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What Chromosomes Tell Us?

February 4, 2011 By

Chromosomes are found in cells in all living beings, from the smallest ant to the largest elephant, and are a mixture of protein and DNA. This DNA contains many genes which make us the way we are.

In the late 1800s it was found that chromosomes are the mainstay of heredity and can help prove family linkages. The discoverer of this was Theodor Boveri and he noted that there was continuity of chromosomes and also individuality of chromosomes.

It was proved that each chromosome has a different genetic make up to make us all individual whilst still being similar enough to produce the same species of animal.

Chromosomes can tell us many different things, having an extra chromosome 21, will produce a baby with Downs Syndrome and this can be discovered even before the baby is born through early testing and chromosomes can also tell us family lineage and who our maternal and paternal relatives are.

Human chromosomes are split into two different categories, the autosomes and the sex chromosomes. The sex chromosomes do exactly that, they determine the sex of the human whilst the autosomes do everything else.

Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, one of those pairs being a sex chromosome. These sex chromosomes are known as X and Y, each unique, with X being the largest.

The presence of a Y chromosome causes maleness. A male will have a Y chromosome nearly identical to that of his father and his father’s father and so on. This makes chromosomes really important when tracing family lineage as it can be done accurately though this ‘Y line’.

This Y line linkage can be useful when looking for distant relatives, say for example Mr X who lives in Cornwall meets Mr X who lives in Scotland and they wonder if they a common ancestry, the Y line will be able to confirm or deny this as the Y chromosome will be passed from male to male throughout generations.

M line is the chromosomes that get passed through the mother’s line. As mothers change names when they marry, this can be a hard line to trace back, but with the assistance of chromosomes this becomes easier.

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Is Gene Cloning Ethical?

January 31, 2011 By

A clone is an exact genetic replica of another being. Genes have been used in biomedical and agricultural industries for many years with no concerns over safety as they have been seen to enhance our lifestyle. Take for example the genetic modifications of cucumbers to make them straighter so they are easier to package, or the genetic research being carried out in the aim to find a cure for cancer. We are all familiar with genes in this sense.

Recent agricultural advancements, if they can be classed as that, have come about where animals have been cloned. Where a farmer has a prize bull, it is understandable that if he could duplicate that success he would. It has also been used to clone animals for eating, in 1996 we saw the introduction of Dolly to the world, the world’s first cloned sheep. This was done by using a cell nucleus from one animal, implanting it into another cell which has had the nucleus removed and stimulating growth through the use of electric shocks.

Whilst this has been done successfully with other mammals it is not widely used. It will not allow for natural selection and the evolution of the species to cope with life as it continues throughout time.

Controversy has arisen with gene cloning and humans. Is it ethical? Should we be using gene therapy to eradicate genetic mutations from our species so that as the planet gets fuller there is less strain on our health services? These are all very difficult questions to ask and even harder to answer. In the case of medical advancement and improving the quality of life for people then I think it is hard to say that genetic improvements should not be allowed.

However, where is that fine line, and should we be allowed to cross it. What if parents really wanted a girl child, is it so bad, that they genetically modify the embryo to produce a girl? What if they really wanted a blonde child, is that so wrong? Or as a race, have we gotten too clever for our own boots and are we trying to outsmart Mother Nature. Maybe we have recessive and mutated genes for a reason. Is it a method of population control? Maybe by removing one gene it will allow room for a much deadlier gene to take over.

Only time will tell whether the human gene will be modified in an ethical way.

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Finding Your Family Crest

January 28, 2011 By

Family crests, otherwise known as a Coat of Arms, are badges that were given in honour of bravery or heroism. This was offered to all men, whether paupers or princes and is still looked on by many with pride and a sense of family belonging.

As the Coat of Arms, or family crest, was an honour to hold not all family names will have a crest related to it. If you want to find whether you have one, the first thing you need to do is find your unaltered family surname. Over the years, surnames get altered, whether it is to fit in with society, especially relevant to Jewish families around the 1940s era, or to enable it to be pronounced correctly, relevant to the immigrant families that have come to England seeking work over the decades.
Once you have found your original surname, then a simple search on websites such as www.allfamilycrests.com or www.houseofnames.com will locate your family crest if you have one.

Family Crests can be used on any item; many people use them as decorative wall hangings, or on family silver. The coat of arms on silver from times gone by would be an indication to ownership, and a measure of success within the family. They are commonly used nowadays more so in corporate identification and military regimental recognition.
The art of Heraldry is the profession of devising, granting and displaying family crests. The need for heraldry came about in the military sense when suits of armour were worn, including large head coverings and it was required to distinguish which side was which. This was done by emblazoning the coat of arms on the headdress or on flags carried by the army.
Modern Heraldry focuses on the traditional coat of arms, which customarily has a shield in the centre, a supporter either side (commonly a lion or other strong beast) a helm on top of the shield and a crest on top of the helm. There is usually a motto in a scroll underneath the shield. Supporters on a crest are normally reserved for peers of the realm, knighthoods and some corporate organisations.

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What Methods Can Be Used To Research Your Family History?

January 26, 2011 By

When we sit down to watch ‘Who do you think you are’ on television it is astounding at how far the team of researchers are able to trace the celebrities family tree back. I often sit there and wonder what gems my family would hold if I was able to do that.
With swathes of TV researchers and an endless budget it is made to look so easy whilst they employ various methods of family research.
Luckily with the invention of the internet, methods of family research have become much easier for those of us who do not have access to TV budgets.
The first method of family research is to ask your relatives. It can be amazing how much knowledge is passed on from older generations in the form of stories or snippets of memories. This can be the best way to find out towns where people lived, maiden names of maternal grandparents, and when people died.
Armed with this information, the next family research method would be to consult with Birth, Death and Marriage records. Records of these events started in England and Wales in the mid 1800s so it would be possible to trace back nearly 2 centuries using this method of family research. These are now mostly transcribed for search on the internet, or it could be possible to visit your local registrar who would have access to the local records.
If your family has been in the same parish for many generations, a visit to the local cemetery would be another useful method of family research. This would give exact dates of birth and death and maybe throw up relatives that you didn’t know about.
Once you have used these methods then visiting the census records is another great family research method. Although only done once every 10 years, the census gives all the full names and ages of the people in the household, along with their occupations, therefore giving you more insight than the birth or death certificates could.
There are also military records and emigration records that can be searched via the internet or through archives, which may fill some gaps especially around war time.
Whilst sitting at a computer researching the internet may not be as glamorous as the TV show, it will certainly be just as rewarding.

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Ethnogensis-The Science Behind Genealogy

January 22, 2011 By

Ethnography, whilst is sounds like a painful medical procedure involving cameras, is really a part of the social science family. The word comes from the Greek language where ethnos means people and graphia means writing. It is the scientific study of people and ethnic groups, looking at resettlement, welfare and social culture.
The study can be done in many ways and utilising many resources. One such method is field based work using observations of cultures and societies , noting what makes them unique and the way that that particular culture works as a sub-unit of society. As well as observing life in the study group, it would be prudent to take the time to get to know the people who make up the group, through talking to people and learning about their culture, will give a much broader understanding of their history and ancestry. The ethnographer would usually focus on one group of people, becoming fully emerged in their way of life and completely understanding their culture and beliefs. They are then able to gain the trust of the community group and learn from the knowledgeable members of the community.
This ethnogenesis, or the process by which people come to be understood as ethnically diverse, can be a purely passive situation. Ethnogenesis can occur across borers of countries, purely due to the fact that there is a physical border which encourages and group of people to be bound by a common theme. This is becoming less the case as time moves on and emigration is common across the world.
Ethnography is the social science behind genealogy whereas the science of genealogy provides the chromosome linkage between families and ancestors. Enthography, tells the story behind ethnic backgrounds and the culture that people live.
The science of genealogy is the study behind families and the links between ancestors. It uses genealogy resources to trace back family ancestry.
Genealogy science uses many methods to trace families, including but not limited to census records, birth records, parish logs and military service listings. All of which give an indication to the way that the family lived years ago, whilst also providing further information about parents and siblings in order to assist the trace further back.

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What Does Ancestory Mean?

January 19, 2011 By

The Oxford English Dictionary says that ancestry means ‘the relation or condition of ancestors: progenitorship; ancestral lineage or descent, hence, distinguished or ancient descent. Well that clears that up?
Ancestry is the history of a person’s origin, not meaning Granny in Southend, but where the roots of your family came from. This can be closely related to ethnic origin, which is about where your ancient family came from. As an example, many Irish people emigrated to America, so whilst the people born today would be American by birth, their ancestry would have roots in Ireland, making the American Irish.
Relations in the past are known as ancestors, a concept that has become popular in recent years with the popular television show ‘Who do you think you are’ which chooses a famous person and takes them on a journey back through their ancestors to see what stories lie in their past.
There are many websites available to help you research your ancestors www.ancestry.com is one such site. All you need to do is type in some known details and the site will guide you through finding your past relatives.
Your ancestry can be traced back through birth, death and marriage records, Census records and emigration records. However as all records were kept on paper, there will be some difficulty the further back you go.
Ancestry is also important with regards to understanding why we are like we are. An inherited disease will have come from your ancestors, but so will ginger hair or blue eyes.
Ancestry also explains why people in the North of the UK would have looked different, a few generations ago, to what the people in the South did. The North of England was a prime shore line for the Vikings on their voyages across the world, and this would have left a Scandinavian ancestry imprint behind.
With family moving ever further away in the search of better jobs or a better life, maybe that is why the interest in ancestry has become reinvigorated. People are still interested in having a sense of family and a sense of belonging, and by finding out where we came from can help with that need.

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Tracing Your Family Tree Using The Census

January 15, 2011 By

Tracing you family tree through the recent historical past can be a relatively easy task since the invention of the internet and the publishing of the Census Information.
The Census is an anthropological data collection of every person in the UK, it takes every persons name, age, occupation and where they live at a given point in time.
It is through the Census that the government gets accurate population statistics to help inform local authorities, schools and communities.
The Census Bureau therefore houses an enormous amount of valuable information when it comes to tracing your family tree and researching your ancestry.
The census of the UK has been happening since 1801, and happens every ten years to provide a snapshot of the country on a given day.
The census information is held securely for 100 years, under the Data Protection Act so the 1911 census data will soon be available through the National Archive. The census information is also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act however as it is deemed non-sensitive, the 1911 data will be available early.
Due to the large amount of information available via the census, it is a very useful tool in tracing your family tree. The census is available through various websites for example www.ancestry.com where you can search the census for specific names.
If you know the full name of your grandparent’s parents, it would be possible to find them on the census. This will provide you with their occupation, age and who they lived with on that given date in time. Going back to the previous census and so on, will eventually take you back to their parents where you can then start the process again. Each time you find another generation, it will open up a whole new list of names to find on the census.
Since the 1960s the censuses have been electronic, where as previously they were printed reports. The much older censuses are interesting, not only due to the information they hold, but due to the painstaking amount of hand written work it took to compile and the sometimes beautiful old fashioned script that they were written in. A visit to an online census is worth it, just for that.

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Where Does Your Family Name/Surname Originate

January 13, 2011 By

Just think, how confusing it would be if everyone was called Fred? Many years ago, before the world’s population was out of control, people were only known by one name. As there were such few people, this was not too much of an issue.

However when people started to multiple, only having one name started to cause problems. Imagine having to find Jane the child-minder amongst Jane the seamstress and Jane the nurse. This caused problems not only for local folk but also the tax collector, how did he know he had the right one. So by Royal Decree it was announced that people had to give themselves a surname, otherwise known as a family name.

The English took this decree and made it simple, if the man of the house was John, the family name, or surname, would be Johnson. Understanding this makes it easy to see where surnames like Williamson, Stevenson, and Davidson came from.
Scotland did the same, except replacing –son with Mac or Mc. This leaves us with the origins of surnames such as MacDonald, son of Donald, and MacGregor, son of Gregor.
Another easy way that families came up with their family name was to use the occupation of the man of the house. This would explain the origins of the surnames like Baker and Butcher, which makes obvious sense when trying to identify yourself within a community, John the Baker (John Baker) or Harry the Butcher (Harry Butcher). Where this becomes obscure in modern day is if the occupation is now no longer common. For example, the surname Abbott is likely to have originated from abbotts, leaders of religious communities based in an abbey.

Another, and less common, way of finding a surname was to take a family characteristic and use that to find a surname. For example Brown could have been from someone with brown hair, Short could have come from a family who were uncharacteristically short and so on.

Other countries followed suit and used the same way of thinking, northern European countries used
-sen as we did –son and Spain used –ez at the end of the name to create a family name.

With a little bit of thought it could be possible to recognize the origin of many of today’s common surnames.

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Records Used In Genealogy

January 10, 2011 By

Genealogy is studying families and tracing the family links back through blood lines. It is not so much concerned with the additional information relating to each person, that is ancestry which provides more historical context to the search.

Genealogy can be carried out by hobbyists, researching their own family, but there are people who are professional Genealogists, who use genealogy records and genealogy sources to research for others or for material for historical books.

Genealogy has been historically very important when it came to laying claim on wealth or land or riches, luckily now with the invention of better record keeping and wills, those days are nearly over with.

Genealogy records can take many forms and a genealogist will use as many as is available to them. Records that are used within genealogy are things like marriage certificates, birth certificates and death certificates. These all provide information, not only about the person, but about their parents too.

Another genealogy source would be church records, like baptisms, christenings and confirmation records. This will provide details of where people lived, and maybe extended family members who may have been godparents.

Once we have used all the traditional genealogy records like the census then you can turn to the more unusual genealogy sources such as military records, and criminal court records. Both of these would give a more thorough understanding of the way of life for the ancestors being researched.

With most newspapers being available online, there is now access to obituaries, articles and announcements, which would have previously only been available by physically going through each paper by hand.

Records were also kept by the poorhouses and workhouses in the early 18th century, and this has proven to be a valuable source of genealogy records, as quite often the lower class families were not recorded as well as the better off families. Many churches have taken it upon themselves to preserve their past records and are taking the time and effort to make them electronic for future generations to search and have access to.

Whilst, as time moves on, technology helps find genealogy records, the further we slip away from the past and more is lost forever out of reach.

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WHAT IS DNA FINGERPRINTING, HOW IS DNA FINGERPRINTING USEFUL

January 8, 2011 By

We have all seen the episode of CSI: or Inspector Morse, where the criminal wipes away his finger prints in the hope that he will not be caught. They always miss that stray hair or broken fingernail though and still get caught. It is because of DNA fingerprinting that people can be identified by a stray particle.

Every part of the human body is a sequence of chemicals and each person has their own individual stamp running through them. This is called their DNA Fingerprint. It is the DNA that makes every person different, and it is as individual as a normal fingerprint or a tigers stripes.

It is this individuality that makes DNA fingerprinting so important not only in crime fighting but in family relationship analysis.

DNA fingerprinting has been around since the mid 1980s, when it was invented by Sir Alec Jefferys. It was immediately picked up by the crime fighting world as a piece of DNA from a hair will match the DNA from the same person’s blood or skin. It is the DNA fingerprint that matches to the person, not the piece of evidence. If you can imagine the potential for leaving behind DNA at a crime scene, the list is endless, blood, sweat, semen, skin, hair and nails, most of which could be left behind without even noticing. It is a wonder that criminals even bother now a days.

It is because of DNA fingerprinting that many old cold crimes have been reopened and solved. For example DNA fingerprinting has helped the police solve a 1982 murder of Laurie Cunningham after new DNA evidence came to light.

The other use for DNA fingerprinting is in the form of paternity testing. It is an unfortunate reality that there are babies who get born without knowing who their dad is. In this case, DNA samples are taken from the mother and the two potential fathers. The DNA is broken down into readable segments and the DNA fingerprint is read and matched. Through DNA fingerprinting it is possible to match up the paternal father with an accuracy of 99.9% therefore giving the child the knowledge of their paternal family.

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