Traced: Human DNA's Big Surprise

This book was a pleasant surprise. Full of fun and interesting facts from journal entries to archeological finds; this book is written in an easy to understand language and yet deals with some complex topics regarding genealogies and DNA. I enjoyed the refresher on history and also learning the approach the author used in coming to his conclusions or questioning some long held beliefs. This is a great read for anyone who enjoys history, and science and how they can work together to show us a different view of our human history.

What a read! I am not scientifically minded person, so I really appreciate how easy to understand and engaging the author wrote this book. It was easy for me to understand and it was not boring. I like how chapters 5-12 are written in the form of detective. It made it fun and engaging. I also liked how each chapter has a summary at the end to quickly refer to as needed. Great information! I was not able to finish it fully yet, but enjoyed what I was able to read. Wonderful research for those who want to learn about the ancient history. It is remarkable and creative! Definitely would recommend a paper copy though because of maps and pictures that are important to review during study. I would even recommend for the author to maybe make like a separate little booklet for the Color Plates section to make it even more user friendly :)

I received the free digital copy of this book for an honest review.

Traced is an amazing book! Even before reading the book I had a feeling the information would be able to relate to someone I know that has a deep interest in DNA. Now after seeing it for myself I look forward to sharing this with others. I think this book will help the scientifically-minded Christian who may lean to secular forms of information on this topic. This book will edify them. I love though how the author is able to break down a very complicated topic for the lay person to understand. I like how each chapter has a summary as a quick reference. One thing I wasn't excited about is having to flip to the maps from the chapters. This is especially difficult using a phone and a pdf document in Kindle. I would have preferred for the maps to be closer located to when they are referenced in the chapters. However I think I understand why this wasn't done that way and for that reason I would agree with the layout. Either way, it is amazing that we can know the information presented. It is sometimes mind-boggling to think about. Praise God for this work!

I found this to be a very interesting book, but I did struggle a little. (This is because I am not huge into science, not because of the book) I did enjoy learning more about the history of our DNA. I would recommend the physical copy of this book. There are maps and charts that are not listed in the writing which would help with the understanding of everything. I had the digital copy, so I struggled with finding the map or chart and relating it back to the reading I was doing.
I received a digital copy to review. This is my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this YE perspective on haplogroups. My husband and I have recently done genetic testing and we have learned a lot about his haplogroup. We've read many different takes on the origins of his haplogroup R1a, including the explanation in Traced. We have read dramatically different timeframes and worldviews of R1a splitting between mainstream science and Traced. But nevertheless it allowed for some great conversations and for the equally awe inspiring mystery of the Lord and his creation. I received this e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

I have always wondered whether we were all a little more closely related than we realize and how what we see now can give us so much more insight into the past (both confirming what we know and how much, we must humbly admit, we still do not know). Part of this was due to the reality that in just a few generations, my own family has changed so much due to a few different choices that only a few of my ancestors made. I am born of Cuban immigrants from my Father’s side and Puerto Rican born grandparents on my Mother’s side. Due to the transatlantic slave trade, communism and various economic factors, my own lineage rapidly changed in just a few short years, with respect to the thousands of years we have been in existence. Cuba and Puerto Rico both share some historical narratives that involve what I always understood to be part African, part Indigenous (maybe Taino?) and part European (Spaniard or Italian?). I also had a rumored Chinese ancestor somewhere in there from Cuba! But where did the indigenous people come from? Did the African ancestral blood that courses through my veins come from slaves? Or perhaps it comes from the rumored African explorers who came to the Americas supposedly before Columbus. The bottom line is, modern science is not philosophy or religion, but it makes truth claims in both of these areas, using data to support meta-narratives that fit what people already want to believe – that we evolved over a process of million years. Why? Because it is insanely convenient. If we are just particles colliding, there really is no need for moral accountability.
The problem is that, as this book so thoroughly discusses, the world’s inhabitants just don’t seem to have been here that long. I find it fascinating that when I teach my children history from the dominant narrative perspective, the Smithsonian book of History for example takes a large guess and says “Origins 4.5 MYA – 3,000 BCE” with about three pages of information on this supposed enormous time frame and then can’t resist moving onto early Egyptian civilization because it is so obvious that there is such a lack of evidence from a time period that just did not happen. Mostly there is just a lot of guess work in the account of history from the Smithsonian History: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Present Day; “Although homo sapiens are the only hominins left alive today, controversial recent finds suggest that Neanderthals may not have been the only species they encountered as they spread across the globe. At Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of Russia, DNA from a few small fragments of bone suggest another group of hominins, the Denisovans, may have lived in the region just 41,000 years ago” (Page 24). So why I am bringing in this other quote for a book review on a completely different book? Because even the historical accounts that try to do away with God and the history presented in the Bible still start their accounts of history with ancient Egypt and the Sumerians etc. Traced gives us a compelling, robust and clear argument with rich data to support the very recent history that gave us the 8 billion people on the planet. With lots of scientific and mathematical analysis, Traced is not putting out pure guesswork or speculation. There is solid, intriguing evidence put forth that supports the Biblical narrative.

One reviewer on Amazon claimed that this book is just religious propaganda. I could say the same thing about any of the other books on Amazon that propagate a godless worldview. The difference is that Christians have a revelational epistemology and do not claim authority for themselves but give it rightly to God. So when someone like Nathaniel Jeanson make groundbreaking discoveries, like those he has summarized in traced, his evidence just corroborates what we already know to be true from Scripture. Sure, the author has a Biblical worldview, but the Bible claims for itself an authority that humans cannot claim. This book spends most of the time detailing the implications from studying genetics as to how old (or how young) the human population really is, but there were a few references to how mainstream science has already decided God is a concept they just want to disprove; therefore they go out of their way to hide evidence that support the claims the Bible makes.

Logistically speaking, someone interested in purchasing this book should be prepared ahead of time by knowing exactly which format would be most easy to navigate for them personally. Pages 134-308 (roughly) are all color graphics including maps, pictures and family trees. The author frequently references this section and you really do want to flip back and forth to enhance your experience of reading the text with the supporting documents. I received a free PDF version of this book to review it and it was very cumbersome to flip from the text to the color plates sections as they were referenced. I had to literally open up my laptop to view the color plates in the book PDF while also reading the PDF on my kindle. It is kind of confusing, but honestly a paper back book might be better for this book. Honestly, the whole reading experience would be better if the images were embedded into the text itself.

The book is very readable to a lay person, though sometimes I would’ve liked more technical jargon and citations. I understand though why the author chose not to make it much more technical. It is an important book for many people to read and had he chosen to make it too technical, I am sure I would not have been able to read it or likely to recommended it.

Overall, this book is a definite page turner to anyone remotely interested in history, science, genetics, politics of the world, or their own ancestry. I highly recommend this book and would encourage especially scientists who stumble upon this book to take it seriously and not just throw it out because their worldview is intolerant and allergic to any religion.

I also would encourage homeschoolers to be creative and use it as a guide to history, it presents one of the most accurate portrayals of how we all got here and instead of just starting with the Ancients, it describes how they might have actually got there, therefore it could be also one of the most accurate history books we have available.

Dr. Jeason has struck gold! His research is incredible. This book will not disappoint. The Y Chromosome research is in-depth and spot on. Make sure to watch his series with Ken Ham.

Traced is an interesting read about the origins of people groups and really the history of our world. As a reader who essentially knew nothing about the Y-chromosome, haplogroups, and genetics before reading this book, I wondered if I would find myself lost in the terminology and scholarly writing of the text. While I did find myself a bit lost at times due to the heaviness of the material, I was pleasantly surprised as to how much I was able to follow along and understand. The author was intentional in his approach to try to make a difficult topic easier for anyone to understand. His use of what he calls “color plates” were often very helpful for me as I needed a visual picture of what he was talking about for better understanding. I think the color plates are an important part of the book and serve as a helpful tool to grasp the concepts better.
I think the research Jeanson has done is fascinating. To be able to link the Y-chromosome to so many different people groups from today down thru history is quite remarkable. His research helps support the Bible and the historical accuracy of the Bible, which is exciting. It is also interesting to think of how we are all related and makes me wonder which haplogroup I come from!
After reading Jeanson’s book, I certainly have a better appreciation for history and the study of genetics. Jeanson is an intelligent writer, but he wrote in a way that made me feel like I could understand at least the better part of what he presented.
My only recommendation is that you buy a paper copy of this book. I read from my device, which made it very difficult to go back and forth between what I was reading and the color plate section. I had to pull up the book on a second device and have that device set on the color plate section to make it easier to go back and forth. A paper copy certainly would have helped with that dilemma!

I just finished Traced: Human DNA's Big Surprise, and it was a joy to read. Dr. Jeanson writes exactly like he talks - non-technical readers will find his books distinctively approachable. While demonstrating a mastery of the subject matter, Dr. Jeanson puts on the detective hat to identify the origin of some of history's most famous/infamous people groups using high-quality DNA analysis. In parallel, he provides positive evidence for a young Earth model, overlapping Y chromosome predictions with known population growth charts which effectively show a perfect match. These results are testable and repeatable AND only work with a 6,000 year old Earth.

There are a number of light-bulb moments in the book, but two stood out to me in particular. First, it is shocking how quickly family trees collapse onto one another. If you go back 600 years, 95% of people alive today will share a common ancestor. It's a numbers game, and Dr. Jeanson shows his work. To anyone who has ever wondered if they are related to an acquaintance or even their spouse, the answer is yes, yes you are.

In passing, Dr. Jeanson also effectively undermines the entire raison d'etre of both classical racism and the abominable critical race theory/anti-racism movement. He demonstrates the transitory nature of physical features - how some "White" people of European descent actually have a much older Asian or African ancestry. This book gives the reader good tools to use when discussing the stupidity of melanin-based segregation/discrimination.

This book will be a welcome addition to the library of anyone interested in the origin of man as well as anyone who enjoys a good mystery.

Traced is a great blend of history, genetics, population investigation, and personal anecdotes. The color plates may make the book seem academic, but Dr. Jeanson does a great job authoring the book to make sense to the lay person. When growing up, I heard so much of Roman, Greek, Fertile Crescent, and some of Asian cultures. But Dr. Jeanson does a great job showing what happened to other cultures by discussing genetically where they came from as well as migration patterns. This book will give a better appreciation of population explosions to explain the young earth principles as well as certain the affects of historical moments in relation to population ebbs in population. While there maybe things that are a bit academic, you will find nuggets that fill in the gaps of how different people groups got to where they landed as well as learning a few new concepts. Lastly, there are Biblical truths that you will walk away with understanding better. Such as the dispersal of man after the Tower of Babel and that we are of one race, the human race! Thanks for this insightful book.