The Ghost of the ‘Y’: Paternal DNA, Haunting and Genealogy

Abstract

Based on a personal family history experience, in this paper, I consider the way in which genealogical DNA testing is revealing family secrets, in particular paternity secrets, which would previously have remained unknown via ‘traditional’ methods of genealogical research. Reasons for the displacement of these invisible fathers from the records are discussed, and the power of genealogical DNA testing to bring them into focus is examined. Such discoveries may disrupt and unsettle, causing people to think differently about the fathers and grandfathers with whom they have grown up or have believed to be part of their personal histories and, for some people, may challenge their sense of identity. Beyond personal identity issues, in this paper, I draw upon ideas about ‘ghost-work’ to suggest that these experiences have some of the features of hauntings and that the ghostly fathers who break through may speak to us about social realities and structures, beyond the confines of linear time.

When Everything Changes: Using Critical Family History to Deconstruct Keesing and Fitzpatrick Surnames

“…Our genealogical research, instead, involves conversations between both historical data and DNA analysis and has become embedded into many aspects of our life, including academic work, administration of a DNA surname project, and co-leadership of a Clan Society. This exploration also resonates with (Scholar 2020;Roberts 2012) 'ghost work', where interrogating the stories of our ancestors helps us to speak with the ghosts (Derrida 1994) about "social realities and structures, beyond the confines of linear time" (Scholar 2020, p. 1).…”

“…Although commercially available for more than 20 years, the less televised y-DNA testing makes it possible to uncover patrilineal ancestry within a shared surname group (McEvoy et al 2008), and if y-DNA testing can also result in upheavals of an individual's identity (Scholar 2020), what then of its impact on an entire clan? Fitzpatricks have a y-DNA surname study (FamilyTreeDNA 2020), and while questions of ancestry were once along the lines, 'You're a Fitzpatrick!…”

“The Past Is Never Dead. It’s Not Even Past” (Faulkner, 1919 Requiem for a Nun p. 85): Mapping and Taking Care of the Ghosts in Adoption

“…According to Gustafsson (2023), ghosts abound in adoption narratives. Yet a search for ghost-related adoption scholarly works produced just fifteen that directly engaged with the subject (Lifton 1994(Lifton , 2002(Lifton , 2006(Lifton , 2010Beatty 2000;Hipchen and Deans 2003;Dorow 2006;Gunsberg 2009;Appell 2010;Swain 2011;Collins 2016;Donoghue 2017;Mariner 2019;Scholar 2019;Quist 2023). Lambert claims that: "Despite the legislative shift to "openness", references to ghosts and haunting still pervade the online adoption archive" (Lambert 2020, p. 370).…”

“…Other European countries such as France have a lower rate of adoptions per head of population (Mignot 2017), whereas the USA has a higher rate (United Nations 2009). 4 Away from the traditional mainstream conceptions of ghosts, see Scholar (2019) for a discussion of the rise of scholarly interest in ghosts, spectrality, and hauntology in the late 20th century. The latter have little to do with the concept of a ghost in this paper and more to do with the role of and meaning played by ghosts: "Spectrality does not involve the conviction that ghosts exist or that the past (and maybe even the future they offer to prophesy) is still very much alive and at work, within the living present.…”

Fathers and Forefathers: Men and Their Children in Genealogical Perspective

“…Three of the papers (those by Ruxton, Scholar and Robb) draw on their authors' own genealogical research into their families' histories, demonstrating some of the ways in which these personal micro-histories can be a fertile resource for understanding fathering in the past, and the interaction between past and present fatherhoods. Scholar's (Scholar 2020) article explores the ways in which DNA testing can "disrupt and unsettle" accepted family histories and notions of paternity, while Ruxton's (Ruxton 2020) and Robb's (Robb 2020b) examinations of memoirs and letters written by fathers in the time of war both illuminate and challenge stereotypical understandings of fatherhood in the past, as well as contributing to deepening the understanding of the often unexplored affective dimensions of fatherhood, and indeed of masculinity.…”