Want to reconnect with your roots? Or has one of those ancestry kit advertisements finally caught your eye? There are so many seeds of inspiration which may lead you to start looking for your family tree. 

Family history is always something which has intrigued me. Coming from a dual nationality household has always allowed for interesting developments to appear. The twisted branches lead to the uprooting of family secrets, maybe you have a mysterious great aunt? You will never know until you start your family tree.  

So how do you start your family tree? 

Adelaide Augusta Clark (Layfield) (1876-1972). She was the daughter of a sea captain from Hartlepool, and is one of my great-great grandparents.

Talk to family 

One of the best places to start is by talking to your surrounding family members. Which will, I’m sure, lead to stories as you start to gather names, dates, and places.  

Online ancestry websites 

Using online tools such as the Ancestry DNA website will aid you remarkably, even with a hefty price tag. Having these resources make it easier to gather documents, certificates etc, granting you access to what is effectively a historical online archive. If you don’t want to make researching your family tree a costly endeavor, census records are a great place to start, and can be accessed via The National Archives.  

Online communities 

There are communities online of genealogy forums, filled with people in the same position as you. Through speaking to others in the ‘family tree’ community you could unravel a plethora of tips and tricks to aid you in your own research. 

Groups include Ancestry DNA, Ancestry for All and DNA Help for Genealogy UK.

If you’re looking to dig deeper into historical contexts or streamline your research with advanced technology, try an AI history solver – Edubrain.ai. This tool offers automated assistance in connecting historical facts, events, and familial ties, helping you uncover stories and patterns in your lineage with precision and efficiency.

In-person resources 

You do not have to do all your research online. Local libraries are a fantastic starting point, as they contain historical information on the local area, along with photograph and microfilm collections. National Archives are also brilliant resources, containing thousands of comprehensive records and collections of photographs and letters. 

Why should you work on your very own family tree?

Sense of duty and passion 

Pouring hours into ‘watering’ your tree provides a profound sense of duty and passion, not only is it a fun hobby to keep you preoccupied on a rainy day, but your work is something which can be kept for generations to come. It’s your own family archive to pass forward generationally. They pass on memories of loved ones, but also protect and unearth the hidden lives of everyone before you. This forever growing tree will continue long after you’re gone. Just as it did for every ancestor before you. Weirdly I think that’s pretty beautiful.  

Wider historical understanding 

Gazing back at history allows you to place your family’s history within the broader context of historical events. In turn, enhancing historical understanding and highlighting the impacts historical events had on your relatives.  

The pair on the left are my great grandparents Wilfred Furness Layfield (1901-1946) and Freda Hinchcliffe (1902- 1969) at 1920s wedding. Wilfred served in the WW2 Royal Ordinance Corps.

Self-reflection and identity

Growing your family tree from something so small to one vast and magnificant allows for self-reflection. It has the potential to impact your sense of personal identity, and even your social class and ethnicity. 

Recognition of comfort  

 Looking back at historical struggles, and obstacles faced by relatives provides a sense of comfort. Life continues, and ultimately history is there for us to learn from. I think this has genuinely helped me recognise my current privileges and the comfort which surrounds me. 

Family closure 

Closure may be another reason why people choose to work on their family tree, whilst this may not apply to all, healing family drama and settling potentially distressing information can truly lead to peace of mind.  

Health and preventions 

Continuing on a serious note, family trees can lead to vital information regarding health and genetics coming to the forefront. This crucial information has the potential to provide insight into genetic conditions, allowing for better health management and preventative measures to best protect you and your loved ones.  

Family trees can lead to potentially vital information regarding health and genetics coming to the forefront

My personal experience

Luigi Poderico (1608-1675) Naples, Italy. My very great grandfather, who was a Knight of the Military Order of Calatrava,  and a governor and captain general of Galicia. He commanded the Spanish troops against the Portuguese as part of the Portuguese Restoration War . There is a square dedicated to him in Naples, Italy.

One Christmas my grandma waltzed into the living room, declaring that for the past six weeks she had been tirelessly laboring on ancestrydna.co.uk to create a family tree for the British side of my family. Somehow tracing my family tree’s roots back to the 9th century, an impressive feat.  

In a folder now lies hundreds of documents, birth, marriage, and death certificates, each one telling a small piece of someone’s story. I think it’s fascinating to imagine the lives of those who lived several hundred years before us. Their struggles, love, hopes and dreams all condensed to names on a tree.

Thomas Furness Layfield (1872-1937) North Yorkshire, England, another great-great-grandparent

Another article you may enjoy: Brace, brace! Preparing for your grandchildren coming

I am one of those people who the DNA testing kit adverts did indeed get to, and for my birthday several years ago I ended up treating myself to one. My results were exactly what I was expecting, 50 percent both Italian and English, so this told me nothing new. However, one of the main features of the DNA kits is that it automatically connects you to ancestors and relatives who are still alive and have also taken the test.

According to this 23 and Me DNA kit, I have 1500 currently alive relatives who have taken the test, including a second cousin whose existence I was not aware of until forking out £100 for the kit.

This immediately expanded my family tree drastically, showing me family members (although extremely distant), who now live in America, Brazil, and Australia. Although this method of researching your family lineage doesn’t really help you uproot and uncover historical secrets, it still provides further excitement as you watch your family tree branch out to unimaginable heights.

Something else surprisingly fun regarding these DNA kits is that it tells you how ‘Neanderthal’ you are. I am less than 2 percent Neanderthal which apparently, is low. So I’ll take that. 

Now off you go! Get to work on your very own family tree, or cut to the chase quickly, and purchase a DNA testing kit… if you haven’t already. 

Isabella Poderico

Overly enthusiastic and obsessed with everything a little nerdy, Isabella has written about everything from movie premieres to politics. She can often be found, as many writers often are, sitting in front of her laptop typing away obsessively in an extortionately priced independent coffee shop.

The post Family history – how to start on your family tree appeared first on Silver Magazine.

I tried DNA profiling to find out more about my diet, my health, and my genetic makeup. And ultimately what I can do with that information…

I’m a 53-year-old woman and like everyone, my feeds are filled with targeted ads. Top of the list appears to be ‘comfy’ bras, which is hilarious as I don’t wear bras (hoping the stupid tracking cookies pick that up now). But a very close second are swathes of companies touting hormonal weight loss solutions. Particularly aimed at menopausal women.

It’s 2023 and we all know that hormones affect your weight. Stress hormone cortisol helps makes you fat. Leptin, insulin, oestrogen etc influence our appetite, metabolism, and body fat distribution. At a time of my life when hormones are in flux, this seems a sensible thing to look at.

Is my weight and health trajectory written in the DNA stars?

But I wanted to take this one step further and look at my genetic makeup, and how that influences my body and health. Is my weight and health trajectory written in the DNA stars? How much of what makes up my DNA profile affects whether I’m fat, thin, healthy, have a heart problem, lose my marbles…

So I found Muhdo, and got in touch to explore my DNA destiny

Muhdo is a company that offers a bunch of bioinformation and epigenetic data services. For the purposes of this article, I picked the straightforward ‘DNA Health’ package (£125), although I think I have epigenetic data to follow. I can come back to this later if that’s the case.

They sent me a smart box in the post, with easy instructions and a reply-paid container to return my saliva sample in. I downloaded the app, answered all the questions, popped my drool in the post, and about two weeks later I got a text saying my results were in.

Crunch time

The first thing I see when I get the results is that I have a high ‘virus risk’ score. Great. There’s a list of ‘Genes of interest’ that relate to this (and to all the results), and underneath each result an explanation and some advice. I’ve screenshot some of this so you can see what it looks like, but missed out the bits about washing my hands properly and getting exercise, because, well duh.

As for the rest of it; well, it’s a very mixed bag. I’m going to go through just some of my key results here, because there is MASSES of information. It’s really interesting, actually. And each result, whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent, is accompanied by a breakdown of the genes, the condition, supportive advice and dietary advice, and a bunch of helpful links. There’s a lot of work gone into this.

Diet

Let’s start with the juicy stuff. The results are displayed in sliders that go from red to green, and here I’m a reasonably solid amber/normal average. My response to carbs is Normal, as is my ‘snacking risk’ (“Your genetics link you to a normal likelihood to snack”), metabolic rate, and fat distribution.

Talking of fats – neither saturated fat nor unsaturated fats are particularly my friends when it comes to weight. But interestingly I wouldn’t gain as much benefit from focusing on unsaturated fats as someone with a different genetic variant. The advice around fats for me is a mix – nut oils, flaxseeds, sardines, salmon, tofu are best. But saturated fat is also ok, and helps with the absorption of vits A, D, E and K. So easy on the fats for me, but not to obsess about cutting out saturates.

…my genetics apparently mean I’m not linked to a particularly strong fondness for sweet-tasting foods

In the green/positive corner I have a Good response to protein, which is useful to know, and there’s a list in the helpful bit about amino acids and the sources thereof. And my genetics apparently mean I’m not linked to a particularly strong fondness for sweet-tasting foods.

This feels right. I don’t really like sweet things like cake or chocolate. I’m not mad for puddings and will generally go for the cheese board at a restaurant. So I’m a bit surprised – and sad – to see that my genetics may cause me to be more sensitive to lactose, particularly as I age. And it’s the same with my sugar response, which is not just sugar, but all simple carbohydrates; sucrose, lactose, fructose, maltose (cereal grains) and so on.

I scoffed, thinking of how much I love a cheese sandwich. I eat loads of them! And then it dawns on me that I’m actually really fatigued. A lot. Could it be… could it be bread and cheese that’s doing this? Oh my god.

Read more: How to generate more collagen in a vegan or vegetarian diet

Health and Physical

Bit of a mixed bag here – and these are two separate sections. I’m lumping them together because ‘Health’ only has five areas.

On the Health section, I’m Normal for bone mineral density, obesity risk, and diabetes risk, so I can’t blame the spare tyre on genetics. Interestingly I have a sensitivity to caffeine, which again feels right. I can’t tolerate more than one cup of coffee before getting all antsy. And like the virus risk, I’ve got a higher than average chance of having colds and flus “compared to most people.”

Into the Physical and I’m thrilled to see that there are THREE sections in which I am Gifted. These are muscle power, muscle stamina, and power-to-weight ratio. I’m STRONG AS ALL HELL! I’m in roughly the top 15% of all people tested.

I also have an ‘above normal’ O2 usage. “You have gifted variants for oxygen usage… an increased VO2 max can lead to greater blood vessel dilation and therefore more nutrients being delivered around the body.” Perhaps this helps to inform the lower risk of inflammation that I also enjoy. “You have a lower inflammatory response and the genetic markers linked to inflammation are favourable for you.” Excellent.

The rest of the Physical section is firmly in the Normal zone, and that’s my anaerobic threshold, recovery rate, muscles mass, injury risk, lean body mass, and exercise effect on weight. Have to say, I’m pretty chuffed with the physical results. It’s a bit late for me to become a professional body builder, but this information is going to be useful at the gym.

There is a lot of data and information

You don’t really need to read much more about my results; there’s a heck of a lot of data. The vitamin profiling is interesting actually – I have a greater risk of vit D and selenium deficiency, for example, and would benefit from plenty of omegas and choline (had to look that one up). And again, there’s advice about where to get these things in your diet.

You can also download your raw genetic data, although goodness knows what you’d do with it

As well as the results, you get an outline Health Plan, a breakdown of your ‘DNA Diet’ balance which includes your metabolic rate, what your macros should be, when you should eat the most calories through the day, and a bunch of other guidance.

You don’t get a designed diet although I suspect that will come. What you do get though is the opportunity to set up your own tailored training plan based around your genetic results. You can also download your raw genetic data, although goodness knows what you’d do with it. I downloaded mine, just to have a look. It’s a weird feeling, seeing your very existence displayed as a massive list of numbers and codes.

Can it predict disease and death risk?

This is one of the questions I asked when interviewing Muhdo’s Wez before leaping into this. Would my DNA profile be able to predict whether I would be more likely to have cancer, dementia, a heart attack. He was keen to point out that this is not what Muhdo do – they’re about health and lifestyle. The option to delve deeper into those potential morbidity risks are available, but Muhdo doesn’t do this. And honestly, would you want to know?

“Apart from anything,” Wez said, “what a massive responsibility to deliver that sort of news to someone, you will probably get cancer. No, what we do is look at your genetics to help you improve your health, based on your makeup. That’s all.”

Muhdo don’t just do DNA reports though. There are brain training exercises, face scans/skincare analysis, and blood tests for things like cholesterol, antibody profiles, and thyroid performance.

So what next?

I’m going to take the information I have and make some lifestyle changes. Actually, I’m probably going to read it all again, and re-read it, because there’s a lot. But it feels like useful information to have, so I should use it.

I can see sugar, dairy and wheat taking more of a back seat, although I don’t plan to be militant about this. I’ll definitely bump up the Vit D, particularly as the shorter days draw in, and choline, which impacts liver function, healthy brain development, muscle movement, your nervous system and metabolism.

I’ll look into selenium, which is important for thyroid function, metabolism, and the immune system. For someone who is a bit tubby and will probably catch colds, this definitely sounds like a good thing to increase my intake of.

In terms of exercise and my awesome physical genetics I shall carry on doing nice long dog walks, but in the gym I will focus more on weights and resistance exercises. It’s something that’s advised for people over 50 anyway, so that’s all good.

Your data

If you’re worried about security and anonymity, Wez is keen to reassure me that I’m well protected. In the FAQs section of the site it states: “All our customers’ genetic data is triple locked. First our customers are anonymous to us in the database. Each customer is given a unique ID number, it is only with this code that the customer can unlock the data and have it displayed on their private mobile app. Secondly all customer data is encrypted throughout the data journey. So if anyone were to capture our data it would be both anonymous and encrypted. Thirdly we store customer genetic data on secure AWS servers.”

As for me…

I will be curious to see if the changes make me feel healthier and fitter, and if I lose weight. I’m interested also in the fact that some of the results felt completely right – like not having a sweet tooth, or being sensitive to coffee. But others less so – I’ve always assumed that I was able to tolerate wheat and dairy just fine, but hey. Maybe not.

If biohacking is something that interests you, this seems like a good place to start. I’ll let you know how I get on!

www.muhdo.com

Sam Harrington-Lowe

Sam is Silver’s founder and editor-in-chief. She’s largely responsible for organising all the things, but still finds time to do the odd bit of writing. Not enough though. Send help.

The post I got DNA profiling to determine my diet and health appeared first on Silver Magazine.

The latest research from LoveHoney (the ‘sexual happiness people’) shows that by 2031, you’ll be more likely to meet a partner online rather than off. Furthermore, 38% of people will meet the love of their life through online dating sites or apps.

the biggest growth area in online dating services in the next decade will be the 55 to 64 age group

It also shows that the biggest growth area in online dating services in the next decade will be the 55 to 64 age group, with a 30% rise in the number of singles in this age bracket. There’s a noticeable increase in them signing up to online dating sites.

Does this surprise you? Probably not.

With the likes of Tinder, Bumble, Grindr, and PlentyOfFish – to name but a few of the most popular online dating apps – it’s impossible to ignore this huge phenomenon in finding your lifelong partner (or even your ‘just for now’ partner!).

Too much choice (of both apps and potential partners) has led to serial daters who are never satisfied with their match; always on the lookout for someone more attractive, more intelligent, or simply more convenient due to their locality. And with sites such as Tinder allowing you to potentially connect with a new person at the swipe of button, it’s never been easier to be morally and physically more relaxed.

FINDING REAL CONNECTIONS?

So, how can you possibly find a true connection with this type of disconnected dating? And what’s the solution to this ennui with current dating apps? Well, the team behind Pheramor, a Houston-based dating app, think they’ve found the answer – DNA dating.

According to the website, ‘Pheramor is pioneering the next generation of matchmaking by combining science and technology. We bring love at first sight to the palm of your hand’.

This unique platform only requires a swab from the inside of your cheek and unlimited access to your social media platforms

Referring to themselves as ‘the world’s first smart dating app’, this unique platform only requires a swab from the inside of your cheek and unlimited access to your social media platforms. From which it claims to be able to find your perfect match.

On paper, this seems like the ideal solution to the current over-saturated online dating market – no need to fill in extensive profiles, and no need to be constantly updating your photos to stand out from an ever-increasing crowd of gorgeous high achievers who seem to all participate in extreme sports every single weekend! You know the ones I mean?

Wouldn’t it be easier for a third party to scientifically match you to your perfect partner? It’s science, so it must be foolproof, no?

Pheramor has a team of in-house scientists who can isolate the 11 key genes in your DNA that determine how physically attracted you are to another person

HOW IT WORKS

Pheramor has a team of in-house scientists who can isolate the 11 key genes in your DNA that determine how physically attracted you are to another person. In other words, they claim to be able to identify who you’ll be sexually compatible with by use of an algorithm. To support their theory, they call upon the 1998 ‘sweaty T-shirt experiment’. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Well, no one said the path to true love was paved with roses!

Within this study, a group of men were asked to wear the same t-shirt for two days. A group of women then had to smell these shirts and state which ones they felt most sexually attracted to. This experiment found that women were more attracted to the smell of men who had the greatest genetic difference from themselves on a specific chromosome.

Pheramor combines this analysis of your DNA with an extensive investigation and summary of your social media presence; for example, activities you’ve liked, events you’ve shared, places you’d like to visit, and any hashtags you’ve posted. This results in them, apparently, being able to find your perfect match!

DOES THIS SOUND TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

No more bad first dates? No more spending ages getting to know someone online, only to find that there’s no attraction in the flesh. No more ghosting (ending a relationship by suddenly withdrawing all communication), or benching (stopping meeting in person, but continuing to message online, basically keeping you on a hook). Just your perfect match, handed to you on a plate.

But isn’t half the fun of dating the anticipation? The not knowing if he or she will be ‘the one’? The fun, the laughter, and yes, sometimes the tears, of getting to know someone new? It’s like reaching the finish line before you’ve even started the race.

BACK TO BASICS
It may seem inconceivable to the younger generation, but people did meet, date and fall in love prior to the existence of online dating. Yes, we’re busier now – perhaps more than ever before. Yes, we live in a society where technology’s used on a daily, if not hourly basis, with everything from our shopping to banking to booking a holiday being carried out online.

But do we really need the internet for dating? Why not buck the trend and go old school? Ask family and friends for set-ups (they know you better than any algorithm will ever do). Widen your social circle, and be open to new experiences and meeting new people. Simply put yourself out there! What have you got to lose?!

Tabatha Fabray

The post DNA dating – is saliva and social media behaviour the key to finding ‘the one’? appeared first on Silver Magazine.