Old Manuscripts Dated by Genetic Testing
Genealogists fortunate enough to have very old books or manuscripts in their possession will be happy to know that a new technique is being developed to determine the age of ancient documents. Books and manuscripts from the medieval period to the early 1700’s were often written or bound on a type of parchment paper known as vellum. Vellum is a stiff white, yellowish or translucent paper made from the skin of a calf, sheep or goat. DNA can be extracted from vellum because it is an animal product.
Ancient manuscripts often were not dated, making it difficult to trace the pedigree of the document. Trying to determine the age of a document based on the handwriting style or dialect of the written language has proven to be unreliable for a number of reasons. Timothy Stinson, Assistant Professor of English at North Carolina State University hopes to use genetic testing to more accurately determine the age of ancient texts written on vellum. By creating a DNA database of various medieval documents, and cross referencing the results of each document to the age of other medieval documents with a known pedigree, Professor Stinson hopes to be able to accurately determine the age of these ancient texts.
Vellum is prized for its archival properties because it can last for centuries. It is still in use today for some official government documents and religious texts. For example, official acts of Parliament in England and official acts in the Republic of Ireland are still printed on vellum, as are Jewish Torah scrolls.
The genetic dating of vellum documents could be extraordinarily useful to genealogists wanting to date ancient family documents. The technique may also be able to determine not just the age of the document, but its origin as well.
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