Mennonite DNA

Yesterday at Fall Fest, I discovered the Mennonite DNA Project. This project is using Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA markers to trace paternal and maternal lines and, by comparing DNA markers to genealogy charts, discovering previously unknown relationships between families. It's a pretty cool idea, and an interesting application of DNA haplotyping technology.

As I was filling out my genealogy chart at the Mennonite DNA Project table, I heard a woman exclaim to her sister, "Oh, Mrs. Wiebe has a name! It's Katharina! Her name is Katharina! We've got to tell Mom; she'll be so excited!"

This woman didn't remember an ancestor's name, so she had the volunteer look her up in GRANDMA (the Mennonite genealogy database) and print a chart of her ancestors. Apparently, when her family had been researching their ancestry, they couldn't find any information about a this female ancestor; she was recorded only by her husband's name. But the database had a record of her.

There was something special about that moment to me, and it made me realize that there's something powerful about being able to trace maternal lines. I had them print my mom's ancestry chart (I'm not in the database). I now know that when the Mennonite DNA Project tests my mitochondrial DNA, they will be following a line from me to Helen Margaret Goertz to Margaret Ruth Krehbiel to Helen Ruth Eymann to Maria Franz to Eva Schroeder, my great-great-great-grandmother who was born in 1836. And I don't know; there may be more recorded beyond her (the printout only covers 5 generations).

Even though last names get changed with every generation and sometimes not even first names are recorded, the Mennonite DNA Project will be able to tell my family what other Mennonite female lines we are related to. My DNA will unlock genetic relationships that patrilineal tradition obscured.

As a feminist Mennonite biology nerd, what more could I ask for?