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?

Muslims attacked at Ramadan service in Dayton, Ohio

From the Dayton (OH) Daily News:

[A] suspected chemical irritant was sprayed into the mosque at 26 Josie St., bringing Dayton police, fire and hazardous material personnel to the building at 9:48 p.m.

Someone "sprayed an irritant into the mosque," Dayton fire District Chief Vince Wiley said, noting that fire investigators believe it was a hand-held spray can.

(...) The 300 or so inside were celebrating the last 10 days of Ramadan with dinner and a prayer session, but the prayer session was interrupted so those suffering from tearing, coughing and shortness of breath could receive treatment. (Source Dayton Daily News)

According to a personal account I found, the gas was sprayed into a room where babies and children were playing while their parents prayed. This incident occurred as anti-Muslim propaganda DVDs entitled Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West are being distributed by mail in Ohio and other swing states by the Clarion Fund.

Hello, world.

Everyone's blogging. Most of my blogging friends are living halfway across the world and are by default doing interesting things. I continue to live virtually the same way I have for the past three years. Nevertheless, reading all these blogs hearkens me back to a time when I had a blog, and so did everyone I knew, and we all did all the same things and then blogged about them. I am going to not do that.

However, I am a bandwagon-jumper, and so I want to blog too. Only this time I'll try to make it a blog of interesting thoughts and stories.