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Congress is closing in on an effective ban of a China-based genomics company accused of stealing Americans' DNA and exploiting Covid to collect genetic data. The Beijing Genomics Institute, now known as BGI Group, is one of the largest genomic sequencing companies in the world and is listed by the Pentagon as a 'Chinese military company.' Republicans in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), Congress' must-pass legislation that sets military policy for the year, launched an effort to ban the firm from doing business with any company that takes U.S. government contracts in what could be a major jolt to...

Angela Davis is a Marxist University of California professor who won the Soviet Union's Lenin Peace Prize and was once accused of supplying weapons to a black supremacist who went on to murder Superior Court Judge Harold Haley and two inmates. The 79-year-old identitarian, one of the founders of critical race theory and a former Black Panther, was shocked to learn on Tuesday's episode of PBS' "Finding Your Roots" that she is the descendant of a slave owner as well as of one of America's first settlers. Henry Louis Gates Jr., the host of the documentary television series that explores...

She’s Sitting Bulls-t.A Canadian medical researcher who rose to become the nation’s top voice on indigenous health has been ousted from her government job and her university professorship — after suspicious colleagues investigated her increasingly fanciful claims of Native American heritage and learned she was a fraud.

Kezia Obama, widow of the Kenyan Barack H. Obama, has passed away at the age of 81. A native of Kenya, Obama moved to the village of Bracknell in the United Kingdom and was receiving treatment there when she died. Cause of death was not disclosed. In 1956, Kezia married Barack H. Obama and as Darrogh Roche of Newsweek reports, the Kenyan “later” married the American Stanley Ann Dunham, mother to former U.S President Barack Obama, born in Hawaii in 1961.The Kenyan Barack H. Obama, born in 1934, didn’t have much to say about Ann Dunham. In all his...

It may surprise many to learn that Donald Trump, having campaigned so fiercely on the issue of curbing immigration, is himself the son of an economic migrant. Half of Donald Trump's DNA is Scottish. His late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born and raised on the remote and beautiful Scottish Isle of Lewis, before leaving as a 17-year-old for the United States to work as a domestic servant in 1930. CNN traveled to the far-flung island to trace Trump's roots, how his mother's origins may have shaped the presidential candidate, and how he is viewed there today.

From Ireland to the Balkans, Europeans are basically one big family, closely related to one another for the past thousand years, according to a new study of the DNA of people from across the continent. The study, co-authored by Graham Coop, a professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California, Davis, will be published May 7 in the journal PLoS Biology. "What's remarkable about this is how closely everyone is related to each other. On a genealogical level, everyone in Europe traces back to nearly the same set of ancestors only a thousand years ago," Coop said. "This...

Joan Tribble held tightly to her cane as she ventured into the overgrown cemetery where her people were buried. There lay the pioneers who once populated north Georgia’s rugged frontier, where striving white men planted corn and cotton, fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves The settlers interred here were mostly forgotten over the decades as their progeny scattered across the South, embracing unassuming lives. But one line of her family took another path, heading north on a tumultuous, winding journey that ultimately led to the White House The white men and women buried here are the forebears of Mrs....

NEW YORK – And you thought it was strange to hear that Barack Obama was related to Dick Cheney. Well, betcha can't guess who he's related to now! Yup — the president has family ties to none other than Sarah Palin, according to the genealogists at Ancestry.com, a discovery the family history site made when looking for connections between political foes. And that's not all — Obama also is apparently related to radio host and relentless critic Rush Limbaugh. Might you want to reconsider some of your recent comments, Mr. Limbaugh, now that you're apparently family? A genealogist at the...

So Spike goes on NBC's WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE last night. Hilarity ensues...as we watch Spike turn several shades of grey as he comes to terms with the fact that: *His great grandpa worked in a CONFEDERATE Colt pistol factory, that was burned down by Sherman. * He almost certainly has white blood. * His ancestors not only had 40 acres and a mule, they had 80 acres and a mule by the 1870 census. *His third cousin twice removed was a fine southern lady living in Texas. Now I have a soft spot for Spike, and his...

My wife's grandmother passed last week. As part of her personal effects is a folder containing various birth, marriage, naturalization, and other family documents. The problem is they are from Brazil so are in Portuguese. Even the names are confusing some of them are several names instead of just first middle last like they are in English. Also seems that the Father took the Mother's name as one of the middle names? Compounded this with many of them are hand written on pre-printed forms.

Church records are one of our most important sources of information about the births, marriages and deaths of our ancestors. And before the 19th century, they are our only source of information on births, marriages and deaths—because churches were keeping records of important life events long before governments were. In 1538, Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s Vicar General, issued an order that each parish in England keep a record of every baptism, marriage and burial it performed. The UK government, on the other hand, did not start keeping vital records until 1837. (To search indexes of most of the UK government’s...

Genetics, DNA - strong Proof of (almost all) Jews' roots to the land of Israel, not so for Arabs /"palestinians" [The "palestinian" Arabs as "cousins" MYTH]Jews and their neighbors: The Middle East With Jews looking increasingly like a relatively cohesive population largely of Middle Eastern origin, the logical next question is how close a genetic relationship exists with other Middle Eastern groups. A study of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs published in 2000 by Israeli researchers revealed what the authors described as "a relatively recent common ancestry." It was greeted with euphoric proclamations that Palestinians and Jews are "brothers." A...

The website that lets you find out where your family came from online Last updated at 02:23am on 30.08.08  Ever wondered where in the world you can find the most Crooks, Cranks and Losers?  Or, come to that, the places overrun by people called Smith or Jones?  Well, wonder no more. A website launched today can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about surnames  -  unusual or otherwise.   Pure Klass: Myleene   It uses more than one billion records to show which countries, regions and cities have the greatest concentrations of a given surname. Simply...

Pop singer Victoria Beckham is a descendant of a 19th century German communist who was close to Karl Marx, a German historian was quoted as saying on Monday. Beckham, born Victoria Adams and now wife of soccer player David Beckham, is the great-great-great-granddaughter of revolutionary and artist Carl Heinrich Pfaender, said Hans Mueller, a historian from the southwestern city of Heilbronn. Mueller told news agency ddp he had researched the life of Heilbronn native Pfaender, who lived from 1819 to 1876 and was a close associate of Marx and Friedrich Engels. Pfaender took part in the failed revolution of 1848...

In the twelve plus years that I’ve been writing this weekly column, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned the Highlands Writers Group. That is a shifting association of professional writers, semi-pros like me, and gifted amateurs. One of the finest writers in the group is Anne Doggett; she helped create the Group a decade ago, She’s a distant cousin who creates Southern people and situations on paper easily as well as the legendary Eudora Welty. I won’t mention any of the other members for fear of slighting excellent talent among those I don’t mention, Suffice to say, there’s enough talent...

Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...

Of all the claims in support of John McCain's bid for the White House, perhaps none is quite as grand as this. As he arrived in London today, the publishers of his new book insisted the Republican senator's family was descended from the Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. For a veteran war hero staking his presidential campaign on military credentials, an ancestral link to a warrior who overcame the English to reclaim Scottish independence in 1314 has obvious appeal. But according to experts, the story may be no more than that. Asked by the Guardian to investigate McCain's past, genealogists...

While doing some research last night I discovered a web page for Ellis Island immigrants. Ellis IslandMy Great grandfather immigrated here from Barbados when his children, my grandmother and great uncles, were young. I had known litle of my great grandmother, only that she had died while my grandmother was very young. I assumed that she had died in Barbados and my great grandfather brought his children alone. Looking through the Ellis Island records, I was able to locate the original ship manifest that my grandmother and great grandmother were on. My grandmother was less than 1 year old. My...

Mormon church helps public discover ancestors PLEASANTON ? Getting to know your ancestors now might come in handy when you meet them in the afterlife. This is part of the philosophy behind the popularity of genealogy with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "We believe that family is eternal, and it continues beyond the grave," said Nickie White, one of several regular volunteers at the Pleasanton Family History Center. The center, located adjacent to the Pleasanton church, is open to the public four days a week. The service is free, and volunteers are on hand to help with...

People of African origin have lived in Britain for centuries, according to genetic evidence. A Leicester University study found that seven men with a rare Yorkshire surname carry a genetic signature previously found only in people of African origin. The men seem to have shared a common ancestor in the 18th Century, but the African DNA lineage they carry may have reached Britain centuries earlier. The connection was found to date back many generations Details of the study appear in the European Journal of Human Genetics. The scientists declined to disclose the men's surname in order to protect their...