Deep down everybody wants to know who they are and where they came from it s one of the restless curious qualities that makes us human But what happens if you discover that everything you thought was true was in fact a lie That s exactly what happened to Cheryl Whittle who used genetic tests to dig into her family history and uncovered a story complex than she ever realized Cheryl isn t alone Millions of people now use popular DNA testing services like 23AndMe to look into their past But while these amateur genetic detectives are often happy to understand about themselves their quest often breaches the privacy of others In Uprooted Virginia Hughes confronts the thorny questions created by 21st century genealogy of whether the price of knowledge is acceptable After all your genetic code may be the most personal thing there is but it s not just yours to control any UprootedScience writer specializing in brains genes and drugs My blog Only Human is published by National Geographic. This story written by Virginia Hughes was excellent in my opinion I was one of the subjects she discusses in the article and at the time I had no idea how the search for my biological father would turn out My name is Cheryl Ann Wilmoth Whittle and I found my biological paternal family the following year in July 2014 I am blessed to have found my father to be Roy Oscar Barden who passed away in 1999 However I was able to locate my paternal uncle brothers sister and a wonderful loving and caring step mother I encountered lots of naysayers through my 7 8 years of searching but I never gave up All in all I feel it was worth the intensive work I put in to my search And I am blessed to have my extended family in my life. Virginia Hughes also covered the final chapter of my search in her story Uprooted Again In that portion of the story she has written about the end of my search and the beginning of my relationship with my Barden family I would recommend both of these short reads And I thank Virginia Hughes for including me in her writings I couldn t have asked for a better writer to tell my story and express my feelings Kindle Edition Short because it is a Kindle single But it was really very interesting Kindle Edition This is a short piece est 37 pages available as a kindle single or as the October 2013 selection of the online magazine Matter readmatter. com It s an excellent article about genetic genealogy the practice of comparing ones DNA to that of others in a database in order to determine your family history or locate relatives At first thought it seems like a good idea but Hughes describes how it can backfire on you uncovering information and relationships you may have preferred not to know about There are also privacy issues because your DNA does not belong solely to yourself your relatives share portions of it and if you make your information available in a public database personal information about your relatives can often be extrapolated This is very well written bringing in the personal stories of a number of people who undertook such a search with varying results The author focused on the unexpected nature of the results but handled it tastefully and with sympathy My only complaint was that I wish she could have spent a little space on privacy and legal issues Kindle Edition .