Whois & Analysis for ancestrydata.com

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that carries the genetic instructions used in the growth, development, functioning and reproduction of all known living organisms and many viruses.

DNA and RNA are nucleic acids; alongside proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides), they are one of the four major types of macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life.

Most DNA molecules consist of two biopolymer strands coiled around each other to form a double helix.

DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting, DNA testing, or DNA typing) is a forensic technique used to identify individuals by characteristics of their DNA.

A DNA profile is a small set of DNA variations that is very likely to be different in all unrelated individuals, thereby being as unique to individuals as are fingerprints (hence the alternate name for the technique).

DNA profiling should not be confused with full genome sequencing.

First developed and used in 1984, DNA profiling is used in, for example, parentage testing and criminal investigation, to identify a person or to place a person at a crime scene, techniques which are now employed globally in forensic science to facilitate police detective work and help clarify paternity and immigration disputes.

DNA fingerprinting has also been widely used in the study of animal and floral populations and has revolutionized the fields of zoology, botany, and agriculture.

Genealogy (from ', "generation"; and ', "knowledge"), also known as family history, is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history.

Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members.

The results are often displayed in charts or written as narratives.

An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences.

Unlike other social groups (wealth, age, hobbies), ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives.

In some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society.

Membership of an ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, origin myth, history, homeland, language or dialect, symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, art, and physical appearance.

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population.

It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.

The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include agriculture, business, and traffic censuses.

The United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity", and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every 10 years.

United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international practice.