DNA for Genealogists 4th Edition

As well as providing information about ourselves, DNA testing allows us to find others who share our ancestors, and also to confirm or challenge apparently known relationships. Such tests can provide evidence of relationship even when no documents exist. Previously available only to medical and law-enforcement professionals, commercial testing companies now make genetic testing directly available to anyone who is interested. DNA testing will not replace the more familiar genealogical research techniques of gathering oral and documentary evidence and compiling family trees. Instead it offers entirely new research tools – more information to augment the documents and oral histories as well as a way of testing family trees, to see if conclusions drawn are confirmed by this new evidence. This book shows how you can use DNA to harness this exciting new range of genealogical research tools. The amount of scientific jargon associated with genetics can be intimidating. This publication provides a contextual understanding of DNA suitable for genealogists and discusses the currently available tests that are likely to be of interest to family historians, especially those wanting to prove (or disprove) compiled family trees, to connect ‘new’ relatives by means of inherited genetic material and to draw conclusions about where we fit into the greater human family.

Pages: 60