ancestry was not questioned and taken as a matter of fact/truth. Only one company was used to determine Ms Higgensen Caucasian ancestry, Family TreeDNA. However, the results (from numerous companies) determining with whom she shared an African Ancestry were questioned because the results determined she shared an ancestry with different groups in West Africa. Ms. Stahl and researchers from CBS should go back and research the migration routes of man; especially Africans. Africans people for thousands of years have migrated across the African continent. Remember slavery with African being brought to West Africa to be bought and sold as slaves. That would probably explain Ms. Higgensen sharing ancestry with people of Senegal, Sierra Leone and other West African countries.

I have completed numerous DNA test. These tests have been invaluable in my research of my family history. After viewing this program, do I now question my DNA results from National Geographic''s Genographic Project whose goal is to trace human migration?

Finally was Mr. Greeley, the lawyer who specializes in the legal implications of new biomedical technologies really the expert to use on this program?

[ericdobbs]

Correction: I should not have said that geneticists "know" anything. The data indicate that we do all descend from a very narrow line of ancestors, male and female. The exact dynamic of this narrowing remains undetermined. The "Toba extinction event" (circa 74,000 BCE)is one of the hypotheses that have been offered to explain the close relationships among geographically diverse populations. Whatever the reason, our common genetic heritage has been demonstrated; the explanation is still pending.
Eric Dobbs

[ericdobbs]

Surprise! We''re all human! We really are all "brothers and sisters," or at least cousins. I can think of no other national project of greater value than the tracing of Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of everyone in the USA. It wouldn''t cost that much, and the return would be incalculable. Perhaps then we could all look at one another as what we are: one human family. The geneticists know that our ancestors were once reduced to possibly as few as 1000 adult individuals - the "genetic bottleneck" - by some catastrophe dating to between 75,000 and 50,000 years ago. The best part of this story was the joy with which Mr. West greeted his family.
Eric Dobbs

[mdillow31]

I feel that the DNA story by Lesley Stahl is slanted and a misrepresentation. In fact, 60 Minutes should do a follow up with more accurate information from contributions from those who have more experience in the field of DNA. It is not true that a person cannot test and get complete results. I have personally tested my mitochondrial DNA and received my full genome sequences. This includes HVR1, HVR2 and my Haplogroup, and the CR differences from CRS. By doing the full genome sequences I will never have to be tested again. In other words, I have received 100% of all results my mtDNA can give me on myself. Hank Greely comments are not justified on his remarks as to the companies. I hope 60 Minutes will do a second segment on the story of DNA and be more accurate in the reporting and include better information on this fascinating subject. I am glad there is a success story with Ms. Higginson and Mr. West. But if you care to check out the world of DNA more thoroughly you will find more success stories to add to this one.

Marianne Dillow

[ababio1]

Ms. Stall appears to have disappointed or confused Ms. West''s with her ancestry in Africa. Most of the hits provided by the DNA labs appear to zoom in on the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Senegal and with three different tribes. The consolation Ms. Stall should have given Ms. West was that it was colonial masters who placed artificial borders amongst these people, thus separating them and with time, some of these people may have morphed into different peoples and tribes. The fact of the matter is, and based on all three DNA results, Ms. West should take consolation that she hails from somewhere in West Africa, and any of those three tribes may have been before now, one people. That is what colonialism has done to the black person. Ms. West should be proud of that and shodl make every effort to apporach one of those tribes. She might be surprised what she may find out, if only she is ready