DNA: The Cheney Line

Last year I wrote about the genographic project at National Geographic. Well I am happy to announce that Genealogy Torch received a generous grant to participate and learn about my paternal (Cheney) line's migration paths from thousands of years ago.

If this goes well, I might also pay to learn about my maternal line (ie Mary Enright's mother's line). By looking at my paternal and maternal lines, we'll probably be seeing English and Irish decent. I am also curious about the German (Paulus) line as well as my wife's side, particularly the Ukrainian and Italian lines. But much of that would require other people to submit DNA, which in some cases might not be realistic.

I sent in my DNA a couple weeks ago and it is already in process. In case you are curious, here is what the Genographic Project says is happening to my DNA:

DNA ISOLATION

The cells are broken open by incubation with a protein-cutting enzyme overnight. Chemicals and the samples are transferred into deep well blocks for robotic DNA isolation. The blocks of chemicals and samples are placed on the extraction robot. The robotic DNA isolation uses silica-coated iron beads. In the presence of the appropriate chemicals DNA will bind to silica. The robot then uses magnetic probes to collect the beads (and DNA) and transfer them through several chemical washes and finally into a storage buffer, which allows the beads to release the DNA. At this point the beads are collected and discarded.