Just read another interesting article on personal genetics (here).  I think we will learn so much in this field over the next twenty years.  Some of it may be really surprising.  Readers of my blog will know that I have been very active in doing my family history (Geneology).   I have just started to add genetics to that pursuit.  I of course have checked on my own Y and X chromosome which I have written about here.  My Y come from the middle east and my X from northern Spain. Ancestry keeps a data base of DNA research that has been done through them and shows you close matches. They are working on this project with 23andme so they can match up more people. I have yet to be in contact with anyone but I am very hopeful that I will find someone with my Y chromosome since I am at a dead end in my research regarding my father’s, father’s father.  I know more about my X chromosome.  I also know where copies of most of the Y and X chromosomes are of all my great grandparents.  I need to start to collect those while people (including me) are still around.    I recently read a great book on Jewish genetics, called Abraham’s Children which I recommend.

I also continue to monitor my own genes and that of my wifes at Navigenics where I found that both of us choose our parents well.  In our case it has not proven very helpful since we are in pretty good shape geneticly but I guess that is a good thing to know.  I can’t wait to we begin to relate diet and genetics so we can figure out what we should really eat.

One of the most interesting things I have seen comes from my study of my families history.  Starting with the children of my great great grandparents, Kalman and Sarah Wasserzug (their name was actually KRZWYKOWSKY but they used Wasserzug for reasons I still do not know), I can go down the generations and see two things that are statistically significant; 1) Cancer and 2) musical ability especially the piano).  I have both myself.  This can not just be the “jewish thing” since this branch of my family is just 16th of my genetic make up and all the rest is jewish too.