How the Smithsonian Institution Is Crowdsourcing History

Lilywhites invite ‘The Boss’ back to his ancestral home – So now the folks from Rathangan are hoping Bruce will come for a visit since his great-great-grandmother hailed from there – maybe in May??

How Your DNA Can Reveal Your Surname – Well, I can believe that this works well in the UK, but I think it’s much iffier in the US – though I wish it were the case! Otherwise, the 4 Smolenyak families in the world would share the same Y-DNA, when in fact, we’re 4 different haplogroups! And in general, I’ve found quite a few cases where this hoped-for situation didn’t materialize in the results. Still, very handy for our English cousins and those of us with UK heritage!

Places You Can No Longer Go: Nueva Germania – This is one of those weird pockets of history you never hear about – and one that will likely explain someone’s unexpected DNA results one day.

Genetic Family Reunion: DNA Reveals Alex Haley’s Scottish Roots – For those who haven’t seen it, this is a video about how DNA revealed the Scottish heritage of “Roots” author, Alex Haley. In fact, you’ll see his nephew, Chris Haley, meet his Scottish cousin, June Black. As a bonus, you get to see Chris out-sing London traffic! And not so incidentally, one of the cooler aspects of this is that DNA wound up confirming family lore. I thought I’d share it again in light of the upcoming May launch of the 21st century version of “Roots.” Watch this and you’ll know something most viewers won’t!

Photo Credit: Beyond My Ken under Creative Commons license

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