Okay, Den -- appears not only dna tells about ourselves -- this is first I ever heard that fingerprints tell your heritage -- wonder what the Hugenots fingerprints look like....... for the lists -- thought you might like to read this (came on newgen list) -- maybe we all need to compare our dna and fingerprints and this way match us all up by lineages??? Maybe someday we won't be doing the generation charts but DNA/Fingerprint charts??? Judy M. >It may interest some of you that your fingerprints actually hold >information about your ancestry. > >Having recently been burgled, the police fingerprinters came and collected >prints from around the house and then took mine and my partners (so they >could check any prints). > >Paul and I were fascinated by all this and the officers were very patient >with our questions of how it worked. They inked us up (fingers and >complete hands) and took additional prints. They then asked where we were >born. On being told this, they then explained the prints and the way in >which information about the person was found. > >Unfortunately it is never 100% accurate but they were able to pick that my >parents (I am a first generation kiwi) were both from the England/Wales >area as the majority of my prints were arches. If you look at your fingers >under a magnifying glass the actual print lines will often split into two >several times. > >My partner (who is 5th generation Kiwi) has breaks all over the place, but >the shape of his palms lead the officer to ask if the family was originally >from Scandinavia (spot on) > >I guess there is a lot more to it than what I have related here, but I >thought it was quite interesting . . . > >Steff