While shopping in Target a few weeks ago I noticed a display of home DNA testing kits. It amazes me that less than 20 years ago scientists were still working on decoding the human genome and today they’ve advanced so far that people can take these tests in their own homes.
The kits have become so popular that the International Society of Genetic Genealogy recently announced over 18 million people have purchased them. They’re easy to use. Depending on the one purchased, you just swab your cheek or spit into a vial and send it off to a lab. Results are usually returned in a few weeks.
Some tests just give you a breakdown of the regions your genes come from. Others go further and examine each of your parent’s individual family lines, and many match you with others in their databases who share your DNA.
There are numerous reasons why people purchase these kits. Everyone wants to know who they are and the tests can help answer that. Who came before us and where did they come from? Do we have relatives we didn’t know about? Maybe some famous ones?
Does it really matter? It can, as personal culture and heritage are important to many people. My paternal great-grandfather, George Weigand, was one of them.
Immigrating to America from Germany in 1893, he and his brothers settled in Rockford, IA, where he met and married Kadi Keital Haag, another German immigrant. They had six children and during that time moved to Minnesota and started a large farm a few miles outside the small town of Wendell, where I grew up.
Sadly, Kadi died three days after giving birth to their youngest child, and George was left with six young children to raise. Wanting another ‘pure German’ wife, he took a ship back to Germany while his brothers’ families took care of his children. He brought back Kadi’s cousin, Rosie Keitel Gsell, whom he married once they returned to Minnesota.
(Interesting side note, one of George’s sea voyages was on the HMS Lusitania, the ship that was later sunk by a German submarine and led to the entry of the United States in WWI. My dad has the huge old traveling trunk he brought with him displayed in his garage. He found and rescued it out of the town dump.)
George and Rosie had seven more children, including my grandfather, Fred “Fritz” Weigand. Rosie didn’t speak a word of English when she arrived in the U.S., and she once said in confidence that if she knew how hard life was going to be in American wild horses would never have drug her here.
When my grandfather Fritz began dating my grandmother, Helen Thompson, George forbade him to marry her because he felt she was too young and she was Norwegian. He told him he had to quit dating her or move off the farm Fritz had started on land that he owned.
Fritz actually choose the farm over Helen, but luckily, three weeks later someone told George that Helen was a hard worker so he changed his mind and blessed their union.
I’ve always been interested in my family history and stories like this. I love learning about my relatives’ lives, many of them whom I never met or wasn’t old enough to remember when they passed away.
I’m fascinated by antiques, not because many are worth money, but because of the people who used them. I have numerous vintage and antique items displayed in my home, some of them family heirlooms. I like imagining why relatives long gone had a particular item, and did they make it or buy it? What did they do with it and where did they keep it? Was it special to them?
I learned respect of my heritage from my parents. They always taught that family was important, and in their own home they display numerous family heirlooms, from kitchen items and toys to old certificates and handmade baptismal gowns.
There are rumors that the home DNA testing kits are being offered to the public so the government will have a record of everyone’s DNA on file. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I plan on eventually purchasing one. I’d like to find out if I really am half German and half Norwegian like I’ve always been told. Apparently, many people have gotten some surprising results.
