Today I met a cousin of mine. We met at the Seattle Public Library. Although we had originally planned to meet on the University of Washington campus, I happened to be downtown for a morning meeting, so we met up on the ninth floor of the spacious central library. The main genealogy collection is on [...]
Archive for the ‘Genetics’ Category
Yes, yes, I know. National DNA Day? What? Why do we need another “day” to recognize something? Well, studying human genetics is beginning to answer a lot of questions, everything from medicine and diseases to anthropology to genealogy. There are some who believe full genome sequencing will be common place in a few years, and I am one [...]
Today I gave a presentation on genetics to the Irish/Scots-Irish group of the Eastside Genealogical Society. I haven’t given one since March of last year. I discovered all sorts of interesting material and sites during my latest research, some of which I will include on the blog in the coming days. ajh
Discovering the Chemical Structure of DNA On this day in 1953, Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Frances H. C. Crick announce that they have determined the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule containing human genes. AJH
This morning I received two messages from separate Hill researchers, asking about DNA. This is odd, because I rarely receive any mail about it. One of the men said that I had written to him in January of 2007. His earliest known Hill is a James Hill who married Armonda McGrea in 1839 in Butler [...]
As both a genetic hobbyist and one who is wary of Big Brother, I am somewhat conflicted on projects, particularly government ones, seeking people’s DNA. The latest effort, launched by the Veterans’ Administration, wants samples from one million vets. Officials overseeing health care for the nation’s veterans are undertaking what may be the largest effort of its kind in [...]
I have been reading some of the news accounts on a DNA analysis in the case of Sarah Yarborough, a student at a high school in Federal Way just south of Seattle who was murdered in 1991. I first happened upon the story from a newspaper half a world away, on the Daily Mail‘s website. I don’t watch [...]
Years ago I came across some information on the surname Fromke. I had lost my notes if I made any at the time and had a hard time finding the material again, until 2006. I wrote about it back then, thankfully links included, in a message to the Fromke mailing list at RootsWeb. The name Fromke [...]
Here’s a curious story from The Telegraph, reporting on a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Shorter people could blame their lack of height on a shortage of genes, a study suggests.” It’s a curious correlation. [R]esearchers believe that missing copies of genes or other sections of DNA could be to blame for [...]
I love maps. The proper word for it is cartophile, although I don’t really care for it. Mapini is somewhat better. Guess I’ll have to come up with something on my own. (If you have any ingenious proposals, let me know.) The National Geographic Society has been producing maps, often beautiful and graphically-oriented, ever since [...]
