Ancestry DNA.

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Hi, before I start this post I want to inform readers that this is posted in the "Off Topic Forum".

I recently sent a sample of my DNA to Ancestry DNA and waited for my results. I have mixed feelings as to whether this was worth while to do. I was curious as to what my make up would be compared to my family stories. My Grandfather came to the USA when he was about 5 years old with his family from Italy. [pure Italians?] My Grandfather married a German woman. [pure German?] So in my mind, my Dad would be half Italian and half German. Also in my mind, I would be 1/4 Italian and 1/4 German and the other half would be from my Mother's side. Basically, I'm supposed to be Italian, German, English, Dutch, and Mingo Indian. Now I received my test results and it's mostly a big blur to me. Now one thing that they came up with was that I had a very close match to someone and this meant that this person could either be my parent or I could be their parent. Well this very close match was my Daughter. She also sent a sample to Ancestry DNA. My disappointment is that my test results only shows regions, not specific Countries. Each region has several countries in it.

Has anyone else done this and what is you opinion about whether this was worth while or not?

[Protagonist]

In my case, not worth it. As far back as I can trace my ancestors, they are ALL from somewhere else. Not one single member of my family, on either side of the family, has ever died in the same town they were born in, and very few even died in th same state they were born in. We are a family of wanderers. That may be what attracted me to Airstreaming.

But with regard to Ancestry DNA, for at least 4 generations, my family is entirely from the USA. Where they came from before that doesn't matter. I'm not trying to claim I'm one-sixteenth anything to qualify as a minority (legally in the US you have to be at least one-sixteenth something to claim membership in that ethnicity, except you can be one-thirty-second black* and claim yourself as African-American-- the law is funny that way).

*"Black" as distinct from "African-American." There are white Africans from South Africa, Kenya, etc. as a result of19th Century colonialism and Arabic Africans from Morrocco, Egypt, Tunisia, etc. who can't claim themselves as African-American ethnicity when they immigrate here because they're not black at all despite being most assuredly African.

[SteveSueMac]

I haven't done it yet but might.

At the end of the day, it all traces back to Africa.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/ev...-adam-and-eve/

[RxGuy]

My wife and I sent ours in yesterday. That being said, I was not really all that interested in it, but my wife was....so what the heck why not.

My mother and sister had this done a couple of years ago. No big revelations.

My grandmother on my dad's side was originally from Scotland. Came to the US from Canada via Windsor, Ontario.

My dad had a cousin named William Wallace who was born in Scotland and moved to the US. If people ask about my ancestry, I tell them that I am related to William Wallace.

[Hans627]

I submitted a sample several years ago and was somewhat surprised by the results. I was born in Germany and my mother was German. My father was a GI from WWII and met my mother after the war.

My paternal grandparents were also of German descent (they actually spoke German, or Pennsylvania Dutch as it was called, as children). So I expected the results it to say I mostly of German ancestry. But surprise, 41% Great Britain and 22% Western Europe.

I have a friend that was adopted as a baby and was trying to find her birth parents. After many years she found her mother but her father was always a mystery, until DNA provided the answer. She found out that her adopted father was actually her real father by comparing her DNA with some of her cousins on her fathers side of family. Need less to say she was happy with her results from the DNA testing.

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, before I start this post I want to inform readers that this is posted in the "Off Topic Forum".

I recently sent a sample of my DNA to Ancestry DNA and waited for my results. I have mixed feelings
<< snip>>
My disappointment is that my test results only shows regions, not specific Countries. Each region has several countries in it.

Has anyone else done this and what is you opinion about whether this was worth while or not?

I'm also a member of Ancestry DNA. You and I have a similar genetic background, except I have almost no southern Europe but more western and northern Europe.

I think the test was worth while, but my expectations might have been different from yours. I was looking for records and connections to relatives, not trying to confirm what I thought was true. If you want more, you will have to do the research. In some cases one can find the house that their relatives lived in. I visited the house where my 4th great grandfather was born in 1734 in Portsmouth NH and the town in Massachusetts where his grandfather landed in America in 1630. In other cases I found the specific towns in Europe my ancestors came from and connections to cousins till living there. Some of my American cousins have visited them.

Unless one connects their DNA test to their family tree, the information received from the Ancestry DNA test is not very useful, IMO. I created a family tree at Ancestry sometime in the mid 1990's. When I did the DNA test in ~2010 I linked my family tree to that test. The results have been amazing. I've been matched similarly to you, to close family members. I have also been matched to more than 15,000 cousins. Of those, about 800 have a known common ancestor listed in both of our family trees. Using this data I've also been able to connect to lineages of ggg grandmothers whose surname had been lost to time. And, I am hopefully searching for more names of the unknown.

I caught the ancestor research bug at a family reunion back in the 1980's. A distant relative gave me a mimeographed copy (blue colored copies that smell like ammonia) that showed George Washington was my distant cousin. I think that is true, but not in the way that old family tree showed, since documentation proves otherwise. Family traditional stories get changed when told then retold through the generations (like mine did), but usually contain some truth.

I've also become a volunteer at FamilySearch.org. My task is to index raw data into a searchable data base.

If anyone is needing help getting started with their family tree, send me a pm if I can assist.

[LY007]

My brother in law is a prominent geneticist, both MD and PhD. Runs a large university lab for genetic metabolic disorders, and lectures world wide. He feels that genetic "testing" like 23 and me, etc, is currently a waste of time and money.

[Gearheart]

Originally Posted by Hans627

My paternal grandparents were also of German descent (they actually spoke German, or Pennsylvania Dutch as it was called, as children). So I expected the results it to say I mostly of German ancestry. But surprise, 41% Great Britain and 22% Western Europe.

The Brits might try to deny this, but as Anglo/Saxons, where do you think the Saxons came from? Try Saxony, A part of Germany. The Normans were actually renegade Vikings that got kicked out of Norway and carved themselves an empire in Normandy.

[dznf0g]

Originally Posted by Gearheart

The Brits might try to deny this, but as Anglo/Saxons, where do you think the Saxons came from? Try Saxony, A part of Germany. The Normans were actually renegade Vikings that got kicked out of Norway and carved themselves an empire in Normandy.

Exactly where my father's people (namesake) came from...Norman Conquerors (Vikings).
I got schooled by an Irishman when I was there a few years ago. The Irish had historically been...um....mistreated by the Scots, Vikings, and English, among others. So I was ready to be lambasted for my Norman "Irish" background. He said, to the contrary, "We like the Normans. They came and stayed, brought religion and wealth, and brought some relief from the marauding invaders of the past." So, I found everywhere in the South of Ireland, I was very welcomed as a Norman Protestant. My mother's people were also Norman descended QUAKERS!!! We have documentation of their being run out of Belfast for their heretic Quaker faith. They settled in Mount Mellick (west of Dublin). There is still a small Quaker community there. William Penn was a "Friend" (Quaker term) of my ancestor. William, of course went on to politics, came to the Colonies and founded Pennsylvania. He later contacted my ancestor (Nicholas Newlin) and enticed him to come to Pennsylvania by giving him land, under the condition that Nicholas build a grain mill....which he did.

[sheriff1]

Originally Posted by LY007

My brother in law is a prominent geneticist, both MD and PhD. Runs a large university lab for genetic metabolic disorders, and lectures world wide. He feels that genetic "testing" like 23 and me, etc, is currently a waste of time and money.

Funny, it's been a valuable tool for us in being matched with several previously unknown family members. As far as ethnicity it's hard to tell as all people have been invaded by others through time creating an odd mix of bloodlines.

[Edistobob]

Likewise, my wife (who is a pretty serious genealogy hobbyist) was able to find a friend’s birth mother through the use of genetic clues. Would have been worse than hunting for a needle in a haystack without the use of the DNA testing. Is your brother-in-law familiar with how those tests are used in genealogical research?

[mandolindave]

Genetic make up can tell us SO much. ( If we can tolerate broccoli, all sorts of cool stuff ) All sorts of things that we are predisposed to.

There was a study on twins separated at birth. The similarities were amazing.

BUT…This ancestry/nationality thing is less than accurate in my opinion.

1. The regions encompass more than one country/culture.

2. The sample rate is still too small

3. The samples were taken too far after the increase in the mobility factor.

It can be fun though.

[pt.reyesfan]

Originally Posted by ROBERTSUNRUS

Hi, before I start this post I want to inform readers that this is posted in the "Off Topic Forum".

I recently sent a sample of my DNA to Ancestry DNA and waited for my results. I have mixed feelings as to whether this was worth while to do. I was curious as to what my make up would be compared to my family stories. My Grandfather came to the USA when he was about 5 years old with his family from Italy. [pure Italians?] My Grandfather married a German woman. [pure German?] So in my mind, my Dad would be half Italian and half German. Also in my mind, I would be 1/4 Italian and 1/4 German and the other half would be from my Mother's side. Basically, I'm supposed to be Italian, German, English, Dutch, and Mingo Indian. Now I received my test results and it's mostly a big blur to me. Now one thing that they came up with was that I had a very close match to someone and this meant that this person could either be my parent or I could be their parent. Well this very close match was my Daughter. She also sent a sample to Ancestry DNA. My disappointment is that my test results only shows regions, not specific Countries. Each region has several countries in it.

Has anyone else done this and what is you opinion about whether this was worth while or not?

I did it and was disappointed with results. They were far off from what my grandparents had told me about my ancestry. I did some research on the methods used and discovered there is a wide range of accuracy that is correlated with cost of analysis. The price I paid told me that the accuracy of my results was poor to fair.

[weirdstuff]

My cousin recently told me that she did 23 and Me, and found a distant cousin living in New York.

She contacted him, and made arrangements to meet him in a hotel lobby. He showed up, but she sensed something was wrong. He finally 'fessed up that he thought she was some kind of grifter. LOL! I guess they had a good laugh about it, and hung out for a couple hours chatting.

I have no desire to do the testing, 'cause I'll probably just get hooked up with this same guy.

Other than that, she said the test results were unremarkable.

[Boxite]

Originally Posted by A W Warn

.... George Washington was my distant cousin.....

That would be quite an interesting research project as George had no natural children, he being the last of his direct-blood-line. Lots of recent politicians have relationship to him via marriages.

[Foiled Again]

And Thomas Jefferson was widowed early and never remarried. He had two daughters, but for the rest of his life he was very close to a cousin, who was also his property - Sally Hemming

And SHE had 8 children, most of whom could and did "pass" Sally and her children were all freed before Jefferson lost his property in bankruptcy. Jefferson GAVE his library to the country... it was so extensive that it might have averted most of his financial woes had he sold it for even a modest part of its true worth.

Descendents of Jefferson denied the rumors until late last century when DNA testing proved it. Some of the surviving white relatives bowed graciously to science... others not.


The more one finds out about one's background... well we all seem to be both heroes and scoundrels in the same person.

Paula

Paula observing that mongrel humans are a good thing... look at a Persian cat... pure breeds like that proves we are too wierd to be trusted with creating a "superior variety"

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by Boxite

That would be quite an interesting research project as George had no natural children, he being the last of his direct-blood-line. Lots of recent politicians have relationship to him via marriages.

If someone said they were George's descendant, that would be an interesting project because of the reason you stated.

However, being his cousin is not rare at all. My relationship to George is through his paternal grandmother. She and I have the same surname, and we share a known common ancestor. George is a very distant cousin, 13th or 14th a few times removed, if I remember correctly.

[drairstream]

And we all according to mathematicians have inhaled at least one molecule of a fart Julius Caesar passed. Really! Do you really care?
Save your money or spend it!
It’s just like an Airstream. It’s not a waste of money if it makes you happy