Forum:Methodology revolution of DNA and implications for this wikia

It seems to me that the standards of extreme rigour necessary for teasing out the fact from the fiction in dearly held beliefs/ "family lore" about descendants would require this site to become less of a community site, and more a land where only the truly scholarly macho folks dare post anything.

My observation is that the increasing cheap Y-STR (male line) and mitochodrial (female line) (DNA verification techniques revolutionize the standards for accepting data on parentage. Now, folks can post what they heard from grandmothers, etc. and post it as such.  Later, ancestors can come along, do the test and if they get a positive match, then much more credence can be give to what would previously been regarded as unsubstantiated myth.

Anyway, it is my intention to document where I am getting information but not get hysterical about securing the primary source material just yet. If I can verify via DNA testing some of these connections, I can go deeper into the family tree a lot lot faster.

-Mak 23:58, 2 September 2007 (UTC)