With a Simple DNA Test, Family Histories Are Rewritten

August 30, 2017

(New York Times) – The question of ethnicity is enmeshed with another difficult challenge for DNA testers: geography. Genetics researchers generally know which DNA sequences originated on which continents. But pinpointing a particular country of origin, as many testing services claim to do, is far trickier. Scientists simply do not have good data on the genetic characteristics of particular countries in, say, East Africa or East Asia. Even in more developed regions, distinguishing between Polish and, for instance, Russian heritage is inexact at best.