DNA genealogy is in its absolute infancy. The number of people who are interested in it are a tiny minority of the population, but should include all the people on this board. Some right-wingers in the US (and perhaps other areas) say they don't answer census takers questions because it conflicts with their right to privacy. What if our ancestors felt this way?
Watson and Crick only defined the structure of DNA in 1953. The second sentence of their first paper was, "This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest." What an understatement that turned out to be! It took about another 10-12 years for the genetic code to be uncovered, and things have really taken off from there. All of this has happened within the lifetime of many of us on RC.
The draft of the human genome came out in 2000, after starting only about 10 years before, and was finalized in 2003. Using these discoveries in genealogy is really a trivial pursuit compared to the hugely important benefits that might well accrue from this research... but it should have an interest to many of us. If science shows anything it shows that our knowledge will increase with more research.
Not too long ago, people "felt" that primates - man, chimps, orangs, gorillas, etc. - were related because they looked alike (homology). Genetics has shown that this is a fact. There are some strong indications that humans are more closely related to chimpanzees and bonobos than chimps are to gorillas. All but the most stubborn people can accept this on the basis of research done on Human chromosome 2 which is a fusion of 2 separate chromosomes in other closely related primates.
I don't expect that DNA genealogy will provide much illumination of my own ancestry within my lifetime. But the only way it ever will is if as many people who are willing to do the testing add their information to the database.
Nick
