Genealogical research on individuals who lived hundreds of years ago can never definitively prove that one man fathered another, but this research meets the highest standards and can be offered with confidence.

It might be true, but I doubt anyone will hire genealogical researchers to prove that Obama is really black.

Reliable genealogical detective work is fascinating. It's not particularly relevant to our day-to-day lives, but there is an awe factor in discovering who came before you, how they lived, where they came from, and how they made it possible for you to be here, now.

I recently has some help solving a genealogical mystery in my family. I have letters from my mother's family to my two uncles who were serving overseas in WW2. In one 1944 letter, my 20-year-old uncle is on leave in London England. His father (my grandfather) had told him to look for certain family members who had sheltered him (my grandfather) in 1909 when he escaped from a prison in Siberia and made his way to Finland and eventually England. I knew some things about this story. Details had been corroborated by various family members -- but no one living recognized the names of the families in London.

A friend of mine who specialized in east London Jewish genealogy helped me figure out the connection and find a distant cousin. Finding this connection doesn't change my life, but it made me happy and solved a mystery. By the way, the story of how my friend found the connection was published here if anyone is interested. The story is called "letters home" and is on page 11.

Their spellchecker seems to have changed my name -- I keep writing them to fix it. You'd think a genealogical organization would try harder to get a name right.