Random Acts of Living


Saturday, October 27, 2007

Tracing Your Roots with DNA

Sunday, October 21, was our fall meeting of the Golden Wheat Chapter of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia (AHSGR). First we all sat down for a covered dish dinner and afterward the recently departed Elvest Lehl's son gave a talk on the Airtrain that Elvest had been working on up to the time of his death. The work on the Airtrain will continue and hopefully some day be a reality. Our guest speaker was Frank Jacobs who reported to us on the use of DNA in tracing our ancestry and what interesting things he has found out about his via this method. He explained about the movement of groups of people throughout history and the reasons behind whole ethnic groups moving from one location to another. That male lines can be traced back in a more definite line than female and it is therefore necessary to have a male of a family for DNA sample. In the picture below, Frank Jacobs is the one in the suit.

My son set up presentation equipment from T&S Mobile Projectors for both presentations.




8 comments:

Anita said...

Wow! That's really cool... Sounds like an interesting meeting!

Moonshadow said...

It really was, a little to much information to try to report on here. I taped the whole thing, but I don't know if Frank would let me post it or not. I'll have to ask him.

Peter said...

Hi! Just curious. Is your family going to have DNA taken in an attempt to trace the family tree? and any time frame for the production of the Airtrain?

Regards
Peter McCartney
Sydney Australia

Anonymous said...

Interesting post and thanks for the link to Society of Germans from Russia. My grandparents were Germans in Russia who came over to America. I'm hoping to find some info out from this Society.

Moonshadow said...

Peter - I had dad do a DNA swab for a project funded by a Mennonite research group. We haven't heard anything back from them yet. Don't know anything on the Airtrain for production. I'll let you know if I find anything out.

Moonshadow said...

Hi, Cindy! Thanks for stopping by, I just LOVE your blog on recycling grocery bags. Email me privately if you'd like to talk more about Germans from Russia. See my profile for email.

Moonshadow said...

Peter,
This is the response I received from niartria@aol.com -

"Hello, This is Brad Lehl answering your question about the Airtrain. In order to implement a system like Airtrain, it would involve a "consortium" consisting of a plane maker, steel company, and possibly a railroad to come together. The government would more than likely need to subsidize the development and infrastructure such as they do for slow speed passenger rail (Amtrak) as well as airports throughout the Country. As you might imagine, alot of politics involved as well. Best Wishes, Thanks for the email!! Brad Lehl, youngest son of Elvest and Ruby Lehl."

Peter said...

Gidday! moonshadow, you have gone to alot of trouble for me, thank you. Great feedback. We can only live in hope that it will happen one day. Hope your DNA project goes well!

Regards
Peter McCartney
Sydney Australia