Library program takes ‘deeper dives’ into genetics, DNA with ‘Genealogy Detectives’

Before the DNA revolution of the early 2000s, genealogy was a study dependent on records. Tracing a line of heritage could hit a dead end if documentation had gone missing or been destroyed. But as DNA science progressed rapidly through the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s, genetic testing became an affordable, accessible tool to confirm existing genealogical records, or fill in the gaps entirely.

Genealogy is already complex without adding biology to the mix, but luckily there are local resources to help. At the Hive from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 13, Lynda Keenan will lead a “Genealogy Detectives” workshop, lending her background in biology to your genealogy questions.

“These classes take deeper dives into the topic of using genetic DNA to enhance genealogy research. Lynda’s extensive experience includes advanced certifications in genetic genealogy, genealogical methodology, American records and DNA research,” said Spokane Public Library community engagement manager, Jason Johnson.

Keenan runs the “Genealogy Detectives” workshop on a monthly basis, but she keeps busy in between teaching other genealogy courses and assisting law enforcement in genealogy research.

The workshop is one of many resources the Spokane Public Library offers for genealogy. Home to the Inland Northwest Special Collections, the library provides public access to a wealth of regional archival materials, including city directories, government documents, historical maps and periodicals. They also partner with the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society to help community members figure out where to start, or where to keep looking.

“(EWGS) first started meeting at the Spokane Public Library in 1936. They provide research assistance for customers looking to explore their ancestral roots. Each Wednesday they host drop-in office hours in the Inland Northwest Special Collections on the third floor of the Central Library,” said Johnson.

Although you’ll have plenty of help when attending a “Genealogy Detectives” workshop, or dropping in to the library to run your questions by a EWGS volunteer, it can be helpful to revisit some biology basics to contextualize how DNA helps genealogists put the pieces together.

DNA is all about A and T, and G and C. That would be adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine; the nitrogen-containing molecules that form the rungs of the famous double-helix ladder that is your DNA.

DNA and genes are not exactly the same thing. A gene is a segment of DNA that acts like a recipe. This recipe contains the correct sequence of the A and T base pairs and the G and C base pairs. Cells copy this recipe as they multiply, and the copies of the DNA are called messenger RNA, or mRNA.

DNA is a really long set of instructions, and a chromosome is a tightly spooled package of these instructions. Most humans have 46 chromosomes. From one parent come 23, and 23 come from the other parent. Segments of these inherited chromosomes are shuffled into different combinations, creating you as a unique human being.

It is by analyzing these segments and who you share them with that scientists can identify ancestral lines. Large shared segments indicate a close relation, such as a parent or sibling. Small shared segments indicate a more distant relation, such as a cousin or a grandparent several generations back.

In 1990, an international scientific effort was put forth to map out the full instruction manual for creating a human being, otherwise known as the human genome. The Human Genome Project was declared complete in 2003. Scientists had successfully mapped the order of all 3 billion plus base pairs. It is this reference map that later led to the creation of DNA tests and databases that allow people to uncover more and more of our ancestral tree.

To simplify it into an analogy, the human genome is like a library, the chromosomes are like 46 different books, and the genes make up the individual chapters. The books and their chapters contain the instructions that dictate things like your eye color, hair color, height, or even immune function. The Human Genome Project essentially created the library’s catalog. With this catalog, scientists can now locate where each chapter is, what it looks like, and what it does.

Each human has their own genome, or library. Thanks to the completion of the Human Genome Project, a scientist could look at a parent’s library and compare it to their child’s library. It’s this comparison that helps them identify which genes came from which parent. When comparing DNA between people, a lot of matching chapters indicate a close relation, while a few matching chapters indicate a distant relation.

Mapping all of these related libraries, or genomes, can help retrace an ancestral tree. DNA databases enable these comparisons among hundreds of thousands of other individual genomes, which is why we use these databases to identify which regional and ethnic groups your genetic makeup resembles.

It’s a bit staggering to know that every human genome is about 99.9% the same, meaning there is only about 0.1% variation between each person. With over 3 billion letters in the human genome, that 0.1% difference adds up to about 3 million differences between each person. So you could make a pretty good argument either way that we’re all unique or that we’re all alike.

Whether you find yourself intrigued by all this information, or your head is swimming, or both, you can learn how to apply this information to your own genealogy by attending the “Genealogy Detectives” workshop this Thursday.

Get more information on the workshop at spokanelibrary.org, and learn more about the library’s genealogy resources by visiting spokanelibrary.org/genealogy, or calling the Inland Northwest Special Collections team at (509) 444-5338.

An earlier version of this story was updated to include a date change for the event from November to December.