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Archiver > ESSEX-UK > 2006-03 > 1142733138


From: Jim Polson <>
Subject: Re: [Ess] DNA caution
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 17:57:58 -0800
In-Reply-To: <297.792e919.314e0afb@aol.com>


I'm afraid you'd have to put me in a third group, Dave.

I'm a sceptic by nature, but I'm willing to be persuaded that DNA
testing can be useful. In fact, I'd LOVE to be convinced. However, I
need something more than results that say two people are related
somehow through somebody. Genealogy is about making the
connections, and if DNA testing can lead you in the direction of
making those connections, I say that's great.

It still seems to me that DNA testing does not take us beyond that
300 year horizon in the past where documents become scarce,
and I'm not really sure how it could. However, within that zone
where most of us already work I can see its uses. The far distant
past is another matter, and as far as I'm concerned it has only
curiosity value. I don't really see how it can logically be otherwise,
but maybe that's just my own intellectual shortcoming--no doubt
inherited from a Viking goatherd.

I hope no one takes offence. I don't want to rain on anyone's
parade, but I would really like to know how useful this technology is.

Jim Polson
Vancouver

> I strikes me that the use of DNA always splits people down the middle (no
> pun intended).
>
> There are those who do not see the need for it in their research *at the
> moment* and who are anti the use of it. There are those who see a
> potential benefit to their particular research and who actively pursue
> it.

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