04-04 Ashkenazi

Mother’s mother did not have one day of schooling in Romania, but according to my father, she was the smartest person he had ever known. And her family tree is sprinkled with PhDs. She was an Ashkenazi Jew.
And even in high school, studying physics and the work of Albert Einstein, I learned that he was also an Ashkenazi Jew. The photo above should be well recognized.
Today, with the advantages of genetic testing, grandmother’s descendants can test for their Ashkenazi roots and determine if there are any risks to having some of the genetic disorders found in this Jewish population. One of her grand daughters was determined to be 40% Ashkenazi.
I asked this niece of mine if this genetic information was required to get insurance. And, not surprisingly, she said this was just about knowing what she might pass on to her children.
Today, genetic testing is promoted on television and for $129 you can find out from a saliva sample your family history. These companies have compiled massive data bases that show genetic differences by geography and ethnicity.
I guess more of us are what we used to call “Heinz 57 Varieties”, the typical description for a mutt we would buy for $5 at the Humane Society.
Most families have members worth boasting about as well as some that are a little goofy that we keep hidden away. When I asked my father if the way a goofy uncle behaved was genetic, he said with great humour that “His personality was in the same category as a wooden leg.”.
We discovered only recently a distant cousin via Ancestry.ca and have had great fun together sharing our past. Apparently, our Irish great grandfathers were brothers. She said her grandmother was told not to marry this Bulloch person because insanity runs in the family.
And, son-of-a-gun, a form of autism does run in the family and there is at least one person in each generation which either suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder or Asperger’s Syndrome. But a hundred years ago we just called people with these afflictions, peculiar.
If there is anything I have learned over the years it is the value of knowing yourself to better function in life with workers and family. And now that we know that our behaviour is both a product of nature and nurture, genetic testing is a great technological and societal advance.
That’s the way I see it anyways.