A BIG Step

DNA Book, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

A Big Project : Part 1

Several people have asked about one of my recent posts at Facebook and I promised details soon. I love to give people a little information and let them wonder about it. I am a woman of mystery. So, here it is. The first in a series of posts about this project.

This is a screen shot of a new book that I bought in ebook fomat for my new nook. The book is also available as a book in print too.

The book is titled DNA and Social Networking and it is my special "work read" for this summer season. It is a new book written by Debbie Kennett. At Amazon it is available in Kindle format and Hardcover. My local library has a copy but three people were already on the list to borrow it, so I went in search of it for electronic reading.


Notice the highlighting of the test in this photo. the words "a group endeavor" made me think. What do I know about DNA?


Yes, I was a biology major as an undergrad and we suffered through a course in Genetics. It is the second hardest course for us "pre-med" students. I remember the months of virgin fruit flies to capture and the endless charts of genetic charts. Mendel gave me a headache. Maybe it was the ether. I am sure it is not taught this way now and what I leaned is probably 7th grade science. But, I digress. I honestly feel that I learned nothing useful except how to make generation charts. They are like pedigree charts. Yes, I took my handwritten charts to class. They earned me an A for that lab anyway. It was not enough to get me through genetics and genealogy.


So, I hired a professional genealogist who specializes in DNA. 

Michael Maglio is going to work with hubs and myself to test and interpret our DNA adventure. He gives a free estimate. (Very cool.)

It sure helps that he lives near me. He made a house call. But, first, I invited him to look at my tree at Ancestry.com. It is a good first start. He gave us a first step in deciding what tests we need.

To be continued...