This is not the usual type of book that I review, and since it was published in 2012, some of the information is dated, since DNA research is such a dynamic field. One of the reasons I wanted to read it has to do with the subtitle: “A Genetic Portrait of America”. Since DNA deals with deep ancestry, especially the Y-DNA and mitochondrial DNA that this book talks quite a bit about, that has not changed. However, the fact that the “DNA painting” he discusses only distinguishes between European, African, and Asian origins definitely shows the age of the book. The fact that the author is British is a point in his favor, since he can be somewhat objective about American DNA results.
The basic points the author makes about the origins of the people whose DNA was analyzed is still pretty much on point. Most Americans realize that our distant ancestors are not from here, and want to know where they are actually from. What surprised me, although it shouldn’t have, is that even Europeans can have Asian or African DNA from migrations, or even just one traveler, in the distant past. We forget just how much travel and trade there was, even when modes of travel were very primitive. If not for the DNA tests, we would probably not even be aware of this, since it goes back to before there are standard genealogical proofs.
Sykes writes this as somewhat of a road trip travel journal. He did travel through the United States, finding a variety of people to take the DNA test. From our perspective more than a dozen years later, it seems like such a small sample, but testing was so new at that time that every test result was a revelation. Sykes is not oblivious to modern-day concerns with DNA testing, but he focuses more on the deep history of DNA. This is what keeps this book relevant still today.
If this was your family, how would you research them? While he only discusses a few reactions of people who get unexpected DNA results, this is always something to keep in mind when dealing with DNA testing. While with the tests described in the book could only give very broad information about deep ancestry, currently people are learning not just about a distant ancestor who may not have originated where they were “supposed” to, but even that a parent may not be who they were expected. Of course, for adoptees, that is kind of the whole point of testing, but it’s good to remember that not all surprises are good ones.