This news story on the BBC site is one that I am afraid of. Despite the fact that yDNA cannot be used to identify individuals, it is stories like this that will make it difficult to convince people to have their DNA tested for the WRYEllis yDNA study.
I listened to some discussions about genetic research on BBC Five Live today and it not surprising to find that genetic research will be a contentious issue for some time to come.
In terms of any yDNA study, it will be necessary to educate people about the limitations of the data that can be gained from the analysis of the Y chromosome. I remember how I struggled with the concept when I did my O’Level Biology many years ago when we knew even less that we do now.
I have a feeling that studies like this will cause some female opposition if what we read is true about the level of infidelity amongst our partners Here is one of the many stories on the matter < a href=’http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4137506.stm’>One in 25 fathers ‘not the daddy’. I don’t think that there was any less infidelity in years gone by ( where did the stories of milkmen and posties come from?) and so there may be shocks for some people along the way.
Basically, if you do not want to shake any family skeletons out of the cupboard, don’t do genealogy and certainly do not do genetic genealogy.
Cheers