DNA Can Help People Track Llineage Friday, September 10, 2004 By DAVID RYAN Register Staff Writer Call it CSI for the family tree. DNA testing has come a long way from identifying crooks, murderers and dead-beat dads. At a lecture presented to the Napa City-County Library Tuesday, Dr. Jason Eschleman of Richmond-based Trace Genetics showed how different DNA tests could prove what kind of racial ancestry and parts of the world a person comes from, even if the person has no idea who his biological parents are. The process is different from what people see on television shows. "I test junk DNA," Eschleman said. "That's mostly what I look at." Eschleman's talk offered a detailed, often highly technical assessment of DNA science and how companies like his are using it to help people look back in time. Embedded in strings of DNA that determine such basic traits as the color of your hair and how tall you can grow are many strands of so-called junk DNA that usually aren't active from generation to generation. But this junk DNA can be a key to the past. Depending on where scientists cull their DNA from, it shows people who their families are and where their families come from. That's because families can find where their ancestors derived from, going back thousands of years, using documented DNA patterns of native people around the world. It all starts with different parts of a cell. One test compares inactive junk DNA stored inside cell bodies called mitochondria, which provide energy for the cell. Mitochondria DNA is only passed down by the mother. Its tests have been used to determine maternal relatives of the doomed Romanov family and find out the racial ancestry of adopted children. According to ancestornews.com, a Web site dedicated to helping people trace their family genealogies, DNA testing is "the hot topic in genealogy today." Companies including Trace Genetics, Houston-based Family Tree DNA and Seattle-based Genelex provide services to confirm family trees, provide evidence of Native American ancestry or just plain help someone who doesn't know where he or she came from. In one Trace Genetics mitochondria DNA test, an adopted woman named Debra Anne found out she was descended from Native Americans of the Southwest such as the Apache or Navajo. Before the test she had only known that she was most likely of Native American descent. Another DNA test uses DNA in the Y chromosome, which dictates male gender. The Y chromosome DNA is only passed down the paternal line, and can tell a male where his paternal lineage comes from, down to what part of a continent his early ancestors hailed from, in much the same way the mitochondria test is used to find out geographic origins on the maternal branches of the family tree. Eschleman said an example of the use of the Y chromosome test is the search for relatives of founding father Thomas Jefferson in the African American community. Jefferson was long rumored to have had a romantic relationship with Sally Hemmings, one of his slaves. Two descendants of Hemmings, Thomas Woodson and Eston Hemmings, were thought to be Jefferson's offspring. Descendants of the two men were tested to match the Y chromosome of Jefferson's uncle, who carried the same paternal DNA that Jefferson would have carried. Although the test ruled out Thomas Woodson, it did provide a match for Eston Hemmings. Controversy still exists about whether Jefferson was the real father or whether it was his less-looked-after brother. DNA tests cost anywhere from $150-$400 according to Trace Genetics and Family Tree DNA. http://shorl.com/degratregrustini Sally Rolls Pavia Sun City, AZ sallypavia2001@yahoo.com “We will not be remembered by our words, but by our kind deeds." List Owner: GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L-request@rootsweb.com Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES "All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus"