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Who counts as Family?

Sometimes you just can’t escape family, can you? Even if you are separated from them at birth, they are there: their DNA clings to you; you are forever stalked. And yet for some it is no doubt comforting to know that they belong to a group which, however distant, still owes them fealty, if only genetically. I find that consoling, albeit somewhat creepy.

My family was almost completely nuclear, though: my parents, along with my brother and I, were it. I never met most of my father’s large family -or my mother’s, for that matter- because they each lived several thousand miles from us, and in the summer when we headed west to visit, my mother’s parents were the only relatives to whom I was properly introduced. I suppose that doesn’t diminish the importance of the others, of course, but all the same, they have remained strangers; I would not recognize them in a crowd; even with membership in a tribe, you may not know them all…

Since 2012 there has been a long running program on television that seems to have a particular allure: Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, junior. Professor Gates is a well-known historian who amongst many other things, is interested in Black culture, and more recently perhaps, in genealogy. Although the program often features recognizable celebrity guests, the idea is to make people wonder about their ancestors and what they might have contributed to their present-day identities. Was it more than chance that they have become who they are?

But what should we make of really distant relatives? Do we owe them anything…? What should we do with them if many of their  genes insist on sticking around, wanting to move in with us even if, technically, they are hardly family? Of course, what do you do with loyal employees, or long term friends who’ve known the family for countless years, and have nowhere else to live?

I suppose we all wonder about things like that. At my age, however, any ancestral heritage is just a shadow; I’m curious, to be sure, but not obsessed. Anyway, if I trace things back far enough, I am probably related to some royal family somewhere, a notorious medieval criminal perhaps, or maybe even Beethoven (I share a birthday with him, after all…). And if I go even further back, I’m told we all share some of the genetic information of a worm-like creature that lived some 500 or so million years ago. And yet, does that change anything for who I am today? My curiosity fades after a few thousand years, I’m afraid.

Of course, there are some things about shared DNA which do intrigue me. Doppelgängers, for example. These are people so similar in appearance that they may even be mistaken for twins. They may live in different cities -different countries, for that matter- and yet there is research which suggests that people with very similar faces may also share many of the same genes and lifestyle traits[i]: nine of the 16 very similar-looking Doppelgängers in one study shared many common genetic variations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms. But even though they had similar genetics and traits, the look-alikes had very different microbiomes (communities of helpful and harmful microbes that live on and in the human body), and different epigenomes (variations in expressed traits influenced by the experiences of past generations). So, this suggests that it is DNA that is primarily responsible for how similar doppelgängers look, not environmental factors or shared life experiences. I mean I don’t think that makes them family or anything, but still it is something to wonder about.

Anyway, I digress. Similarities in DNA over the millennia have also been what allowed scientists to infer commonalities amongst organisms: common roots, common survival strategies; hair mites, are examples. Sequencing the mites’ mitochondrial DNA revealed different lineages that closely match the ancestral geography of their human hosts[ii]. ‘One mite lineage is common among people of European ancestry, no matter where they live in the world now, and is persistent even after generations in new locations. Other mite lineages are more common among people of Asian, African or Latin American ancestry.’ I mean, genealogically speaking they’re not really family either, but they tag along as if they were adopted into it.

Still, even if we have delved into their ancestral roots like that (sorry), what are we to do with the information? Well, for one thing the fidelity of the mites is helpful in tracing ancient human migration patterns. But why, you might ask, would they be so faithful? Some explanations suggest it might be related to the type of skin that selects the clade of mite. Perhaps, but Demodex folliculorum, the variety of mite that is supposedly so very faithful that it has followed us around the world from our original migration out of Africa is, in fact, polyamorous (albeit without unanimous consent) –contagious might describe them more accurately, though. True, they prefer the facial area, and if you don’t carry around too many of them, they can even be beneficial because they remove dead skin cells and extra oil on your skin. So as long as you don’t have too many of them on your skin, you are unlikely to experience any problems. I mean, out of sight, out of mind, eh? But they’re only companions at best: groupies who are only in it for the skin, followers who know of no other life… I cast no aspersions on them, mind you. We all follow one group or another, I guess. Anyway, as long as I don’t have to look at them, I’m good.

Of course, maybe that’s the point about why genetic families are so different. Maybe that’s what Finding Your Roots is celebrating.  Relatives are supposed to be loyal -on call for Family throughout the ages; they pass important stuff along. But for mites, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas -well, at least nothing official that shows up on the genetic tests, I suppose.

I’ve never trusted mites though; I’ve never wanted to find them in my roots, if you really want to know…

[i] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/doppelgangers-dont-just-look-alike-they-also-share-dna-180980635/

[ii] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-hair-mites-are-so-loyal-their-dna-reflects-your-ancestry-180957545

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