The "Accidental Admin" - Eating an apple from the Tree of Knowledge

I thought I'd share my story on how I became a DNA Project Admin. Maybe it will make you feel better that if I can learn all this DNA stuff, you can too!

April 2003 - The Life-Changing Event - I attended a DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) meeting in which a speaker gave a presentation on using DNA for genealogy. The speech was so incredibly technical, that my eyes were glazing over from boredom because I was completely clueless as to all the terms and everything else that the speaker was saying. DYS values? Alleles? Haplotype? Mutations? (<-aren't those a bad thing? like something in a comic book, ie: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?) For something that would have such an impact on my life, I never would have guessed it at the time since I would be hard-pressed to find a subject that bored me more than DNA. Although an estate-planning speech by a local hospital rep (who wanted everyone to leave funds to the hospital in their wills) does come to mind....

But there was one thing that did sink into my consciousness, and it was that this speaker had used DNA to surpass a genealogical "brick-wall".

So I went home from the meeting and decided to research it for myself, to see if I could make heads or tails of it. I remember spending a few hours, sifting through hits from Yahoo. I ended up on John Blair's DNA 101 site and I think also Charles Kerchner's site. I remember staring at a chart, probably the same one that he
sent a link for, trying to comprehend the path that DNA travels (but I still didn't "get it" until later).

Next, I began comparing DNA testing companies. The three that I remember considering were: Oxford Ancestors, Sorensen Molecular Foundation and Family Tree DNA. I don't remember coming across either Relative Genetics or DNA Heritage at that time. I excluded Oxford right off, because they were more focused on the ancient origins and I didn't see the benefit to me genealogically. Next, I excluded Sorensen, because while they are free, they do not guarantee that you'll receive your results, and my selfish side has a problem with that. (Although I must add that Georgia Kinney Bopp does have a strong case as to why people should test with them, but remember, I'm speaking of events from the past.) So that left Family Tree DNA.
(Coming Next: The Proposal)