Updated on - Jan 29, 2022
There has been a lot of hype lately about Genealogy products, specifically in the US and the European continent. People are increasingly getting curious about their origins and the composition of their DNA. For most of the people it's a fad or a trend that they want to be a part of, however, there are several useful implications of tracing your ancestry and family roots to get a better understanding of your current behaviour, preferences and even your health. In this article we explore how family tree building mapping services can help you gain an in-depth insight of who you are.
Let's begin by defining Genealogy? Genealogy is the study of families, family history, and tracking of theri lineages. Genealogists usually employ tools like oral interviews, study of historica records, genetic analysis, and analysis of other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigree of its members.
The work of a genealogical research is usually documented using a "family tree". This information may also be presented in form of "family history". While both these terms are often used interchangeably, a "family history" may include additional biographical information and family traditions.
Let's deep-dive into this information a little. Human evolution has taken place over millions of years. Each geographical condition gave rise to a different evolution route for the species now know as Humans. You would have heard about Neanderthals, right? Over the years, as these various pockets of human species began wandering to farther places in search of food and shelter, more complex evolutionary patterns emerge. Now since each specie was specialized for their particular geography, they have some basic differences in their genetic patterns and features based on those genes. Wonder why people with Asian origins look so different from those with American origins? Or why African origin people have some distinct features?
In the mordern era, due to technological advancements and exchange of cultures, those boundaries have blurred and those specific abilities don't really hold any significant advantage over the others. However, your basic gene profile definitely determines who you are? Believe it or not, these differences influence factors like your I.Q., your appearance and most importantly, your vulnerability to certain diseases.
The implications of this are huge. Consider this, you are living in US and you get to know that you have a major European lineage. How does this knowledge help you? Scientific studies into diseases reveal that each disease affects a community in a different way. For e.g. some forms of cancer are more prevalent in European population but not so much in the American population. Therefore, knowing that you have a European lineage gives you an edge as you can get checked for those particular diseases regularly and take early action to cure them.
