A genner wrote: "If we are conducting genealogical research, the research
necessarily, and by definition, must only be concerned with genetic
relationships."

Genealogy is the story of your life and your family not molecular biology,
not, by definistion concerned with genetic relationships. You are falling
for the DNA testers ploys. Genealogy is not kidney transplants, but it
involves in-laws, adoptees, everybody in your family and affecting your family.

What if you found out that a ggrandparent was actually raised by people who
were unrelated, perhaps, to her biological parents, as one of mine was? Do
I stop because there is nobody to DNA test? No, it is an interesting
situation and major influence on her life. Her 'mother' in NYC left her a
fortune when she died, so she must have loved her, but DNA testing probably
would show no relationship at all - if you dig them up and find something
testable. So sorry, you have no DNA in common, so we forget you exist?

A cousin of mine took several DNA tests and got lists of people who were
supposedly related closely, but he never could figure out how most were
related. And some people who had also taken tests and are closely related
(by genealogy) aren't on his list. Should he leave the DNA-unrelated off
his tree? And should he include little trees for the DNA-related when he
doesn't know how they are related? It was a famous, well-respected DNA
testing company, by the way.

I am trained as a geneticist, and I can tell you that DNA testing is a far
different thing >from proving relationships for people not very closely
related. You can prove paternity, but when you get even a little farther
away, it gets very, very complicated very fast.

If we only depended on DNA testing, we would have to DNA test everybody, as
you never know if somebody was actually switched with another baby in he
maternity ward. Perhaps I was switched? My 35 years of genealogical
research would be 'a waste of time', as my DNA was not theirs? No! I am the
product of my family, my upbringing, and all that influenced me growing up,
as well as my DNA, that family and that upbringing is genealogy. My family
is the product of their families and their lives, and if I were genetically
unrelated, they are still my family. If somebody was adopted, that includes
them as well.

Genealogy is not DNA testing, but family relationships.

Sally Bruckheimer
Piscataway, NJ