The Genetic Strand: Exploring a Family History Through DNA

There's "genealogy" and there's "family history" -- and then there's the full-dress collective biography of a family, which is much more difficult to create, much less to make interesting to those outside the family. Ball's very successful first attempt at the art was _Slaves in the Family,_ which won the National Book Award in 1998, and is a compelling and enormously fascinating work of research and storytelling. A Georgia boy with deep South Carolina roots, he came into possession a few years later of a very old desk, a family heirloom, in which he discovered a secret drawer, which in turn held a secret trove of locks of hair from family members of a century and a half in the past, all tied up in little paper packets and carefully identified. A couple of decades ago, this would have been merely a slightly bizarre curiosity, but with recent advances in the biosciences, Ball knew immediately that he would have to investigate whatever DNA remained in the hair samples. Not being a scientist, he went to the experts for testing and analysis. This very readable volume is the story of that investigation, with full explanations of the technical background written in as uncomplicated language as it's possible to be with such a subject. (And he doesn't always get the details of the science right, I'm told, but neither would most of us be able to.) Being in many ways a classic Southerner, Ball knew a great deal about his family -- or thought he did. But as the results of the analysis began to come in, the story he was expecting to tell changed completely. He wasn't quite who he had thought he was. Except for reference volumes, I confess I don't often buy works of nonfiction; that's what public libraries are for. But I bought _Slaves in the Family_ (and have read it twice) and I bought this one. I recommend it unreservedly, especially to Southerners.

Learning family history through a few strands of his ancestors' hair was what I thought the premise of Edward Ball's book was. However, when his search for identity through genetics became more convoluted with the intricacies and fallibilities of the science, the book became much more profound and thought-provoking than I had originally anticipated. For those who do have some background in genetics as I did, don't be discouraged by the elementary principles that Ball explicates at the beginning of the book; this is simply to catch up readers who don't already have that background. After that point, unless you are a geneticist yourself, you will find much about genetics theory and practice that you don't know. Ball, by finding the personal side of science, undermines the typically impersonal way science is understood.

I found this an intriguing book. DNA technology has become almost synonymous with crime detection and paternity suits for most people, but the author, Edward Ball, chose to do a study of his ancestors, using samples of their hair kept as mementoes during the 19th Century and stored away in the secret drawer of an old desk since their collection. Each specimen was labeled with date and individual name, and the author was also possessed of considerable historical information regarding their lives, which fleshed out the family story to a great degree. My aunt Dorothy, who does the family genealogy for the Drakes, Chesters, and other branches of our family, has compiled a long list of names, birthdates, marriage dates, etc, but it contains so little that is relevant to the lives of those listed, that it has little to offer a reader who wants to connect with the past. Here the author tells a tale of a family who owned large plantations, married endogamously by habit, preference and necessity, suffering occasional insanity as a result, and lived through the trials of the Civil War and its aftermath. What a tale. It reads like a novel with expert commentary. The author, though not himself a scientist, did an excellent job of describing the process of DNA extraction, analysis, and interpretation for the lay reader, using the technological jargon sparingly and explaining it well when it was used. Because the information he obtained pertained primarily to his own questions regarding family members, it was a more intimate look at the science and what it can and cannot do. What he discovered was pretty much what might have been expected from what he was told by others and by documents, but the sense that he made of the past was more than worth the effort. The story is very readable and well told.

I have followed the fates of the extended Ball family and their slave descendents in Slaves in the Family and The Sweet Hell Inside by Edward Ball. Ball now gives us a more scientific emphasis in his new book, The Genetic Strand. The Genetic Strand is part science, part history and all fascinating. The Ball family was prominent in Charleston, SC and once owned dozens of plantations on the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. The original Charleston Balls were very prolific and their family tree is both impressive and complicated. The idea for The Genetic Strand came about quite by accident. Ball purchased a group of original furnishings from Limerick Plantation, one of the many Ball plantations. One of the items was a secretary-style desk. Hidden inside a secret drawer, the author discovered a hair collection--the samples carefully snipped and wrapped in paper with names and dates. All the hair was from the 1800s and all but two were from Ball family members. "The hidden drawer didn't strike me as a jewelry box as much as it did a natural history cabinet: its contents were like fossils, or teeth, little extras Louis and Mary Leakey might have kept on the mantel." Soon after the discovery of the hair sample, Ball's mother passed away--giving the hair new meaning. "The hair consisted of bits of relatives making it attractive as surrogate intimacy." Ball decides to take his hair samples and have them tested for both DNA and toxic residues. He also had his own DNA tested, as well as the DNA of two cousins, so that he could make comparisons. He was hoping to "enhance family stories" and prove his origins. Was it possible that there were some skeletons in the Ball family closet? This part of The Genetic Strand reads like a mystery. The other part of The Genetic Strand deals with molecular biology and DNA. Ball tries to gives us a primer on DNA, including how it was identified, how it is tested, how it is transmitted, and how testing is used (forensics, paternity, criminologists, etc.). He also interviews some of the pioneers in DNA research. This is a fascinating topic--even if I didn't always understand all the details. Ball's experience with DNA testing shows that it still isn't an exact science. Also, while much has been discovered about DNA, there is still much to be learned. Several Ball relatives suffered from schizophrenia. "Probably there were madness genes rattling at the bottom of the family tin, but the instruments didn't reach deep enough to find them." My only complaint about The Genetic Strand is very minor: the children of first cousins are second cousins, not first cousins once removed. Normally I wouldn't read a book that is found in the biology section of a bookstore. But in the Genetic Strand, Edward Ball combines biology with the story he does best, and that is his historic Charleston ancestors.

Edward Ball comes from a large Southern family with a long history in Charleston, South Carolina. Using packets of hair his ancestors collected from their children and other relatives and then cached in an old desk, he attempted to learn more about his genetic background by having the DNA extracted and analyzed. He used a variety of labs in both North America and Europe, and finished with some answers and a few new puzzles. One of the deep, dark, secrets of American genealogy is the amount of admixture to be found in most people. There is no such thing as a "pure" Indo-European, Sub-Saharan African, or Native American, though many still maintain that they are racially homogeneous. On the other hand, many who have done a little reading and a little experimenting with DNA research themselves tend to make the assumption that the science is so crystal clear that all the answers are right there, ready to be cheek swabbed and analyzed. Ball does a good job of demonstrating that both assumptions are false. His research indicated possible Native American and Sub-Saharan African ancestry mixed in with his "Nordic" Ball genes, then later indicated that such ancestry might not exist after all. The hair samples sometimes yielded much information, but often remained frustratingly silent. In chronicling his research into his family's past history Ball also gives a good overview of the science behind DNA research, making sense of highly technical terms and jargon so that general readers can get a better sense of what actually takes place in DNA analysis. As a genealogist with a Southern family background very similar to Ball's, I enjoyed reading his stories about his ancestors and his quest to learn more about their racial makeup. One of my great-grandmothers made a collection of hair from herself and her husband and oldest son which I now possess, so I was interested in reading Ball's history of this nineteenth century custom and how he made use of it. I have also had my own DNA analyzed and learned some intriguing things about my own ancestry. In my case, a family legend that a great-great-great-grandmother had been a full-blooded Cherokee Indian was disproved when my mitochondrial DNA, which I inherited from her, proved to be of European origin. Ball has done a good job of making a highly technical science understandable and, more importantly, of demonstrating that that science is still in its infancy and capable of error and uncertainties. His book should be read by anyone considering having DNA research done or by anyone interested in this new and fascinating area.