20 April 2010

Geneticist inherits a mystery

This is too good a story about DNA not (yet) solving a family mystery not to pass along.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7607690/Sir-Paul-Nurse-Geneticist-inherits-a-mystery.html

via Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

3 comments:

  1. Sad story for his mother

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  2. Having talked to two people recently for which this is a reality,I conclude this situation (a "sister" really being one's mother) is a much more common story than we think. For those of us for whom it is a novelty it is interesting to imagine what it would be like. However, I wonder how many of us unknowingly have this in our family background. Were the children born to our great grandmother when she was 45 years old really hers?

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  3. I agree there are likely many such stories. It would be helpful if family history software had the capability to flag occurences of unusually, but not impossibly old women giving birth.

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