"She wondered: What if people started finding out things they didn't know about themselves?
So she begins with a short survey asking people their race and what they know about their ancestry. They spit into a vial. Several weeks later, they get an email with an estimate of their ethnic makeup, a color-coded map of their past.
That leads to questions, and stories, and curiosity. It is a welcome reset from awkwardness, defensiveness, suspicion. Now that the DNA tests are cheaper, Foeman is able to ask all the students in her honors class - almost all of them freshmen just getting to know or redefine themselves - to take the test...
Foeman, who is African-American - and genetically more than one-quarter European, as she now knows - would like to test as many people as she can. It's a way to study everything from medicine to history. Most of all, she'd like to get everyone talking.
She has found people willing, even eager, to take part, with more than 1,500 on campus volunteering.
"I think people want this," she said. "That surprises me - in a good way."...
"It's interesting the ones you cheer for and the ones you go, 'Ehhhhhhh,' " Foeman said. "There are ones you lean into."
That's how family histories get told and identities defined, she says. Some things are exaggerated, some covered up or forgotten. "There are all kinds of secrets in families.""
I agree with this idea, with the caveat that people should ideally have some forum to discuss their results in.
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