Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

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ohjodi
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 3:57 pm

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by ohjodi »

Dgflorida wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:48 am My one son has taken an ancestry test, 23 and me. My husband's brother took one from ancestry. com. Now the results were similar which is to be expected and everyone is possibly related to Billy the kid. What a busy fellow he must have been! Some people I know also discovered they were part Neanderthal. Now, these quick tests are nothing compared to real genealogy. What do you think of these quick tests and how do you think they compare to genealogy?
A DNA test will help connect you to ancestors/relatives who have already taken a DNA test. If any of those people are ALREADY listed in a family tree/genealogy at that site (Ancestry.com, etc), then you might be able to add yourself to that tree(s) (whether adding yourself directly at that site, or just copying the family tree for your own use).

I took the Ancestry.com DNA test a couple years ago. My dad did six months later. Then my mom, six months after that. I really hadn't paid much attention to my dad's results, until I also had my mom's. Then I discovered that my dad....is NOT my dad, lol

I'm not going to tell him.

In the meantime, after much sleuthing based on what my mom could tell me about my DNA father (including an incorrect name!), i discovered fascinating things.....like me and Queen Liz are cousins! We split off a common branch at Henry II.



I found a huge genealogy at FamilySearch.org that traces dozens of generations of "my family" starting with my DNA dad's parents, going wayyyyy back to B.C.! Now, all these family trees you kind of have to take with a grain of salt, because they are created and researched by humans, after all......but if there are historic people in your tree, the odds are pretty good that the facts are mostly true, based on centuries of data.

My mom had four daughters with four different men. We all took Ancestry DNA tests.....we show up as "Close family/1st cousin" because we are half-sisters.

One of my sisters discovered two other half-siblings she didn't know about (she knew her dad had four kids....didn't know he actually had six). My sister and a new half-sister were actually born just two months apart......so their dad was REALLY two-timing his wife and my mom, LOL But then, my mom already had me from someone other than her previous boyfriend (the dad who raised me)

i'm not very mad at my mother about this ....what's the point, 50 years later? I will say, though, that i'm glad my new family tree is endlessly interesting.

I am 45% England/Wales, and I'm so excited about that, because before I knew my DNA, I would have assumed only a bit of British. But I always felt I belonged over there! And now I do! Maybe someone owes me a bit of property there! Maybe I can borrow a brooch or two from Liz! lol
ohjodi
colonialgirl
Posts: 1835
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:01 am
Location: Central Illinois

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by colonialgirl »

I don't think they are made up if that is what you mean by believe the results. It is a little different than the folks who remember past lives and are always queens or kings or pirates rather than a stable boy - haha!

Just the numbers support that all of us would likely be distantly related to someone famous. Mine was Clovis the first King of France in 511 AD. If one goes back 40 generations the math calculations show they would have two trillion ancestors. I am sure we all are at some distant point we all are related.

I love genealogy but I do realize there is a lot of supposition in research and records that are out there. Well meaning folks jump to conclusions about things they know nothing about. One volunteer had shown my mama's grave on find a grave and completely misidentified who she was. One generation back. But it is endless entertaining to me to find people and figure out things about their lives knowing we are share the same blood.
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Jackielou
Posts: 13425
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by Jackielou »

LOL about being related to famous people. DS found out he was supposedly related to some royal Viking family (which does make a bit of sense as lots of the first Scots lairds had intermarried with the Picts and Celts or were Viking to begin with).

Our family tree, from what has been researched on the Scots side so far, shows us as being related to Mary Queen of Scots. The DNA tests showed the same thing.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Sat Oct 26, 2019 11:48 am My one son has taken an ancestry test, 23 and me. My husband's brother took one from ancestry. com. Now the results were similar which is to be expected and everyone is possibly related to Billy the kid. What a busy fellow he must have been! Some people I know also discovered they were part Neanderthal. Now, these quick tests are nothing compared to real genealogy. What do you think of these quick tests and how do you think they compare to genealogy?
DNA is science. Genealogy is of value but for years we were told we were part Irish on my mother's Dad side. However after our cousins began to investigate we are originally from France and immigrated to Scotland due to being Huguenots and were fleeing persecution. Not one drop of Irish blood. Word of mouth can sometimes be passed down for generations and be incorrect. Our cousins will not put anything in to our family history unless they can verify it by written records. We go back to the late 1500's in the US and even further back in the UK and France. Also there is the factor that not everyone was 100% faithful to their spouse and I am sure there were other reasons to have mixed DNA that we are not aware of ie rape that needs to be added in to the mix too. Some people where also of different ethnic origins and were passing in other areas as another race. I know some black friends said they have light complected family members that have "crossed over" to being white and will not have anything to do with their darker family members. However it will show up in their DNA. My brother has had his DNA done and he is 98% northern European on our Dad's side and 2% neanderthal. The DNA he had done only went through the male line. This lines up completely for the history of my Dad's side of the family. Although the neanderthal was a surprise...lol. The fact that we originated in France make sense since Neanderthals did live in the area. More and more studies are saying Neanderthals maybe did not die out just integrated more with our current line of human's.Not all but some.
Janet Alliesmama
floridacatlover
Posts: 8057
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by floridacatlover »

Written records can be incorrect, too. I’m sure that those of you who do genealogy research run into this often. People give incorrect information because they don’t know the correct information. People lie to cover family secrets. A friend gives the death info. A neighbor gives the census info got someone not home. The census taker, county official etc. writes down the info incorrectly, guessing at spelling. Transcribers write things incorrectly. (I do believe and from what I’ve heard at genealogy club that the transcribers for familysearch.com are better than those for Ancestry.)

So much depends on who gives the information and the accuracy of the official who writes down the info,
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Do you believe the DNA/spit test ancestry products?

Post by alliesmama4 »

floridacatlover wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 11:39 am Written records can be incorrect, too. I’m sure that those of you who do genealogy research run into this often. People give incorrect information because they don’t know the correct information. People lie to cover family secrets. A friend gives the death info. A neighbor gives the census info got someone not home. The census taker, county official etc. writes down the info incorrectly, guessing at spelling. Transcribers write things incorrectly. (I do believe and from what I’ve heard at genealogy club that the transcribers for familysearch.com are better than those for Ancestry.)

So much depends on who gives the information and the accuracy of the official who writes down the info,
Florida Cat that is so true.
Janet Alliesmama
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