Product Description

Scientists in the news speak out from opposite sides of the fence on the question of DNA testing for researching family history and ancestry. How do you interpret your own DNA test results? How do you work with or research oral history?

What’s the cultural component behind a trait as biological as your genes? If you’re a beginning family historian, an oral history researcher, or a person with no science background fascinated with ancestry, here’s how to understand and use the results of DNA tests. Scientists, media, historians, and business owners share different opinions on whether DNA testing is a useful tool in the hands of family historians.

Steve Olson, author of the book, Mapping Human History in a telephone interview with me answered my question, "What do you say about using DNA as a tool for genealogy—to extend family history research?"

Does Steve Olson think DNA testing as a tool is useful to genealogists? What does Bryan Sykes, author of the best-selling, The Seven Daughters of Eve have to say? Sykes’s book has a very different opinion about DNA testing and genealogy/family history research. The two have opposite views. Numerous scientists comment.

Sykes is associated with Oxford Ancestors, the world's first company to harness the power and precision of modern DNA-based genetics for use in genealogy. The motto on the Oxford Ancestors Web site reads: “Putting the genes in genealogy.” Use these resources and easy to understand explanations for family history research.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1261584 in Books
• Published on: 2002-12-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 266 pages

About the Author
Anne Hart writes books that make complex topics easy to understand for those with no science background. She holds a graduate degree and has written up to three books a year since 1963, both novels and nonfiction. She specializes in writing books about DNA, genetics, molecular anthropology, genealogy, history, and ethnology.

Customer Reviews

Worst DNA book ever - DON'T BUY IT!
Just a heads-up warning: Anne Hart makes her living by writing "books that sell" not by writing on topics about which she is an expert, or even about topics with which she has sufficient experience. She lists her 30 most recent self-published books in the back of this one--and one of her titles was "Writing Books that Sell." Does this sound like a credible author to you?!

The title of this book is grossly misleading and in fact barely one page in 10 makes reference to legitimate scientific data--or even to the scientists who supposedly "speak out". Her research was poorly conducted and even more poorly analyzed. She spends several chapters on topics which have no business being including in this book--namely, "creating a scrapbook" (where one sentence out of pages of text refers to DNA), and "beginning genealogy research." In the latter, she repeatedly does those readers who haven't done any genealogy reserach, a great disservice by misdirecting them on methods of locating a woman's maiden name. She suggests ordering birth records. How, pray tell, does one order a birth record for a person whose maiden name is unknown?! Ask the county clerk for copies of every record of a child born on a given date? Please!

While I applaud the use of the Internet as a means of self-publishing, one should not use it as a shortcut around publishing in a professional manner. Within the first seven pages of text, I found a dozen errors (typographical, spelling, grammar, and punctuation), which even a blind (but not deaf) editor would catch. Ms. Hart's writing style leads one to believe she published the book as it was first written--a draft version in which no thought was given to logical chapter order (definitions and explanations of DNA and genes can be found somewhere around page 110). She spends five pages telling you, disjointedly, four different times how she was beaten up on a train just for her "ethnic appearance"--uh, why would readers care? We DON'T!

Please, do not ... [buy] this book. There is so little of value in it, and very little of use from the actual scientists, for whom I have the greatest respect. Instead, buy a book written by the actual scientists themselves--or at least someone with scientific credentials. Ms. Hart graciously states at one point that, "being 61 years old, I had choice of either spending my days crocheting at the senior center, or writing a book about DNA." She writes DNA detective stories--again self-published through iUniverse press. I'm sorry, but that's certainly not enough credentials for me! I plan to ask [Amazon.com] for refund.

This book is missing significant information.
Hart's book on "How to Interpret your DNA Tests Results..." is a misnomer. The book does not provide the reader with any information on the topics of "short tandem repeats" (STR's) or "most recent common ancestor" (MRCA), or any significant information on mutations rates. I have not found anyplace in her book that she gives any significant information about DYS markers, or the significance thereof, on the Y chromosome. The book contains very little information on how to interpret your mitochondrial DNA results. Further, the book contains numerous sections that do not relate to interpretation of your DNA results, such as the "Human Genome Project", "How to Interview Older Adults", "Have a Personal or Family History of Cancer", and 50 pages of a dictionary of genetic terms taken from a web site. Yet the book's index is only 5 pages in length, insufficient to find significant information that may be available. Further, the book contains some serious errors, such as "HLA genes are white blood cells".

Don't waste your money
Poorly written, not on topic, duplications and very little substance. A huge disappointment. The title sounded like it would be a step by step outline to interpreting your DNA. It's anything but.