WDYTYA: Blair Underwood

Last night's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was pretty interesting. I like the show mainly because the episodes usually give you ideas for resources and tools that you may not have known about or considered using.

Lat night, Blair Underwood discovered a tenth cousin in Cameroon, Africa via DNA testing. He also found that he had a significant portion of DNA that was traced to Europe-- France and Germany, specifically. He laughed when he was told this, saying that he had always felt an unexplainable connection to France.

From what I have seen, many black Americans have some white ancestry; sometimes it comes out in light-colored eyes or other caucasian features. I remember an episode of WDYTYA featuring Spike Lee in which he discovers that one of his 3rd great-grandfathers was white. I couldn't help enjoying his reaction of thinly-veiled horror, as he has always struck me as racist.

Another cool thing about the Blair Underwood episode was that it showed something that most history books don't mention: that not all slave owners back in the day were white. Yes, there were actually black slave owners. Underwood learns that an ancestor of his actually owned other family members, most likely so that they wouldn't have to leave Virginia due to a law that freed slaves had to do so within one year of their release. A clever, albeit sad, way to keep one's family together.

The remains of Ned Kelly discovered

No, I'm not related to Australia's most famous son.

But art teacher Leigh Olver is; he is Ned's great-great nephew. And thanks to him, an almost complete skeleton has been identified as belonging to the legendary bushranger and outlaw.

Kelly, who was hanged for murder at Melbourne Gaol on November 11, 1880, was exhumed in 1929 and reburied in a mass grave at Pentridge Prison. Because it was a mass grave, his bones were mixed with the bones of others.

Ned Kelly on the day before his execution

Mr. Olver is descended from Ned Kelly's mother, Ellen (Quinn) Kelly, through an entirely maternal line. Since mitochondrial DNA is passed down through females, this means they were able to compare the DNA of the bones in the grave against Olver's. This, along with other physical evidence, allowed them to identify Kelly's.

The only thing they haven't found yet, apparently, is Ned's skull...

Leigh Olver with the remains of his Uncle Ned

Further reading:

Ned Kelly's life and death: timeline

How Ned Kelly's Remains were identified

To DNA test or not to DNA test?

Been toying with the idea of eventually ordering DNA testing kits via ancestry.com, but am not sure if the cost would be worth the information they would provide. I understand what the tests are looking for and everything, but do I really care where my 230th great-grandparents migrated? Do I really want to shell out $179 to $379 to discover that (oh wow!) my earliest ancestors lived in the caves of France and painted on walls?