I have long been curious about the genetic testing provided by companies like 23 and Me. My daughter received enough of a discount from a recent special study group to do it. Contrary to family tradition, there's no Italian in their. And contrary to my suspicions, because of an g-g-g-grandmother whose maiden name was Kahn, there's no Jewish DNA, either. We are entirely northern European. Expectedly British and German, but also a surprising amount of Norwegian. Some of my ancestors came from the region of England called the Danelaw, where Vikings ruled for generations and generously provided their DNA to the indigenous population. Among the genetic diseases, we are amazingly free except for thrombophilia a tendency to form clots. Why that name? We don't have a love for them. After the stroke, I developed a profound hatred of them.
It struck me that the National Socialists would have loved genetic testing of this sort. I recall reading that they at one point they required farmers to prove their "Aryan" ancestry back to 1700. That's hard to do because of poor record keeping and children born the wrong side of the blanket or the result of adultery.
I suspect genetic testing would have burst a bunch of Nazi bubbles, when they found out their own ancestry. Plus, their definition of "Aryan" would not have a good genetic definition.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, the Japanese were not pleased to discover that their genetics are the same as Koreans. I suspect the Koreans didn't like that either. Asia is very racist.
DNA testing has shown that a significant number of children don't share a history with the father in a family. I don't recall the actual number, but I think it was about 20%. That was only from testing done for medical reasons, IIRC. So, the numbers may be skewed due to non-obvious reasons. Also, blood types can point this out.
ReplyDelete"philos" is attraction to, love for, tendency to. "Philadelphia" is "Brotherly love"; "delphos" is "brother" or "sibling". Ptolemy II Philadelphus, ruler of Egypt from 283 to 246 BCE, married his sister Arsinoë (having divorced his first wife, also Arsinoë; Arsinoë II had been previously married to her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos).
ReplyDeleteStormCchaser: Especially for Adolph Schickelgruber, whose birth records disappeared shortly after the Anschluss.
ReplyDeleteThe cynic in me sees these various things as a not-so subtle conspiracy to make everyone gather around the campfire and sing kum ba ya with our global brethren.
ReplyDeleteThey are our brothers, cousins, etc.
ReplyDelete