Word: dna
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Last December he finally got some answers. After taking a $199 DNA test offered by DNAPrint Genomics in Sarasota, Fla., Kennedy was told he was 45% Northern and Western European, 25% Middle Eastern, 25% Turkish-Greek and 5% South Asian. "I felt freed," he says. "Suddenly there was an explanation for a lot of the shame and embarrassment in the family." As an adult, Kennedy had learned that his mother's family belonged to a mixed-race group called Melungeons who lived in the Appalachians. While their exact ethnic origins are unclear, Melungeons were united by their dark complexion...
More than 100,000 Americans, including such celebrities as Oprah and Spike Lee, have sought to do the same by taking genealogical DNA tests now offered by commercial labs. Starting at $95 and using a sample of cells swabbed from inside the cheek, the tests can answer questions ranging from whether you have Native American or African ancestry to whether you are related to someone with the same last name. One of the newest services, launched by the National Geographic Society in April, provides a glimpse of your ancestors' migratory history and helps fund a five-year research project aimed...
Underlying the DNA tests is the idea, accepted by most scientists, that modern humans evolved in Africa some 100,000 years ago and then spread out across the globe, picking up genetic mutations along the way. Researchers have been trying to determine when and where various mutations occurred. Genetic genealogists track these mutations and compare them with a database of DNA markers culled from thousands of people with deep roots in specific regions of the world, such as the Aborigines in Australia or the Basques in Spain. If an individual's mutations match those of an indigenous group, a link...
...some, DNA tests help confirm an ancestry that was suspected but never proved. William Sanchez, a Catholic priest in Albuquerque, N.M., always knew that he had a Spanish heritage but says he also felt a spiritual connection "to Israel and the chosen people." Although he was raised Catholic, his mother followed many Jewish traditions, such as covering mirrors in the house when someone died. But it wasn't until Sanchez took a test from Family Tree DNA in Houston that he learned he had inherited genetic markers for the Cohanim, Jewish high priests said to be descended from Moses' brother...
...death sentences because of incompetent legal counsel or racial bias in jury selection. Later this year, the court is scheduled to hear a much anticipated case concerning whether a Tennessee man on death row for the past 19 years can win a new trial because of fresh DNA evidence that may exonerate him. "These nagging questions of innocence have been driving the death cases in the court," says Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center. "A few years ago, they would have gone the other way." Though no test cases are scheduled, in the next few years the court...