Genetics Indicates Genealogy Shouldn’t Be All Pretty Photos and Dry Census Records
Medical histories are a missing bit of important information and can solve families' histories and warn of future events.
Genealogy and the research required to dig up records of relatives long gone in our families is big business. But in that search for war records, census data, marriages, and births is a forgotten bit of data; medical histories. Most people who search for family connections may request DNA tests for matches, but that still leaves the medical aspects missing.
Receiving results from a DNA test doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll uncover everything because the testing is limited in scope. Medical DNA testing isn’t inexpensive, and even there, not everyone can read the results, even physicians.
One patient who had unexpected DNA testing done and whose physician received them (via a disgruntled hematologist) said, “I don’t know what this is, and I don’t know how to make sense of it.” The hematologist didn’t provide a results report, either.
