This book is very interesting indeed! But ah, I have to admit that I found it a difficult read. I had it for weeks before I was overcome with the feeling that, while it was written for the family historian / genealogist, I would have to give it a second go some other time.
While I was reading it, I got a genealogy research request from a person who told me that she thought she might be a child begot in incest.
Science is gaining on understanding the transfer of DNA - which is still a mystery. Now even the DNA of an ancient bogman can be interpreted; we can know he had blue eyes and what color hair, as well as where he was likely born via his diet. But our most obvious traits - what we look like - can vary from what our parents look like.
This book does go into scientific detail explaining how our DNA is conveyed through the generations. But what the woman who thinks her brother may have been her father, and that she was raised by various relatives until she was adopted, would need is LIVING and WILLING relatives whose tests could be compared to hers and it would probably take an expert to read any test results and interpret them for her. It's not presently possible to do that, requiring an adoption search.
What we have right now are PERCENTAGES.
YES, IF YOU HAVE LIVING AND WILLING RELATIVES, you may be able to learn who your biological parents were. A brother as a father? Possibly. According to one testing company if your father was your full brother, you may share more like 75% DNA rather than the 50% you share from that sibling. This book does have some helpful charts about percentages of relatedness.
BUT SHE DOES NOT. She tells me that the man she thought of as her grandfather, the man she thought of as her brother, and her actual brother have all passed away. So are the relatives who she called mom and dad. So there isn't anyone that close to be tested. Well, maybe if there is something they left behind - a locket of hair? - there might be something to test.
So, let me say this - because it does come up from time to time. When I say I'm a genealogist many people start talking about genetics.
Genealogy is research in which we rely on documents we call "the paper trail." DNA science can sometimes be used to find relatives and therefore ancestors you didn't know about if you get a "match" who is also interested in comparing the paper trail research and/or may know some people or information you do not.
All people involved must have taken DNA tests with the same company. (The book does mention the offerings of various companies and some pluses and minuses.) Some people test and upload results for sharing but some do not. I personally have to honor that, especially because we live in a time in which our privacy is being invaded.
The test results, when it comes to race and ethnicity, are STATISTICAL ANALYSIS. Which is why some people get updates and surprises such as a change in the reading of their ethnicity from a company or variant results after testing with more than one. As more people add their information to a particular database, science gets better at this prediction.
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