Posted by:
Nightingale
(
)
Date: March 22, 2023 05:50PM
My Mormon interlude was rudely interrupted (by my abrupt departure) before I had the chance to satisfy my craving to find out more about my family history using their much lauded (by them) family history library (not that I expected to find many of my ancestors in America). I’m happy anyway to take the tremendous shortcut of just spitting in a bottle. Beats combing through ancient dusty paper files, definitely. More expensive but faster and simpler.
Happy at the prospect of at least the start being easy – bottle/ spit. Nervous about prospective results (likely unwarranted anxiety but who knows) and a bit challenged by the anticipated individual effort possibly required to track down accurate info.
Beethoven did it, a couple of centuries after his lifetime, but with his permission, as far as he could give it back in his day, not knowing of course about scientific advances in genetics, but using hair, no saliva being currently available.
Here’s an article about some of Beethoven’s health conditions and some intriguing family history:
CNN article by Ashley Strickland, March 22, 2023: Locks of Beethoven's hair reveal secret family history and health issues
Excerpts:
“Before composer Ludwig van Beethoven died on March 27, 1827, it was his wish that his ailments be studied and shared so "as far as possible at least the world will be reconciled to me after my death."
Now, researchers have taken steps to partially honor that request by analyzing Beethoven's DNA from preserved locks of his hair and sequencing the composer's genome for the first time.
Once the research team established Beethoven's genetic profile, they compared it with the DNA of his living relatives in Belgium. But in a twist, they weren't able to determine a complete match.
While some of the relatives shared a paternal ancestor through Beethoven's family in the late 1500s and early 1600s, there was no match for the Y-chromosome in Beethoven's hair samples.
This suggests that somewhere in the family's history, there was an extramarital affair on Beethoven's father's side that resulted in a child.
"Through the combination of DNA data and archival documents, we were able to observe a discrepancy between Ludwig van Beethoven's legal and biological genealogy," said study coauthor Maarten Larmuseau, a genetic genealogist at the KU Leuven in Belgium.
The researchers think the affair occurred sometime between the 1572 conception of Hendrik van Beethoven, an ancestor in the paternal Beethoven line seven generations removed from the composer, and the conception of Beethoven in 1770.”
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OK, so something seems to have occurred seven generations before Beethoven’s birth and he’s been gone for nearly 200 years. The family secret, if any, doesn’t seem to matter much any more, except it's interesting.
I’m constantly amazed at the advances in scientific knowledge. It can seem quite intrusive to share DNA with the world but if you’ve got no secrets or don’t mind if some are uncovered it can be fun to “meet” your ancestors. I can’t wait. Although I’m not expecting anything earthshaking to emerge from my search.
On another note, it’s quite an achievement that people still remember you for your life’s work 200 years in the future. Hopefully, remembering you with appreciation and respect. In Beethoven's case, no worries on that score.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2023 05:52PM by Nightingale.