The Abolitionist's Secret by Becky Lower

She had her DNA analyzed in 2015 and learned some surprising things about the ancestry of her mother, who had been adopted as an infant in 1927. Joan Hostetler, a photo historian and founding director of The Indiana Album.

Guest host and associate producer Mick Armbruster interviews three Hoosier women who have conducted a personal DNA analysis that yielded surprising results. In this Hoosier History Live show originally broadcast in 2017, we examine what personal DNA testing reveals about ourselves and our shared history. What does our genetic information tell us about ourselves? If we use online sleuthing to contact relatives revealed by the DNA tests, should we consider them family? What if they would rather not have heard from us? And what if we learn that the race or ethnicity revealed by our DNA is different than the one we had always identified with? Does the newly available genetic information outweigh culture, tradition and family lore in our sense of who we are? And with the advent of personal DNA analysis from services such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA, more and more individuals are learning about the admixture of ethnicities in their genetic heritage, as well as discovering possible matches for unknown blood relatives who have undergone DNA testing themselves.īut these tests have raised thorny questions. As is clear from the popularity of the PBS show Finding Your Roots, and from the high volume of visitors to the website, many Americans are interested in learning about their family history.

The Abolitionist's Secret by Becky Lower