The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Selv om jula er over så er det fortsatt ikke for sent med en presang som trolig vil overraske. Det er jo slike pressanger vi vil ha nå for tiden. Følgende fant jeg i ISOGG sitt newsletter for desember og kanskje er det flere enn meg som kjenner seg igjen.

My birthday is coming up so my husband asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I replied that all I wanted for my birthday was a DNA test. His response to that was, "You're nuts! Why would you want a gift which just consists of paper with numbers on them?"

What my dear husband does not realize is that DNA is a gift which keeps on giving. The first DNA test that I have results for is from 2003 on my father. Now I doubt that I have any article of clothing in my bedroom closet from 2003. So why would I want something that goes out-of-style when I could have something that never becomes obsolete?

And DNA just keeps on giving. Year after year, I receive new DNA match contacts and refined haplogroup predictions. What may just be "paper with numbers" to my husband could be what solves a genealogical mystery on a branch of our family. Some mysteries have been solved quickly through DNA testing and others, I'm still waiting for someone to come along and test who will be the match I need. DNA results are not a gift I will ever lose in a fire, or give to a thrift store, or ever tire of. These simple "paper with numbers" give me a peak into the past of those who came before me and that constitutes an invaluable gift.

And for those of us with the "thrifty gene", December is the best month of the year to purchase DNA tests. FamilyTreeDNA has a holiday sale which ends on December 31.

Katherine Borges
ISOGG Director

Selv og du gikk glipp av salget denne gangen vil du kanskje overraske noen med en uventet presang i 2010.