More than 10 million people worldwide have shared their spit with one or more of a plethora of DNA testing companies. Ancestry.com currently has the largest share of the market with 23andMe a close second. My husband and I submitted ours to FamilyTreeDNA several years ago because as a retired Geography teacher I wanted to contribute to the National Geographic Genographic Project. This Project has collected DNA from people like us and, more importantly, from indigenous people all over the world. As a result, National Geographic has produced an incredible report on Human Migration. https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/
Another plus to all this spit sharing is the explosion of interest in family history. We have not seen this kind of interest since the Victorian period when genealogy research was very popular. How did they do it? One of my father’s ancestors sent letters to all the people he could find in the United States with his surname. These people sent back the dates for family births, marriages, deaths and included location details. Most of my mail goes directly into the shredder. Can you imagine sending anyone that kind of information?
So how do we verify our ancestors’ connection to us? How do we prove we are descended from a Revolutionary War Veteran or a passenger on the Mayflower or Charlemagne (that’s a lot of people!). Actually, DNA might help. If you have a cousin whose DNA works with yours and IF that cousin has proven her lineage back to a Revolutionary War veteran, then all you have to do is prove your relationship to that cousin’s ancestor. DAR doesn’t accept DNA as proof of ancestry. Same goes with the Mayflower Society. I am a direct descendant of five Mayflower passengers and no spit got me in. That took good old fashion research.
If you have no interest in joining a Lineage Society (there are many choices) then you may have an interest in proving you are related to John Wayne. (Another distant cousin of mine.) Or you may want to find a shady character in your family. I’ve been helping a friend with his family history and found a Mayflower ancestor for him. He doesn’t care. He only wants a “colorful” character, hopefully one that was hanged or died in a shootout at the OK Corral. I’m still working on that for him.
Family History is so much more than Genealogy or DNA connections and identifying family members who went before us can be frustrating and difficult. However, if you want to make a significant contribution to your family history, write your own stories…all of them. Imagine one of your descendants in 400 years reading about your struggles with your iPhone. I think they would be fascinated hearing about the closing of Orchard Supply and how it affected you. Think about what you would like to know about your ancestor who lived in Ohio in 1820 or Massachusetts 200 years before that. So many questions I have for them! Yes, I have read stories written by my family members at least 100 years ago and some earlier. We have all read stories written much earlier – not necessarily from our family but from someone’s family member.
Why not be that person whose story will be read (or ingested some way we don’t know about yet) in 400 years. Or, much more important, write your stories for your great-great grandchildren/nieces/nephews. We probably won’t meet those folks personally. Tell them what you want them to know about you now and the family they came from. I guarantee they will appreciate having your story.