Dear Family (from Bruce)

Dear Family:

Thanks to Betsy for setting up this blog.

As you may know, Vivian has done a lot of genealogical research to track down some of our illustrious (and not) ancestors. Recently, Ellen and I have become interested in another tracking project -- tracking our genetic heritage. National Geographic's Genographic Project will trace your genetic ancestry by means of a DNA mouth swab (for $119 per sample). Men can trace both their paternal and maternal lines; women can trace their maternal lines only (you have to have a Y chromosome in order to trace the paternal line). Ellen and I are both going to do this.

In reading up on this, I learned that my blood type (B negative) is quite uncommon, and that it is particularly unusual in people of European ancestry. It is most often found in the Himalayas (northern India and Pakistan) and in Central Asia. Check out the article and map at http://anthro.palomar.edu/vary/vary_3.htm. Maybe we have some Pakistani or Kazakh blood in our veins! Here's my question -- what is everybody's blood type? Pat, do you know what Ross's blood type was? Viv? Dave? Peter? Second and third gen'ers? If you don't mind, please let me know your blood types (bruceherr@earthlink.net). I'll post the results of my blood typing on the blog when I get them, if they're not too scandalous. And let me know if anybody else decides to send in a sample.

--Bruce.