Back to the BYU Cougars Newsfeed

For these Utahns, DNA testing brought everything from shock to clarity, while creating connections and dispelling family legends

She and her 10 siblings were named from ancestors on their extensive family tree. She, for instance, was named for her Danish great-grandmother, who had emigrated to America as a young woman after converting to Mormonism against her parents’ wishes.

“Mom used to explain to me how I was related to Winston Churchill, [Pilgrims] John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and just about any major political figure in the United States or United Kingdom,” Harrison recalls. “When we moved to Utah, she was called as a stake [regional LDS] genealogist and used to take me to read microfiche with her from Danish parishes in the old country.