By Staff
CASSOPOLIS – Dr. Charlotte Groff prefaced her speech to the Capt. Felt Chapter of the DAR last week, with, "I am not a scientist."
But she continued with some very scientific information on making genealogical connections using DNA.
She explained how DNA is analyzed, how YDNA is characteristic of men, only making it thus impossible to trace a maternal line through this. Both men and women have MTDNA, but only females can pass that on.
She shared some of the roadblocks that she had faced in tracing her connection to Daniel Boone.
This included a research trip to Germany where she discovered that she was related to the Daniel Boone family, but not to the famous Daniel of American lore.
"Similar to my experience has been the tracing of the children of Sally Hemmings to the Jefferson family. It is not conclusive that the progenitor is Thomas Jefferson. It could easily be his brother."
Dr. Groff recommended "familytreeDNA.com" and "switchboard.com" as starting points for genealogy research.
A kit obtained through "family tree" for tracing YDNA costs about $101, for MTDNA $130.
Saliva samples obtained are sent back to the company for analysis. She warned that "You have to expect the unexpected in your research. You have to be prepared. You might find out some things you didn't want to know."
After 50 years of teaching in Coloma, Dr. Groff is devoting much of her time to extensive research in this field.
She also has authored and published several books on historical subjects.