What is DNA, and how is it useful for genealogy?
Almost every cell in your body has a complete set of your inherited genetic information. It is stored in twisted strands of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) called chromosomes. DNA carries the information in the form of a code. Each chromosome contains thousands of genes (also called coding DNA). Genes determine specific traits, such as your hair color, eye color and blood type. But genes make up only a small amount of the DNA. In between the genes are long sections of non-coding DNA. Over time, slight changes occur in the non-coding DNA. These changes get passed down from one generation to the next. By looking at changes in the non-coding DNA, genetic ancestry testing can often identify people who have the same ancestors. How is DNA ancestry testing done? The test itself is very simple. You swab the inside your cheek and then mail the swab to a lab. The lab extracts the DNA and compares it to other samples in a database of haplotypes (sets of inherited genetic markers) to see if there is a
