Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Genealogy

It's genealogy week! Tonight we will enjoy a guest lecture by Dr. Stephen Payne, who has joined our blog for the week. If you have any questions about your research, you may ask him or the rest of us on the blog. For your research assignment, trace back your family history five generations. For your pod cast, narrate this history, as well as the resources you used and problems you may have encountered. You may want to consider an enhanced pod cast, where you can hyperlink your discussion to appropriate web sites. If you want to do that, come talk to me about it and your pod cast will need to be completed early in the week. We will have Dr. Bob Wilson with us next week, and we may only get to enjoy the geneaology reports via pod cast. Please turn in your pod casts no later than Monday. For this assignment, timeliness is crucial.

4 Comments:

At 11:57 AM, Blogger Dr. Deborah Vess said...

I was struck by Steve's remarks on his family while in England. What insights his research could offer someone researching the Reformation! Someone could investiage differences in the way the Reformation played out in various locations. People have done this, but not from the perspective of genealogy. I agree with Joey that there are many insights to be gained from genealogy, especially when one approaches it with an overall research question in mind.

 
At 4:42 PM, Blogger Dr. Deborah Vess said...

There is an article today in the New York Times online about genealogical research using DNA, one of Dr. Payne's topics. The author discussed his surprise at finding out that 50 percent of his DNA comes from Sub-Saharan Africa (he has always considered himself white), but even more than that, he was surprised to discover that a substantial percentage of his DNA is Asian. He never knew he had Asian heritage. This really is a very exciting field. Glad Ansley discovered some new things about her own past.

 
At 9:37 AM, Blogger Dr. Deborah Vess said...

Another article appears in today's New York Times. Researchers have traced a prolific gene tree to the Manchu conquerors of China, who founded the Qing dynasty. Previously, researchers traced another prolific Y line to Genghis Khan. Thought you might be interested.

 
At 10:33 AM, Blogger Dr. Deborah Vess said...

Did anyone find the answers to Dr. Payne's questions?

 

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