The lost family : how DNA testing is upending who we are
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : Abrams, 2020.
Format
Book
ISBN
9781419743009 (hbk.), 1419743007 (hbk.)
Physical Desc
294 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Status

Description

Loading Description...

Also in this Series

Checking series information...

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
Blanchard Community Library - Adult Non-Fiction929.1072 COPELANDOn Shelf
Carpinteria Library - Adult Non-Fiction929.107 COPELANDOn Shelf
Goleta Valley Library - Adult Non-Fiction929.1072 COPELANDOn Shelf
Lompoc Library - Adult Non-Fiction929.1072 C782On Shelf
Santa Maria Public Library - Adult Non-Fiction929.1072 COPELA 2020On Shelf

More Like This

Loading more titles like this title...

More Details

Published
New York : Abrams, 2020.
Language
English
ISBN
9781419743009 (hbk.), 1419743007 (hbk.)

Notes

Bibliography
Includes index.
Description
A deeply reported look at the rise of home genetic testing and the seismic shock it has had on individual lives You swab your cheek or spit into a vial, then send it away to a lab somewhere. Weeks later you get a report that might tell you where your ancestors came from or if you carry certain genetic risks. Or the report could reveal a long-buried family secret and upend your entire sense of identity. Soon a lark becomes an obsession, an incessant desire to find answers to questions at the core of your being, like “Who am I?” and “Where did I come from?” Welcome to the age of home genetic testing. In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. Copeland explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story. The Lost Family delves into the many lives that have been irrevocably changed by home DNA testsa technology that represents the end of family secrets. There are the adoptees whove used the tests to find their birth parents; donor-conceived adults who suddenly discover they have more than fifty siblings; hundreds of thousands of Americans who discover their fathers arent biologically related to them, a phenomenon so common it is known as a “non-paternity event”; and individuals who are left to grapple with their conceptions of race and ethnicity when their true ancestral histories are discovered. Throughout these accounts, Copeland explores the impulse toward genetic essentialism and raises the question of how much our genes should get to tell us about who we are. With more than thirty million people having undergone home DNA testing, the answer to that question is more important than ever. Gripping and masterfully told, The Lost Family is a spectacular book on a big, timely subject.

Reviews from GoodReads

Loading GoodReads Reviews.

Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Copeland, L. (2020). The lost family: how DNA testing is upending who we are . Abrams.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Copeland, Libby. 2020. The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are. Abrams.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Copeland, Libby. The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are Abrams, 2020.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Copeland, Libby. The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are Abrams, 2020.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.