YOU ARE INVITED!

Ever wondered who you are... who you are deep within?

The Genographic Project team is collaborating with indigenous and traditional peoples around the world to learn more about where we came from and how we got to where we live today.   But participation is not restricted to indigenous and traditional peoples; the Genographic Project invites members of the general public to join us on the journey. Together we can tell the story of us all.

Purchase your own participation kit and submit your personal DNA sample for analysis in National Geographic & IBM’s Genographic Project. The Genographic Project Public Participation Kit is available for purchase in our Museum store.

About the Test

With a simple and painless cheek swab you can sample your own DNA and submit it to the lab. The Genographic Project team will run ONE test per participation kit. They will test either your mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down each generation from mother to child and reveals your direct maternal ancestry; or your Y chromosome (males only), which is passed down from father to son and reveals your direct paternal ancestry.

What to Expect

Your results will reveal your deep ancestry along a single line of direct descent (paternal or maternal) and show the migration paths they followed thousands of years ago. Your results will also place you on a particular branch of the human family tree. Some anthropological stories are more detailed than others, depending upon the lineage you belong to. For example, if you are of African descent, your results will show the initial movements of your ancestors on the African continent, but will not reflect most of the migrations that have occurred within the past 10,000 years. Your individual results may confirm your expectations of what you believe your deep ancestry to be, or you may be surprised to learn a new story about your genetic background.  You will not receive a percentage breakdown of your genetic background by ethnicity, race, or geographic origin.   Nor will you receive confirmation of an association with a particular tribe or ethnic group.  Furthermore, this is not a genealogy study. You will not learn about your great-grandparents or other recent relatives, and your DNA trail will not necessarily lead to your present-day location.   Rather, your results will reveal the anthropological story of your direct maternal or paternal ancestors—where they lived and how they migrated around the world many thousands of years ago.

A Real-Time Research Project

Your initial results are just the beginning.  They are based on current science and may become more detailed and refined as the ongoing field research yields new information.  Visit the Genographic Project’s Web site often to follow along as they post new findings and automatically update your results www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic.

Contribute Your Results to the Anonymous Database

Once you receive your results, the Genographic Project team encourages you to contribute to the Project by including your results in their global database. This process is optional and completely anonymous, but it's a very important component of the project and they hope that you will choose to do so. It is also a rare opportunity to take part in a real-time scientific study. Just follow the instructions at the bottom of your results page and answer a few quick questions that will help place your results in a cultural context.  This is a unique opportunity to both participate in and contribute to a real-time, landmark research project. Not only will you learn something about your own past, but you will also help the Genographic Project team uncover some of the lingering mysteries of our history as one human family.

The Charles H. Wright Museum's Participation Kit costs (Museum Members: U.S. $109.95 or Museum Non-members U.S. $134.95 (includes a single adult annual membership).

The kit includes  

• DVD with a Genographic Project overview hosted by Dr. Spencer Wells, visual instructions on how to collect a DNA sample using a cheek scraper, and a bonus feature program: the National Geographic Channel/PBS production The Journey of Man.  
• Exclusive National Geographic map illustrating human migratory history and created especially for the launch of the Genographic Project. 
• Buccal swab kit, instructions, and a self-addressed envelope in which to return your cheek swab sample.
• Detailed brochure about the Genographic Project, featuring stunning National Geographic photography

Confidential Genographic Project ID # (GPID) to anonymously access your results at the Genographic Project’s website    

Return Your Kit

Once you have completed the cheek scraping process, you will secure the scrapers inside the transport tubes, sign the informed consent form and mail the tubes and form off to the Genographic lab.   Please, make sure to apply appropriate postage to the return envelope.   It is recommend that you take the package to your local post office to be weighed and mailed, as failure to provide sufficient postage will cause a delay of several weeks while the lab waits for your package to arrive. 

That's it!

In about eight weeks from receiving your DNA sample—the time necessary for the laboratory to correctly analyze your DNA—your results will be ready. Note that in some cases inconclusive results require us to do additional testing to determine your haplogroup. This may add several weeks to the process. In the meantime, visit the Geographic Project website www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic  to see where your sample is in the analysis process. 

Get Your Results

To be clear—these tests are not conventional genealogy. Your results will not provide names for your personal family tree or tell you where your great grandparents lived. Rather, they will indicate the maternal or paternal genetic markers your deep ancestors passed on to you and the story that goes with those markers.  Once your results are posted, you will be able to learn something about that story and the journey of your ancestors. The genetic profile you receive is more than a static set of data. It is like an ongoing subscription to your genetic history. Your profile might become more detailed as additional people from around the world participate, so be sure to return to the Genographic Project Web site for project updates.  

A Note on Privacy

To ensure the privacy of participants, the Genographic Project has built an anonymous analysis process. Your Participation Kit will be mailed with a randomly-generated, non-sequential Genographic Participant ID number (GPID). No one knows the random code included in the Kit. When you send in your DNA sample with your consent form, they will only be identified by your GPID.  Therefore, your cheek cells will be analyzed completely anonymously.   In order to access your test results, you will need to access the Genographic Project Web site and enter your GPID, so it is very important that you do not lose your GPID.

For more information on the Genographic Project, please visit www.nationalgeographic.com/genographic