In my family, my mother (nee Ryan) had a mother whose last name was Vonderheide. On my father’s side, his father (Jones) was married to a Dailey Cronin (Irish). This gives me a substantial amount of Irish ancestry that is not accounted for through genetic testing. The mitochondrial DNA reflects my mother’s mother (German) and not her husband (Irish). On my father’s side, his father (Jones) was Welsh and his mother was Irish — again not accounted for at all. AND THAT’S IN MY GRANDPARENTS’ GENERATION! Can you imagine how much of my ancestry “does not count” with each increasing generation?

I did it because I am intrigued — but don’t kid yourself. There is a lot you will never know from this process.

Thanks for a cogent analysis of this paper. Some of the concerns raised by ASHG cause one to wonder if their task force truly understands what’s going on.

Craig Manson’s last blog post..A New Rabbit: Santa Fe’s African American Graveyard Rabbit

From the standpoint of a total amateur about genetics I came away from a reading of the paper with one sense; the Task Force folks are expressing concerns about the rapid growth of ancestral testing because they feel they are ‘losing control’. I get a definite sense that they object to a bunch of uneducated country bumpkins messing around in their special playground and they are trying to insure that only annointed experts be allowed to participate in this field … because the field is so complex that only an expert could ever understand all the implications of an ancestral test.

I believe this is a normal reaction that close-knit, specialist organizations or bureauocracies often exhibit. Of course, there may be some truth in this position, because this IS a complex subject. But I also feel a bit of arrogance on the part of the Task Force.

DICK F.