Sveiki/Greetings!

I’m reposting from the LV rootsweb site the thrilling information that an overdue DNA project for Latvia has officially begun.  I’ve personally already signed up to participate, and will be asking a male cousin in LV to do the same.  My understanding is that beginning with the most basic testing is more than enough.  If in the future you’re notified of potential matches with other participants, and you want to determine how close the match is, you can ask for an upgrade.  It won’t require another swab, and it’s entirely your choice.

I strongly urge readers to consider also joining in this!  Over the course of time, this has the potential of filling in missing gaps in the paper trails of our archive.  And that’s to say nothing of other patterns that may emerge, which we can’t even imagine now.

Visu labu,

Elizabete

From http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.scan-balt.latvia.general/1582/mb.ashx

Dear folks,

We have begun a Latvia DNA Project with Family Tree DNA (FTDNA; http://www.familytreedna.com/).

The Latvia project is a dual Y-DNA / mtDNA project created for individuals descended from families that have their earliest-known origins in what is now Latvia. Over past centuries, parts of Latvia belonged politically at various times to Russia, Poland, Germany, and Sweden. Populations moved to and from the neighbouring states of Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, and the Ukraine. DNA of families of Latvian origin could exhibit Baltic, western European, eastern European, Jewish, or other characteristics. This group will allow those who have a family geographic origin in Latvia to compare their DNA with that of their geographic neighbours and, possibly, find family matches.

We invite anyone with family origins in what is now Latvia to consider joining the Latvia Project.

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Donna Dinberg
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Email: blacknus at rogers dot com

and
Michael Dinberg
Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
Email: 85260md at gmail dot com

There is a difference between “documented” roots and “hereditary” roots.
Do you really want to know and make public your genetic makeup?

Mr. L. L.

Sveiki/Greetings!

Privacy issues and other questions about the Genographic Project (which is being done in conjunction with National Geographic) are addressed here: 

http://www.familytreedna.com/ftdna_genographic.html

Visu labu,

Elizabete

I imagine there are enough people who would like to know regardless of what they will find. In short - it is a personal choice, as are many other things in life. Who knows what you will find when you look for anything. Quite often in the near past - we could not always depend on the reliability of the information we received in response to any particular investigation. In this case - thos ewho might choose to participate - will have positive confirmation. I guess it it all comes down to whether an individual feels confortable with this type of process. For myself - I am curious - and cannot really see any harm coming from the overall process. I imagine if I were some sort of celebrity - or if my employment depended on a specific background - I might view this differently. As it stands - I cannot see anybody but me caring about those results - so what will I lose if I choose to participate?

I imagine there are enough people who would like to know regardless of what they will find. In short - it is a personal choice, as are many other things in life. Who knows what you will find when you look for anything. Quite often in the near past - we could not always depend on the reliability of the information we received in response to any particular investigation. In this case - thos ewho might choose to participate - will have positive confirmation. I guess it it all comes down to whether an individual feels confortable with this type of process. For myself - I am curious - and cannot really see any harm coming from the overall process. I imagine if I were some sort of celebrity - or if my employment depended on a specific background - I might view this differently. As it stands - I cannot see anybody but me caring about those results - so what will I lose if I choose to participate?

“National Geographic does not associate any personally identifiable information about you with this randomly assigned password.”

As we say in America: Famous Last Words. There is money in this information and any and all half-wit hackers will use the opportunity to enrich themselves.

Mr. Sniks – Don’t you agree that instead of alleged 6 million jews killed it would have been at least three times that much if Hitler would have been able to use gene – testing?

There are many things we would like to know about ourselves – until we find out, and then regret the asking. :)

Mr. L. L.

Mr LL - I do understand your point of view - and in many ways agree with your analysis. As it currently stands - I get about 100 unwanted emails every week. I get probably around 40 items of regular mail on a weekly basis. My household receives approx 30 unwanted phone calls per week (this figure does not included the 25-30 no replies that are telemarketers using the multi dial option). Will I have any additional problems - I could not tell you that - but even if I do experioence more - is it something that I am not able to handle - I doubt it.

As far as Hitler’s options - in many ways I imagine it may have drastically decreased the numbers of people killed. To the best of my knowledge - it has been documented that Hitler himself had Jewish roots, so I am confident that he may have had to alter his methods in some manner. also - while I am no expert on the subject - from what I understand - the determination comes from the female side - so mere genetics would not be a proper manner to use for this type of search. I could be wrong on that though.

I was not thinking about the “marketing” side. However, it is a good point to remember. Genetic ancestry search, in my opinion, is being applied by organizations interested in ethnic cleansing.  It has been stated that the third generation of “survivors” must be supported by third generation of “perpetrators” (Source: JDL).  Also some religious groups would like to keep out converts from unwanted strains.

Hitler’s roots have been dug and buried and dug and buried.  To the best of my knowledge Hitler’s illegal ancestry is only a speculation.  If there is reliable documentation, other than hearsay, please let me know.  If the reports circling the internet about Hitler were correct, I am sure Rothschilds would have enough power to suppress any connection to the “infamous relative, however distant.” :).

The genetic determination from female side only may be correct – today.  When I went to grade school an atom was the end of an element.  Well, few years later a handful of Jewish scientists just destroyed this “fact” and blew the lowly atom into smithereens.

Mr. L. L.

I in fact sent a letter enquiring as to how I may volunteer for this project in hopes it would help me with my mission of finding family.
The reply I received was confusing and not very informal, I was passed on to other sites and there was also mention of a charge.
I will investigate this project more and let you know how it goes.

According to Yahoo!News (AP Feb 21, 5:22 ):

WASHINGTON - A new genetic analysis of people from around the world adds further confirmation to the African origin of humans. The study of genetic details from 938 individuals from 51 populations provides evidence of how people are related and different, researchers led by Richard M. Myers of Stanford University report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science.

Is this what some of you are trying so desperate to find – the lost link to monkeys?

Mr. L. L.

I see nothing in that post that indicates any relationship being examined other than human to human. This does not support any type of ethnic cleansing either - nor does it confirm anything but the concept that humankind most likely began in one of the older areas of the world. Unless I am mistaken - and I may very well be, in that it was never one of my stronger subjects - but isn’t Africa one of the (if not the) oldest continents? I also do not see anything in that report that necessarily links one race to another - in fact - it clearly states “evidence of how people are related and different”. Is there more to this report - in that this is the first time I have seen it.

While I do not recall all of the details - it was within the last few years in England where they did these same tests to see if any of the local school kids were descended from an ancient (possibly prehistoric man. One of the teachers that was not selected as a possible candidate ended up being verified as a direct descendant. He had only participated in order to show his students that there was nothing to fear from the test.

In northern Canada - they also found remains of some sort of fish that had already had limbs evolved - I wonder if they are going to be able to do genetic research on that. There are many that believe that all life evolved from the sea. No offense intended to those that believe in “creation” of course.

Recently, on public television, there were 2 programs on african-americans (celebrities & non-celebrities) tracing their roots back through slave times and even further back to Africa itself.

see African American Lives http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/

The programs were fascinating; the depth of research was intricate & phenomenal.  When each person was told they had x-number of mitochondrial DNA matches with people in whichever region of Africa or elswhere in Europe, the viewer as well as the interview-ee could experience the sense of reaching back into history.

Many myths in the african-american culture were examined ("we have some native indian blood...” , or “our family was always enslaved...” eg.) and some of those myths had to be discarded.  The host of the program discovered he has some 20% DNA matches to a certain ancient King in Scotland.  Well!!!  That was a surprise!!!

So anyway, Latvija has historically been criss-crossed by armies & armadas (vikings) of every stripe; I am sure there are precious few of us that can be considered “pure” anything. 

This DNA project might prove to be very interesting, to find out exactly how far reaching our ancestral base is.

Most certainly would be interesting Ilze. And that does not touch upon the early amber trade etc - where certainly some of those individuals must have returned to a found wife (since stealing your wife was required I believe - but not sure on what time eras). I am sure there are strong Polish connections as well for many different reasons - and with the Russian conections - you are probably looking at Mongol as well - who knows - but the possibilities are astounding. Once again - I see nothing to fear - and I presonally don’t think it makes much of a difference were anyone’s ancient ancestors originally came from.