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DNA Surprises


Yul Lose

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My step daughter is really into ancestry and does a lot of research and has been doing it for the last 10 years or so and has discovered all of the skeletons in her parents closets so she decided to branch out. She’s doing ancestry research on others in the extended family and now uses DNA that they submit to find out where they came from. Recent DNA results on her brother in law and a distant niece revealed that the guy they called Dad all of their life wasn’t their father as they had been led to believe their entire life. The brother in law, in his late 60’s doesn’t really care as his folks passed away quite awhile ago, the niece on the other hand is pretty upset about it. So my question is if you found out that the guy you thought was your dad wasn’t really your father would that matter much this much later in life?

 

She’s asked me to submit my DNA so that she can research my lineage and I told her that I wasn’t interested. 

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If he isn't my biological father he was surely my dad. Wouldn't care but wouldn't want to know either.

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7 minutes ago, Michigan Slim said:

If he isn't my biological father he was surely my dad. Wouldn't care but wouldn't want to know either.

Yeah, that’s pretty much my viewpoint too. Some things don’t need to be dug up.

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I understand the desire to want to know where you came from, but the other side of that particular coin is it could stir up things that are best left un-stirred.

 

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Apart from medical issues (say I have a condition or am susceptible to a condition that is reliant on family history) I wouldnt want to know.

 

I also would not tell anyone if I found out, unless asked a direct question by the person involved.

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A friend of mine moved away a while ago. Hadn’t spoken to him until the other day. Asked him what was new. “Well”, he says, “l found out I have a Vietnamese daughter”

Seems she lives in Texas with her family. Found him through a DNA search.

:lol::lol::blink:

 

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"Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn!!"

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1 hour ago, Michigan Slim said:

If he isn't my biological father he was surely my dad. Wouldn't care but wouldn't want to know either.

 

+100000000

 

What is the accuracy of these tests? DNA testing can be very accurate but only if done properly. What guarantee is there that they did the tests correctly?

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I did one and am researching my family history. I have found a few interesting things. 

1. I have NO Cherokee blood as I was led to believe all my life by my father and his side of the family. 

2. My maternal grandmother wasn’t always The seriously religious god fearing woman I knew all my life. She was quite a player in her youth.

3. My maternal grandfather was basically a male whore who pretty much sowed his seed all over ...West Virginia. This is important because...

4. My mother’s entire family was from West Virginia. I never knew any of this. My mother’s family all looked down their noses at West Virginia and anyone from there...just not themselves. 

5. I am not “damn near full blooded Irish (minus the Indian part that fluctuated with the beer intake of my father, depending on who he was bragging to) I am mostly English! I never heard that from either side of my family. 

 

Do you want to know why I wanted to know about this? Because it’s my heritage and it’s my business and it p!$&es me off that it was kept from me.

 

I also found out I come from a LONG line of coal miners on both sides. Another group of people my family looked down their noses at. I am trying to figure out why...

 

You see, my Dad was adopted. When I talk about “my family” it’s the family he was adopted into. Not the family he was born to but knew very well because he spent lots of time with them before I was born.

I have a whole family I know almost nothing about. I have a whole family I know about but actually really know nothing about.

 

Not everyone comes from dysfunctional screwed up families. Some of us want to know just how screwed up our families really are.

 

I’ll stop rambling now...

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20 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I did one and am researching my family history. I have found a few interesting things. 

1. I have NO Cherokee blood as I was led to believe all my life by my father and his side of the family. 

2. My maternal grandmother wasn’t always The seriously religious god fearing woman I knew all my life. She was quite a player in her youth.

3. My maternal grandfather was basically a male whore who pretty much sowed his seed all over ...West Virginia. This is important because...

4. My mother’s entire family was from West Virginia. I never knew any of this. My mother’s family all looked down their noses at West Virginia and anyone from there...just not themselves. 

5. I am not “damn near full blooded Irish (minus the Indian part that fluctuated with the beer intake of my father, depending on who he was bragging to) I am mostly English! I never heard that from either side of my family. 

 

Do you want to know why I wanted to know about this? Because it’s my heritage and it’s my business and it p!$&es me off that it was kept from me.

 

I also found out I come from a LONG line of coal miners on both sides. Another group of people my family looked down their noses at. I am trying to figure out why...

 

You see, my Dad was adopted. When I talk about “my family” it’s the family he was adopted into. Not the family he was born to but knew very well because he spent lots of time with them before I was born.

I have a whole family I know almost nothing about. I have a whole family I know about but actually really know nothing about.

 

Not everyone comes from dysfunctional screwed up families. Some of us want to know just how screwed up our families really are.

 

I’ll stop rambling now...

It’s not the skeleton in my closet that I’m afraid of, it’s the whole graveyard.:(

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I'm an avid genealogist.  I traced my surname back to the late 1575 but couldn't find anything about his parentage.  He simply appeared one day.  I literally spent years trying to find the previous generation, but there wasn't so much as a hint.

 

One day I was conversing with some members of my clan, and they told me the story of the "Hidden MacGregors."  Clan MacGregor was a close ally of our clan (and to this day, we recognize each others' tartans and greet one another like long lost friends).  They had an ongoing feud with Clan Colquhoun, and so did we.  The feud went for about 400 years, and both sides killed a lot more than the Hatfields and McCoys could have ever dreamt of.  One day, Clan MacGregor attacked and murdered a few dozen Colquhouns (two people from my clan helped them fight our common enemhy, and were hung as a result).

 

The king was beside himself and outlawed Clan MacGregor -- if your name was MacGregor, he sent in the Army to cut your head off.  Naturally, most of them fled their lands and came to our lands.  They took our name to keep their heads on their shoulders.  Since then, people have forgotten they were once MacGregors because they have carried our name since 1600.  These are called "hidden MacGregors" -- their DNA says they are MacGregors but they carry our name.

 

1600 was the year in question, and the oldest ancestor I could trace was born in 1575.  In other words, he was of fighting age when all this happened, so people naturally said I'm likely a hidden MacGregor.  My clan has been running a DNA database for years to try to understand more about our origins, so they pressured me until I submitted mine.

 

Nope.  I'm not a hidden MacGregor.  Even though written records cannot prove anything older than 1575 in my line, the DNA proved I descend in the male line directly from the progenitor of the clan.  He was born in 1225.  So, bottom line, I'm wearing the correct kilt :)

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My sister paid to have mine done, so I said why not. Confirmed a lot (Heavily Scots-Irish), dispelled some myths (Indian ancestry), and left a little bit of confusion (Where the heck did that bit of Finnish ancestry come from?)

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Sorry if I came off a bit snotty. My family and I were just discussing this issue before I saw this thread and, well, I kind of had a little chip on my shoulder. There are members of my family that refuse to believe anything but the BS we’ve been fed all our lives.

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Sorry if I came off a bit snotty. My family and I were just discussing this issue before I saw this thread and, well, I kind of had a little chip on my shoulder. There are members of my family that refuse to believe anything but the BS we’ve been fed all our lives.

 

Sarcastic, perhaps, but I wouldn't say "snotty." From the sound of it, I get it. After I took the DNA test, my sister took pains to figure out how we could still have Cherokee or other native american ancestry. I will say that when one looked at my mom, and her full siblings (she had six siblings, seven half-siblings), as well as pictures of her mother, it was easy to believe there was that ancestry there. Not so, according to the test I did, and one a cousin later did.

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5 hours ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

The process of determining where your ancestors were from is not without error.  With each generation your genes lose half your ancestry.

So when I have great grandchildren I will have lost all my ancestry? :P:blink::lol:

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7 hours ago, DocWard said:

 

Sarcastic, perhaps, but I wouldn't say "snotty." From the sound of it, I get it. After I took the DNA test, my sister took pains to figure out how we could still have Cherokee or other native american ancestry. I will say that when one looked at my mom, and her full siblings (she had six siblings, seven half-siblings), as well as pictures of her mother, it was easy to believe there was that ancestry there. Not so, according to the test I did, and one a cousin later did.

 

Yep, if you saw my Dad and his birth family you would think they were part Native American. Dark hair, dark complexion. Myself and my sisters and brothers definitely do not look like we have any Native American blood.

 

 

 

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I think that genealogy is an interesting topic. I've only researched the free on-line sites.

 

I was able to trace my maternal grandmother's father's lineage to 1285 in England and my maternal grandfather's fathers lineage to 1580 in Germany.

 

I couldn't find as much on my father's side. I was only able to trace my paternal grandfather's line to 1821 in Ireland.

 

One interesting thing I found was that the on-line site's information was incorrect about my maternal grandmother's mother. I found the correct information on a site for Wayne County, Illinois. I know the IL site information is correct as I have an old, brittle written birth record. After reading the genealogy site's record, I wondered how it fit until I found an obituary on the IL site.

 

This stuff can be very convoluted.

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I'm interested in genealogy (and history) but no way I'm voluntarily sending my DNA off to a bunch of strangers.

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I have an interest in family history, but not much in genealogy as such, beyond a certain point. I knew all of my great-grandparents, at least to the extent of having some memories. My grandparents I grew up nearby.

 

I have a pretty good history on where the great-grandparents came from, and some lore that tapers off after a couple of generations before that. Actual genetic ancestry beyond a certain point doesn't interest me much, because in the nature of things we all have huge numbers of ancestors. To make any sense at all, you have to pick some 'line', and that's pretty arbitrary. 

 

On the other hand, I do love history.

 

I have a good friend who has a cousin who talked her into submitting DNA. My friend turned out to have some exotic origins; i.e. Iberian (Caucasus Iberian, that is), and other ancient Anatolian stuff, along with Irish and German. Her cousin was just Irish with some German. She was a little jealous and even slightly peeved at my friend, for her more romantic origins. It was funny.

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