tag:theconversation.com,2011:/nz/topics/genealogy-27567/articlesGenealogy – The Conversation2023-07-06T20:21:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085962023-07-06T20:21:23Z2023-07-06T20:21:23ZFriday essay: we knew we were Bundjalung – but I was shocked to discover a pardoned convict slave trader among my ancestors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535722/original/file-20230705-23-3ss8n5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’re a superstitious mob, but I don’t think it’s an exclusively Aboriginal reaction to instantly think <em>Who’s died?</em> when the phone unexpectedly rings late at night. </p>
<p>That night in 2008, my trepidation rose quickly when I heard it was my Uncle Gerry from Sydney who was on the line. But instead of sounding mournful, he sounded strangely … incredulous. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve just been on the phone with a Bostock woman, a “white” Bostock woman from A.J.’s side of the family. You won’t believe what she told me about the white side of the family!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Immediately I knew he was referring to Augustus John Bostock, my non-Indigenous great-great-grandfather, whom Uncle Gerry had long ago nicknamed “AJ”. Uncle Gerry explained the elderly caller’s name was Thelma Birrell, but her family name, like ours, was Bostock. </p>
<p>He told me Thelma was an avid genealogist who had been researching the Bostock family tree for over 30 years. She told him she knew of her family’s rumour that her great-grandfather’s cousin, Augustus John Bostock, had taken up with an Aboriginal woman in the 1800s, but she didn’t know if there were any descendants from that union.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/he-was-horrific-nearly-two-thirds-of-family-historians-are-distressed-by-what-they-find-should-dna-kits-come-with-warnings-207430">'He was horrific!': Nearly two thirds of family historians are distressed by what they find – should DNA kits come with warnings?</a>
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<h2>‘They were slave traders!’</h2>
<p>Incredibly, after seeing <a href="https://www.fnawn.com.au/members/gerry-bostock-1942-2014/">Uncle Gerry</a>’s photograph online, an obviously Aboriginal man with the Bostock family name, she somehow tracked him down. Uncle Gerry was a writer and film producer who participated in the political struggle surrounding the Aboriginal Embassy in Canberra and helped establish the Black Theatre in Sydney. In their long conversation, Thelma told him she had traced the Bostock family line back to the 1600s in England.</p>
<p>“Guess who our white ancestors were?” Chuckling to himself, Uncle deliberately paused for dramatic effect before he blurted out: “They were slave traders! A couple of generations of slave traders! Can you believe it? Imagine that!” </p>
<p>A deep, loud belly laugh erupted down the line, and he snorted as he added, “Those white ancestors of ours must be rolling in their graves knowing we turned out to be a mob of blackfellas!”</p>
<p>Up until that time, Augustus John Bostock was known to us only as “the whitefella who gave us our family name”, but on hearing this new information about his family history, a burning desire to find out more was suddenly ignited in me. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535298/original/file-20230703-257464-edbjvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=574&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A late night phone call sparked Shauna Bostock’s desire to learn more about her family history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thelma had given Uncle Gerry her phone number, and I was surprised to find she lived only a little over an hour’s drive away from me on the Sunshine Coast. When I rang Thelma we chatted easily on the phone. And by the end of the call, she kindly invited me to come and visit her next time I was up that way.</p>
<p>Thelma was a lovely elderly lady who, years earlier with her husband Matthew, had travelled to England and to Australia’s southern states many times to collect her treasure trove of historical, archival and church records. </p>
<p>We spoke on the phone many times, and I enjoyed my face-to-face meetings with her over several cups of tea and delicious sweet treats. She was thrilled that I was interested in her work, and so proud to gift me a copy of her self-published book <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Mariners_Merchants_Then_Pioneers.html?id=SdIOtwAACAAJ&redir_esc=y">Merchants, Mariners … then Pioneers</a>.</p>
<p>Thelma thoroughly enjoyed telling me all about the history of the non-Indigenous Bostock family prior to Augustus John’s birth. </p>
<p>She had been able to trace the Bostocks back to an ironmonger called Jonathan Bostock who lived in Chester in late 17th-century England. Jonathan Bostock was the father of Peter, Peter was the father of Robert, and Robert Snr was the father of Robert Jnr. The two “Roberts” were the slave traders.</p>
<p>Thelma explained that after slave trading was abolished, the British government arrested Robert Bostock Jnr and his business partner John McQueen, and sentenced them to “transportation” to the colony for 14 years. </p>
<p>She was quick to tell me that not long after they arrived here, “Governor Lachlan Macquarie pardoned them”. I had never heard of “pardons from the Governor” in Australian history, until Thelma showed me her transcription of the colonial secretary’s documents, in which the last sentence of the pardon declared:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>By virtue of the power and authority Given and Granted unto me the Governor in Chief of the said Territory of New South Wales under such Warrant and conformally to the tenor thereof I do hereby order and direct that Robert Bostock therein named be forthwith discharged out of custody accordingly and he is hereby […] restored to all rights and privileges of a free subject. Signed, L. Macquarie, 1st January 1816.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Confused by the pardon, I remember asking Thelma for confirmation. “But Robert Bostock really was a slave trader, right?” She patted my hand and answered in a hushed voice, “Ooh yes, he was a very naughty boy.” </p>
<p>Silently, Thelma handed me the pretty floral matching teacup and saucer and busied herself pouring us more tea. Then once seated, she enthusiastically told me tales of Robert Bostock’s exploits after he arrived in Australia – about how he became an excellent merchant in Sydney, married a beautiful maiden, then moved to Van Diemen’s Land and expanded his business interests in Hobart, became a very wealthy landowner and lived in a grand mansion.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535300/original/file-20230703-274753-azdorj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pardoned slave trader Robert Bostock became a wealthy landowner in Hobart.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most precious to Thelma were the stories about his children, who left Van Diemen’s Land and settled in southern Victoria. She was so proud of the white Bostocks’ narrative of dashing pioneers and nation-building settlers – but I wanted to pause the story and go back to understand more about the two “Roberts” who were slave traders. </p>
<p>I had so many questions, but her reluctance to discuss them was palpable. </p>
<p>In her book, she explained that even though Robert Snr had a number of ships and was successful to some degree, he was regarded as a small operator. Thelma wrote that “he exhorted his captains to treat the slaves well at all times” and she pointed out that “Robert [Snr] died 20 years before slave trading was actually abolished”, and that “trading in slaves continued up to the 1860s in different parts of the world”.</p>
<h2>Befriending a slave-trade historian</h2>
<p>Thelma’s writing moved on to present her outstanding genealogical research, and her proud narrative of the pioneering lives of the non-Indigenous Bostocks. </p>
<p>After the initial excitement of finding Uncle Gerry and connecting with me over cups of tea, Thelma and I continued to chat on the phone every now and then, but unfortunately a year or so later contact between us gradually faded away. </p>
<p>But before we lost touch, she introduced me to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-caribbean-to-queensland-re-examining-australias-blackbirding-past-and-its-roots-in-the-global-slave-trade-158530">slave-trade historian Emma Christopher</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=904&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535455/original/file-20230704-27-eqh5ac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1136&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emma Christopher's book includes the story of the Bostock slave traders</span></span>
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<p>Emma’s field of expertise is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-leaders-in-sierra-leone-played-a-key-role-in-ending-the-transatlantic-slave-trade-207382">transatlantic slave trade</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-caribbean-to-queensland-re-examining-australias-blackbirding-past-and-its-roots-in-the-global-slave-trade-158530">Pacific Islander labour</a>, West African and historical slavery, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/behind-the-boko-haram-headlines-slavery-in-africa-is-the-real-crisis-26379">modern slavery</a>. When a fellow historian told her that a mansion built by a convict transported for slave trading still existed in Tasmania, Emma was astonished. After years of extensive research, she had never heard of any slave traders in Australia.</p>
<p>Her response was like mine: she was gripped by the need to know more about the two Roberts. As the Australian expert on Bostock genealogies, Thelma was a major contributor to a website for Bostock descendants all over the world, and that is how Emma found her.</p>
<p>Being a spiritual person, I paid close attention to the intriguing way we all connected with each other. Seemingly out of the blue, Thelma found Uncle Gerry on the internet, then Uncle Gerry contacted me, and this led to my contact with Thelma. Emma was told about Robert Bostock, then found Thelma on the internet, and this led to her contact with me. My intuition was telling me this synchronicity was somehow orchestrated, that it was all part of God’s plan that I met Thelma and Emma.</p>
<p>Back then, I was focused on filling in the gaps in my family tree chart and finding out how Robert was related to my great-great-grandfather, <a href="https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/bostock-john-augustus-135">Augustus John Bostock</a>, whereas Emma, an established PhD historian and a published author, wanted to know all about the global legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. </p>
<p>Despite our contrasting levels of academic knowledge at that time, our common interest in the history of the Bostocks quickly led to us becoming good friends. She helped me to see how interesting history can be when you push through the surface level and delve more deeply.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-caribbean-to-queensland-re-examining-australias-blackbirding-past-and-its-roots-in-the-global-slave-trade-158530">From the Caribbean to Queensland: re-examining Australia's 'blackbirding' past and its roots in the global slave trade</a>
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<hr>
<h2>‘I feel numb about it’</h2>
<p>When Emma and I met, she was compiling research for a book about Robert Bostock Jnr and his business partner John McQueen, who were the only two convicted slave traders to have ever been transported to Australia. Emma was surprised when Thelma told her about the Aboriginal branches of the Bostock family. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=771&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535449/original/file-20230704-17-gd7xns.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=969&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uncle Gerry (left) with George Bostock, 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I say the plural “branches” because George Bostock, the cousin of my great-great-grandfather Augustus John Bostock, lived in the Northern Territory of Australia and had children with a Jingili woman, who, in the historical record, was only recorded as “unknown F/B” (“F/B” meaning “full-blood”; a child with traditional Aboriginal parents). So, it turned out that my family are not the only Indigenous descendants of Robert Bostock.</p>
<p>In 2018, Emma’s book <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/125/1/204/5721711?redirectedFrom=fulltext">Freedom in Black and White: A lost story of the illegal slave trade and its global legacy</a> was published. It is a meticulous examination of the lives of the two Roberts, their tragic human merchandise and their captive African workers. As with Thelma’s book, I devoured every word. </p>
<p>The fates of the African captives who worked for Robert Bostock Jnr, and his Aboriginal descendants, are essential to Emma’s final discussion on the global legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.</p>
<p>Out of the blue, Emma said, “It must be a shock to be an Aboriginal Australian, a woman of colour, and find out that your ancestors were slave traders.” After what seemed like an excruciatingly long time, I realised I simply did not have the words to describe how I felt. Frowning, I lamely said, “I don’t know what to say … I feel numb about it – I just wish I had better words to say.”</p>
<p>That was over 12 years ago. After advancing my education, and undertaking intense study and archival research, it is only now that I am in the position to be able to present my research and provide answers to complex questions such as the one Emma posed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535301/original/file-20230703-187037-sofqxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=592&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This group photograph (circa 1920) of the people who lived at Box Ridge Aborigines Reserve includes the author’s great-grandmother Mabel Yuke, and other extended family.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the beginning of my research journey, I imagined my future book would be exclusively limited to my Aboriginal family history and would not include any of the non-Indigenous side of the family. </p>
<p>It was only when I was completing my PhD, and had read Emma’s extraordinary book, that I realised how integral my slave-trading ancestors are to the conclusion of this history of my multi-generational Aboriginal family.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-didnt-we-know-is-no-excuse-non-indigenous-australians-must-listen-to-the-difficult-historical-truths-told-by-first-nations-people-208780">'Why didn't we know?' is no excuse. Non-Indigenous Australians must listen to the difficult historical truths told by First Nations people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Our ‘mob of blackfellas’</h2>
<p>It is not known when Augustus John Bostock travelled north to Bundjalung Country, but at around 27 years of age he married my great-great-grandmother, an Aboriginal woman called One My. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535303/original/file-20230703-268117-ub4u9t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1153&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p>I know this because on his death certificate, in the section marked “Marriages: Where, at what age and to whom deceased was married”, the corresponding details recorded were “Tweed River … about 27, One My otherwise Clara Wolumbin”. Her name, this record and other archival documents (which name her), as well as confirmation from Bundjalung Elders, indicate that she was a traditional Aboriginal woman from the Wollumbin/Mount Warning people. </p>
<p>Finding One My was incredibly exciting for me, because I actually had the name of one of the traditional Aboriginal ancestors from whom our “mob of blackfellas” is descended.</p>
<p>We always knew we were Bundjalung, and my father had frequently told us, “Our mob are from the Tweed”, but he didn’t know much else. Now I had a starting point.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Shauna-Bostock-Reaching-Through-Time-9781761067983/">Reaching Through Time</a> by Shauna Bostock (Allen & Unwin, $34.99).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208596/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shauna Bostock-Smith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When Shauna Bostock began researching a book on her family, she thought it would be limited to her Aboriginal ancestry. But then a late-night phone call led her down a surprising path.Shauna Bostock-Smith, ANU PhD, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2074302023-06-27T20:07:43Z2023-06-27T20:07:43Z‘He was horrific!’: Nearly two thirds of family historians are distressed by what they find – should DNA kits come with warnings?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533425/original/file-20230622-27-w44tuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4889%2C3257&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cheryl Winn-Boujnida/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1853, my great great grandmother Charlotte died giving birth to her 13th child, in a tent on the banks of the Yarra River in what is now South Melbourne – but was then an overcrowded, muddy hellhole known as <a href="https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/our-stories/canvas-town-a-floating-city-devoured-by-the-sun/">Canvas Town</a>. The baby, William, died shortly afterwards. Researching Charlotte’s story made me both sad for her loss and angry at the powerlessness of women’s lives then. </p>
<p>I’m not the only one to have experienced intense emotions – both negative and positive – while researching my forebears. </p>
<p>On Facebook pages, in <a href="https://time.com/5492642/dna-test-results-family-secret-biological-father/">media stories</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-series/who-do-you-think-you-are">on TV</a>, you’ll find a flood of hobby genealogists discovering shocking things about their ancestors – or even their own identity.</p>
<p>My recent research revealed about two thirds of family historians have experienced <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/7/2/26">strong negative emotions</a> like sorrow or anger through their hobby.</p>
<p>And nearly all respondents had experienced strong positive emotions such as joy or pride.</p>
<h2>Passionate ‘kin keepers’</h2>
<p>In 2019, Doreen Rosenthal and I surveyed 775 Australian hobbyist family historians to examine their <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Psychology-of-Family-History-Exploring-Our-Genealogy/Moore-Rosenthal-Robinson/p/book/9780367820428">motivations</a>.</p>
<p>They were adults aged between 21 and 93, but most were older and the median age was 63. The majority (85%) were women. This seems to be typical of hobbyist family historians. Women often take on the role of “kin keeper” – and have the time to devote to it when they’ve finished rearing children and have retired from paid work. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533439/original/file-20230622-21-1n45fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most family historians are older women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Moe Magners/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Survey respondents described why they were passionately engaged with their hobby – and how it made them feel. Some 48% “sometimes” felt strong negative emotions about what they found, while 15% did “often”.</p>
<p>There were five common distress triggers.</p>
<h2>1. Ancestors behaving badly</h2>
<p>The first and most common distress trigger was the discovery of ancestors who had behaved badly – either as individuals, or by profiting from unjust social conditions. Finding these forebears made family historians feel confronted, shocked and sometimes ashamed. </p>
<p>They said things like: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[The worst thing was] finding the bigamist! He was horrific!! Very confronting thinking that I have some of his blood in my veins!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[It was] difficult finding that ancestors may have been involved in unsavoury behaviours or events. The problem is trying to understand the context of how they were able to do things that are socially and legally unacceptable today and not things I can be proud of.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/truth-telling-and-giving-back-how-settler-colonials-are-coming-to-terms-with-painful-family-histories-145165">Truth telling and giving back: how settler colonials are coming to terms with painful family histories</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Ancestors treated cruelly</h2>
<p>It was also distressing to discover ancestors who had been cruelly treated. This elicited disturbing, even “heartbreaking” feelings – and, at least implicitly, indignation at injustice. Many were deeply moved by what their ancestors experienced. </p>
<p>As one survey respondent put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What is unexpected is the relationships that can be formed with those who are no longer with us. That I can be moved by the plight of my paternal step great great grandmother who was incarcerated in a mental institution from 1913 to 1948 without review, without visitors, to get her out of the way.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>3. Sad stories</h2>
<p>Sadness was often specifically mentioned. As in the case of my great great grandmother who died in childbirth, sadness was usually a response to the hardships and tragedies ancestors faced in more challenging times. </p>
<p>Women commonly did not survive childbirth, neonatal deaths were frequent, people died of diseases medical science has now conquered. Poverty was rife and war a constant threat. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[It was difficult] discovering the tragedies encountered by my Irish ancestors who came to Australia and their struggles and heartbreaking stories of survival for the next three generations.</p>
<p>[It is distressing] to uncover particularly sad and desperate times in some ancestors’ lives. For example, a destitute widow who admitted her child to an orphan asylum for three years, only to have her child die of typhoid fever within two weeks of returning home.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533444/original/file-20230622-23-3c22fs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sadness was often mentioned by family researchers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marcus Aurelius/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Family secrets and betrayal</h2>
<p>The fourth distress trigger was a belief by the family history researcher that they had been betrayed by other family members: through secrets, lies and feeling their lived experience was ignored or denied. </p>
<p>This is particularly likely for those who discover “secrets” about their parentage – for example, the late-life discovery of adoption, parental infidelity or previously unknown siblings. </p>
<p>Trust is damaged. If family members can lie about these important things, what else might they lie about? </p>
<p>As one woman commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My mother’s half-sister did not accept that she shared a father with my mother. My great grandmother lied about who my grandfather’s father was. My great great grandmother also lied. All these lies were very distressing.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-used-dna-from-beethovens-hair-to-shed-light-on-his-poor-health-and-stumbled-upon-a-family-secret-202440">We used DNA from Beethoven's hair to shed light on his poor health – and stumbled upon a family secret</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Moral dilemmas</h2>
<p>Finally, several respondents expressed doubt and confusion at the moral dilemmas they faced on discovering information that could greatly distress other living relatives. Should they tell or not? </p>
<p>An emotional burden attaches to withholding potentially distressing information of this kind. Yet there is also guilt and fear about the possible outcomes of sharing it. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I knew an aunt had an illegitimate child before she married. Through DNA I found her granddaughter. I have yet to inform this girl who she is. I don’t feel it’s my right as she has absolutely no idea of any adoption of her father.</p>
<p>A really distressing find was that my great aunt’s husband had committed a terrible murder. I have not been able to speak about this with the descendants of the couple.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-do-i-understand-who-i-am-when-my-family-have-hidden-themselves-from-recent-history-171393">Friday essay: how do I understand who I am, when my family have hidden themselves from recent history?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Healthy outcomes from bad feelings</h2>
<p>Sometimes these distressing feelings can promote healthy, growth-enhancing outcomes. After the initial shock, some traumatic genealogical discoveries lead to a greater understanding of the past and its influence. </p>
<p>Placing ancestors’ maladaptive or distressing behaviours, or their misfortunes, into historical and social context can help with acceptance and forgiveness, and stimulate emotional healing and personal growth. </p>
<p>Initial feelings of distress about past injustices and tragedies are sometimes replaced by admiration for the strength and resilience of one’s forebears. This can positively influence personal wellbeing and resilience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533448/original/file-20230622-27-4wg00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Processing distressing discoveries can lead to growth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brett Sayles/Pexels</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How can family and professionals help?</h2>
<p>I processed my great great grandmother’s story by writing it down and sharing it with family members. We reworked our sadness at her fate into a positive family narrative, emphasising her bravery and the strengths her surviving children showed. </p>
<p>Support can mean just disclosing these stories to family members, friends and other family historians. But for some, it may be helpful to discuss these topics privately with a counsellor or therapist, especially if they’ve led to a breakdown in family relationships or an assault on one’s sense of identity. </p>
<p>Counsellors and psychologists should develop strategies to support clients distressed by genealogical findings – and encourage them to use their new knowledge for personal growth and greater understanding of family dynamics. </p>
<p>Should providers of genealogical research products (especially DNA tests) educate their customers about their products’ potential to cause distress?</p>
<p>Trigger warnings might be overkill. But they could issue lists of support resources for those who are upset or disoriented by their findings.</p>
<p>As more people gain access to more genealogical data – with the potential to challenge identity and uncover family secrets – it’s worth thinking about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207430/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Moore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Researching family history is a popular hobby. But hobbyists can find themselves unearthing details of ancestors behaving badly or treated cruelly – or family secrets and trauma.Susan Moore, Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Health, Arts and Design, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2048982023-05-04T12:13:22Z2023-05-04T12:13:22ZThe coronation of King Charles III: 5 Essential reads on the big royal bash – and what it all means<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524195/original/file-20230503-19-lkmnde.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5559%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A yarn of pomp and pageantry</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-charles-iii-coronation-knitted-decoration-on-a-post-news-photo/1487129510?adppopup=true">Planet One Images/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The United Kingdom is about to embark on an orgy of flag-waving pomp and pageantry in celebration of <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594">King Charles III’s coronation</a>.</p>
<p>Charles is already the ruling monarch, having ascended to the throne following the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61585886">death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II</a> in 2022. So this is more of a chance for him and everyone else to dress up and have a bit of an old-fashioned royal <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knees-up">knees-up</a>.</p>
<p>Despite events taking place in a relatively small island off the coast of mainland Europe, the footage of King Charles being anointed with oil and accepting the regalia of state will be broadcast across the world. Here is The Conversation’s guide on what to expect.</p>
<h2>1. 3 days of celebration</h2>
<p>Not content with dedicating just one day to the coronation, the Brits are putting on a <a href="https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iii-coronation-what-to-expect-this-coronation-weekend-202183">three-day extravaganza</a> starting May 6, 2023. As <a href="https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/pauline-maclaran">Pauline Maclaran</a> from the Royal Holloway University of London explained, that Saturday will be dedicated to the actual formal proceedings. Sunday will give way to street parties across the U.K. The final installment takes place on Monday, a day when the British public will be excused from work but encouraged to spend the day volunteering.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A postcard of King Charles III." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524196/original/file-20230503-26-adkpqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A souvenir of the big occasion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/king-charles-iii-coronation-postcards-on-sale-in-a-souvenir-news-photo/1252040968?adppopup=true">Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it won’t just be Brits marking the occasion, especially at the central event on Saturday. As Maclaran noted: “In testimony to the monarchy’s ‘soft power,’ foreign dignitaries and world leaders will be among the 2,000 anticipated guests taking their places in the abbey alongside members of the royal family. …” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/king-charles-iii-coronation-what-to-expect-this-coronation-weekend-202183">King Charles III coronation: what to expect this coronation weekend</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. A notable no-show</h2>
<p>There will be one notable absence among the overseas well-wishers at the coronation: President Joe Biden.</p>
<p>The U.S. leader’s decision not to attend has resulted in some U.K. newspapers’ raising a stink over a “royal snub.” Not so, wrote <a href="https://www.bu.edu/history/profile/arianne-chernock/">Arianne Chernock</a>, a royal watcher at Boston University. In fact, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-coronation-no-show-is-no-snub-more-telling-is-whom-he-sends-to-king-charles-big-day-202934">no U.S. president has ever attended</a> a British monarch’s coronation. </p>
<p>But, Chernock notes, what is perhaps of more importance is whom the U.S. leader sends in his stead. Delving through the experiences of Biden’s predecessors, she noted: “If history is a guide, who is sent across the Atlantic will telegraph particular American ideas and aspirations. The delegation will also reflect the president’s own personal agenda.”</p>
<p>In the past, that has meant signaling America’s disgust at the rise of European fascism and recognizing the changing role of women in society.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bidens-coronation-no-show-is-no-snub-more-telling-is-whom-he-sends-to-king-charles-big-day-202934">Biden's coronation no-show is no snub – more telling is whom he sends to King Charles' big day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. But look who is going</h2>
<p>Some have put Biden’s decision not to attend down to a purported animosity “Irish Joe” feels toward the British. That far-fetched theory seems even more so when you look at who is attending. </p>
<p>Michelle O'Neill, president of Sinn Féin – a political party that has as a central aim the end of British rule in Northern Ireland – noted in her response to the invite that while she is an Irish republican, she recognizes “there are many people on our island for whom the coronation is a hugely important occasion.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://pure.qub.ac.uk/en/persons/peter-mcloughlin">Peter John McLoughlin</a> at Queen’s University Belfast <a href="https://theconversation.com/sinn-fein-at-the-coronation-how-to-understand-michelle-oneills-decision-to-attend-king-charless-big-day-204695">pointed out</a>, in framing language in an all-Ireland context, O'Neill was signaling her refusal to accept Ireland’s partition. But her presence nonetheless points at a meaningful commitment to the Northern Ireland peace process. </p>
<p>“Charles’ invitation to Sinn Féin to attend his coronation is in keeping with this process of reconciliation and the normalization of relations between Britain and Ireland. Sinn Féin’s acceptance of the invitation is part of the same effort, but also has a more political intent,” McLoughlin wrote.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sinn-fein-at-the-coronation-how-to-understand-michelle-oneills-decision-to-attend-king-charless-big-day-204695">Sinn Féin at the coronation: how to understand Michelle O'Neill's decision to attend King Charles's big day</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. Charles’ transatlantic cousins</h2>
<p>Most Americans did not got an invite for the coronation. But that shouldn’t stop residents of Buckingham, Virginia, or Westminster, Colorado, from joining in the fun alongside the folk of their place namesakes in the U.K. Indeed, there might be one or two people there who can legitimately lay claim to having a bit of royal blood themselves.</p>
<p><a href="https://le.ac.uk/people/turi-king">Turi King</a>, professor of genetics and public engagement at the University of Leicester in the U.K., did the number crunching and found that for those who claim any British ancestry, “the chances that not one of your 13-times great grandparents was directly descended from Edward III are tiny.” It’s all down to math, you see. </p>
<p>“It’s fair to ask what it really means to say that someone is a direct descendant of royalty,” King pondered. “My experience is that it means something different to each person. As a geneticist I would find it fascinating to know how I’m related to royalty, but I’d be equally interested to know about the lives of my other many ancestors. To me the most thought-provoking aspect is that we’re all related to one another.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/raise-a-glass-to-your-cousin-king-charles-iii-204137">Raise a glass to your cousin, King Charles III</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. What next for Charles?</h2>
<p>So what comes after the coronation party? For Charles it may be a right-royal hangover – one hundreds of years in the making.</p>
<p><a href="https://search.asu.edu/profile/3326871">Tobias Harper</a> of Arizona State University noted that <a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-faces-challenges-at-home-abroad-and-even-in-defining-what-it-means-to-be-king-190339">Charles faces major challenges</a>. Many countries, including those that are part of the Commonwealth, are reevaluating their colonial past – and that leads to uncomfortable questions about the role of the British monarchy and what role, if any, the current king should have.</p>
<p>Meanwhile at home, he has inherited a United Kingdom that looks decidedly un-united amid the fallout of Brexit and growing fissures between the four nations it represents. And then there is Charles’ own perceived faults – his meddling in politics, which stand in contrast to his mother’s political neutrality.</p>
<p>“If being king in 2022 sounds tricky, it’s because it is,” wrote Harper. “Charles will struggle to serve all his constituencies well. There are many ways he can fail. It’s not even clear what ‘success’ means for a British monarch in the 21st century. Is it influence? Harmony? Reflecting society? Setting a good example? Survival?”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/charles-iii-faces-challenges-at-home-abroad-and-even-in-defining-what-it-means-to-be-king-190339">Charles III faces challenges at home, abroad – and even in defining what it means to be king</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204898/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The pageantry of the coronation will be broadcast around the world. Here’s what to expect over the three days of celebrations.Matt Williams, Senior International EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2041372023-05-03T15:07:39Z2023-05-03T15:07:39ZRaise a glass to your cousin, King Charles III<p>Millions of people around the world will be watching as Charles is crowned king of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms. And it’s fair to say that a huge number of them could claim some degree of kinship with the new monarch as distant cousins at least. It’s how family trees work.</p>
<p>Celebrity guests on the BBC’s genealogy TV show Who Do You Think You Are often find out they’re descended from royalty. In 2021, British soap opera actor <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b083wt14">Danny Dyer</a> learned he was descended from Edward III. Actor Benedict Cumberbatch, is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/mar/25/benedict-cumberbatch-is-related-to-richard-iii-scientists-say">related to Richard III</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed it happens enough on these programmes that it led a BBC royal correspondent to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59041055">write a piece</a> about whether we are all related to royalty. </p>
<p>The answer is yes, it’s simply a matter of degree. As science presenters <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/blog/family-fortunes-adam-rutherford-on-how-were-all-related-to-royalty">Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry showed</a>, we can use maths to demonstrate this. </p>
<p>Edward III ruled in the 14th century and he and his, presumably very tired wife, Philippa, had 13 children. Six of them had children themselves, who included cousins <a href="https://www.royal.uk/edward-iii">King Richard II and Henry IV</a>. There are records of 321 great, great grandchildren of Edward III. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518785/original/file-20230331-28-8u26d4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>This piece is part of our coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/coronation-of-king-charles-iii-134594?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">King Charles III’s coronation</a>. The first coronation of a British monarch since 1953 comes at a time of reckoning for the monarchy, the royal family and the Commonwealth.</em></p>
<p><em>For more royal analysis, revisit our coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/platinum-jubilee-116056?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">Platinum jubilee</a>, and her <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/death-of-queen-elizabeth-ii-126761?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=Coronation2023&utm_content=InArticleTop">death in September 2022</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Some of these great, great grandchildren will have had many children and some may have had none. Let’s be conservative and say each person had, on average, two children. We know from <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/british-economic-growth-12701870/contents/68A5C42335693A124E7A48194A84F022">population growth estimates</a> it’s likely to have been higher than that, but we’re going for a ballpark number. </p>
<h2>Crunch the numbers</h2>
<p>We also need an average generation time (at what age are people having
children). A standard assumption is around 25 years so let’s use that number. These figures estimate that by about 1600 Edward III would have 20,544 descendants. Britain’s population was about 4.2 million people at the time. That means around one in 210 people alive at that time was a direct descendant of Edward III, or 0.5% of the population.</p>
<p>Most of them would likely have had no idea they were descended from Edward. After several generations, the descendants of his younger children may not have owned any land and were likely merchants, farmers, or tradespeople.</p>
<p>Now let’s work the maths backwards in time.</p>
<p>We all have two biological parents and four grandparents. You have eight great grandparents, their parents are your 16 great, great grandparents. If you go back about 15 generations to 1600, you have 32,768 13-times great grandparents.</p>
<p>And we’re only talking a few hundred years ago. We know it won’t be quite that many because sometimes families intermarry, but you are still going to have thousands of people who were all equally your 13-times great grandmums and grandads, going about their business at that time.</p>
<p>So, if you have any British ancestry, what’s the chance one of those 32,000 or so people was a direct descendant of Edward III one of those one in 210 people in 1600? The chances that not one of your 13-times great grandparents was directly descended from Edward III are tiny. </p>
<p>This is only an estimate, of course. Trace your family tree backwards and it rapidly branches outwards, at least at first. But soon it starts to collapse in on itself as relatives <a href="https://dro.dur.ac.uk/213/1/213.pdf">marry cousins or other relatives</a>. Family trees are more like a thicket the further you go back.</p>
<h2>How to prove your link to royalty</h2>
<p>As you go further back, the records start to become patchier. Normally <a href="https://www.burkespeerage.com">only wealthy people</a> kept family trees.</p>
<p>What you want to do is find a gateway ancestor. This is someone with a documented family tree which links to royalty. </p>
<p>For Danny Dyer, it was his five-times great grandfather, James Bullivant who married a woman called Ann Gosnold. She was the three-times great granddaughter of Robert Gosnold. His mother was part of the <a href="https://www.helmingham.com/history/the-family/">Tollemache family</a>, related to King Henry VIII’s chief minister, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Cromwell-earl-of-Essex-Baron-Cromwell-of-Okeham">Thomas Cromwell</a>. Danny’s ancestor, Thomas Cromwell’s son, married Jane Seymour’s sister, Elizabeth. The Seymours descended from <a href="https://www.royal.uk/edward-iii">the Plantagenets</a>, who were descended from Edward III.</p>
<p>Follow up on marriages in your family tree and investigate the families your ancestors are marrying into. Look for gentry, clergy or farmers as they are more likely to have recorded marriages and births. There are a number of websites which can help you. For example the online collections for <a href="http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/visitations.shtml">Herald’s Visitations</a> from the 16th and 17th centuries were records for the nobility. <a href="https://www.burkespeerage.com/">Burke’s Peerage</a> also has massive genealogies of well-known historical families around the world. </p>
<p>Of course, programmes such as Who Do You Think You Are? often concentrate on well-known ancestors. And I find myself rolling my eyes at the telly when they say a famous historical figure is a celebrity’s direct ancestor. Benedict Cumberbatch may be related to Edward III but he’s equally related to numerous peasants from the same era. </p>
<p>It’s fair to ask what it really means to say that someone is a direct descendant of royalty. My experience is that it means something different to each person. As a geneticist I would find it fascinating to know how I’m related to royalty, but I’d be equally interested to know about the lives of my other many ancestors. To me the most thought-provoking aspect is that <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-all-related-to-richard-iii-its-just-a-matter-of-degree-38862.">we’re all related to one another</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204137/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Turi King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How to prove you’re descended from royalty.Turi King, Professor of Genetics and Public Engagement, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956372022-12-16T13:14:48Z2022-12-16T13:14:48ZOver the holidays, try talking to your relatives like an anthropologist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500772/original/file-20221213-20478-ts9sxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C11%2C7326%2C4891&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many people go their entire lives knowing little about their relatives' childhoods and formative experiences.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hands-of-senior-woman-holding-cup-of-coffee-royalty-free-image/556674747?adppopup=true">Westend61/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>How is it possible to spend so much time with your parents and grandparents and not really know them?</p>
<p>This question has puzzled me <a href="https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/anthropology/faculty/elk612">as an anthropologist</a>. It’s especially relevant for the holiday season, when millions of people travel to spend time with their families. </p>
<p>When my parents were alive, I traveled long distances to be with them. We had the usual conversations: what the kids were doing, how the job was going, aches and pains. It wasn’t until after my parents died, though, that I wondered whether I really knew them in a deep, rich and nuanced way. And I realized that I’d never asked them about the formative periods of their lives, their childhoods and teenage years. </p>
<p>What had I missed? How had this happened? </p>
<p>In fact, I had interviewed my mother a few years before her death. But I only asked her about other relatives – people I was curious about because my father’s job had taken us to places away from the rest of the family. I based my questions for my mother on the bit of information I already had, to build a family tree. You might say I didn’t know what I didn’t know. </p>
<p>I decided to research the kinds of questions that would have elicited from my mother things about her life that I had no clue about and that now remain hidden and lost forever. I interviewed older people to <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690817/the-essential-questions-by-elizabeth-keating-phd/">develop questions</a> that would paint a vivid picture of a person’s life as a child and teenager. I wanted details that would help me see the world that had influenced the person they became. </p>
<p>So I used my training as an anthropologist to ask the type of questions an anthropologist would ask when trying to understand a way of life or culture they know little about. Anthropologists want to see the world from another person’s point of view, through a new lens. The answers I got from older people opened whole new worlds for me.</p>
<h2>Probing the mundane</h2>
<p>One secret to having a deep conversation with your elders when you’re together over the holidays is to set aside your customary role. Forget, for the space of the interview, about your role as their grandchild or child, niece or nephew, and think like an anthropologist.</p>
<p>Most <a href="https://lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=326980&p=2198795">genealogical inquiries</a> concentrate on the big life events like births, deaths and marriages, or building a family tree. </p>
<p>But anthropologists want to know about ordinary life: interactions with neighbors, how the passage of time was experienced, objects that were important to them, what children were afraid of, what courtship practices were like, parenting styles and more. </p>
<p>When you ask about social life, you’ll get descriptions that paint a picture of what it was like to be a child figuring things out back then – when, for instance, as one relative explained, “Unless you were told to go and say hello to Grandma, you never just, as a child, spoke to adults.” </p>
<p>On the other hand, when you ask about important objects, you’ll hear about those tangible things that pass from generation to generation in your family that are vessels of value. These ordinary things can convey stories about family life, just as this person who grew up in the U.K. describes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Mum used to say to me that the best part of the day was me coming home from school, coming in the back door and sitting on the stool in the kitchen and just talking, a mother-daughter thing. I’ve still got that stool from the kitchen. My father built it in evening classes. My children remember sitting on the stool in the kitchen, too, while Grandma was baking, passing time, drinking cups of tea and eating shortbread.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My interview subject, now a grandparent herself, had a hard time understanding the fascination young people have with the social worlds contained in their phones. </p>
<p>But on the topic of phones, I found there can also be unexpected points of connection across generations. When I asked one grandparent about the home she grew up in, as she was visualizing her home in rural South Dakota, she suddenly remembered the telephone they had, a “<a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62876/10-aspects-old-telephones-might-confuse-younger-readers">party line</a>” phone, which was common in the U.S. back then. </p>
<p>All the families in the area shared one phone line, and you were supposed to only pick up the phone when you heard your family’s special ring – a certain number of rings. But as she told it, her mother’s connection to the community was greatly expanded even then by telephone technology:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We had a phone, and it was on a party line. And you know, we would have our ring, and of course, you’d hear the other rings too. And then sometimes, my mom would sneak it and lift up the receiver to see what was going on.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The hands of two people clasping over a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500777/original/file-20221213-18128-ku00pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In addition to being exposed to a different way of life, there can also be unexpected points of connection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/you-have-my-full-support-royalty-free-image/1135286661?phrase=holding%20hands%20at%20table%20black&adppopup=true">PeopleImages/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘All you have to do is ask’</h2>
<p>I enjoyed the interviews with older people so much that I gave my students at the University of Texas at Austin the assignment to interview their grandparents. They ended up having exhilarating, interesting and generation-bridging conversations. </p>
<p>Their experiences, along with mine, led me <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690817/the-essential-questions-by-elizabeth-keating-phd/">to write a guide</a> for people wanting to learn more about their parents’ and grandparents’ early lives, to protect a part of family history that is precious and easily lost.</p>
<p>Grandparents are <a href="https://www.jenonline.org/article/S0099-1767(20)30425-6/fulltext">often lonely</a> and feel <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388922/The-ignored-elderly-Weve-invisible-society-say-half-65s.html">no one listens</a> or takes what they have to say seriously. I found out that this can be because many of us don’t know how to start a conversation that gives them a chance to talk about the vast knowledge and experience they have. </p>
<p>By taking the position of an anthropologist, my students were able to step out of their familiar frame of reference and see the world as older generations did. One student even told the class that after interviewing her grandmother, she wished she could have been a young person in her grandmother’s time.</p>
<p>Often, the tales of “ordinary” life relayed to my students by their older relatives seemed anything but ordinary. They included going to schools segregated by race, women needing a man to accompany them in order to be allowed into a pub or restaurant, and leaving school in the sixth grade to work on the family farm.</p>
<p>Time and again, grandparents said some version of “no one’s asked me these questions before.” </p>
<p>When I was first developing the right questions to ask older family members, I asked one of my research participants to interview her elderly mother about daily life when she was a child. Toward the end of that interview, she said to her mother, “I never knew this stuff before.” </p>
<p>In response, her 92-year-old mother said, “All you have to do is just ask.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Keating does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you skirt the small talk and dig a little deeper, you’ll be surprised at what you might learn.Elizabeth Keating, Professor of Anthropology, The University of Texas at AustinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1910802022-09-29T20:04:30Z2022-09-29T20:04:30ZLet’s show a bit of love for the lillipilly. This humble plant forms the world’s largest genus of trees – and should be an Australian icon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487088/original/file-20220928-17-90tsrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5991%2C3997&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’re probably familiar with the sight of a lillipilly bush. This hardy Australian staple – a glossy evergreen bearing powder-puff flowers and clusters of bright berries – features in many a garden hedge. </p>
<p>But you may not know this humble native has spread across the globe in waves of emigration, adaptation and evolution. Almost 1,200 species of lillipilly are now found in rainforests across the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32637-x">research</a> helped reconstruct the evolutionary history of lillipillies in unprecedented detail. We show how lillipillies evolved in Australia and now form the largest genus of trees in the world. </p>
<p>Lillipillies are one of Australia’s great gifts to the natural world. But the story of these homegrown heroes may be taking a grim turn.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="bright magenta berries on green bush" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487089/original/file-20220928-24-1o1saa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Show off: the lillipilly is a glossy evergreen bearing clusters of bright berries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A plant on the move</h2>
<p>Lillipillies began their international adventures about 17 million years ago. At that time, the Australian continent (which together with New Guinea is known as the Sahul Shelf) was colliding with Southeast Asia (known as the Sunda Shelf) following its breakup with Antarctica. This breakup was the final dramatic act of the fragmentation of Gondwana. </p>
<p>The collision provided opportunity for biotic exchange between the northern and southern hemispheres. Many plants and animals moved south to the Sahul Shelf and prospered in the new lands. Lillipillies are one of the few lineages that moved in the other direction.</p>
<p>Along with our <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-songbirds-island-hopped-their-way-from-australia-to-colonise-the-world-64616">songbirds</a>, lillipillies stand as a rare example of an Australian group that set out from these shores and achieved major evolutionary success abroad. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="buttefly sits on flower" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=479&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487090/original/file-20220928-22-29ync8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lillipillies are a magnet for pollinators.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Lillipillies light up our lives when they flower and fruit. Their showy white, cream or red flowers are followed by succulent red or purple berries. They’re a magnet for pollinators, helping fill our gardens with the songs of insects and birds. </p>
<p>The riberry, <em>Syzygium luehmannii</em>, is one of the most commonly grown and stunning garden species. It produces heavy crops of delicious fruit <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2007.03.007">rich in antioxidants</a> and prized by chefs. </p>
<p>Many species in the genus are used as food and medicine by Indigenous people, and <a href="https://phcogcommn.org/article/873">potent antibacterials</a> have been identified in the leaves of some species. Cloves, a favourite spice of home bakers, are the dried flower buds of an Indonesian lillipilly – the aptly named <em>Syzygium aromaticum</em>. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/search/taxonomy?product=APC&tree.id=51209179&name=Syzygium&inc._scientific=&inc.scientific=on&inc._cultivar=&max=100&display=apc&search=true">75 species</a> of lillipilly are native to all Australian states and territories except South Australia and Tasmania. </p>
<p>The greatest concentration of species is in the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of northeast Queensland. <a href="https://apps.lucidcentral.org/rainforest/text/entities/search.htm?zoom_query=Syzygium">About 50</a> species are found there, half of which occur nowhere else on Earth. </p>
<p>And almost 1,200 species of lillipilly are now found in rainforests across the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia and the Pacific, including Australia.</p>
<p>As is common in the tropics, species new to science are regularly discovered and named. For example, <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nhn/blumea/2021/00000066/00000001/art00003">almost 30 new species</a> of lillipilly have been named from New Guinea in the last two years – and many more are likely awaiting scientific discovery.</p>
<p>But how did lillipillies achieve such international success? Our research team decided to find out. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/want-noisy-miners-to-be-less-despotic-think-twice-before-filling-your-garden-with-nectar-rich-flowers-190226">Want noisy miners to be less despotic? Think twice before filling your garden with nectar-rich flowers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="yellow flowers on green bush" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487092/original/file-20220928-12-h323i1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The powder-puff flowers of lillipillies light up our lives when they flower.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Peering into the past</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32637-x">research</a>, led by colleagues in Singapore, involved analysing the genomes of hundreds of living species of lillipillies.</p>
<p>Similarities and differences in the structure of genomes can reveal how closely related the species are. Using that knowledge, we can build up a picture of their genealogy - the “family tree” that connects ancestral species and their descendants. </p>
<p>These techniques also allow us to estimate the amount of genetic change that has occurred along the branches of the genealogy. And, if we’re lucky enough to have an accurately dated fossil of an ancestral species – as we do for lillipillies – we can calculate the rate of genetic change even more accurately.</p>
<p>All this allowed us to peer deeply into the past and reveal the events that set the lillipillies on their global journey.</p>
<p>We already knew lillipillies <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1055790315002110">evolved</a> in Australia and emigrated into the rainforests of Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Our research showed this dispersion occurred in at least a dozen distinct waves. </p>
<p>Each emigrant lineage diversified rapidly and successfully in its new environment. This resulted in the nearly 1,200 lillipilly species found worldwide today – more than any other tree genus. In contrast, their relatives the eucalypts have largely remained only a local success story. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-50-beautiful-australian-plants-at-greatest-risk-of-extinction-and-how-to-save-them-160362">The 50 beautiful Australian plants at greatest risk of extinction — and how to save them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="dirt road winds through stand of eucalypts" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487095/original/file-20220928-6110-ku3e59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s eucalypts haven’t conquered the world as lillipillies have.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A sad twist?</h2>
<p>Lillipillies may be one of Australia’s most successful botanical exports, but their future, like that of many rainforest plants globally, is threatened by habitat degradation and climate change.</p>
<p>The Magenta Cherry (<em>Syzygium paniculatum</em>), for example, is <a href="https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/threatenedspeciesapp/profile.aspx?id=10794">endangered</a> by coastal development in New South Wales. And the Brotherly Love Lillipilly (<em>Syzygium fratris</em>), found only on Queensland’s highest mountain, is <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000632071530029X">highly vulnerable</a> to climate change.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="yellow fungus on green leaves" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487099/original/file-20220928-16-qwyz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Myrtle rust – seen here on lillypilly leaves – may be the most potent threat of all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a devastating disease – myrtle rust - may be the most potent threat of all. It’s caused by an introduced fungal pathogen and kills new foliage, flowers and fruits of plants in the family Myrtaceae, to which lillipillies belong.</p>
<p>Myrtle rust arrived in Australia in 2010 and spread rapidly in the wind and via human activity. Already, it threatens <a href="https://www.apbsf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/PBSF-Myrtle-Rust-National-Action-Plan-2020.pdf">some plant species</a> with extinction. Lillipilly species have been damaged by this serious disease, though none are under immediate extinction threat yet. </p>
<p>Lillipillies are an Australian origin story. They’re a major contributor to rainforest biodiversity and important to Indigenous cultures. And they’ve endeared themselves to generations of gardeners and cooks. </p>
<p>Given all this, lillipillies deserve to be recognised – and protected – as Aussie icons.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-threatens-up-to-100-of-trees-in-australian-cities-and-most-urban-species-worldwide-188807">Climate change threatens up to 100% of trees in Australian cities, and most urban species worldwide</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darren Crayn receives funding from the Australian Government and the Queensland Government. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Worboys receives funding from the Ian Potter Foundation. This grant sponsored the collecting field work which contributed to this paper.</span></em></p>Lillipillies are one of Australia’s great gifts to the natural world. But the story of these homegrown heroes may be taking a grim turn.Darren Crayn, Professor and Director, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook UniversityStuart Worboys, Laboratory and Technical Support Officer, Australian Tropical Herbarium, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1776032022-02-28T12:29:37Z2022-02-28T12:29:37ZWe’re analysing DNA from ancient and modern humans to create a ‘family tree of everyone’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448591/original/file-20220225-15239-15rd3ly.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/tribe-huntergatherers-wearing-animal-skin-holding-1595953543">Gorodenkoff/shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Did you know that it’s now possible to sequence all of your DNA for about <a href="https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/fact-sheets/Sequencing-Human-Genome-cost">the cost</a> of a smartphone? This will reveal your unique genetic makeup, and can be used to work out the similarities and differences between yourself and other people around the world at a genetic level.</p>
<p>But how can you make sense of this information, and what does your genetic variation tell you?</p>
<p>In our research group at Oxford University’s <a href="https://www.bdi.ox.ac.uk">Big Data Institute</a>, we think the key to understanding this is held in our ancestry, and in particular in the genetic genealogy that relates us all. This describes how you and everyone else have inherited different parts of your genome from different ancestors. If we could learn this genealogy and decipher where and when they lived, we could uncover all of the history written in our genes – how our ancestors moved around the world and the evolutionary processes that created us all.</p>
<p>This sounds like a Herculean task. Without the genomes of everyone who ever lived, what could we possibly know about people who lived thousands or hundreds of thousands of years ago?</p>
<p>We’ve approached this task by devising a series of elegant computer algorithms which take genetic similarities and differences in a dataset of many individuals, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-019-0483-y">accurately reconstructs relationships</a> among them.</p>
<h2>Unifying modern and ancient genomes</h2>
<p>Building on this approach, in our <a href="http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi8264">new research</a> we describe the story of recent evolution among 215 diverse human populations from varying times and geographic locations.</p>
<p>The genealogy – lines of descent from our common ancestors – includes the genomes of 3,601 people from <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature15393">three</a> <a href="https://www.simonsfoundation.org/simons-genome-diversity-project/">separate</a> <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/367/6484/eaay5012">datasets</a>, as well as eight high quality ancient genomes. These came from three <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/who-were-the-neanderthals.html">Neanderthals</a> (an extinct human subspecies who lived in Eurasia until around 40,000 years ago), a <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/definition/denisovans/">Denisovan</a> (another human subspecies more recently discovered from a shard of bone found in a Siberian cave), and a family of four humans from the <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/nomadic-herders-left-strong-genetic-mark-europeans-and-asians">Afanasievo culture</a> who lived 4,500 years ago in south Siberia.</p>
<p>The unified genealogy, or “family tree”, explains the genetic relationships of these thousands of genomes to one another. </p>
<p>Strictly, though, it is not a single tree, but a series of linked trees along the genome. We call this a <a href="https://tskit.dev/tutorials/what_is.html#sec-what-is">“tree sequence”</a>, and the tree sequence we created contains a lot of trees – 13 million in fact. There are also 27 million common ancestors, and for each of these we estimated times and geographical locations.</p>
<p>We intend this to provide a basic framework for understanding how we are all related to one another. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/human-evolution-is-still-happening-possibly-faster-than-ever-105683">Human evolution is still happening – possibly faster than ever</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, we have created an <a href="https://awohns.github.io/unified_genealogy/interactive_figure.html">interactive plot</a> showing the estimated ages of the common ancestors of different populations. It shows links between African populations and non-African populations to see the effect of the so-called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4844272/">“Out of Africa” event</a>, when a set of humans migrated from Africa to Eurasia. Comparisons involving non-African populations show that they have many common ancestors originating around 3,000 generations ago. </p>
<p>Likewise, comparing Denisovans with various populations shows they interbred with the ancestors of Papuans and Aboriginal Australians, as <a href="https://www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltext/S0002-9297(11)00395-8">other studies</a> have also found. There is a tremendous amount of information in this resource and it contains many more patterns ripe for future investigation.</p>
<p>The video below shows the estimated location of common ancestors, moving backwards in time. It reveals likely movements of people around the world, tracing back to humanity’s African origin hundreds of thousands of years ago. </p>
<p>Features such as the population of the Americas, although only roughly geographically accurate, are also immediately obvious. These results hint at an earlier arrival of humans in the Americas and Oceania than the current archaeological evidence suggests. The genealogy is an ideal framework for future work to investigate these sorts of signals.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/678821780" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>One of the many benefits of our approach is that it makes very few assumptions. We don’t assume one, or only a few, migrations out of Africa for example. And we don’t require it to have happened in a certain way at a certain time. Through the genealogy we aim to let the data speak for itself.</p>
<h2>The ancestry of everyone</h2>
<p>So what does all of this genetic variation tell us? The similarities and differences between your genome and that of everyone else who ever lived is essentially human history written in our genes. The genetic genealogy is a way to read that history and understand where we came from. It is also the context for any analysis of human genomes, such as tracing the origin and spread of disease-causing genetic mutations.</p>
<p>In the near future, given your genetic information, you should be able to find out in a matter of minutes where you fit into our “unified genealogy”. But you wouldn’t fit in just one place. Different parts of your DNA will have come from very different ancestors, who would have lived in very different locations around the globe. And as we incorporate more genomes into our genealogy we can make it even more comprehensive – we have the tools to create genealogies of not thousands but millions of genomes.</p>
<p>It’s not just useful for humans. Lots of biological research requires knowing how populations of individuals change through time and space. That can be done by creating these genetic genealogies, whether it be for domesticated animals, endangered species or vectors of human disease such as mosquitoes. Genealogies underlie the genetics of every species of life. We now have the tools to pierce the veil and glimpse the secrets within.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177603/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yan Wong works at the Big Data Institute at Oxford University, in which this research largely took place.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Wilder Wohns received funding from the Rhodes Trust.</span></em></p>How we’re linking together genetic material from thousands of people - modern and ancient - to trace our ancestors and the history of our evolution.Yan Wong, Researcher in Evolutionary Genetics, University of OxfordAnthony Wilder Wohns, Postdoctoral Researcher in Statistical and Population Genetics at the Broad Institute, Harvard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1749932022-01-20T10:35:18Z2022-01-20T10:35:18ZFrom divorcees to fuller classrooms, the 1921 census of England and Wales depicts an era of great change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441484/original/file-20220119-19-8ehdkc.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compared to previous censuses, the 1921 data shows more children in education.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Tooth-brush_drill_at_school%2C_England%3B_children_pose_with_Wellcome_V0030839.jpg">Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nobody is more excited for the release of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-still-need-the-census-to-tell-us-who-we-really-are-18575">census</a> than a genealogist. I have been researching family trees for 20 years and I have seen the release of key documents, including the <a href="https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/1911-census-for-england-and-wales">1911 census</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/">1939 register</a>, which the government used to issue ration books, among other wartime initiatives. </p>
<p>But no documents have received the same hype as the 1921 census of England and Wales, which is now <a href="https://www.findmypast.co.uk/1921-census?ds_kid=43700067137781320&gclid=Cj0KCQiAip-PBhDVARIsAPP2xc2h1t2ggR5nXHbySlv9ks5gYGe1tZd64yhEawbRSurkQGtcGiHMZmwaAmJoEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds">accessible online</a> (for a fee). Alternatively, if you visit the National Archives in London, the Manchester Central Library on St Peter’s Square in Manchester or the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, you can access it <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20s-people/the-1921-census/where-can-i-access-the-1921-census/">for free</a>.</p>
<p>It contains information on more than 38 million people from more than 8.5 million households. And it is particularly significant because, as historian David Olusoga <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/09/cherish-the-1921-census-it-will-be-30-years-before-we-get-such-a-glimpse-into-the-past">highlights</a>, it is the last many of us will be able to peruse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close-up shot of names entered on to a 1921 census record." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441186/original/file-20220117-13-dd9ykt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For many people, the 1921 census will be the last they can peruse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BUCK Find My Past Census</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Census data is only made public after 100 years. The 1931 census was destroyed <a href="https://www.1911census.org.uk/1931">in a fire in 1942</a> at a store in Middlesex. And obviously, no count was undertaken in 1941 due to the second world war. So the next will be that of 1951, to be released in 2052.</p>
<h2>New questions</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/census-2021-will-reveal-how-a-year-of-lockdowns-and-furlough-has-transformed-the-uk-157337">modern census</a> has been taken every <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011census/howourcensusworks/aboutcensuses/censushistory/themoderncensus">ten years since 1801</a>, the only exception being in 1941. Between 1801-1840, it was little more than a headcount, taken on a <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/census-records/">specific night</a>, so that nobody could be counted twice.</p>
<p>The first detailed census that named individuals <a href="https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/8978/">was released in 1841</a>. People were asked to specify their name, address, sex, occupation and birth. For those over 15 years, their age was rounded to the nearest five years; children’s ages were recorded correctly. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/1911-census-for-england-and-wales">1911 census asks</a> how many years a couple have been married, how many children were born alive and how many children have died, and it also asks how many rooms were in the house. This data is really helpful for family historians because it assists in finding birth, marriage and death records and can shed new light on family mortality. Knowing the size of a house is also useful because it can give an indication of the financial position of the head of the household. It also helps to identify the type of house it is. </p>
<p>This data no longer features here. Although there is no official explanation, the questions any census contains tend to align with broader social issues. </p>
<p>In 1911, there was concern in government <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections/1921-census/">about declining birth rates</a>, at a time when Britain needed a strong workforce to maintain its position within Europe. In 1921, meanwhile, the focus was on the impact the first world war had had on children. The census asks for the living status of parents, to see how many children were orphaned. </p>
<h2>Societal changes</h2>
<p>The broader impact of the conflict is clear, with <a href="https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/family-records/1921-census">1.7 million more women</a> registered than men and more than 730,000 fatherless children. And the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-britain/british-economy-between-the-wars/765B47889A4C9E5B42253670DFDE8655">post-war recession</a> is made visible too, in many families’ records, including my own. </p>
<p>The census reveals that three of my great grandfathers, who were the head of their households (that is, the person filling out the census entry) were out of work. One of my great grandfathers, who the 1911 census had shown to be employed as a labourer, couldn’t physically work because of injuries he had sustained during the 1914-1918 war. Unemployment rose to <a href="https://voxeu.org/article/walking-wounded-british-economy-aftermath-world-war-i">an average of 11.5%</a> between 1921-22, affecting many working-class families. </p>
<p>Compared to previous censuses, the 1921 data shows more children in education. This is because the school-leaving age was increased to <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/8-9/39/enacted?view=plain">14 years old</a> in 1918. One child featured was the Academy Award-winning actor Laurence Olivier. In 1921, aged 14 years and one month, Olivier could legally leave school. The census however registers him as a pupil at All Saints Choir School in London. It also shows that his mother, Agnes Crookenden, had died. </p>
<p>Divorce is recognised here for the first time, with more than 15,000 people classing themselves as “divorced”. Though still relatively difficult to obtain at this time, especially if you were a woman and were not wealthy, national divorce rates increased <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198226512.001.0001/acprof-9780198226512">sixfold</a> after the first world war, peaking in 1921. Whereas men could divorce on the grounds of adultery alone, women had to prove <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198226512.001.0001/acprof-9780198226512">adultery and one other matrimonial offence</a>.</p>
<p>One divorcee listed on the census is Annie Julia Havelock (1872-1953), daughter of the wealthy Sir William Chaytor (1837-1896), former inspector of factories. Havelock divorced her husband Allan Havelock Allen in 1913 on the grounds of <a href="https://search.findmypast.co.uk/bna/viewarticle?id=bl%2f0000560%2f19131220%2f033&stringtohighlight=annie%20havelock">adultery, cruelty and desertion</a>. Her census entry shows that she is living with her daughter and a servant. Under the condition of marriage, she has written a rather large “D” for divorced. </p>
<p>In terms of employment, the 1921 census includes details of employers for the first time. We see a wider variety of occupations for women, partly because this comes after the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-sex-disqualification-removal-act-1919">Sex Discrimination (Removal) Act 1919</a>, which allowed women access to professions in law and the civil service. </p>
<p>Helena Normanton, who was called to the bar alongside eight other women in 1922 and became the female barrister to be briefed in the High Court, was one of the first women to study law, as a consequence of that act. The 38-year-old can be found on the census living independently at 22 Mecklenburgh Street in St Pancras, London. Under “occupation”, she lists law student, lecturer, home duties and writer.</p>
<p>Because of the questions it no longer features, the 1921 census is less exciting compared with that of 1911, especially for family historians. But what is special about it is not the new questions it asks, but the period it paints. This census, as cultural historian Professor Matt Houlbrook tells me, “effectively freezes a society that is in motion. It is poised right between the upheaval of the Great War, desperate efforts at post-war reconstruction, and the transformative social, cultural, economic and political changes of the 1920s.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michala Hulme has given talks on genealogy for Find my Past and is the co-host of Ancestry's Behind the Headlines of History podcast. </span></em></p>Census data is kept under seal for a century. The 1921 records will be the last we see until 2052.Michala Hulme, Lecturer in Public History, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1451652021-02-09T01:58:16Z2021-02-09T01:58:16ZTruth telling and giving back: how settler colonials are coming to terms with painful family histories<p>There is a quiet movement among settler colonials in Australia and the US to critically examine their family histories as a way of re-examining the impact of centuries of dispossession and slavery of Indigenous peoples. </p>
<p>Critical family histories enable a shift from celebratory tropes of benign settlement to deep considerations of legitimacy. The myth of great white men and women, bravely opening new worlds and taming the wilderness, including the “savage” Indigenes, is now being challenged by a search for the truth. </p>
<p>As Diane Kenaston, an American pastor and genealogist, explains in her book <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/16TtyJTFPsPi7HWJkc4orLrC9SdpXOdGle0mfxZIvWvI/edit#">Genealogy and Anti-Racism: A Resource for White People</a>, genealogy has long been entwined with white supremacy. And family history research has been the preserve of white privilege.</p>
<p>But, she writes, critical family history can also “change the narratives within our own families”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our ancestors were works in progress, just as we are. They, like us, sometimes participated in oppressive systems and sometimes resisted them. [We need to] engage this complex legacy. </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-great-australian-silence-50-years-on-100737">Friday essay: the 'great Australian silence' 50 years on</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.christinesleeter.org/">Education activist Christine Sleeter</a> <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/2005615X.2015.1048607">first adopted</a> the use of critical family history in this way. While researching teaching methods for the multicultural classroom, she discovered that intersections of race, class, culture, gender and other forms of difference and power had shaped her own <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00131940801944587">family history</a>.</p>
<p>In her research, Sleeter found </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a history and legacy of not only European American immigration, but also of Appalachia, of slave ownership, of African Americans passing as white and leaving family behind, and of Jim Crow. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her awareness led to a sense of responsibility and debt. In 2017, she <a href="https://www.christinesleeter.org/returning-what-was-stolen">returned to the Ute people US$250,000</a>, which she had inherited from the sale of a homestead on land stolen from the Ute people in Colorado in 1881.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381005/original/file-20210128-17-ieiqs5.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sleeter (second from right) returning money to the Ute tribe in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Founding fathers as ancestors</h2>
<p>In Australia, David Denborough, a writer and academic, thought there would be nothing of interest in the stories of his ancestors. </p>
<p>Working alongside Aboriginal people, documenting their stories of dispossession and survival, he was challenged by <a href="https://dulwichcentre.com.au/national-sorry-day.pdf">Jane Lester</a>, a Yangkunytjatjara/Antikirinya woman, to find his ancestors. </p>
<p>Now, 20 years later, <a href="https://dulwichcentre.com.au/product/unsettling-australian-histories/">he is publishing a book</a> of letters to his great-great-grandfather, <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/griffith-sir-samuel-walker-445">Sir Samuel Walker Griffith</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=856&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382147/original/file-20210203-19-1scaw7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1075&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sir Samuel Walker Griffith.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library of Queensland</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Griffith, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/the-life-and-times-of-samuel-griffith/12589996">a celebrated founding father of Australia</a>, was premier of Queensland during the “<a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/conspiracy-of-silence-timothy-bottoms/book/9781743313824.html">killing times</a>” and later became the country’s first chief justice. </p>
<p>The relationships between Denborough’s ancestors and Aboriginal people were marked by colonisation, racism and often inhumane treatment. While Griffith wrote <em><a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/digital-classroom/senior/cook/legend-and-legacy/challenging-terra-nullius">terra nullius</a></em> into the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2020/August/Samuel_Griffith">Australian constitution</a>, another ancestor, Charles Cummins Stone Anning, was <a href="https://www.welcometocountry.org/anning-familys-murderous-frontier-history-exposed/">responsible for atrocities against Aboriginal people in Queensland</a>.</p>
<p>Denborough is determined to tell the truth as part of his healing journey and his close relationship with Aboriginal people. He has <a href="https://dulwichcentre.com.au/product/unsettling-australian-histories/">realised</a> </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there is no sense in moral superiority towards my ancestry because colonial violence in this country has not ended; no place for hopelessness because First Nations resistance has never wavered; and, no time for paralysing shame because invitations to partnerships are still being offered by Aboriginal people … and [there is] so much to be done.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>White deaths at black hands, black deaths at white hands</h2>
<p>James Brown was 16 years old and shepherding alone on a remote sheep run near present-day Quorn, South Australia, in 1852. He was found tragically clubbed to death and mutilated in unknown circumstances. </p>
<p>An unwritten rule of the frontier was that attacks on white people, no matter the circumstances, were followed by vigilante violence. Men, women and children were often <a href="https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/map.php">massacred</a> in retribution.</p>
<p>Seventeen men, including Brown’s brothers and two Aboriginal trackers, rode out. They reported killing four Aboriginal men. Tellingly, though, two of the 15 men would not swear this on the Bible. </p>
<p>Mike Brown, a descendent of this family who took over land in the Flinders Ranges area, knew very little of the Aboriginal history of Australia. After hearing <a href="https://www.aboriginalvictoria.vic.gov.au/reg-blow">Reg Blow, a Gureng Gureng elder</a>, speak about the true history of the criminal takeover of Aboriginal lands, Brown was inspired to research his own family history. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-masters-of-the-future-or-heirs-of-the-past-mining-history-and-indigenous-ownership-153879">Friday essay: masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Wanting to investigate the Aboriginal stories of the 1852 massacre, he found a lifetime friend in Ken McKenzie, a prominent Kuyani-Adnyamathana elder, from whom he received “the dignity of forgiveness”. </p>
<p>Brown is now working with others on a documentary, <a href="https://documentaryaustralia.com.au/project/beyond-sorry-wt/">Beyond Sorry</a>, to reveal the full story of the massacre. He told me,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s how we discover who we really are as a people and our relationship to this land […] we need to be released from the illusion we live under that affects our attitudes to ‘others’, to be free.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In NSW, playwright Clare Britton was also shocked to discover the story of brutally murdered relatives in her <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5185dd7ee4b09995885e5772/t/5b0223fb1ae6cf341ddf978b/1526866948953/Posts+essay.pdf">family history</a>. </p>
<p>The pregnant Elizabeth O'Brien and her infant son Poggy were clubbed to death by the Aboriginal “bushrangers” <a href="https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/bushrangers-new-south-wales/governor-brothers">Jimmy and Joe Governor</a> in 1900. With the help of descendents of the Governor family and Aboriginal elders, Britton’s theatre company produced a play based on this story, <a href="http://www.mydarlingpatricia.com/postsinthepaddock">Posts in a Paddock</a>. The title refers to all that remained of the O'Brien household when she visited, a stark memorial to the family tragedy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382151/original/file-20210203-15-u9agud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hunt for the Governor bushrangers in 1900: a posse of mounted police, Aboriginal trackers and district volunteers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Britton explained that elder Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor introduced the concept of <em>dadirri</em> “deep listening” to the ensemble. They sat with their Aboriginal collaborators and each other’s families. And listened to each other. She said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>so many Indigenous people were killed, separated from their families and taken away from their homes and you can’t read about that in the same way because those stories were not recorded. [These murders] were thoroughly documented because my family and the other victims were white. </p>
<p>The understandings I formed then have changed me. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Giving back</h2>
<p>In the US, artist <a href="http://annemavor.com/">Anne Mavor</a> was inspired to learn about her ancestors after attending a public meeting where a local Indigenous person challenged the white audience to critically examine their histories. </p>
<p>Mavor put together an exhibition, <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/03/26/i-am-my-white-ancestors-claims-legacy-of-oppression/">I Am My White Ancestors: Claiming the Legacy of Oppression</a>, comprised of 12 pieces of art depicting her ancestors. They include royal figures, a slave owner, warriors, farmers and a pilgrim — all with Mavor’s face. The life-size portraits make whiteness visible and accountable. </p>
<p>Mavor told me she seeks </p>
<blockquote>
<p>to inspire white viewers … to claim both positive and negative aspects of their own family histories to contribute to the end of racism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She says white people <a href="https://www.christinesleeter.org/legacy-of-oppression">don’t get a pass</a> by ignoring the oppression of their ancestors. They need to ask: What is the legacy of this oppression and how does this affect me now? </p>
<p>This is just one of many projects designed to give back to Indigenous peoples. In Seattle, residents can pay rent to the city’s first inhabitants, <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2019/09/10/seattle-rent-native-tribe-recognition-reparations/">the Duwamish people</a>, who have long been rejected by the US government for federal recognition as a Native American tribe. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explorer-navigator-coloniser-revisit-captain-cooks-legacy-with-the-click-of-a-mouse-137390">Explorer, navigator, coloniser: revisit Captain Cook’s legacy with the click of a mouse</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites has developed the “Real Rent” program as a means of restitution, but also to educate the broader public about the plight of the Duwamish.</p>
<p>Another project, <a href="https://www.reconciliationrising.org/">Reconciliation Rising</a>, coordinated by <a href="https://matc.unl.edu/education/2018MATCSpeakerFiles/Kevin_Abourezk.php">Lakota journalist Kevin Abourezk</a> and <a href="https://history.unl.edu/margaret-jacobs">academic Margaret Jacobs</a>, showcases the work of those engaged in confronting painful and traumatic histories as a way towards reconciliation. </p>
<p>Their website lists examples of <a href="https://omaha.com/livewellnebraska/hansen-after-more-than-years-the-mayo-clinic-finally-apologizes/article_9adcf8e0-334b-5c6a-92ca-2c40d9602372.html">apologies</a>, <a href="https://www.focusonvictoria.ca/focus-magazine-septoct-2018/marion-cummings-indomitable-spirit-r2/">notable activists</a> and many instances of the <a href="https://www.reconciliationrising.org/links-1">return of ancestral lands</a>. </p>
<p>Land hand-backs are happening in Australia, too. Tom and Jane Teniswood have <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-21/tasmanian-private-land-handed-back-to-aboriginal-community/10825984">returned half of their 220-acre property</a> in Tasmania to the local Aboriginal community. The Teniswoods advocate individual action over government reconciliation efforts, saying</p>
<blockquote>
<p>reconciliation is great but it is so much talk, so many documents and so little action. This is just a symbol of action.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is easy to agree with them. While government leadership in truth-telling is vital, we will see more of these acts of profound generosity and genuine reconciliation from settler colonials. </p>
<h2>In the spirit of Makaratta</h2>
<p>Settler colonials are beginning to understand the true impacts of the criminal takeover of Indigenous lands. They are seeking to right the balance and achieve a spiritual resolution.</p>
<p>This is the Aboriginal way of approaching history, in order to move forward after a conflict. A common process across the continent, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/makarrata-explainer-yolngu-word-more-than-synonym-for-treaty/8790452">it is called Makaratta by the yolngu people of Arnhemland</a>. In the same way, a critical approach to family histories involves a great deal of communication between settler colonials and Indigenous peoples. It enables the forging of new relationships.</p>
<p>It is histories such as these that will change people through deep understanding and empathy. They also present an opportunity to truly and indelibly change the nature of our society and leave a meaningful legacy for our children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145165/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Victoria Grieve Williams receives funding from the ARC. </span></em></p>Settler colonials are beginning to understand the true impacts of the criminal takeover of Indigenous lands. They are seeking to right the balance and achieve a spiritual resolution.Victoria Grieves Williams, Adjunct Professor, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1445072020-10-15T05:08:10Z2020-10-15T05:08:10ZWhen it comes to heritage, family history trumps museums<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/362594/original/file-20201009-20-tfsjrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C22%2C2946%2C1684&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Family Camping at Phillip Island, Victoria, 1951. Photographer: Leslie E. Chambers</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1574687357639-60df588aaab0?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=eyJhcHBfaWQiOjEyMDd9&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2372&q=80">Unsplash/Museum Victoria</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Heritage has significance. It’s evident in the furor over the mid-year <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/christopher-columbus-statues-beheaded-torn-down-180975079/">beheading</a> of Christopher Columbus statues in the US and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/police-investigate-after-second-cook-statue-defaced-20200615-p552km.html">spraying of graffiti</a> on Captain Cook statues in Australia. It’s also there in the popularity of television shows like <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1152296/?ref_=fn_al_tt_6">Who Do You Think You Are?</a> and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9679972/">Every Family Has a Secret</a>. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20518196.2016.1228213">heritage</a> — collections, buildings, archaeological sites, cultural traditions and other intangible traces of the past — matters in different ways to different people. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.routledge.com/Fields-Capitals-Habitus-Australian-Culture-Inequalities-and-Social/Bennett-Carter-Gayo-Kelly-Noble/p/book/9781138392304">New analysis</a> shows <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159032X.2018.1554405">public heritage</a> — professionally run historic monuments, archaeological ruins, state memorials, national museums and grand homes — does not have broad appeal. Private family histories, meanwhile, have wide appeal. </p>
<p>The most recognised, visited and liked heritage site in Australia is the Australian War Memorial; the least liked is Port Arthur.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-taking-a-wrecking-ball-to-monuments-contemporary-art-can-ask-what-really-needs-tearing-down-140437">Friday essay: taking a wrecking ball to monuments – contemporary art can ask what really needs tearing down</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>Australian attitudes to heritage</h2>
<p>We surveyed 1461 Australians, including a main sample and “boost” samples for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and Italian, Lebanese, Chinese and Indian Australians. We asked about heritage visitation and memberships, and presented lists of types of heritage, so participants could nominate the ones they liked most and least. </p>
<p>Similarly, participants ranked a list of Australian and international places of heritage according to those they’d heard of, visited and/or liked. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10304312.2018.1453461">We found</a> Australians’ tastes are heavily influenced by demographic variables like education, occupation, age and location. </p>
<p>More than half of those surveyed were almost completely disengaged or lacking in knowledge about public history: they rarely used the internet to search for it, did not hold national park or museum memberships, and they visited very few, if any, places of heritage in the year prior. </p>
<p>Still, some 41% of Australians hold multiple memberships and subscriptions to heritage organisations. Some are connected to a local history or archaeology club (4%), the National Trust (3%), a local or national museum (14%), a national park (8%), the History Channel (17%) or an online family history website (13.4%). They also use the internet on a monthly (17%) or weekly (19%) basis to seek out heritage information.</p>
<p>Those with tertiary and postgraduate qualifications are much more likely to have an active interest in public heritage. The same is true of those employed in managerial and high-level professional roles.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1299881023182974977"}"></div></p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-favourites-show-aboriginal-art-can-transcend-social-divisions-and-art-boundaries-143827">Australians' favourites show Aboriginal art can transcend social divisions and art boundaries</a>
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<p>Some 23% of heritage lovers will engage with some of Australia’s heritage but are most interested in international places, such as Stonehenge, Angkor Wat, the Vatican Museums and <a href="https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/">Te Papa Tongarewa</a> in New Zealand. This group, largely urban dwellers aged mid-30s to mid-40s, express interest in Aboriginal and migrant heritage too. </p>
<p>Another group (21%) has a deep interest in local area heritage, as well as cultural landscapes, open-air museums and sites depicting colonial/settler heritage, such as Port Arthur, Sovereign Hill and Fremantle Prison. These Australians are highly engaged at the domestic level, but have only a mild interest in international heritage. They tend to be in their mid-40s to mid-60s and live in small towns, semi-rural and rural/remote locations. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-australian-history-boom-has-busted-but-theres-hope-it-may-boom-again-70527">The Australian history boom has busted, but there's hope it may boom again</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>In the family</h2>
<p>Family history — under the banner of private heritage — is liked more than any other heritage genre, with 57% of the main sample and 46% of our boost samples liking it best, followed by “Australia’s national heritage” and “world heritage”.</p>
<p>Family history is a favourite for Australians who self-identify as working class (38%) and those who claim middle-class status (44%). Only 9% of those who said family history was their most-liked form of heritage identified as upper-middle and upper classes. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1303113329192456192"}"></div></p>
<p>Family history is favoured by 61% of 18–24-year-olds, 57% of 25-39-year-olds, 55% of 40-59-year-olds and 57% of those over 60.</p>
<p>This popularity was confirmed in follow-up interviews, with almost half specifically mentioning their efforts to learn about and engage with their family’s heritage.</p>
<p>Many expressed deep pride in particular features of their genealogies, like lineage (number of generations traced), identified individuals (well-known historical figures and those associated with national narratives), and a sense of “pedigree”. As one interview put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… every one of our great grandparents were born in Australia. And most of our great, great grandparents … Yeah, no, most people can’t say that.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For another respondent, a source of great pride was traced through connections to Gallipoli: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Me, personally, my grandfather was in the first battalion that landed on Gallipoli … so I’ve grown up with that culture, that heritage. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our data reveals family history is an area of heritage that appeals to broad swathes of the population (across ages, genders, a range of educational backgrounds and the working and middle classes) — and a few in the “upper classes” too. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XPmABj3LXOY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">It seems lots of Australian families are keen to uncover family stories.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Waterton receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>We surveyed 1461 Australians and discovered many are museum regulars — but it’s family history that has broad appeal.Emma Waterton, Professor in the Geographies of Heritage, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1320822020-03-01T13:11:18Z2020-03-01T13:11:18ZHome genealogy kit sales plummet over data privacy concerns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316958/original/file-20200224-24651-b4ukzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=108%2C194%2C4795%2C3220&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Almost every genetic database shares information with the pharmaceutical industry but it wasn't until law enforcement started using the databases that consumers took note. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Surprising news recently emerged from the personal genetics business. The two leading direct-to-consumer companies in North America, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/23/23andme-lays-off-100-people-ceo-anne-wojcicki-explains-why.html">23andMe</a> and <a href="https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/">Ancestry.com</a>, announced within a week of each other that they were laying off a significant proportion of their workforce as a result of a steep drop in sales. </p>
<p>This past Christmas, the sales of testing kits were expected to take a sharp hike — nothing says family like a gift that says prove it. But sales plummeted instead. </p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/2/13/21129177/consumer-dna-tests-23andme-ancestry-sales-decline">Second Measure</a>, a company that analyzes website sales, 23andMe’s business plummeted 54 per cent and Ancestry kits sales declined 38 per cent. </p>
<p>Industry executives, market watchers and genealogists have all speculated about the causes of the drop in consumer interest. Market saturation? Early adopters tapped out? Limited usefulness? Recession fears? Whatever the theory, everyone seems to agree on one factor: privacy concerns. </p>
<h2>Family privacy concerns</h2>
<p>For observers like me, who have been watching the trends in the industry of family history for years and have repeatedly raised concerns about genetic and family privacy, there’s a certain relief that consumers have taken notice.</p>
<p>Two third-party uses of genetic genealogy have given consumers pause for thought. </p>
<p>One: Almost every database shares information with the pharmaceutical industry. 23andMe was clear from the beginning that its health information would be used by its research partners and asked consumers to consent. But when it started to sign <a href="https://gizmodo.com/of-course-23andmes-business-plan-has-been-to-sell-your-1677810999">major deals with drug developers in 2015</a>, consumers began to realize that, once again, similar to social sharing platforms, they were the product. A fact not so surprising from a company whose initial investors were from Google and Facebook. </p>
<p>Still, as long as testing prices were low and continued to fall, consumers bought the sell. Companies promised consumers they were contributing to a greater good. Medical science could use their genetic information to develop treatments, even if they might never need the drugs (or indeed if any drugs would ever be developed). </p>
<p>So even though the companies were profiting from their information, the number of people sending in their spit grew exponentially. Business was going well. Then a second third-party use was revealed and sales started tumbling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317221/original/file-20200225-24685-qvlf5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The marketing emphasis on genealogy testing kits focused on discovering your family history. That may soon change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The sharp decline of sales</h2>
<p>Shortly after California detectives announced they had used GEDmatch, a public genetic genealogy database, to solve the cold case of a sadistic rapist and killer known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cops-used-a-public-genealogy-database-in-the-golden-state-killer-case-95842">Golden State Killer</a>, the exponential <a href="https://thednageek.com/genealogical-database-growth-slows/">rate of growth in the industry</a> began to decline. That 2018 case set off a wave of privacy concerns about genetic genealogy and divided people who had already submitted their samples. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parabon-announces-snapshot-genetic-genealogy-service-for-law-enforcement-300644394.html">Almost overnight, a new industry was hatched using genetic genealogy databases to solve cold cases</a>. GEDmatch, the company at the centre of the debate, was caught in the middle. </p>
<p>The GEDmatch founders, a couple of genealogists who just wanted to provide a place for genealogists to share DNA results without the privacy restrictions of the testing companies, eventually sold the company after attempting and failing to align its privacy policy with something viable for consumers and the company.</p>
<p>Sealing the marriage of genetic genealogy with policing, GEDmatch sold its database to <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-database-sold-to-help-law-enforcement-crack-cold-cases-128674">Verogen, a forensics equipment company that services law enforcement</a>. Ironically, Verogen promised it would offer better privacy protections and resist police incursions. </p>
<p>Last winter, one of the major testing companies, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/family-tree-dna-fbi-investigative-genealogy-privacy">Family Tree DNA, revealed that it had been co-operating with the FBI</a> unbeknownst to its users. Only a few weeks earlier <a href="https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2019-01-07/best-dna-testing-kits"><em>U.S. News</em> had ranked the company’s privacy policy as one of the best in the industry</a>. Even a seasoned reporter studying the privacy policies closely could not discern that the company was sharing information without consumer consent. </p>
<h2>The future of privacy</h2>
<p>Initial responses from people who had already been tested seemed <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2006906">to be heavily weighted in favour</a> of the ethics of catching violent criminals over personal privacy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317612/original/file-20200227-24694-dk6utk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gene kits will likely be sold with the idea of discovering more about your medical history and future. Here a cancer researcher sets up genetic samples to run a laboratory technique used to make multiple copies of a segment of DNA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But when GEDmatch users were given the opportunity to choose whether their data could be used by police, only 200,000 out of the 1.2 million users opted in, though some of that statistic could be a function of the new European data protection laws (GDPR). <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/02/04/about-half-of-americans-are-ok-with-dna-testing-companies-sharing-user-data-with-law-enforcement/">A more recent poll by the Pew Research Center</a> found that Americans were almost evenly split on questions of data privacy versus the greater good of solving cold cases. </p>
<p>The question Pew asked, however, did not address the nuanced question of what kind of crime? The type of crime matters. Recent cases, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/38-years-later-dna-leads-to-teenager-who-abandoned-her-baby-in-a-ditch/584683/">in particular of mothers who abandoned babies decades ago</a>, seem to test another kind of ethical limit. Should the databases be restricted to the search for violent criminals only? Cold cases only? What about nonviolent crime? Where do we draw the line?</p>
<p>What the poll statistics can’t measure is the number of people who have deleted their results. But no company will reveal that information. Anecdotal evidence comes from genealogists who saw a rapid decline in the number of cousin matches immediately after the revelations that law enforcement had been mining genetic genealogy data.</p>
<p>What will happen now? With the mounting privacy concerns and a plethora of <a href="https://fpf.org/2020/01/13/its-raining-privacy-bills-an-overview-of-the-washington-state-privacy-act-and-other-introduced-bills/">competing privacy bills in the works</a>, companies are pivoting away from ancestry testing to focusing on <a href="https://blog.nebula.org/30x-wgs/">whole gene testing health results.</a> They are also testing in countries where the market uptake has been slow. <a href="https://exame.abril.com.br/ciencia/atrasado-brasil-tera-seu-primeiro-mapeamento-genetico-da-populacao/">Google has just announced that it will sponsor DNA collection in Brazil</a>. </p>
<p>In the face of a slowdown in genetic ancestry testing, the existential question of “Who do you think you are?” is turning to the question of “What lurks inside us?” </p>
<p>Expect less marketing about the past and more about the future, less about the thrills of ancestral stories and more about the health risks we have inherited and threaten to pass on, all couched in the same upbeat language of self-knowledge — to be shared widely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Creet receives funding from The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Privacy concerns that emerged since law enforcement started mining the databases have put such a serious dent in the business that both Ancestry.com and 23andMe have reduced employees significantly.Julia Creet, Professor of English, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1215992019-09-22T13:49:26Z2019-09-22T13:49:26ZHow some North Americans claim a false Indigenous identity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293251/original/file-20190919-22441-8vnd6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many genealogy forums recently claimed their distant ancestor, the French-born Catherine Pillard was Indigenous. Pillard arrived with other women in Quebec in the 17th century as depicted in this painting.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles William Jefferys / Library and Archives Canada </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recently in Canada and the United States, a small but vocal minority of white French-descendants have used an ancestor born between 300 and 400 years ago to claim an “Indigenous” identity. Most of these claims are to a “Métis” identity, though many also claim “Abenaki” and “Algonquin” identities.</p>
<p>Since 2014, I’ve been researching this shift into an “Indigenous” identity, which has been especially noticeable since a series of Supreme Court of Canada decisions between 1999 and 2003. </p>
<p>For my book, <em><a href="https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/distorted-descent">Distorted Descent: White Claims to Indigenous Identity</a></em>, I dove into 12 years of online genealogy forums. One of the most surprising findings was how the same French women were transformed into Indigenous women on different forums in both French and English. </p>
<p>Building on the work of academics <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/native-studies/about-us/contact-us-people/faculty/kimberly-tallbear-dauphine">Kim TallBear</a> and <a href="http://www.alondranelson.com/">Alondra Nelson</a>, this practice is called aspirational descent. It involves changing an ancestor’s identity to fit one’s current desire to shift away from a white identity.</p>
<p>Often, this is done by <a href="https://maisonneuve.org/article/2018/11/1/self-made-metis/">opponents of Indigenous land claims</a>. In other cases, as in U.S. Senator <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/elizabeth-warren-cherokee-apology_n_5d5ed7e6e4b0dfcbd48a1b01">Elizabeth Warren</a>, one simply repeats false family stories passed down over the generations, ignoring the voices of Indigenous peoples along the way.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/becoming-indigenous-the-rise-of-eastern-metis-in-canada-80794">Becoming Indigenous: The rise of Eastern Métis in Canada</a>
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<p>This practice isn’t only limited to online spaces. The same French women are also used by the three largest “Métis” organizations in Québec and half a dozen “Abenaki” tribes in New England for membership. The practice is so common that in the 5,000 membership records that I’ve seen, about 30 per cent of members have no Indigenous ancestry at all: they rely solely on a French women born prior to 1650 for their so-called Indigenous identity. </p>
<p>After reviewing their records, it’s fair to say that about 50 “Indigenous” organizations created since 2003 are <a href="http://www.raceshifting.com">Indigenous only in name</a>: no level of government, court or Indigenous Peoples have recognized them as Indigenous. </p>
<p>Using the example of two women who come up repeatedly online and in organizational records, I will explain how this works. </p>
<h2>Catherine Lejeune: An Acadian turned ‘Mi'kmaq’</h2>
<p>Catherine Lejeune was born in France around 1633. For almost a century, researchers speculated that Lejeune had been Mi’kmaq. This theory, based on a French historian’s faulty argument in the 1880s, led to a number of fanciful stories about her origins among genealogists. The most common, which continues to circulate widely today, claims that Lejeune is the granddaughter of Mi'kmaw Grand Chief Henri Membertou. There’s no evidence to support this claim. </p>
<p>Over the past 20 years, a number of historians of early Acadia have provided compelling documentary evidence that she was born in France. Plus, the results of <a href="https://www.familytreedna.com/public/mothersofacadia?iframe=mtresults">genetic ancestry testing</a> of nearly a dozen of her present-day descendants have consistently pointed to her French origins. There’s no longer a debate about Lejeune’s origins among historians. </p>
<p>Despite the academic consensus, Lejeune continues to be identified as Indigenous online and among several self-identified Indigenous organizations. For instance, nearly a hundred members of the <a href="https://autochtonesmaniwaki.com/index.php/en/">Communauté métis autochtone de Maniwaki</a> and the <a href="https://metisroymingan.ca/">Communauté métisse du Domaine-du-roi et de la Seigneurie de Mingan</a> count Lejeune as their sole “Indigenous” root ancestor. </p>
<p>Both organizations have recently been involved in protracted legal proceedings claiming Aboriginal rights for their allegedly Métis membership. Since 2014, nearly 100 individual members have lost nearly 60 separate court cases, yet they continue to press on in the courts.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.aaqnaq.com/accueil/">Alliance autochtone du Québec</a> (AAQ), another organization representing the so-called Québec Métis, also accepts Lejeune as an Indigenous root ancestor. In a 2016 court case, two AAQ members from Rouyn-Noranda claimed Aboriginal rights with Lejeune as the basis for their Indigenous identity. They lost the case, but the judge ultimately didn’t comment on their claim that Lejeune was Mi'kmaq. </p>
<h2>Catherine Pillard: A fille du roi turned ‘Algonquin-Siberian’</h2>
<p>The most stunning display of aspirational descent is without a doubt that of Catherine Pillard. Once New France came under French Crown authority in 1663, King Louis XIV started paying for girls and young women to settle in the colony. Over a period of 11 years, the Crown sponsored about 800 <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/filles-du-roi">filles du roi</a>, pressing them into reproductive service. </p>
<p>Until 2007, there was little doubt that Pillard had been one of these young women. Historians long ago identified her baptismal certificate from La Rochelle, on France’s west coast. She was believed to have arrived with the first shipment of women in the spring of 1663. Two years later in October 1665, when Catherine was 19, she married Jean Charron, with whom she had 12 children. </p>
<p>But something strange happened in 2007 that would challenge generations of conventional wisdom. Three genealogists with ties to “Eastern Métis” organizations published a paper suggesting that Catherine had in fact been an Indigenous woman. </p>
<p>The paper was based on DNA ancestry tests of several of Pillard’s present-day descendants. The researchers had tested their mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down unchanged through ones’ maternal lineage. Isolating Pillard’s mtDNA, they identified it as part of a subgroup commonly associated with peoples Indigenous to the Americas. </p>
<p>Their argument lacked clarity about Pillard’s precise origins, but online forums blew up with speculation anyway. Before long, Pillard had been renamed Catherine “Ouenta,” the long-lost daughter of Huron-Wendat chief Atsena, on a wide range of online sites. </p>
<p>“Métis” organizations in Quebec and “Abenaki tribes” in Vermont and New Hampshire added hundreds, if not thousands of members who discovered Pillard in their genealogy. By the time I was researching my book in 2017, she had become one of the principal “Indigenous” ancestors used by French-descendants to become “Indigenous.”</p>
<h2>Short-lived</h2>
<p>Pillard’s time as an “Indigenous” woman was short lived. The family association representing tens of thousands of Pillard’s descendants hired a high-profile genetic genealogist to verify the study’s results. </p>
<p>Jacques Beaugrand, an independent scientist, retested the same mtDNA and came up with significantly different results. Instead of DNA associated with Indigenous peoples via eastern Siberia, he concluded that the mtDNA was associated with a region of western Asia. It turns out that Catherine Pillard had inherited mtDNA from a women who had travelled to Western Europe via present-day Armenia or Kazakhstan centuries before. </p>
<p>After archival research by two historians further confirmed the documentary record supporting Pillard’s French identity, the family association <a href="https://www.charron-ducharme.org/index.php/en/catherine-pillard">closed its case</a>. Pillard returned to her original identity as a French woman. </p>
<p>At least, she did for those dedicated to the available evidence. For those involved in the “Eastern Métis” movement, Pillard has remained the daughter of a well-known Huron-Wendat chief. </p>
<h2>The trouble with self-identification</h2>
<p>Over the past 15 years, dozens of defendants in court have used either Lejeune or Pillard to claim Aboriginal rights. All have lost. </p>
<p>Countless others are using French women ancestors to become “Indigenous” to apply for jobs, scholarships and bursaries, advisory roles and other opportunities reserved for Indigenous people. Even some reputable Indigenous organizations are now led by white French-descendants taking advantage of mainstream confusion about Indigenous identity to identify as “Québec Métis” or “Acadian-Métis.” </p>
<p>A recent <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/2019-federal-election-indigenous-candidates-1.5265989">CBC Indigenous report</a> identified at least one sitting MP and several federal candidates claiming a similarly questionable Indigenous identity. </p>
<p>This will continue, as long as we continue to ignore the voices of Indigenous Peoples and use self-identification as the sole basis for Indigenous identity claims. </p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121599/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Darryl R. J. Leroux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recently in Canada and the United States, a small, but vocal minority of white French-descendants have used an ancestor born between 300 and 400 years ago to claim an “Indigenous” identity.Darryl R. J. Leroux, Associate Professor, Department of Social Justice and Community Studies, Saint Mary’s UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1182482019-06-13T15:06:03Z2019-06-13T15:06:03ZConsumer genetic testing customers stretch their DNA data further with third-party interpretation websites<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279263/original/file-20190613-32366-zjc6n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=432%2C122%2C3462%2C2370&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you've got the raw data, why not mine it for more info?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dna-helix-abstract-background-on-tablet-147238940">Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Back in 2016, Helen (a pseudonym) took three different direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests: AncestryDNA, 23andMe and FamilyTreeDNA. She saw genetic testing as a way to enhance her paper trail genealogy research, and it panned out when she matched with several new relatives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279264/original/file-20190613-32321-smmyl7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DTC companies extract DNA profiles from saliva samples users send in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dna-genetic-testing-saliva-kit-1114306274?src=jQH2fmvxgT3EobVc9IZeZw-1-22">Sarah Weldon/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Helen is one of over 26 million individuals who <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612880/more-than-26-million-people-have-taken-an-at-home-ancestry-test/">have reportedly taken</a> a DTC genetic test. That’s a lot of spit in tubes being mailed to companies that promise customers information about their health, ancestry and family trees.</p>
<p>Notably, the search for genetic insights doesn’t always stop with the interpretations provided by the DTC companies. One of Helen’s matches on AncestryDNA told her how she could stretch her personal genomic information further: by downloading her raw genetic data, that long list of As, Cs, Gs and Ts at each of the DNA sites the DTC company measured, and then uploading it to third-party interpretation tools online such as GEDmatch and DNA.land to find more relatives.</p>
<p>Helen enthusiastically did so and joined Facebook groups dedicated to helping people use their genetic data to flesh out their family trees. While Helen wasn’t initially seeking health information, on these forums she learned about the third-party tool Promethease and decided to upload her data there as well. She thought, “Well, for five dollars – we’ll see what it says.”</p>
<p>Researchers don’t have a very clear or comprehensive picture of how DTC customers use their raw data and these kinds of third-party tools. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&authuser=1&user=cYI9flEAAAAJ">As a genetics researcher</a> interested in the ethical and social implications of genomics in research, clinical care and everyday life, I think it’s important to address this knowledge gap – particularly given questions about whether and to what extent these third-party tools are or should be regulated.</p>
<h2>Making the most of raw genetic data</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2019.05.014">I interviewed Helen as part of a larger research study</a> to better understand the perspectives, experiences and motivations of those accessing their raw DTC data and using third-party interpretation tools.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I conducted a survey of about 1,100 DTC customers recruited via social media and followed up with interviews of 10 respondents — to our knowledge, the largest survey of this topic to date.</p>
<p><iframe id="fxnwY" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fxnwY/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Eighty-nine percent of our survey participants had downloaded their genetic data from a DTC company, and most of those downloaders (94%) had also used one or more third-party interpretation tools – three tools on average. The most commonly used tools were GEDmatch (84% of tool users), Promethease (63%) and DNA.land (55%).</p>
<p>One notable aspect of our results is that over half of tool users (56%) used both health-related and non-health-related, such as ancestry and genealogy, tools. We called this phenomenon “crossover” use. These crossover users were significantly different from people who used only one tool type in terms of demographics, which DTC tests they had taken and what initially motivated them to do DTC testing.</p>
<p>For example, the percentage of users who had ordered 23andMe increased from the non-health-only to crossover to the health-only group, with a reverse trend for both AncestryDNA and FamilyTree DNA tests. While this trend is as you might expect, it was surprising how many respondents initially ordered DTC tests focused on ancestry and genealogy – like from AncestryDNA and FamilyTree DNA – who went on to use their genetic data from these companies in health-related third-party tools.</p>
<p>Imagine a DTC customer such as Helen who first focused on genetic genealogy. After matching with some new relatives on GEDmatch, she went on to plug her data into Promethease. There she saw thousands of reports of potentially increased genetic risk for diseases ranging from age-related macular degeneration to restless legs syndrome – quite a distance from where her genealogy quest started.</p>
<p><iframe id="US8hj" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/US8hj/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Uploading genetic data to a variety of third-party tools makes sense when you consider that DNA carries multiple kinds of information: health risks, family relations and more distant genetic ancestry. The genome is like a Swiss Army knife in that you can draw on different characteristics depending on what you want to do or know. </p>
<p>Through our follow-up interviews, my research group learned how crossover users arrive at such different third-party tools. As with Helen, a common reason was hearing about multiple tools on social media venues such as Facebook groups or subreddits.</p>
<p>And once you’ve started plugging your raw data into one tool, there is relatively low activation energy required to use additional tools. Other reasons people tried additional third-party tools included initial lack of interesting findings in one domain and general curiosity to extract as much information as possible.</p>
<h2>More interpreters, more implications</h2>
<p>Once relatively obscure, third-party tools have come into the spotlight over the past year. The third-party genealogy website GEDmatch helped crack the Golden State Killer murders and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/golden-state-killer-dna.html">subsequently dozens of other cold cases</a>. The health-related tool Promethease <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/health/gene-testing-disease-nyt.html">garnered</a> <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/home-genetic-test-false-positives_n_5ac27188e4b04646b6451c42">headlines</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opinion/sunday/23andme-ancestry-alzheimers-genetic-testing.html">when</a> individuals were incorrectly told they were at increased risk for serious diseases – though these false positives ultimately came down to errors in the DTC genetic data, rather than Promethease’s interpretation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279265/original/file-20190613-32327-1mr0cay.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetic counselors meet with patients who are caught off-guard by their third-party reports.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-female-doctor-consultation-senior-patient-1150248692">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Genetic professionals and especially <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenmatloff/2019/02/12/i-had-lynch-syndrome-for-30-hours-2">genetic counselors who are on the frontlines</a>, seeing patients with their third-party reports, have well-founded <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0097-2">concerns about the quality and reliability</a> of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/15/opinion/sunday/23andme-ancestry-alzheimers-genetic-testing.html">results from DTC testing companies and third-party tools</a> alike. This unease is likely exacerbated by the variability in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-018-0217-9">scientific approaches and privacy and security practices</a> across third-party tools. While some rightly question the adequacy of current oversight for both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aau1083">privacy controls</a> and reliability of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0097-2">health-related information</a>, tighter regulation could restrict individual freedom to pursue personal genetic information.</p>
<p>Though my colleagues and I were able to reach over a thousand DTC customers in our study, we cannot say that our findings generalize to all DTC customers. Because of how we recruited participants, it’s likely that we sampled a very motivated and engaged group of people. The DTC testing and third-party tool landscape is also changing rapidly. Just in the past year, for instance, GEDmatch changed its terms of service <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-first-murder-case-to-use-family-tree-forensics-goes-to-trial/">regarding use by law enforcement</a> more than once, My Heritage <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190520005426/en/MyHeritage-Expands-Health-Launches-New-DNA-Test">expanded into health-related offerings</a>, and <a href="https://medium.com/the-seeq-blog/sunsetting-gencove-for-individuals-7d24f951193c">Gencove retired its consumer-oriented product</a>. Any research in this area is on shifting sands.</p>
<p>But this kind of study can also help inform genetics professionals who are considering delivering raw DNA data in other contexts. This includes researchers, such as those <a href="https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/all-us-program-plans-return-disease-variants-pgx-results-primary-genomic-data">planning to return raw data to participants</a> in the National Institutes of Health’s <a href="https://allofus.nih.gov">All of Us</a> precision medicine project. Clinicians who order genome sequencing tests may enable raw data access; patients have the <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/access/index.html">legal right to their full laboratory reports</a>. Our study can shed some light on what individuals who receive raw data via these other routes might do with it.</p>
<p>Overall, our study illustrates the complexity and variety of third-party tool users’ motivations, experiences and actions. These findings should inform, but probably won’t simplify, the job of any regulators grappling with whether and how to respond to this growing field of genetic interpretation.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118248/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Catherine Nelson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research investigated who uses the wide array of tools available to people who’ve received their own raw genetic data and want to maximize what they learn from it.Sarah Catherine Nelson, Research Scientist in Biostatistics, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180912019-06-07T11:27:40Z2019-06-07T11:27:40ZPrivacy concerns don’t stop people from putting their DNA on the internet to help solve crimes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278391/original/file-20190606-98054-rj5si4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Home DNA testing has made it easy and affordable for millions of people to learn about their ancestry. Now, police are using this genetic information to identify suspects in unsolved crimes.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/success?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTU1OTg2NTc3MiwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfNzk0MTI5NDg1IiwiayI6InBob3RvLzc5NDEyOTQ4NS9odWdlLmpwZyIsIm0iOjEsImQiOiJzaHV0dGVyc3RvY2stbWVkaWEifSwiWnBVR0psOCtSeHR2MUNiYStFVktxcG0wbTFFIl0%2Fshutterstock_794129485.jpg&pi=33421636&m=794129485&src=ItCrBXSmljySZ-oUgOFXFw-1-1">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Americans are <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/genetic-genealogy-forensics-top-science-stories-2018-yir">embracing</a> the use of DNA databases to solve crimes. </p>
<p>Over the past year DNA submitted to ancestry websites have helped police in the United States <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-future-of-crime-fighting-is-family-tree-forensics/">identify the killers in several unsolved crimes</a>, including the <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/we-will-find-you-dna-search-used-nab-golden-state-killer-can-home-about-60-white">Golden State Killer case</a> – a <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/02/golden-state-killer-can-a-group-of-amateur-internet-detectives-catch-a-long-dormant-serial-killer.html">longtime subject of internet sleuthing</a>.</p>
<p>The practice has raised some <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/03/genetic-genealogy-law-enforcement-suspects-dna-privacy-gedmatch.html">concerns</a> about police access to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/12/privacy-concerns-rise-as-26-million-share-dna-with-ancestry-firms.html">the genetic profiles of millions of Americans</a>, with some <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/148170/supreme-court-rewrite-rules-dna-searches">privacy advocates demanding</a> that courts <a href="https://theconversation.com/recreational-ancestry-dna-testing-may-reveal-more-than-consumers-bargained-for-93836">prohibit this investigative tactic</a>. </p>
<p>But those offered the chance to participate actively in the drama of criminal justice often find privacy to be of little concern, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ElyL7y0AAAAJ&hl=en">my research</a> shows. </p>
<h2>People love a good cold case</h2>
<p>California police used the genealogy website <a href="https://www.gedmatch.com/login1.php">GEDmatch</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2018/04/27/golden-state-killer-dna-website-gedmatch-was-used-to-identify-joseph-deangelo-as-suspect-police-say/?utm_term=.d81f9b1df42b">check DNA from dozens of murders and rapes</a> committed by the Golden State Killer from 1976 to 1986, leading to the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo in April 2018. </p>
<p>DNA submissions to GEDmatch – a public source of user-submitted DNA profiles created to help genealogy hobbyists investigate their family trees – have steadily increased since, founder Curtis Rogers told me.</p>
<p><a href="https://thednageek.com/dna-tests/">About a thousand new profiles</a> are uploaded to GEDmatch every day, Rogers says. The site contains over 1.2 million user-submitted DNA kits. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278394/original/file-20190606-98003-lm0j6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Joseph James DeAngelo, alleged to be the Golden State Killer, was identified decades after his 10-year crime spree by DNA uploaded to GEDmatch by a distant relative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Golden-State-Killer/93ff0892adb24e08862ced4a86bf2f1e/6/0">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All users who <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/05/gedmatch-dna-privacy-update-law-enforcement-genetic-geneology-searches.html">opt in to its public portal</a> are alerted that their DNA information <a href="https://www.gedmatch.com/tos.htm">may be searched by law enforcement agencies</a> investigating a crime or seeking to identify a deceased person. </p>
<p>In Rogers’ experience, that possibility excites, rather than concerns, many customers. He routinely receives emails from people who want to post their DNA profile to GEDmatch “so they can assist in catching criminals, including those who might be family members, so that any unsolved cases can be solved, and families involved can get closure.”</p>
<p>CeCe Moore – perhaps the best known scientist in the burgeoning field of genetic genealogy – sees similar sentiments on the popular <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CeCeMooreDNA/">Facebook page</a> where she posts updates on recently solved cases. </p>
<p>“They want to be part of solving this,” she told me, “They are web sleuths – and perhaps their DNA could be key to cracking a case.” </p>
<p>Moore works with <a href="https://parabon-nanolabs.com/">Parabon NanoLabs</a>, a DNA technology company that <a href="https://snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/">builds the family tree of DNA found at a crime scene</a> to help police identify suspects. </p>
<p>“People ask us all the time, how can I get my DNA to a place where you guys can solve cases?” Parabon CEO Steve Armentrout told me. </p>
<h2>The ethics of public DNA</h2>
<p>Home DNA kits are only the latest technology to dramatically increase public participation in monitoring, preventing and even solving crimes. </p>
<p>Websites like <a href="https://help.nextdoor.com/s/article/About-Nextdoor-for-crime-prevention?language=en_US">NextDoor</a> have taken the neighborhood watch concept – when neighbors work together to prevent crime – online. The app <a href="https://medium.com/citizen">Citizen</a> alerts civilians about 911 calls to crimes underway in their vicinity and allows them to <a href="https://www.kqed.org/news/11642302/new-app-tracks-crime-and-emergencies-near-you">upload video of the incident</a>. And over 700,000 people frequent the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/">cold case discussions</a> on Reddit, an online message board. </p>
<p>Amateur sleuths may jump at the chance of their DNA helping to catch a killer, but there are good reasons to pause and take stock of the ethical concerns raised by this practice.</p>
<p>By the end of 2018, <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612880/more-than-26-million-people-have-taken-an-at-home-ancestry-test/">26 million people had taken an at-home</a> ancestry test with 23andMe, Ancestry.com or similar sites, the MIT Technology Review found. </p>
<p>But you’re not just uploading your own DNA when you put it on one of these sites. You’re uploading the DNA of relatives, both close and distant. </p>
<p>That exposes many millions of people who have never taken a DNA test to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/golden-state-killer-dna.html">possible police identification</a>, raising tricky <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/03/genetic-genealogy-law-enforcement-suspects-dna-privacy-gedmatch.html">due process questions</a>.</p>
<p>As more people are <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2019/03/national-dna-database-law-enforcement-genetic-genealogy.html">swept into genetic databases</a> without their explicit consent, more sensitive personal information will effectively become public. Some day, these genetic profiles could be used by employers or insurance companies to assess the health of individuals, leading to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2651591/">discrimination and stigmatization</a>. </p>
<h2>‘I want him caught’</h2>
<p>Making one’s DNA available to law enforcement agencies can also create problems of a more intimate nature: Namely, if a suspect is caught because of your DNA, that person is technically part of your biological family. You may become responsible for putting your own relative in jail.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/278400/original/file-20190606-97999-lu70pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of the Facebook page of the prominent genetic genealogist CeCe Moore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/CeCeMooreDNA/">Facebook</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The genetic genealogist Cece Moore finds that doesn’t deter people. </p>
<p>“They want murderers and rapists and serial killers off the street,” she says of the people who talk to her about contributing their DNA to GEDMatch or similar sites. “These people are willing to make sacrifices for that to happen.”</p>
<p>The logic she often hears, Moore says, is: “If my second cousin is a serial killer, I want him caught. I want people to pay for these crimes even if its someone I am close to or I love.” </p>
<p>Research confirms these observations. A <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.2006906">study</a> published in the academic journal PLOS Biology in October 2018 found that 79% of 1,578 survey respondents – some of whom had themselves <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2006906.s003">done a home DNA test</a> with 23andMe or other genetic testing site – support police searches of websites like GEDmatch.</p>
<p>Respondents were most supportive of investigations for violent crimes, crimes against children, or missing persons, leading the authors to observe that “perceived invasions of privacy appear to be tolerable when the purpose is to catch violent or particularly depraved offenders.” </p>
<p>The continued success of genetic genealogy in solving cold cases will likely reinforce this public support. </p>
<p><a href="https://parabon-nanolabs.com/news-events/">Parabon</a> recently announced that its services have solved over “<a href="https://parabon-nanolabs.com/news-events/2019/03/parabon-helps-investigators-solve-1000-years-of-cold-cases-in-9-months.html">1,000 years of cold cases in nine months</a>.” This information, provided by the company, cannot be independently verified.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, popular television shows like <a href="https://vimeo.com/288912882">20/20</a> and <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/rf-watch-online/tv-shows/dr-phil/season-17/episode-164">Dr. Phil</a> have begun to explore genetic genealogy, inspiring an even wider audience to see their own DNA as the potential missing link in an unsolved crime. </p>
<p>With this public support, and barring strict regulation that limits the use of DNA databases to solve crimes, consumer genealogy sites will likely play an ever greater law enforcement role.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Esther Lageson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Despite privacy concerns over police use of DNA uploaded to ancestry websites, many people are just excited that their genetic material could get a killer off the streets.Sarah Esther Lageson, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1141202019-04-03T10:48:21Z2019-04-03T10:48:21ZGenes and genealogy and making the most of famous relations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266890/original/file-20190401-177178-qotzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Genealogy is the second most popular hobby in the United States.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/york-united-kingdom-042815-genealogy-family-1161686563">Steve Allen/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Digging up one’s genealogical roots is second only to gardening in <a href="http://time.com/133811/how-genealogy-became-almost-as-popular-as-porn/">popularity as a hobby</a> and can be much more exciting. I have known the joy of discovery and the pleasure of sharing the news. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266876/original/file-20190401-177167-10s1s9p.Jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of Sir John Harington (1561-1612).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Hieronimo_Custodis_-_Portrait_of_Sir_John_Harrington.Jpeg">Hieronymus Custodis</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=644&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267192/original/file-20190402-177171-1mcbd97.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">English actor Kit Harington plays Jon Snow on the series ‘Game Of Thrones.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Kit_Harington_%28March_2013%29.jpg">Suzi Pratt/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Genealogy on my mother’s side shows relations to the storied court of Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare’s England and the current cast of “Game of Thrones.” “<a href="https://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones">Games of Thrones</a>” star <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/04/16/jon-snow-kit-harington/">Kit Harington</a> (Jon Snow, King in the North) is a <a href="https://archive.org/details/KGO_20140219_073500_Jimmy_Kimmel_Live/start/2940/end/3000">multiple great-grandson</a> of Sir John Harington (1560-1612) – a godson to Queen Elizabeth I and a member of her court. Sir John is also one of my multiple great-grandfathers. I hereby give a shout-out to Cousin Kit. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/death-sir-john-harington">Sir John invented</a> the <a href="http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/08/why-the-toilet-is-sometimes-called-a-john/">first flush toilet</a> and is why some folks call the toilet “the John.” However, I care more about his literary accomplishments. For example, in 1615 he published a book, “Epigrams Both Pleasant and Serious.” This included the noted: “On Treason – Treason doth never prosper, what’s the reason? For it to prosper, none dare call it treason.” He also wrote the saying “Love me, love my dog,” which comes from a poem Sir John wrote for my ninth great-grandmother seeking to apologize for striking her little dog. He is better known for his translation of Ludovico Ariosto’s (1474-1533) “<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Ariosto_Orlando_Furioso_Harington_Title_Page.jpg">Orlando Furioso</a>.” </p>
<p>Before I dwell too much on my relationship to Sir John, I do wonder what he and I really do share, genetically speaking. (My own expertise in genetics arose from <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076890">research</a> I did related to cigarette smoking.)</p>
<h2>DNA, Sir John and me</h2>
<p>Genetic tests were among the <a href="https://bgr.com/2018/12/22/dna-test-deals-last-minute-christmas-sale/">hottest gifts of 2017 and 2018</a>. They may scratch much the same intellectual itch as genealogy, but with a sometimes misleading sheen of scientific surety. </p>
<p>On average each person shares about 25 percent of their DNA with each grandparent. My third great-grandmother, Polly Harrington (1804-1856), is my most recent Harington by name. On average we would likely share – given the imperfect nature of these predictions – about 3.13 percent of our DNA. By the fifth great-grandparents, 128 ancestors have contributed to an individual’s DNA, causing each person’s share to drop below 1 percent (0.78 percent). </p>
<p>Estimates of inheritance from ancestors depend on the model used. By one model, <a href="https://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask445">I share an average</a> of only 0.049 percent of DNA with my 2,048 ninth great-grandparents. But if this were not little enough to call nothing, <a href="https://gcbias.org/2013/11/04/how-much-of-your-genome-do-you-inherit-from-a-particular-ancestor/">another genetic model</a> shows a 50-50 chance of the shared DNA being nothing. Nevertheless, I will cling to my assumed inheritance of 0.049 percent from Sir John.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/267152/original/file-20190402-177184-19d01d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This shows how the number of great-grandparents double with each generation as one goes back in time. Each dot stands for one grandparent. Sir John appears as one red X among a horde of 2,048 ninth great-grandparents.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lynn Kozlowski</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Descendants can guess playfully which ancestor gave them a particular trait. Sir John is the only writer I know of in my family. So, perhaps I owe to him a speck of credit for my literary accomplishments, like my <a href="http://ravennapress.com/books/historical-markers/">book</a> of short fiction. My genetic work and my writing even collided in a dramatic monologue “<a href="https://buffalo.app.box.com/s/yprhz2i11snztxc0l8basvrgftee4btt">The DNA Bank: Expressing the Risks for Purposes of Informed Consent</a>,” which was published online in the now defunct <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(98)90308-7/fulltext">HMS Beagle</a>. This monologue was translated into Icelandic and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/dunganon/dna-bankinn">performed</a> on Icelandic State Radio in December 1998 to mark the passage of landmark <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCODE_genetics">legislation</a> for genetic testing on the Icelandic population.</p>
<p>In Sir John’s day and for centuries thereafter first-born males enjoyed the fullest benefits of the <a href="https://www.stylist.co.uk/people/feminism/duke-of-westminster-jane-austen-downton-abbey-feminism-feminist-primogeniture-inheritance-law-monarchy-aristocracy-abolish-debate/10554">inheritance</a> of property, position and privilege. Lesser sons or any daughters were, if not completely out of luck, at least lower in luck. My path from Sir John began with a younger son. He was first in the New World in 1630 and drowned in Boston Harbor very soon after he got there. Next followed two second sons in a row. Sadly, the dimmed luster of my Haringtonian heritage, rife with minor sons and ending in a daughter, may add social distance between me and Cousin Kit, son of Sir David Harington, 15th Baronet. </p>
<h2>Genealogical acts of faith</h2>
<p>The genealogical world is a world without secret affairs, informally adopted children, or any shadow of reproductive misbehavior. And surviving records of many years ago can be sketchy. It can be hard to know which John or Richard with a common last name and living in the same county at the same time is the one to be following. As one claws back to earlier and earlier generations, the odds of mistakes in records, whether innocent or intended, keep increasing.</p>
<p>Adding human error to the ever shrinking share of DNA, the main contribution from one’s alleged older ancestors may be to conversation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266895/original/file-20190401-177184-1nbmce0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Title Page of Ariosto’s ‘Orlando Furioso,’ which was translated by Sir John Harington. The engraving is by Thomas Cockson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Ariosto_Orlando_Furioso_Harington_Title_Page.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I can imagine now, knowing what I know, I could purchase an antique edition of Harington’s “Orlando Furioso” and place it in an auspicious spot on a bookshelf in my living room. I could hang Sir John’s portrait over the bookcase. </p>
<p>I would organize a dinner party, including Cousin Kit among the invitees. None of my few first cousins on my mother’s side with whom I share an average of 12.5 percent DNA would be invited. I actually don’t know these people or where they live. </p>
<p>I could explain to guests over hors d'oeuvres that the book before them was translated by my ninth great-grandfather whose portrait hangs above the bookcase. He was a knight and a godson to Queen Elizabeth I, and also a multiple great-grandfather to “Game of Thrones” star, Kit Harington – who could not make it tonight.</p>
<p>And the savvy guest could say, “What’s for dinner?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynn T. Kozlowski has received funding from the National Institutes of Health.</span></em></p>Before you attribute a trait to a famous ancestor like George Washington or Marie Antoinette, you might want to see how much DNA you actually share with these people. It’s not what you thought.Lynn T. Kozlowski, Professor, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, University at BuffaloLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1102272019-01-23T16:15:30Z2019-01-23T16:15:30ZDanny Dyer has royal ancestors – how likely is it you do too?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255175/original/file-20190123-135160-1m7apx6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Wall to Wall Media</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Danny Dyer is very proud of his heritage. In 2016, the actor, who stars in the British soap opera Eastenders, was revealed to be a descendant of King Edward III of England (1312–1377) after taking part in the the family history TV show <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p052k2jt">Who Do You Think You Are?</a>. And now he has made another programme in which he discovers he has other prominent ancestors including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/jan/14/danny-dyer-discovers-more-royal-ancestry-with-french-king-saint-louis">French king Louis IX</a> who lived from 1214 to 1270 (later canonised as Saint Louis).</p>
<p>Of course, he’s not alone in his claims, with other Who Do You Think You Are? participants including <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tl38l">Alexander Armstrong</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/boris-johnson.shtml">Boris Johnson</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/matthew-pinsent.shtml">Matthew Pinsent</a> all turning out to be of royal descent. But should we be surprised that someone with a cockney accent can also boast such lineage? It’s actually more common than you might realise. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.stat.yale.edu/%7Ejtc5/papers/CommonAncestors/NatureCommonAncestors-Article.pdf">Statisticians</a> have argued that if you go back far enough, everyone within a certain group of people will have a shared ancestor. And geneticists <a href="https://gcbias.org/european-genealogy-faq/">have found evidence</a> they claim shows everyone of European descent alive today shares enough DNA to suggest they all have the same very large set of ancestors from as recently as 1,000 years ago. This has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/commentisfree/2015/may/24/business-genetic-ancestry-charlemagne-adam-rutherford">used to argue</a> that all modern Europeans can claim to be descended from the famous Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (742-814).</p>
<p>You could apply the same ideas to argue that most people in Britain are descended from William the Conqueror (1028–1087) and Kenneth MacAlpin (810–858), who is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/kenneth_macalpin/">contentiously known</a> as the first king of Scotland. But we have to be careful about accepting these kind of statistical projections at face value. For one thing, they tend to be based on models which imagine that people partner randomly and, of course, this is not the case.</p>
<h2>Marriage patterns</h2>
<p>Particularly in the days before easy travel, marriage between partners who lived and worked in the same local communities was the common course of events. And marriages between cousins were not uncommon both among the upper classes and within more remote local communities. Both these factors will have limited the number of descendants from someone living hundreds of years ago.</p>
<p>We also know the number of descendants someone has doesn’t necessarily grow evenly and exponentially with each generation. Royal family trees show that it was common for family lines to come to an end when royal descendants were killed by disease or war, or simply didn’t have any surviving children of their own. With this in mind, we believe much more extensive, rigorous research would be needed to show what proportion of the population are descended from royalty.</p>
<p>However, there are still likely to be many people – perhaps millions – who are descended from European royalty. In fact, one of us (Graham Holton) has discovered he is descended from English king Edward I (1239–1307) and, like Danny Dyer, Louis IX, while the other (Alasdair Macdonald) is probably descended from Kenneth MacAlpin. In Scotland, many people claim to be <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/6207373/Actress-Tilda-Swinton-is-descendant-of-Robert-the-Bruce.html">descended from Robert the Bruce</a> (1274–1329), and often those claims may be justified since his grandson Robert II had <a href="http://www.thepeerage.com/p10210.htm">more than 20 children</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255185/original/file-20190123-135163-ibbxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Edward III.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Edward_III.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dyer’s ancestor Edward III had several children who produced many descendants. In 1911, the Marquis of Ruvigny estimated from documented family trees that Edward’s living descendants numbered around <a href="https://www.questia.com/library/951068/english-genealogy">80,000 to 100,000</a>. The number today, after four more generations of children, would be much greater.</p>
<p>It’s easy to understand how many of these descendants may not realise they have royal origins. Younger sons of kings would often become part of the nobility, and their younger children who didn’t inherit family titles would often become part of the wider gentry. Their children might become substantial farmers and the next generation might become smaller-scale farmers, then tenant farmers, merchants, tradesmen and eventually employees.</p>
<p>From around the 15th century, the number of descendants of the ruling classes had increased so much that this kind of downward social mobility probably accelerated. What’s more, many nobles will have had illegitimate or undocumented children, whose social status would have fallen even faster.</p>
<h2>Genetic testing</h2>
<p>Of course, only a very small proportion of people can back up their royal claims with evidence. But genetic testing is starting to make a more significant contribution to efforts to establish the existence of royal relatives. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/255184/original/file-20190123-135145-1v6vn6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Queen of Scots.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary,_Queen_of_Scots_after_Nicholas_Hilliard_(crop).jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, Mary Queen of Scots and her son James VI of Scotland (James I of England) descend from the Scottish royal House of Stewart. Other well documented descendants of the House who are alive today have taken a DNA test to identify genetic markers unique to the Stewart family that are carried by the Y-chromosome, part of the DNA passed down to every male descendant.</p>
<p>So now any man who wants to find out if he is a distant relative (as opposed to descendant) of Mary Queen of Scots can <a href="https://www.stewartsociety.org/bannockburn-genetic-genealogy-project.cfm">take a Y-DNA test</a> to see if there is a match, although the results will only reveal whether the subject is at the end of an unbroken male line of descendants. The same principles apply to other royal and noble <a href="https://clandonaldusa.org/index.php/dna-after-somerled">families and clans</a>, and instances of descent from Robert the Bruce <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3612966/Are-descendant-Robert-Bruce-Unique-genetic-marker-Scottish-king-s-great-grandson.html">have been proved</a> this way.</p>
<p>Both men and women can also take an <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mace-lab/debunking/understanding-accordion/autosomal-test">autosomal DNA test</a>, which looks at the rest of the chromosomes for genetic matches with other people who have taken the test. In theory, this could also reveal you descend from royalty as you may share the same genetic ancestor with someone who has a documented royal ancestry.</p>
<p>As your DNA doesn’t contain genetic information from all your ancestors, you could have a royal forebear who has left no evidence of their family link to you. Despite this, DNA testing has made medieval genealogy for the masses a real possibility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110227/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The University of Strathclyde. Centre for Lifelong Learning receives funding from the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>The University of Strathclyde. Centre for Lifelong Learning receives funding from the Foundation for Medieval Genealogy.
</span></em></p>DNA testing is helping reveal people’s unknown royal ancestry.Graham Holton, Principal Tutor, Postgraduate Programme in Genealogical Studies, University of Strathclyde Alasdair Macdonald, Teaching Fellow, Department of Genealogical Studies, University of Strathclyde Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1053972018-12-18T19:13:39Z2018-12-18T19:13:39ZDramatic advances in forensics expose the need for genetic data legislation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243781/original/file-20181104-83638-v9mo5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The issues surrounding the use of genetic data are complex.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">image created by James Hereward and Caitlin Curtis</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people first became familiar with DNA testing through its use in the OJ Simpson murder trial in 1994. Now, 24 years later, there have been two dramatic advances in the capability of forensic genetics that mark the start of a new era. </p>
<p>The first is the amount of information we can predict about a person from DNA found at a crime scene, and the second is the way police can use open genealogy databases to identify people. </p>
<p>But we need to be careful how we use these new tools. If people lose trust in how DNA data is used and shared by police, it could have an adverse impact on other applications – such as medical care. </p>
<p>That’s why we’re calling for a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0396-7">Genetic Data Protection Act</a> to ensure people have confidence in the way their DNA is accessed and used.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-facial-prediction-could-make-protecting-your-privacy-more-difficult-94740">DNA facial prediction could make protecting your privacy more difficult</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>We can learn a lot more from DNA now</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/114/38/10166">Predicting traits from DNA</a>, known as “DNA phenotyping”, is improving. Facial prediction, health traits, predisposition to disease, even personality traits and things about our mental health can be predicted from genetic data. Some <a href="https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.7580/kjlm.2017.41.2.23&vmode=PUBREADER">researchers</a> are even considering predicting propensity to drink or smoke.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=177&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243767/original/file-20181104-83638-1d8t1jh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We’re getting better at predicting physical traits, like faces, from DNA data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Composite from PNAS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Law enforcement agencies around the <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6391/841">world</a> are using these traits to create predictive DNA “mugshots”, but in many countries there is no specific regulation on how and when they should be incorporated into policing.</p>
<p>And some types of predictions raise considerable ethical issues. </p>
<p>For example, should it be OK for law enforcement to predict the mental health or disease risk of a suspect? If so, should that information be used in a trial? If law enforcement predicts a high risk of a particular disease, should they be compelled to tell a suspect or their family? </p>
<h2>Separation between databases is breaking down</h2>
<p>You may be familiar with “CODIS” from CSI, this is the database that law enforcement has traditionally used to identify DNA collected at a crime scene. CODIS has around <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/services/laboratory/biometric-analysis/codis/ndis-statistics">17.7 million</a> DNA profiles. There are strict rules around who can be included in these databases, and the vast majority of profiles are from convicted offenders. </p>
<p>According to best estimates, the number of people who have taken genetic ancestry tests is slightly <a href="https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart">higher</a> than this, and police have started using this <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cops-used-a-public-genealogy-database-in-the-golden-state-killer-case-95842">data</a> as well. The type of data in CODIS only allows close family matches, but the type of data in open ancestry databases allows much deeper relations to be found. </p>
<p>Even if you haven’t participated in genetic testing or made your genetic data public, you may have a relative who has. Currently, law enforcement is able to identify people based on matches as distant as third cousins. </p>
<p>On average, people have around <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0034267">190</a> third cousins. <a href="https://gcbias.org/2018/05/07/how-lucky-was-the-genetic-investigation-in-the-golden-state-killer-case/">One estimate</a> indicates that over 90% of Americans of European descent already have a third cousin or higher in the open genealogy database GEDmatch. It may take as little as 2% of the population uploading their DNA data in a genealogy database for the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-10-12/genealogy-forensics-dna-long-range-familial-searches-identity/10363550">entire population</a> to be identified this way. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=649&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243779/original/file-20181104-83651-yfqegh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The 238 relatives in your generation that might be affected if you share your genetic data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">image designed by James Hereward and Caitlin Curtis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New statistical methods mean separations between previously distinct genetic databases are disappearing. Traditional forensic markers can now be <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(18)31180-2#secsectitle0020">cross referenced</a> to ancestry data, even though they are completely different types of genetic data. This means close family members could be identified across different databases. These methods can also be used to re-identify subjects in medical genetics research projects.</p>
<p>There has been a lot of public support for the use of genetic genealogy to catch serial killers and rapists. In some cases, people are voluntarily uploading their data to help these efforts. </p>
<p>But where should we draw the line? Should genetic data only be used in serious crimes, or are we happy to have a comprehensive system of genetic surveillance that covers the entire population? </p>
<h2>Private companies are aiding law enforcement</h2>
<p>Both <a href="https://snapshot.parabon-nanolabs.com/phenotyping">DNA phenotyping</a> and forensic genealogy – which relies on amateur genealogists – are now being offered to law enforcement by private companies. </p>
<p>Parabon, a US-based pharmaceutical company, has partnered with armchair genealogist <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611529/the-citizen-scientist-who-finds-killers-from-her-couch/">Cece Moore</a>. She started using genetic genealogy to find the parents of adoptees and children born through sperm donation, but now uses it to catch criminals.</p>
<p>Parabon also offers facial prediction services. While the science of facial prediction from DNA is getting better, it is still contentious, and several prominent scientists have cast <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6391/841">doubt</a> on whether Parabon can really do what it is promising.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, this move out of government labs and into private ones raises questions about oversight – and what exactly is happening to the data generated.</p>
<h2>Genetic data is different from other kinds of data</h2>
<p>Genetic data is highly unique and can be thought of as a personal 15 million letter pin-code. Since the code doesn’t just identify us, it also contains important information about our disease risk, personality traits and even our physical features like our face, it is very difficult to keep anonymous. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243762/original/file-20181104-83626-8p1m11.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Genetic data is different from other kinds of data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edited from Shutterstock image</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike a credit card we can’t request a new genome if our data is compromised. And a stolen credit card won’t tell a perpetrator anything about the finances of our family members. </p>
<p>We understand what happens if we lose a credit card, but our understanding of genetic data is still developing. And we’re likely to see it put to unexpected uses in the future.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-talk-about-who-can-access-your-digital-genomic-data-87682">It's time to talk about who can access your digital genomic data</a>
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<h2>We need a ‘Genetic Data Protection Act’</h2>
<p>Technological advances in genomics are outpacing public awareness, and existing legislation doesn’t fit genetic data well. Under current laws, the lab that produces the genetic data has ownership of the record. But if our genetic data represents a deep part of the essence of us, it shouldn’t be this easy for us to give up ownership of it. </p>
<p>We need new ways to protect genetic data to maintain trust in medical genomics. Sometimes people need their genome sequenced for medical purposes, but they might be reluctant to consent if trust has broken down around how genetic data could be used. That could result in poorer medical outcomes.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41436-018-0396-7">solution</a> to prevent this is a specific “Genetic Data Protection Act”, which would grant people ownership of their own data. However, it must be different from standard property rights: ownership should be immutable and nontransferable.</p>
<p>The issues around use of our genetic data are complex, individuals (and their descendants) must be protected. Under no circumstances should it be possible for an individual to unwittingly sign an agreement that results in a loss of control of their genetic data. Legislation is part of the solution, but education and new technological solutions will also be important.</p>
<p>The recent introduction of the digital <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-government-under-pressure-to-rewrite-my-health-record-legislation-20181024-p50bom.html">My Health Record</a> shows that Australians care about who is accessing their sensitive information. And people are already <a href="https://reports.norc.org/issue_brief/genetic-testing-ancestry-interest-but-privacy-concerns/">expressing unease</a> about the confidentiality of their genetic data. </p>
<p>We must establish clear boundaries about how genetic data generated for medical purposes is used – whether by police or by any other interested parties. Giving genetic data the protection it needs, and making sure that medical genetic data doesn’t become a forensic resource will be crucial to ensure public trust in medical genetics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105397/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caitlin Curtis is affiliated with the Queensland Genomic Health Alliance and the University of Queensland Genomics in Society Initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Hereward receives funding from the Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC). The project investigates the evolution of herbicide resistance in weeds.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Devereux receives funding the Queensland Genomics Health Alliance (QGHA) and The University of Queensland to undertake research into the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genomics. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Hussey receives funding from the Queensland Genomics Health Alliance (QGHA) and The University of Queensland to undertake research into the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genomics. She is a member of the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation, the TJ Ryan Foundation Board, WWF Australia Expert Scientific Panel, and the Climate Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marie Mangelsdorf is affiliated with The University of Queensland Genomics in Society Initiative and the Queensland Genomics Health Alliance. </span></em></p>Police have powerful new genetic tools. How are we going to regulate their use? A Genetic Data Protection Act is one solution to ensure confidence in the way DNA is accessed and used.Caitlin Curtis, Research fellow, Centre for Policy Futures (Genomics), The University of QueenslandJames Hereward, Research fellow, The University of QueenslandJohn Devereux, Professor of Law, The University of QueenslandKaren Hussey, Director, Centre for Policy Futures, The University of QueenslandMarie Mangelsdorf, Research Fellow (Genomics), The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1038692018-10-26T10:00:14Z2018-10-26T10:00:14ZDNA sequencing is inadvertently exacerbating social biases and inequalities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242289/original/file-20181025-71020-1rd4rzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/dna-sequence-255876943?src=wjYy-n8E_WQKCQTkD2aEBg-1-10">Gio.tto/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the cutting edge of modern science, DNA sequencing promises to transform many aspects of human life. It’s already playing a significant role in law enforcement, as well as medical and historical research. But there’s a growing inequality in its impacts and in the chances of your genetic data being recorded – whether that’s by choice, for research or medical benefit, or by compulsion by the state.</p>
<p>Britain’s home secretary, Sajid Javid, apologised to parliament on October 25 for his department’s <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45979359">compulsion of immigration applicants</a>, including 51 relatives of British Army Gurkhas, into DNA testing to prove their identity. The revelations, first reported in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7358cafc-7ec7-11e8-bc55-50daf11b720d">June,</a> were the latest indictment of the impacts of the government’s “<a href="https://theconversation.com/hostile-environment-the-uk-governments-draconian-immigration-policy-explained-95460">hostile environment</a>” immigration policies. In his <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-the-use-of-dna-evidence-in-immigration-applications?utm_source=72bcc42f-3d4a-48e6-a143-508f9974bf88&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications&utm_content=immediate">statement</a>, Javid said that 83 applications had been refused, including seven which had been refused purely on “suitability grounds”, because applicants had not submitted to mandatory genetic testing.</p>
<p>But the UK is not alone in employing this innovative technology to enforce its borders – <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45023505">Canada</a>, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/france-delays-dna-test-for-immigrants/a-4686259">France</a> and <a href="https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/a2paQM/Regjeringen-innforer-DNA-tester-for-a-stanse-juks-med-familieinnvandring">Norway</a> are also adopting or considering adoption of these techniques. Meanwhile, border forces under the Trump administration recently used compulsory DNA tests to reunite migrant families <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/07/05/politics/dna-testing-migrant-family-separation/index.html">they had forcibly separated.</a>.</p>
<p>While in each individual case familial DNA testing would give some additional “proof” of relationship to investigators, across Western countries a system seems to be in creation where compulsion to DNA test becomes a prerequisite of citizenship for certain migrants. Yet it’s a piece of evidence that would not be required of non-migrants in any similar civil or criminal proceeding.</p>
<p>The inequalities in access to and use of DNA by the state do not end there, however.</p>
<p>DNA matching is a standard and valuable aspect of modern policing, proving essential in thousands of cases. One less publicised branch of genetic policing is <a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/257432/response/636667/attach/3/Familial%20Search%20Tactical%20Guidance.pdf%20010415.pdf">familial DNA matching</a>. This has been <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-45561514">used since the late 2000s</a> where crime scene DNA samples do not 100% match a person in the National DNA Database, but can be used to identify a close relative.</p>
<h2>Built-in inequalities</h2>
<p>While significantly aiding investigations, these systems have inadvertently created a genealogical bias in detection: if a relative of yours has been criminalised, you are more likely to be identified than if a relative of yours hasn’t. This bias is predicated on socioeconomic factors and likely to exacerbate existing inequalities and discrepancies in policing. And this is particularly the case when we consider which criminals are more likely to have been caught previously: the middle-class cocaine user or the inner-city gang member? The corporate fraudster or the shoplifter on the poverty line?</p>
<p>Police give reasons such as socioeconomic factors and the practicalities of policing to justify the large over-representation of young black men in their DNA database <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/05/race.ukcrime">compared to other population groups</a>. Still, there are real implications for whole communities when everyone closely related to each young black man is also now detectable, whether guilty or not – while this is far rarer for members of other communities.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-roma/police-database-of-roma-stirs-outrage-in-sweden-idUSBRE98M0EM20130923">Sweden</a>, <a href="http://libertes.blog.lemonde.fr/2010/10/07/le-fichier-des-roms-du-ministere-de-linterieur/">France</a>, and <a href="https://www.groene.nl/artikel/93-roma-jongeren-waarvan-62-leerplichtig">the Netherlands</a> in the past decade, authorities have been censured when it has been discovered that they have kept “family trees” and registration lists of Roma communities – and these are just those caught doing this. Imagine the power of combining name lists and family trees with familial DNA evidence and the way in which whole communities could be monitored and traced by a hostile state, particularly in an increasingly populist and anti-minority political climate.</p>
<h2>White Western bias</h2>
<p>As a recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/08/genetics-research-biased-towards-studying-white-europeans">letter of warning</a> from a prominent geneticist to research bodies pointed out, current medical genetic databases, research projects and institutions are biased towards white Western populations. There has also been a huge boom in private medical genetic testing in recent years, provided on a pay-only basis, with the leading provider, 23andme, recently reaching five million users and signing <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/24/glaxosmithkline-23andme-team-up-on-genetics-driven-drug-research.html">a drug development deal with GlaxoSmithKline</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242294/original/file-20181025-71042-3cw8as.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sequencing your ancestry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Khairil Azhar Junos/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Global health inequalities are already heavily skewed towards affluent, developed nations. As the current trajectory of genetic medical research which we are frequently told is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jul/03/nhs-routine-dna-tests-precision-cancer-tumour-screening">about to transform healthcare</a> is disproportionately focusing on white Western populations, we are likely to see this revolutionary technology further distorting inequalities, rather than generating better health for all humanity.</p>
<p>DNA testing for leisure is also a booming global industry, with more than ten million people tested <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/corporate/about-ancestry/company-facts">with the company Ancestry alone</a>. You can even <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=dog+dna+test&oq=dog+dna+test&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.2941j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">pay to get your dog DNA tested</a> to trace its origins and <a href="https://www.dna11.com/gift-solutions/dna-pet-portraits">create a DNA Pet Portrait for your living room</a>. Leisure testing is a pay-up-front business with ongoing costs if you wish to continue using online tools to find genealogical matches and build your family tree. Most of the online genealogy boom has been confined to Western – particularly anglophone – nations. This has distinct knock-on effects on the effectiveness of researching if you are not of these backgrounds.</p>
<p>While genetic origins from certain areas of Europe can give very specific geographic results, large swaths of the globe are <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2018/05/25/life/23andme">very poorly represented in these databases</a>, making them a far blunter tool. Genealogy companies can potentially tell you what county of Ireland one of your ancestors came from but can’t be more specific than a whole sub-continent for parts of Africa and Asia.</p>
<p>The cost of genealogical genetic testing and currently limited drive among corporations to build up genetic profiles of underrepresented continents means that both use and effectiveness of DNA sequencing for leisure is highly socioeconomically, geographically and ethnically imbalanced.</p>
<p>So, in many cases, these phenomenal breakthroughs in deciphering the very code of life itself seem to be reinforcing and exaggerating existing power structures, rather than benefiting the entirety of humanity equally. Targeted and considered mitigation efforts from governments and corporations are essential if we are to redress the balance in the coming decades where DNA sequencing will play an ever more prominent role in society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Stallard receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>The chances of your genetic data being recorded by the state depend on who you are.Matthew Stallard, Research Associate, School of Arts, Languages, and Cultures, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/979622018-09-05T11:25:11Z2018-09-05T11:25:11ZAshkenazic Jews’ mysterious origins unravelled by scientists thanks to ancient DNA<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232473/original/file-20180817-165934-yvfrf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Where do the Jewish people come from? This is a question that anthopologists, historians and theologists have studied for millennia.</p>
<p>According to mythology, the Judaeans descended from three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are buried in the Cave of the Patriarchs (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_the_Patriarchs">Cave of Machpelah</a>) in Hebron – a Palestinian city and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/unesco-recognises-hebron-as-palestinian-world-heritage-site">world heritage site</a> located in the southern West Bank, 19 miles south of Jerusalem. </p>
<p>Buried alongside them are said to be Adam and Eve and the four Matriarchs – Sara, Rebecca and Leah. The cave has never been excavated, but on top of it is a relatively modern building (mid first-century), which Herod the Great built – likely to honour his ancestors. </p>
<p>For a more scientific take on the Jewish origin debate, recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3543">European</a>. It has also been found that their DNA <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2017.00087/full">only has 3% ancient ancestry</a> which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (also known as the Middle East) – namely Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria, and western Jordan. This is the part of the world Jewish people are said to have originally come from – according to the Old Testament. But 3% is a minuscule amount, and similar to what modern Europeans as a whole share with Neanderthals. So given that the genetic ancestry link is so low, Ashkenazic Jews’ most recent ancestors must be from elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Not one, but many tribes</h2>
<p>To understand why this is the case, we need to go back in time, to look at where these other ancestors came from. It starts in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the sixth century. This is where <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Invention-Jewish-People-Shlomo-Sand/dp/1844676234">most of the world’s Jews were living</a> at this time. </p>
<p>The tolerance of the Persians encouraged the Jews to adopt Persian names, words, traditions, and religious practices, and climb up the social ladder <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">gaining a monopoly on trade</a>. They also <a href="http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2016/03/03/gbe.evw046.full.pdf+html">converted other people</a> who were living along the Black Sea, to their Jewish faith. This helped to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Jewish_Merchant_Adventures.html?id=Ey0JAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">expand their global network</a>.</p>
<p>Among these converts were the Alans (Iranian nomadic pastoral people), Greeks, and Slavs who resided along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Upon conversion, they <a href="https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/manuscripts-of-the-greek-old-testament">translated the Old Testament into Greek</a>, built synagogues, and continued expanding the Jewish trade network. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234779/original/file-20180904-45178-16g13rs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">DNA of Yiddish speakers could have originated from four ancient villages in northwest Turkey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, and the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews can be traced to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">Ancient Ashkenaz</a>” – an intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey. </p>
<h2>The rise of the Ashina</h2>
<p>We now know that at the time these Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, they also acquired unique <a href="https://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0870-2">Asian mutations</a> on their Y chromosome. This is where another important group of people in our story come into play – and they are called the Gok-Turks. </p>
<p>During the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Turks_and_Khazars.html?id=AOhIAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">sixth century</a>, these nomadic people were ruled by a Siberian Turkic tribe called the Ashina. They were forced by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tang-dynasty">Chinese Tang Empire</a> – who were in power in China at the time – to migrate westwards toward the Black Sea. </p>
<p>Thanks to their organisational and military skills, the Ashina united many tribes in this area – and a new empire called the “Khazar Khaganate” was born. Offering freedom of worship and taxing trade, these people quickly rose to power.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232474/original/file-20180817-165967-1zpbk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Orthodox Jews pray at the ancient cemetery of Safed, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3928">The Asian group of these DNA mutations</a>, found in Ashkenazic Jews, likely originated from <a href="https://www.academia.edu/23316012/Wen_S.-Q._Muratov_B.A._Suyunov_R.R._The_haplogroups_of_the_representatives_from_ancient_Turkic_clans_-_Ashina_and_Ashide_BEHPS_ISSN_2410-1788_Volume_3_2_1_2_March_2016_P.154-157">the Ashina</a> elite and other Khazar clans, who converted from Shamanism to Judaism. This means that the Ashina and core Khazar clans were absorbed by the Ashkenazic Jews.</p>
<p>It was also around this time that the Jewish elite adopted many Slavic customs. And based on my previous research, I would suggest that <a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-ancient-ashkenaz-the-birthplace-of-yiddish-speakers-58355">Yiddish was developed as a secret language</a> to assist in trade.</p>
<h2>The next chapter</h2>
<p>What happened next was that the Jewish empire began to collapse. By the tenth century, the Jews on the Black Sea migrated to Ukraine and Italy. Yiddish became the lingua franca of these Ashkenazic Jews and absorbed <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ashkenazic-Jews-Slavo-Turkic-People-Identity/dp/0893572411">German words while maintaining the Slavic grammar</a>. And as global trade moved to the hands of the Italians, Dutch and English, the Jews were pushed aside.</p>
<p>What this all shows is that by using modern <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-dna-could-unravel-mystery-prehistoric-european-migration-180963702/">genetic</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=WSBnr7yuOiI">technology</a> – that enables scientists to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180617204416.htm">track the past</a> of modern-day people – a new appreciation for Jewish ancestry can be discovered. </p>
<p>It has meant a greater understanding of the journeys these people took to arrive in Europe. It has also allowed for increased knowledge as to the significant role the Ashina and the Khazar clans – from which some of the real Jewish patriarchs actually came from – played.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97962/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Elhaik consults DNA Diagnostics Centre. Eran Elhaik was partially supported by an MRC Confidence in Concept Scheme award 2014-University of Sheffield to E.E. (Ref: MC_PC_14115).</span></em></p>DNA evidence tracks the ancient history of the Jewish people.Eran Elhaik, Lecturer in population, medical and evolutionary genomics, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986632018-07-04T23:04:05Z2018-07-04T23:04:05ZGenetic ancestry tests don’t change your identity, but you might<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226198/original/file-20180704-73315-x8rs5h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Genetic ancestry testing might all seem like harmless fun, but there is a downside. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’ve probably seen that Ancestry commercial — the one where Kyle, who grew up German, takes a DNA test and discovers that his ancestry is mostly Scottish, and trades his lederhosen for a kilt. Or maybe you’ve seen the one where Kim learns from a DNA test that she is 26 per cent Native American and, surrounded by Native pottery, can finally know who she is.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.beacon.org/The-Social-Life-of-DNA-P1140.aspx">Genetic ancestry testing is a billion-dollar industry</a>, with test sales <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610233/2017-was-the-year-consumer-dna-testing-blew-up/">growing exponentially</a>. An estimated <a href="https://isogg.org/wiki/Autosomal_DNA_testing_comparison_chart">16 million tests have been sold</a> — most within the last few years. </p>
<p>A strong appeal of these tests is their promise to tell you “who you are.” While the testing companies no longer use the words “race” or “ethnicity,” <a href="https://www.ispot.tv/brands/dhv/ancestry">advertisements like those featuring Kyle and Kim</a> show that this is exactly what they are selling.</p>
<p>But before you rush out to discover your “true” race or ethnicity, you should know that these tests will not tell you this, or even who you “really” are. </p>
<p>This information is not hidden within your genes or revealed by these tests. And the only people who trade one set of ethnic garb for another as a result of these tests are those who are looking for a reason to do so.</p>
<h2>Ancestry tests often misunderstood</h2>
<p>For several years, I have been leading a large research project on genetic ancestry testing. During this time, I have learned that those pie charts showing percentages of ancestry <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c02c/8d84e95032ae737f35809cc6c3f2018e1ab3.pdf">are grossly oversimplified</a>, revealing <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869013/">a probability rather than a definitive answer</a>. They <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038513493538">are based on science that is meant to address questions at the population level</a>, not about specific individuals.</p>
<p>But consumers often <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0306312708091929">take their results seriously</a>. </p>
<p>As a social scientist who studies the way that <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11206-005-1897-0">racial identities and categories change over time and place</a>, I believe <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=16798">our ideas about race and ethnicity are shaped by societies</a> and not just what is found in our genes. </p>
<p>I wanted to find out whether test-takers view their results as definitive, and whether that might encourage them to view racial differences as purely biological.</p>
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<h2>‘Cherry picking’ identities</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/697487">recently published paper in the <em>American Journal of Sociology</em></a> shows that test consumers usually do not change their ethnic or racial identities after taking these tests. More than 60 per cent of those my research team and I interviewed said the test results did not affect their identity.</p>
<p>Those whose identities do change do not simply accept the test results as scientific fact. They cherry-pick from the results, adopting or rejecting particular identities based on which ones they view positively or negatively and their beliefs about what others will accept.</p>
<p>We see this with “Eduardo,” a Mexican-American man who initially identified as white Hispanic with Native American ancestry. His ancestry tests reported Native American, Celtic and Jewish ancestry. Eduardo embraced a new Jewish identity, explaining: “I always looked up to the Jewish people and Jewish friends and neighbours. I just feel better now because I’m one of them…I thought of them as higher than me: I have just now reached the top with them.”</p>
<p>But Eduardo rejected a Celtic identity, saying: “I can pass for a Jew, there’s no question about it. There’s no way I could pass for a Celtic, because I’m dark, and sort of fat, short. And because this ideal we have of the Celts, they’re tall, strong, big people….So…it’s just, ‘Stupid Mexican, dreaming he’s got Celtic blood in him.’” </p>
<p>Consumers like Eduardo often rely on stereotypes about what groups look and act like in deciding which ones to embrace. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226194/original/file-20180704-73306-379ty1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most test-takers do not take their results as fact. They cherry pick from the results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>When their tests reported ancestries they did not like, test-takers ignored them. Or if they did not like their previous identity, they found others to replace it with. </p>
<p>“Amy” was adopted but told that her birth mother was German. She explained: “I was actually embarrassed to be German because of what happened with the Holocaust…. And I thought ‘I wish I could be from somewhere else and not be German.’” When her results reported German and Basque ancestry, she began identifying as Basque.</p>
<p>Some were looking to confirm a family story or an identity they view positively. “Shannon” was adopted and always believed she had Native American lineage through her birth parents. When her test results revealed no Native American ancestry, she decided the test must be wrong and continued to identify as Native American.</p>
<p>Rather than viewing their test results as providing objective “proof” of who they are, test-takers picked the truths they wanted from their tests.</p>
<h2>Whites change their identity most</h2>
<p>Most often in the study, it was white test consumers who adopted new racial or ethnic identities. They saw their initial identities as too bland or as not providing enough sense of belonging. They longed for what sociologists have called “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/du-bois-review-social-science-research-on-race/article/color-capital-white-debt-and-the-paradox-of-strong-white-racial-identities/FE845DE30B457103ABFC97FB053DA7AE">colour capital</a>,” a connection to something more interesting or exotic than “just white.”</p>
<p>Non-white consumers felt a strong sense of political and cultural connection to their existing ethnic and racial groups. While they found the results interesting, they generally felt no need to change their identity in light of them.</p>
<p>In addition, Black and Latino test-takers already knew they had mixed racial ancestry, because of the history of racial mixing within their groups. As “Marvin” explained: “My identity as a Black American…was not affected unduly because to be of mixed racial ancestry…does not place you outside of the Black group.”</p>
<h2>Consequences of testing</h2>
<p>Genetic ancestry testing might all seem like harmless fun, but there is a downside. When whites adopt “exotic” new racial identities, it fosters the view that race is costless, something that can be enjoyed without real consequences. That can promote a <a href="https://books.google.com.mx/books?id=QQglDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Bonilla-Silva,+racism+without+racists&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDuLbkv-HbAhVLA6wKHQkFB1YQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Bonilla-Silva%2C%20racism%20without%20racists&f=false">false view that race is inconsequential today for everyone</a>.</p>
<p>Some suggest that these tests <a href="https://www.ssc.wisc.edu/soc/faculty/pages/docs/fujimura/bolnick_fujimura_et_al_genealogy_testing_Science_2007.pdf">may increase essentialist beliefs</a> — the view that racial groups have distinct abilities and skills that are determined by their genes, and which has <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520270312/the-nature-of-race">previously contributed to racial exclusion, discrimination and eugenics</a>. </p>
<p>Research shows that reading media articles that depict genetic ancestry tests as able to reveal your race <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0190272514529439">increases belief in essential racial differences</a>. My research with test consumers finds that they typically believe these tests support the views they already held: Those who believed that race was determined by genes before <a href="https://pwias.ubc.ca/videos/genetic-ancestry-testing-and-the-meaning-race-wendy-roth">claimed that these tests offer proof of that view</a>.</p>
<p>If you’re going to buy a genetic ancestry test, you need to educate yourself on the science behind them and what they can and cannot tell you. And don’t buy these tests to find out your race or ethnicity. The science is unable to tell you this. </p>
<p>The experience of test consumers shows that these tests reinforce what you want to believe rather than offering objective, scientific proof of who you are.</p>
<p>And the next time you see someone buying a new kilt or Native pottery after taking a genetic ancestry test, remember that the test didn’t change who they are; they simply wanted to believe it did.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98663/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy D. Roth receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.</span></em></p>The results of genetic ancestry tests are grossly over-simplified. A new study shows the tests reinforce what you want to believe rather than offering objective, scientific proof of who you are.Wendy D. Roth, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/857122018-06-25T09:15:22Z2018-06-25T09:15:22ZShakespeare, DNA, and why car parks are a key part of British culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224449/original/file-20180622-26570-57ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/moscow-russiaapril-10-2018-multilevel-parking-1072251956?src=gbd070WJoullnDrZpjsiEA-2-88">OlegDoroshin / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A bevy of Shakespeare productions are currently taking place in a <a href="https://www.minsterfm.com/news/local/2597126/video---roof-goes-on-yorks-shakespeare-theatre/">pop-up Elizabethan-style amphitheatre</a> in York, England. Based on the Rose, a famous Elizabethan public playhouse in Southwark, London, and <a href="http://www.shakespearesrosetheatre.com/">named after it</a>, the construction sits in the York’s castle car park.</p>
<p>Indeed, car parks seem to be intersecting with English history quite a bit lately. Most famously, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/richard-iii-4743">Richard III</a>’s skeleton was discovered underneath one in Leicester in 2013. It’s appropriate, then, that one of the first plays to be shown in York’s replica theatre will be Richard III, a tribute to the city’s infamous son and one that resonates in a slightly macabre way with the site of the 2013 discovery.</p>
<p>Performance Studies’ heavyweight, Richard Schechner, famously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6zTUfEODc">asserted</a> that while not everything is a performance, anything can be studied as a performance. This contention can be applied to car parks. It is hard to imagine a symbol of modernity more brutish than the architectural monstrosity of the multi-storey car park, with its layer upon layer of automated machines. The relentless appropriation and occupation of public space signalled by concrete car parks stand in stark opposition to the delicate skeletons, historical timbers and green landscapes that they have erased and replaced.</p>
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<h2>Car parks in history</h2>
<p>But of course, car parks are themselves subject to a history that they both influenced and propelled during the 20th century. The first multi-storey was built at Denman Street in London in 1901, and the company National Car Parks (NCP) was founded 30 years later by Colonel Frederick Lucas. </p>
<p>The remarkable rise of NCP was predicated on its regeneration of the derelict sites of post-war Britain, transforming bombsites into parking spaces in a way which helped to mould the revival of towns and cities, as well as their definition as centres of consumption. The role that NCP has played in shaping the consumerism of 21st-century British national identity means that there is a curious tension between the socialist overtones of the company’s name, and the extraordinary success of this private company, which <a href="https://www.ncp.co.uk/download/1719.9/">posted profits of £28m</a> in 2016.</p>
<p>While car parks seem to be a firm aspect of our present, they have sometimes also assisted in keeping the past alive. In Detroit, the former <a href="https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2011/04/michigan-theater-detroits-famous-renaissance-style-parking-garage/">Michigan Theatre</a> is often acknowledged as the most beautiful car park in the world, originally a French Renaissance-style venue established in 1926 that fell into decline alongside the city in the 1970s. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224447/original/file-20180622-26552-uxnfcq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=752&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Michigan Theatre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobjagendorf/5124336314/">bobjagendorf/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its transformation into a garage means that drivers can still marvel at the theatre’s decaying glory when they visit Detroit. Park up and admire its great arched window, faded decorative ceiling, ruined remnants of carpets and curtains, the façade of its abandoned stage. Without the car park, all of the building’s languishing grandeur would be invisible. But the building has even more to offer history than first appears as, funnily enough, it was constructed on the site of the Edison Illuminating Company, where Henry Ford built his first car in 1896.</p>
<h2>DNA and Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre</h2>
<p>Car parks can therefore tell us something about our cultural genealogy – and increasingly, genealogy is a primary way that we conceptualise our connection to history. </p>
<p>The growth in popularity of websites offering saliva tests to determine your ethnic origins or TV programmes focusing on family lineage – whether the DNA tests of the Jeremy Kyle show or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaMyFe6sPRg">the uncovering of Danny Dyer’s royal ancestry</a> in Who Do You Think You Are – attest to this. This is enough of a phenomenon that interdisciplinary researcher Jerome de Groot recently launched his <a href="http://projects.alc.manchester.ac.uk/double-helix-history/about/">Double Helix History</a> project, an investigation into the ways in which “DNA sequencing changes the way that people think about themselves and their relationship to the past”. </p>
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<p>It is telling how many times DNA also recurs in the language surrounding theatre and car parks. James Cundell, chief executive of Lunchbox Productions, who are producing the shows at Shakespeare’s Rose, claims an “<a href="https://www.minsterfm.com/news/local/2587400/rose-theatre-reveals-ancestral-link-to-shakespeares-first-folio/">ancestral link</a>”, for instance, with Shakespeare’s First Folio as a distant relative of one of its editors, Henry Condell. And in 2013, DNA proved crucial in confirming that the Leicester car park skeleton was in fact Richard of York, his identity authenticated through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-hunch-identifying-richard-iii-with-dna-11999">genetic testing of living relatives</a>.</p>
<p>Multi-storeys even exhibit what their architects call “double helixes” in the design of ramps, which mean that cars ascending the car park never converge with those on their descent.</p>
<h2>Car parks and future memory</h2>
<p>These ideas may seem provisional, coincidental, unconnected, comical even. But looking at car parks as a performance, their recurrence in recent history is intriguing. It is possible that in this new car park theatre, we’re witnessing the work of British collective memory in action and that, in the future, car parks will perform a quite different role in our history than they do at present. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/224451/original/file-20180622-26576-18sr3du.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A future site of cultural memory?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/port-glasgow-scotland-uk-june-12th-1114292465?src=8Dm9bX08Pfjz0e_S5Q1-Mw-2-11">TreasureGalore/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The car park has already taken on an almost mythic status in the Richard III narrative for instance, irrevocably linking English history, and Shakespeare’s play, with this supremely modern invention. Elsewhere, de Groot has <a href="http://www.historytoday.com/jerome-de-groot/royal-oak">written about</a> how the object of the Royal Oak, in which Charles Stuart hid in 1651, has taken root in English cultural memory in surprising ways, manifesting in pubs, on coins, or the name of warships, becoming “a site of tourism and memory, something to be owned, a place to drink, something to spend”.</p>
<p>Is it completely unfeasible that the car park might perform history in the same way as the oak tree in time to come? Car parks, currently perceived as sites of modernity that must be dug up or covered over in order to access the “truth” of pre-modernity, may in time emerge as objects that are more delicately-intertwined with British memorial culture than they currently seem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/85712/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Rycroft does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Car parks seem to be intersecting with English history quite a bit lately.Eleanor Rycroft, Lecturer in Theatre and Performance, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/938362018-05-14T10:37:24Z2018-05-14T10:37:24ZRecreational ancestry DNA testing may reveal more than consumers bargained for<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218469/original/file-20180510-185500-1ha7dfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=123%2C89%2C2327%2C1571&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It all begins with spitting in a tube like this one.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/6147462144">Scott Beale/Laughing Squid</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Aggressive marketing techniques and the popularization of “gifting” recreational ancestry tests has led more consumers than ever to the world of personal genetic testing. Yet, the recent arrest of the Golden State Killer suspect has heightened concerns about privacy and ethics because of the way law enforcement <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/gedmatch-a-tiny-dna-analysis-firm-was-key-for-golden-state-killer-case/">used a third-party DNA interpretation company</a> to identify close relatives and hone in on a likely culprit. </p>
<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/interpretyourgenome/home/using-gedmatch">The company, GEDmatch,</a> is well-known among genetic genealogy enthusiasts. When consumers want to learn more about their relatives than previously revealed by commercial testing companies such as AncestryDNA or 23andMe, they can seek out third-party companies like this one for further interpretation of their DNA results.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218506/original/file-20180510-34015-izafar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetic genealogy companies mostly stick to ancestry information – but the raw DNA data they provide contains much more.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/wilmington-delaware-usa-april-25-2018-1077238559">Khairil Azhar Junos/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But, in addition to clues about where your ancestors were from, DNA holds information about your own medical risks. Here, at the intersection of recreational genetic genealogy and personal health information, is where direct-to-consumer companies are generating some unintended spillover effects that can have personal consequences consumers may not be prepared for. </p>
<p>I approach this area from the medical side. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=PMv5G4sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My own work focuses</a> on how people use genomic information for personal health benefits. In particular, I’ve looked at when and how people decide to undergo genetic testing, and how they understand and cope with their results. </p>
<p>The rise of direct-to-consumer genetic testing has led to a sometimes dodgy do-it-youself world of genetics. It may provide access to personal genetic information for the masses, but in many cases, individuals aren’t fully aware of all they may find out, or how their data may be used.</p>
<h2>When genealogy interest leads to a health scare</h2>
<p>My interest in the unintended consequences of genealogy exploration started a few years back with a patient who sought help in interpreting data she received from a third-party company that suggested she was at increased genetic risk for breast cancer. Concern over what had been identified in the interpretation report ultimately led this patient to see a genetic counselor – a trained professional who can advise on the genetic risks for various diseases. The counselor eventually determined the result was nothing that warranted concern. This “false positive” case raised red flags for me. </p>
<p>I interviewed this patient to learn more about why she’d used this company (that I had never heard about previously) to learn about her breast cancer risk. It turned out she’d stumbled into the area of genetic testing for health risks due to an interest in genealogy. While watching Henry Louis Gates’ PBS show “<a href="http://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/home/">Finding Your Roots</a>,” she saw an ad for one of the commercial direct-to-consumer companies that offered ancestry testing. </p>
<p>Once the patient learned her ancestry results, she also realized that an entire world had opened up in terms of other possible nuggets of information she could discover from her “raw” DNA data. So she purchased access to a third-party health app to interpret her raw DNA. It was these results – provided without consultation with a medical professional – which then led her to clinic. </p>
<p>Currently, there are <a href="https://thegeneticgenealogist.com/2013/09/22/what-else-can-i-do-with-my-dna-test-results/">many of these third-party apps or online services</a> available to consumers. They’re not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration since, as argued by the companies behind them, they just serve as a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-018-0217-9">bridge to the literature</a>” and only provide access to the scientific evidence base.</p>
<h2>Wild West of raw DNA uploads</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218474/original/file-20180510-34038-1enhkew.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=620&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Consumers can build chromosome maps of inheritance by uploading family members’ raw DNA to third-party apps.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/hamsters/9453821627">Miss Shari</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My colleagues and I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/mgg3.340">surveyed customers of these third-party companies</a> to learn more about their motives for exploring the raw DNA data they’d received from commercial testing companies. Approximately two-thirds of consumers we surveyed were highly motivated to explore raw DNA for ancestral details. Forty percent were interested in both ancestry and health information.</p>
<p>Sixty-two percent of our respondents used GEDmatch, highlighting the extent to which DNA data that are heavily protected by companies such as <a href="https://www.ancestry.com/cs/legal/privacystatement">AncestryDNA</a> and <a href="https://www.23andme.com/about/privacy/">23andMe</a> are unguarded by consumers themselves. Many choose to freely upload that data in hopes of finding other relatives. Notably, almost three-quarters of consumers reported using more than one third-party company to interpret their DNA. </p>
<p>Some might argue these tools provide a beneficial service for consumers, particularly when it comes to learning more about their health risks. In cases where genetic risks are determined via clinically validated tests, it can be empowering. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html">Angelina Jolie</a> is the perfect example.</p>
<p>Yet, the validity of genetic tests that consumers have direct access to remains questionable. In fact, a recent article by scientists at one of the clinical testing labs that medical providers rely on reported that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/gim.2018.38">approximately 40 percent of results</a> reported from raw DNA interpretation were incorrect. Thus, 4 out of 10 people are told they have a greater risk for a disease, when they do not. That’s an exceedingly high number of individuals to stress out with a false positive result. </p>
<p>My ongoing work has found that “worry” is the primary driver for patients to seek out medical assistance in raw DNA interpretation. As such, this false positive rate has a notable downstream burden on the healthcare system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218507/original/file-20180510-34038-14wzhar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Genetic counselors have professional training in interpreting DNA test results and advising patients.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/professional-business-meeting-young-couple-customers-263174351">Jeanette Dietl/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>Social media sites like Reddit are filled with examples of consumers who are confused about how to interpret the reports generated from some of these third-party companies, which vary greatly in clarity and quality. Or, they have learned from a report they might have a BRCA variant that might confer high risk for breast and ovarian cancer, and ask other site users for help in understanding whether their result is real. It doesn’t have to be this way; there are genetic counselors who specialize in interpreting these kinds of results and helping patients figure out what to do. </p>
<p>Genetic counselors, meanwhile, are frustrated. The message from commercial testing companies has led to unrealistic expectations from consumers about what they can learn about themselves. It’s challenging for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibx009">counselors to correct misconceptions</a>, especially when they are met with resistance from patients.</p>
<h2>The gift of DNA knowledge?</h2>
<p>2017 was the year <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610233/2017-was-the-year-consumer-dna-testing-blew-up/">commercial direct-to-consumer testing exploded</a>. 2018 may be the year users rethink the value of this gift, or at least how to use it. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it isn’t going back. The Golden State Killer arrest is only highlighting that the ramifications of genetic genealogy and widespread use of third-party DNA sites are broader than consumers could have ever anticipated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catharine Wang receives funding from the National Human Genome Research Institute. </span></em></p>More people are sending off saliva samples to find out about their genetic roots. But the raw DNA results go way beyond genealogical data – and could deliver unintended consequences.Catharine Wang, Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957852018-05-03T03:15:05Z2018-05-03T03:15:05ZA DNA test says you’ve got Indigenous Australian ancestry. Now what?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216969/original/file-20180501-135837-1ocfg5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Families have secrets - and sometimes we don't know our complete genetic histories. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/vintage-photos-family-archive-shot-beginning-46788088?src=NrskIcPo5iSekbL9okj_cw-1-33">from www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Technologies for amplifying, sequencing and matching DNA have created new opportunities in genomic science. In this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/when-dna-talks-53134">When DNA Talks</a> we look at the ethical and social implications.</em> </p>
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<p>Getting your “DNA done” is all the rage in the United States.</p>
<p>The sensationalism started with celebrities such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsEZBSTc3a0">Jessica Alba</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exz0yNdvksg">Snoop Dog</a> – and has now spread to hundreds of video bloggers disclosing their ancestry to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5-GwlAVS3w">drum rolls</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK7bLFfzLwo">exclamations</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0EDNX47S20">cheers</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdpuGIZfR90">tears</a>. </p>
<p>These tests claim to reveal deep ancestral origins, and many public users of this technology are black Americans seeking information about their African roots. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Exz0yNdvksg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Snoop Dog sent his DNA to be tested – and did the maths faster than this TV host.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The uptake of direct-to-consumer genetic testing has been slower in Australia. Here it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-nation-raises-tough-questions-for-indigenous-australians-59877">complicated by debates</a> both beyond and within the Indigenous community – with some leaders calling for greater scrutiny to prevent “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/push-for-aboriginal-id-tests-by-indigenous-leaders/news-story/a0bd39a868ad44a22dab85cf76cb9dc7">fakes</a>” or “<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/brawl-over-wannabe-and-tickabox-aborigines/news-story/d4a8a3a47cf478d08a17b7c466d09e66">wannabes</a>” calling themselves Indigenous.</p>
<p>One of the authors of this article – Shaun Lehmann – was dropped into this debate inadvertently, after receiving the result of his own DNA test a few years ago. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-nation-raises-tough-questions-for-indigenous-australians-59877">DNA Nation raises tough questions for Indigenous Australians</a>
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<h2>Professional and personal</h2>
<p>Shaun had more professional reasons for doing the test than most: at the time he was lecturing in human genetic diversity at the Australian National University and wanted to use his own genetic data as teaching tool.</p>
<p>He also had personal questions about his maternal grandmother, who had died when he was a small child. She had grown up without her mother and said little about her background.</p>
<p>Because they are related through a direct maternal line, Shaun knew that it was his grandmother, and by extension mysterious great-grandmother, who gave him his <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005272898001613">mitochondrial genome</a>.</p>
<p>Mitochondria are the tiny organelles that make energy in our cells. While the genome in the nucleus of our cells – our 23 pairs of chromosomes – is made up of a mix of our biological mother’s and father’s DNA, the relatively small mitochondrial genome is passed down through the egg and so reflects a single line of maternal ancestors.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-mitochondria-and-how-did-we-come-to-have-them-83106">Explainer: what are mitochondria and how did we come to have them?</a>
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<p>What Shaun didn’t know at the time, and what the test revealed, was that his particular mitochondrial genome fell into a haplogroup (a grouping of similar mitochondrial genomes) called “S2”, which has <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/9780470015902.a0020815.pub2">only been observed in Aboriginal Australians</a>.</p>
<h2>Interpreting genetic results</h2>
<p>Being mitochondrial DNA, Shaun knew exactly where to look in his genealogy to find out more. Sure enough, he soon found records that his grandmother’s maternal family were Aboriginal people originally from the Albany area of Western Australia. With this information in hand, Shaun was able to trace his family tree to living <a href="https://www.noongarculture.org.au/">Noongar</a> relatives.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/217371/original/file-20180502-153873-lchl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA are passed on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mitochondrial_DNA_versus_Nuclear_DNA.gif">Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Shaun’s discovery was certainly aided by the fact that he is a geneticist and could interpret his DNA test results. Most important, though, was that his Aboriginal ancestry happened to be in the direct maternal line. </p>
<p>Mitochondrial DNA is a reliable source of genetic information about Aboriginal ancestry, but it can’t help at all if your Aboriginal ancestors sit anywhere else in your family tree. That is, it’s only useful to track direct from mother to grandmother to great grandmother and so on.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">Friday essay: when did Australia’s human history begin?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Different kinds of DNA tests</h2>
<p>Most of the “ethnic breakdown” DNA results being shared publicly by bloggers come from testing companies that compare their nuclear DNA with material from various ethnic groups. The tests focus on variations in specific regions of genes – known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. </p>
<p>To our knowledge, DNA testing companies do not currently have reliable reference SNP data from Indigenous Australians. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.dnatribes.com/">One company</a> offering tests claiming to identify Indigenous Australians uses an approach that compares sequences in genes known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/forensics-dna-fingerprinting-and-codis-736">Short Tandem Repeats, or STRs</a>. STR data from around the world are widely available in the forensic science literature because these are widely used in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1687157X12000194">criminal investigations and paternity testing</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-genome-really-your-own-the-public-and-forensic-value-of-dna-95786">Is your genome really your own? The public and forensic value of DNA</a>
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</em>
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<p>Ethical and scientific concerns have been raised about the use of STR data for commercial ancestry testing. For example, it is difficult to know how companies get their <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-nation-raises-tough-questions-for-indigenous-australians-59877">reference samples</a>. </p>
<p>The case of American blogger <a href="http://lisagarrigues.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/dna-tribes-and-all-my-relations.html">Lisa Garrigues</a> is illustrative. Garrigues did a test back in 2010 – it reportedly gave her second “Highest Resolution Global Population Match” as “European-Aboriginal”.</p>
<p>She was excited by this discovery, but also sceptical – her family has no known connections to the Southern Hemisphere. Lisa and her father subsequently did <a href="http://lisagarrigues.blogspot.com.au/2011/05/">more thorough DNA testing</a>, and it didn’t suggest Aboriginal ancestry. </p>
<p>In our personal correspondence with one of the genetic genealogists who assisted Lisa, <a href="http://isogg.org/wiki/McDonald's_BGA_project">Doug McDonald</a> suggests these kind of inconsistencies are extremely common – STR markers are not designed for ancestry tests, but for matching individual people.</p>
<h2>After the test: now what?</h2>
<p>We need to be on the lookout for misinformation and unethical practices around genealogy testing. But even where the science is reliable, such as Shaun’s mitochondrial DNA test, the implications of identifying genetic Indigenous ancestry are far from clear.</p>
<p>Shaun was proud to learn about his ancestry and has since got in contact with his relatives. He is also looking into his grandmother’s past to find out whether her separation from her mother was influenced by the policies that led to the Stolen Generations. </p>
<p>Existing research suggests there are many possible endings for journeys like Shaun’s. <a href="http://www.podsocs.com/podcast/finding-aboriginal-identity/">Bindi Bennett’s work</a> highlights how young, light-skinned people who had no previous ties to the Aboriginal community can develop a strong Indigenous identity, even in the face of resistance from that community. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/culture-not-colour-is-the-heart-of-aboriginal-identity-30102">Culture, not colour, is the heart of Aboriginal identity</a>
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</em>
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<p>But <a href="http://librarycatalogue.griffith.edu.au/record=b1357619">Fiona Noble’s 1996 research</a> with Queenslanders who discovered their Aboriginal ancestry late in life suggests many of this demographic see their heritage as extremely important, but not all-defining. </p>
<p>They are more comfortable describing themselves as being “of Aboriginal descent” rather than “Aboriginal”. </p>
<p>As <a href="http://www.borderlands.net.au/vol7no2_2008/ganter_turning.pdf">Regina Ganter notes</a>, the “in-between” status of these “half-steps” is not well-recognised contemporary policy and discourse – which tends to frame Aboriginality as an either/or identity.</p>
<p>Although Noble and Bennett’s research participants discovered their heritage through documents or family stories, not genetics, their work offers a window onto a future where more Australians discover Aboriginal ancestry through DNA tests.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, the inevitable collision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia with direct-to-consumer genetic testing will continue to raise challenging questions about ancestry and identity in the 21st century. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-facial-prediction-could-make-protecting-your-privacy-more-difficult-94740">DNA facial prediction could make protecting your privacy more difficult</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Kowal receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Watt and Shaun Lehmann do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ancestry and identity are not the same thing. A scientist tells the story of what happened when he sent his DNA to an ancestry company.Elizabeth Watt, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityEmma Kowal, Professor of Anthropology, Deakin UniversityShaun Lehmann, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/957862018-05-01T20:17:35Z2018-05-01T20:17:35ZIs your genome really your own? The public and forensic value of DNA<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216973/original/file-20180501-135803-1tfhk4c.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Females who remain unidentified at the time of burial are named 'Jane Doe'. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.findagrave.com/">Findagrave </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Technologies for amplifying, sequencing and matching DNA have created new opportunities in genomic science. In this series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/when-dna-talks-53134">When DNA Talks</a> we look at the ethical and social implications.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>When Joseph DeAngelo was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/27/us/golden-state-killer-case-joseph-deangelo.html">arrested</a> in the United States last month over a series of 30-year-old murders and assaults, attention quickly focused on how the suspect was found. </p>
<p>In their search for the so-called “Golden State Killer”, police looked for DNA matches on a public genealogy database that people use to build family trees. This approach led police first to a close relative, and then to the suspect.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cops-used-a-public-genealogy-database-in-the-golden-state-killer-case-95842">How cops used a public genealogy database in the Golden State Killer case</a>
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<p>Applying genealogical research techniques to forensic DNA analysis is a useful tool in solving cold cases. </p>
<p>However – as many who have traced their family tree would know – genealogy is not for the fainthearted. It is a complex and difficult process, prone to error and misinterpretation. Family trees have been described as “<a href="http://nautil.us/issue/56/perspective/youre-descended-from-royalty-and-so-is-everybody-else">entangled meshes</a>”. </p>
<p>Without expert knowledge, false assumptions can be made and investigative resources wasted. The technique also raises legal, ethical and policy challenges.</p>
<h2>Identifying human remains</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2018/04/buck-skin-girl-case-break-success-new-dna-doe-project">In 1981</a>, a woman wearing a buckskin jacket was found murdered on a roadside in Ohio. The unidentified “Buckskin Girl” was buried in a “Jane Doe” grave. While investigators pursued various leads, DNA obtained from retained blood yielded no matches.</p>
<p>In 2018, the <a href="https://dnadoeproject.org/">DNA Doe Project</a> – a new charity applying a technique called “forensic genealogy” to unsolved missing person cases – agreed to work on the case. </p>
<p>Using crowdfunding, the volunteers collected donations to undertake “whole genome” sequencing. This generated <a href="https://www.forensicmag.com/news/2018/04/buck-skin-girl-case-break-success-new-dna-doe-project">enough genetic data</a>, consistent with the markers used by online DNA providers, to allow upload to a public genealogy site.</p>
<p>The search returned a possible first cousin, once removed. By searching that individual’s shared family tree, a presumptive identification was made. The family tree included a comment about a relative: “Death - Unknown Missing - Presumed Dead”. </p>
<p>In a matter of hours, genealogists had provided a solid lead in a 37-year-old case, leading to the identification of the victim as Marcia King.</p>
<p>There are about <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-2-000-missing-persons-and-500-unidentified-human-remains-a-dedicated-lab-could-find-matches-90620">500 sets of unidentified human remains</a> in Australia. Given the success of genealogists at the <a href="https://dnadoeproject.org/">DNA Doe Project</a>, applying this approach could help bring closure to families.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-2-000-missing-persons-and-500-unidentified-human-remains-a-dedicated-lab-could-find-matches-90620">Australia has 2,000 missing persons and 500 unidentified human remains – a dedicated lab could find matches</a>
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<h2>Where things can go wrong</h2>
<p>Law enforcement use of forensic genealogical data has not always yielded such results. </p>
<p>In 1996, <a href="http://www.postregister.com/articles/chris-tapp-coverage-featured-news-daily-email/2017/07/29/contradictory-dna-results-put">Angie Dodge was murdered in Idaho</a>. DNA was recovered from the crime scene and, nearly 20 years later, the profile was searched against a genealogy database. A close match was returned and investigators identified that individual’s son, Michael Usry Jr., as a suspect. </p>
<p>However, Usry, who was coincidentally on vacation in Idaho around the time of the murder, later provided a DNA sample and was ruled out as the culprit. <a href="http://www.postregister.com/articles/chris-tapp-coverage-featured-news-daily-email/2017/07/29/contradictory-dna-results-put">Usry says</a> that it took a month to clear his name through DNA. </p>
<p>Search engines still return results linking him to the investigation. While almost all hits make clear that he was eliminated as a suspect, one asks: “Do you think Michael Usry Jr. could be involved in Angie’s murder?”</p>
<h2>Will people be put off genetic testing?</h2>
<p>The potential for online genetic databases to be used to help law enforcement is increasing – the DNA testing market is expected to <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/01/the-consumer-dna-testing-market-is-already-booming-but-its-about-to-explode/">more than triple by 2022</a>, to A$388 million. In 2017, AncestryDNA – the largest provider – reportedly sold 1.5 million test kits in a <a href="https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/01/the-consumer-dna-testing-market-is-already-booming-but-its-about-to-explode/">single sales weekend alone</a>.</p>
<p>But use of forensic genealogy also has the potential to undermine consumer trust in genetic testing and online genealogy. </p>
<p>Genetic providers may be more susceptible to consumer backlash about privacy concerns than social media companies such as Facebook, which <a href="http://variety.com/2018/digital/news/deletefacebook-didnt-happen-facebook-grows-users-in-q1-despite-privacy-backlash-beats-earnings-estimates-1202786867/">has continued to grow</a> in spite of recent concerns about its data storage practices. Many users do not find the need to engage with genetic providers on an ongoing basis, like they do with Facebook. After initial testing, users wishing to minimise privacy risks could potentially download their data and then delete their accounts, preventing the company from further using their data.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-cryptocurrencies-could-let-you-control-and-sell-access-to-your-dna-data-89499">New cryptocurrencies could let you control and sell access to your DNA data</a>
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<p>Genetic providers are also limited in their ability to implement privacy safeguards, such as identity verification, due to the very nature of their products. Individuals may legitimately use the tool without knowing their true birth name or names of family members.</p>
<p>In each of these cases, investigators uploaded of some form of genetic data, of unknown origin, to a public database. This could amount to a breach of a provider’s terms and conditions, but there may be little the company can do to prevent such use.</p>
<h2>We should proceed with caution</h2>
<p>Forensic genealogy is just one example of the growing intelligence value of publicly accessible data. Police have also used social media to track suspects. <a href="https://www.kivitv.com/news/social-media-forensics-coroner-uses-facebook-to-find-victims-next-of-kin">A coroner in Idaho</a> noted that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Facebook is not something we thought we’d be using to find next of kin. We use it every single week.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This kind of law enforcement activity online has been litigated in the past.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20141217d27">2014 US case</a>, evidence was admitted despite police obtaining access to a social media account by inviting the defendant to accept a fake friend request. Here the defendant explicitly consented, but genealogical websites often promote the sharing of family tree and genetic information, without requiring consent to share with each new connection.</p>
<p>This followed a <a href="https://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nyndce/7:2013cv00752/94686">2013 example</a> where the US Drug Enforcement Administration allegedly created a fake social media account in the name of the owner of a seized mobile phone. In that case, the social media provider wrote demanding <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/20/technology/security/facebook-dea/">no other fake accounts be created on its platform</a>.</p>
<p>Similar arguments may arise with forensic genealogy. Courts may need to balance the benefits to society of solving crime with whether the user has given implied consent, both for themselves and their relatives.</p>
<p>Privacy legislation may also kick in at the point where a profile is identified, or is reasonably identifiable. When that occurs, the forensic genealogist has created an online genetic profile for a third party, without their consent.</p>
<p>The use of forensic genealogy brings us closer to a point where it may be possible – given enough data and resources – to identify any genetic sample. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding means this technique is available to all. </p>
<p>Achieving an approach that is privacy compliant, balanced and cautious is essential to maintaining public trust and minimising potential harm. Otherwise individuals who, having parted with $99 and a small vial of saliva, may suddenly find themselves part of a criminal investigation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Research for this article was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. This article also draws on research funded by the Endeavour Fellowships and Awards, a Department of Education and Training initiative.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis McNevin has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Discovery Translation Fund (ANU Connect Ventures), US Army International Technology Center - Pacific and the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering.</span></em></p>We’re at the point in DNA technology where individuals who – having parted with $99 and a small vial of saliva – may suddenly find themselves in a criminal investigation.Nathan Scudder, PhD Researcher, University of CanberraDennis McNevin, Professor, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/958422018-04-30T22:10:12Z2018-04-30T22:10:12ZHow cops used a public genealogy database in the Golden State Killer case<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216919/original/file-20180430-135814-1kki3yo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, who authorities suspect is the so-called Golden State Killer responsible for at least a dozen murders and 50 rapes in the 1970s and '80s, during his arraignment on April 27, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>DNA was credited for cracking the decades old cold case of the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/joseph-james-deangelo.html">Golden State Killer</a>,” a California serial murderer and rapist. But the detectives used a public database of genetic genealogy called GEDmatch, raising privacy concerns about publicly available DNA profiles.</p>
<p>Detectives working on the case created a fake profile and uploaded a real DNA sample. Matches from distant family members — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/to-find-alleged-golden-state-killer-investigators-first-found-his-great-great-great-grandparents/2018/04/30/3c865fe7-dfcc-4a0e-b6b2-0bec548d501f_story.html?utm_term=.c6ab4dca1d66">along with painstaking reconstruction of family trees</a> — led Sacramento police to the door of the suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo.</p>
<p>The case has created a wave of concern about the privacy of direct-to-consumer DNA testing, mostly carried out by the big genealogy companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe. Representatives from both companies were quick to defend their policies of not giving information to the police.</p>
<p>But this isn’t the first time genealogy information has been used to solve a crime. <a href="http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/ancestry-com-shares-dna-with-police/">In a 2015 case the matches were turned over by Ancestry.com under a search warrant</a>. This time, the police just helped themselves. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-03/cuso-cft022318.php">Genetic genealogy has generated some of the largest and most useful datasets in the world</a> with little discussion of privacy, particularly around the question of who other than genealogists might access these databases and for what reason. I’ve been researching these issues for over a decade and have made a documentary <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pastproductions/">“Data Mining the Deceased: Ancestry and the Business of Family”</a> and am just finishing a book that expands the histories of some of the biggest databases in the world.</p>
<p>When you submit your DNA to a public database or a direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy company, you are also submitting information about all of your closest relatives, living and dead. The point of these tests is to discover relatives or, more recently, your percentage of ethnic or racial inheritance. </p>
<p>But the secondary uses of the information — as in the case of the Golden State Killer — has seen little discussion in the face of rapidly increasing sales of ancestral DNA tests. There is a general sense that the information is completely benign.</p>
<p>Public sites like <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/interpretyourgenome/home/using-gedmatch">GEDmatch</a> are a boon because they have fewer privacy restrictions than commerical sites. In the wake of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-we-should-be-outraged-about-facebook/2018/03/21/08c7fcaa-2d49-11e8-b0b0-f706877db618_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2102d38f975b">public outrage</a> over the amount of personal information collected by Facebook and Google, genealogy sites have more or less stayed under the privacy concerns radar, until now.</p>
<h2>Privacy vs. desire to find relatives</h2>
<p>Since 1984, with the advent of a database called RootsWeb (now owned by Ancestry.com), genealogists became some of the first to recognize that the internet could be used to share information and to connect people. Genealogy as a hobby depends on people’s eagerness to share personal information and genealogists are somewhat allergic to privacy constraints since privacy runs counter to the desire to find relatives. </p>
<p>GEDmatch is a public site organized by genealogy enthusiasts in the model of most non-profit genealogy groups. Everyone uploads information for the greater good of all. Registered members can upload their family tree DNA results from any commercial company, with or without their GEDCOM file, the industry standard format for family trees (<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-mythical-quest-for-our-ancestors-is-big-business-89524">Genealogical Data Communication, software developed by the Church of the Latter Day Saints</a>). </p>
<p>The site processes the DNA and shows users relative matches, usually cousins, with email addresses attached — all good as long as you are a genealogist just looking for relatives who are also looking for relatives.</p>
<p>But, nothing prevents other kinds of users from accessing this information as well. <a href="https://www.gedmatch.com/select.php">GEDmatch seemed genuinely surprised that the police had used their database to track a killer</a> and posted this disclaimer on their landing page for their users on April 27, 2018.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We understand that the GEDmatch database was used to help identify the Golden State Killer. Although we were not approached by law enforcement or anyone else about this case or about the DNA, it has always been GEDmatch’s policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>That policy does indeed acknowledge the site could be used to track criminal relatives. Having a dead black sheep in the family can be a source of great family tales, but living miscreants are more of a problem.</p>
<p>“While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes,” GEDmatch said in its statement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216923/original/file-20180430-135814-atkhfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones, left, talks to reporters about the arrest Joesph James DeAngelo, seen in photo, on suspicion of committing a string of violent crimes in the 1970s and 1980s. A DNA match led to the arrest of DeAngelo, 72, who is accused committing at least 12 slayings and 45 rapes in California.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A day later, the site posted a link that allowed users to easily remove all of their information, including DNA, family trees and registration information. However, removing your information does not mean that you will be forgotten. Here’s where everyone involved in the genealogy industry, family historians, commercial providers and non-profit organizations alike, really need to do some hard thinking about DNA that is linked to family trees. </p>
<p>When you send your DNA to a commercial company for testing, or upload those results to community site, you are, by design, asking for your information to be shared and linked with every other user on the site. You can set privacy filters that will specify how much you want to reveal about your self — your name and contact information, for example. </p>
<p>But, the more you reveal on the site, the more family you will find; that’s the lure and the promise. Once you are linked with other people and family trees, removing yourself is virtually impossible. At that point, you have no control who will add you to your tree or link your information in their GEDcom. </p>
<p>While catching DeAngelo, if he is the “Golden State Killer,” is a huge victory for the public and the police, it’s worth noting that he never uploaded anything.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95842/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Creet works at York University. She receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada and from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. </span></em></p>A public genealogy data base was used to track down the so-called “Golden State Killer,” raising concerns about the privacy of using public sites to fill out our family trees.Julia Creet, Professor of English, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.