DNA testing for Genealogy

There's an article in today's New York Times ~ my favorite paper for those of you keeping track. It's all about the new use of DNA testing to identify a person's ethnic background. Dare I admit I'm intrigued?


I mentioned a while back when my grandmother died that her father was a bit of a mystery. I never knew him. His wife was 94 when she died and I was maybe 9. I've heard hundreds of stories about him and his use of scare tactics (mostly involving waving a broom) to coral cows (they're very easily startled) and I've seen what remains of his farm ~ the stone foundation of what must have been a tiny house and a little bit of a broken down barn. I don't know how he met my great grandmother. I don't know what kind of father he was to my grandmother or my great aunt Hazel or my great uncle George (who I honestly don't remember at all.) I know they were poor, that my grandmother married up into a family with a house in the village proper. She used to say "No one ever starves on a farm." But I always got the idea, even as a child, that her sentiment was meant to be ironic. There was a reason she went to work after eighth grade. I'd like to think, just like every other decision she made, that it was her choice. But like I said, I really know nothing about her father. If anyone is shrouded in myth, he is the one.

I do know the stories. My sister and I apparently got all our musical talent from him. He was a one man band ~ you know, with the harmonica and drum foot pedal and either key board or guitar. No one else in the family could play an instrument or sing even. I remember being told in complete seriousness that he had been dragged down from the mountain in ropes ~ a wild man brought into civilization against his will. But when I'd mention it again, I'd be told that it was just one of his stories. One thing I was told that no one denies is that he was a dowsey, a water witch. He used a Y shaped stick to find water for people to dig their wells. When I was I child, I'd play in the back yard with a stick to see if I had inherited his gift. I'm not sure what I expected to find ~ some undiscovered spring in the Boston suburbs?

But back to the original topic. One of the stronger myths, along with the water witch, was that he was part Mohegan, Iroquois. My grandfather collected Indian artifacts, which could be completely unrelated or not. He could have gotten his peace pipe from his father-in-law, I have no idea. But, if my DNA can tell me whether my great grand father actually was an Indian ~ can actually tell me if at least one of the stories is true. Isn't it worth it?