Ancestry dot Com - Update, Page 3

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

 

Just wonderin’ if any of y’all have had your DNA analyzed?  Any surprises…?  Particularly, any surprises in DNA matches...?  

 

Um... if your parents had split up when you were really young, what might you do if you saw that you had a half-sibling that you’d never known about…?     (Asking for a friend.  Maybe.)   

[Yul Lose]

My step daughter is really into the ancestry thing and in fact is president of an ancestry group in Escondido. She has discovered some surprising stuff. 

[Tennessee Trapper Tom]

There was nothing surprising in mine, except that my older sister is my half-sister. Evidently my mom had a moment when dad was in Vietnam . Luckily this was discovered after both my parents had passed. It has lessened what could have been a mess. I’ve actually become closer to my sister since the discovery, can’t explain that.

[Yul Lose]

10 minutes ago, Tennessee Trapper Tom said:

There was nothing surprising in mine, except that my older sister is my half-sister. Evidently my mom had a moment when dad was in Vietnam . Luckily this was discovered after both my parents had passed. It has lessened what could have been a mess. I’ve actually become closer to my sister since the discovery, can’t explain that.

I found out a great grandfather fathered a granddaughter with a daughter on my mothers side. I was told that something like that wasn’t that big of a deal back in those days.

[Subdeacon Joe]

We did it about 5 or 6 years ago.  No surprises other than turning up that Lisa has ties to Pulaski County, Kentucky.  Pulaski is one of the Counties that Rockcastle County was carved out of, and we just happen to have a 6th or 7th great grandmother in common, whatever it is to make us 7th cousins.

[sassnetguy50]

15 minutes ago, Yul Lose said:

I found out a great grandfather fathered a granddaughter with a daughter on my mothers side. I was told that something like that wasn’t that big of a deal back in those days.

Would that make your aunt your grandmother's half sister?

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

I get why people are interested but I've never felt the pull myself. One or two of my brothers has, I think.

[Rip Snorter]

Some things are better left buried in time.  One of my Aunts was DAR and heavily into family genealogy.  I've been told there is an archive that I could access after identifying myself and our relationship.  Never cared to pursue it.

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

Probably won't get this all straight but:

 

A detective contacted my MIL about a cold case homicide from many years ago that matched her DNA. Local Sheriff came by to get a better DNA sample to cross check. Apparently a long lost cousin had been murdered and no one in the family knew what happened to her. My wife was able to notify some of the remaining relatives.

 

Another from the wife's side of the family. :

Her sister's ex recently found out he had a 40+ year old son. The son has become part of the family with two new half-sisters and nieces and nephews.

 

I doubt if anyone from my family has ever done any DNA testing so no stories from me.

[Henry T Harrison]

Found out that I am descended from Squire Boone, as well as President Monroe

[Yul Lose]

1 hour ago, sassnetguy50 said:

Would that make your aunt your grandmother's half sister?

Beats me. My head hurts thinking of the possibilities.

[watab kid]

never felt the need to be entered into another data base - particularly having to pay for it - there have been a lot of crimes solved and criminals apprehended through these DNA systems tho , 

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

To quote myself ~

 

"Um... if your parents had split up when you were really young, what might you do if you saw that you had a half-sibling that you’d never known about…?     (Asking for a friend.... Maybe).   "

[sassnetguy50]

14 minutes ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

To quote myself ~

 

"Um... if your parents had split up when you were really young, what might you do if you saw that you had a half-sibling that you’d never known about…?     (Asking for a friend.... Maybe).   "

Are the parents still alive to ask?  Does the report say if the half-sibling is older or younger?  

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

22 minutes ago, sassnetguy50 said:

Are the parents still alive to ask?  Does the report say if the half-sibling is older or younger?  

 

Absolutely no communication after the parents split.  And no parents alive to ask.  She would be a few years younger....    

 

Shared DNA = 26%: 

"26% shared DNA: 1,843 cM across 36 segments"

 

Possible DNA relationships

This table shows the percentage of the time people sharing 1,843 cM have the following relationships:

Percent	Relationship
100%	Grandparent Grandchild Half sibling Aunt/uncle Niece/nephew

 

 

 

[Alpo]

My father was married with two children, got divorced. Married my mother, had three children. I have two half brothers. I have seen a photograph of me looking like I'm about four with the two of them - I do not remember this - and the oldest brother stopped by when we were in California for my mother's parents 50th anniversary. So I have theoretically met both of them once and one of them twice. I don't know these people. And really have no desire to know these people. They are not my family.

[Subdeacon Joe]

I just remembered, I'm a Son of the Revolution and, according to one of my cousins, a descendant of one of the Mayflower people.

 

My dad's grandfather survived Camp Douglas.

[Marshal Dan Troop 70448]

All the way back to Cro-Magnon of the Upper Paleolithic area.  

 

Only fame I know on my wife side is that her brother told her his descendants were stowaways on the Mayflower.

[Pat Riot]

Growing up my Dad told us on his side that our heritage was Scots-Irish, Cherokee Indian. My Mom said on her side of the family that she was German, Irish, Dutch and way back there was some Iroquois Indian. 
 

Turns out they were wrong. 
 

Currently my Ancestry.com results are: (going by memory)

41% Scottish 

40% English 

9% “Germanic” - could be Dutch

4% Scandinavian 

1% Irish

 

BUT! I recently found out that the man I thought was my mother’s father was her Dad in name only. Her true father died shortly after my Mom was conceived. So now I have to start over on her side. Dangit! I was all the way back to the early 1700’s researching my Mom’s side. Although my Aunts, whose father is who I thought was my Mom’s Dad and my cousins will be happy with my research. 
I have learned that what families may tell folks about their ancestry or heritage may not necessarily be accurate, like my Dad telling me that his ancestors have participated in every major war since the Revolution. Not true at all, unless coal mining was considered participating in a war…

My parents are both deceased and I have a very fragmented family so getting accurate info is pretty hard. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

Mormons are into genealogy big time, so being from a line of Mormons back to the days when the church was founded, I pretty well know my family tree.

 

What is more interesting to me is the plethora (there's your new word for the day) of family history:  

 

Two of my dad's grandfathers were in the Confederate Army. One was a scout for General Sterling Price, was wounded and plead with the General not to cashier him out, and ended up being a recruiter.  The other joined up and was told to go with other boys down the road to get uniforms and guns and the whole. bit.  On they way they were captured by a Union patrol and spent the rest of the war in Michigan in a POW camp....without really serving a single day.  Both drew pensions until they died.

 

Mom's side were Waldenses from the Vaudois Valleys in Northern Italy, moved west with the Mormons settling towns and communities, building roads and dams, and irrigations ditches and canals, railroads and industries, and occasionally taking time out to ride with Porter Rockwell, John Lee, Bill Hickman, and other "Danites", fight Johnston's Army, take part in the Mormon Brigade, settle o lot of Arizona and California, and generally take a major part in settling our country.  

 

Hundreds of those stories are a lot more interesting to me than a pedigree.

[sassnetguy50]

That is a tough situation.  She could be a wonderful person with lots of interesting family history or a horrible B, looking for "family" to mooch off of.

[Sedalia Dave]

Telling some one their heritage is X is only as good as their data base.  This makes all things like you are ethnic XXX but not YYY suspect. There are many ethnic regions where they have little data for comparison. 

 

As has been pointed out by others many things were done in the past that have no paper trail. I know that several generations ago my mom's side of the family took in a neighbors infant children after their parents died. The ONLY record of this is a very worn family bible. Had the bible not been found no one would know. 

Had you conducted a family genealogy test today without the knowledge from the bible what would you think when someone that you had treated as a close relative not really a relative by blood? Does that make them any less a relative?

 

Infidelity, incest, and rape are nothing new. In the past it was often buried for many reasons; some good and some not so good.

 

I am a firm believer that if you go digging into your families past hoping to learn learn something extraordinary you had better be fully prepared to find a chamber pot and not a pot of gold.

 

Ask yourself, are you REALLY prepared to learn things about loved ones that severely tarnishes your fond memories of them??? 

[Subdeacon Joe]

3 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Growing up my Dad told us on his side that our heritage was Scots-Irish, Cherokee Indian. My Mom said on her side of the family that she was German, Irish, Dutch and way back there was some Iroquois Indian. 
 

Turns out they were wrong. 
 

Currently my Ancestry.com results are: (going by memory)

41% Scottish 

40% English 

9% “Germanic” - could be Dutch

4% Scandinavian 

1% Irish

 

BUT! I recently found out that the man I thought was my mother’s father was her Dad in name only. Her true father died shortly after my Mom was conceived. So now I have to start over on her side. Dangit! I was all the way back to the early 1700’s researching my Mom’s side. Although my Aunts, whose father is who I thought was my Mom’s Dad and my cousins will be happy with my research. 
I have learned that what families may tell folks about their ancestry or heritage may not necessarily be accurate, like my Dad telling me that his ancestors have participated in every major war since the Revolution. Not true at all, unless coal mining was considered participating in a war…

My parents are both deceased and I have a very fragmented family so getting accurate info is pretty hard. 

 

I forget the whys and wherefores, but the Guess Your Ancestry places are notorious for NOT seeing American Indian.

Weren't coal miners exempt from the draft in WWI and WWII because it was an essential industry?

[Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L]

13 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

To quote myself ~

 

"Um... if your parents had split up when you were really young, what might you do if you saw that you had a half-sibling that you’d never known about…?     (Asking for a friend.... Maybe).   "

 

14 hours ago, Injun Ryder, SASS #36201L said:

Another from the wife's side of the family. :

Her sister's ex recently found out he had a 40+ year old son. The son has become part of the family with two new step half-sisters and nieces and nephews.

 

 

See above.

[irish ike, SASS #43615]

15 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

I forget the whys and wherefores, but the Guess Your Ancestry places are notorious for NOT seeing American Indian.

Interesting. My wife's maternal grandmother was full blooded Navajo. Making her mom 1/2?  Anyway wife does the DNA thing and no native American

My maternal grandfather was adopted. No one knew his family name. As in he was found and no parents where found? So another dead end.

In theory I'm German, Dutch, and English making me an American!

[Cypress Sun]

Two Federal agents were sitting around one day having drinks at the bar.

 

Agent 1 says to the other, "You know what would make our job ALOT easier?"

 

Agent 2 says "What?"

 

Agent 1 - "What if we forced everyone in the country to give us their DNA?" "After a couple of years, we would know the entire genetic makeup of almost everyone in the Country...we'd be able to pinpoint everyone, everywhere, anytime based upon their genetic DNA left anywhere."

 

Agent 2 - "That will cost billions of dollars...I know...we'll still build the database and we'll just get them to pay for it in the guise of an ancestry scavenger hunt."

 

 

 

 

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

Remote descent has never seemed too interesting to me, personally. Three or even four generations back maybe. Before a few generations, the ancestors in question would have thousands of decendants, none of whom would carry any particular mark of their greatness, if that's what they had.

[Pat Riot]

Honestly, my fingerprints have been taken by numerous agencies and my DNA, I am sure is in a federal database somewhere. I really don’t care. Know why? I am not important enough, rich enough, criminal enough to matter to the Feds. I am too old to start a revolution and even if I did I wouldn’t give a **** if they identified me because I can guarantee that when that crap hits the fan I wouldn’t care anyway. 

[bgavin]

It is said, "If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either."

My wife is a deep researcher into this field and we have done both our DNA analysis.
I don't care enough to even remember my lineage, other than "british isles".

One of our friends grew up all his life as an O'more, only to find out he was actually an O'Connell.
Grandma had a dalliance somewhere along the line.

Same thing happened to my good friend in New Zealand.
No matter how it plays out, I still see the same old man looking at me in the mirror.

[DocWard]

17 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

To quote myself ~

 

"Um... if your parents had split up when you were really young, what might you do if you saw that you had a half-sibling that you’d never known about…?     (Asking for a friend.... Maybe).   "

 

That is truly a tough question, and I have a hard time putting myself in your shoes, as my parents were together until my mom passed in 2010. My natural curiosity would make me want to meet this half sibling, to see if there is a chance at establishing a familial bond, because the importance of family is something that was taught and impressed upon us from a young age. That is despite the fact I have two sisters and a number of their children whom I have as little contact with as possible, because my life is only better as a result.

At the end of the day, I say you have to follow your heart, just understand it could turn out a number of ways, some joyful, some heartbreaking, and you are likely incapable of predicting them all. Good luck, whichever you do.

[Rye Miles #13621]

If it’s  done legitimately it’s fine but how do you know these places do it right? I think it’s a big scam and waste of money! I don’t trust any of them.

[Subdeacon Joe]

I love how everything except living 500 miles from everyone and everything, having no phone or other electronic connection is somehow twisted into a government plot to track and control us.

 

I'm interested for the same reason I like reading headstones in old cemeteries...I like to speculate on how people came to be where they are, what made them decide to move there.

 

My Ancestry dot com maps

 

[Seamus McGillicuddy]

This happened to a good friend of mine. His parents were both pretty prominent educators in my hometown. Prior to that they had lived in a large city and had three sons including my friend.  So after doing the DNA test and some research through Ancestry my friend discovers that his “father” was not really the father of him or of his older brother and only the younger brother was the child of the so called “father”. The real father of my friend and his older brother was another teacher with whom their mother carried on a lengthy affair.  So the younger brother is actually a half brother. I was surprised at how casually my friend told me about this bizarre story. He said that he and his older brother recalled fights between their parents that involved their actual father’s name being brought up.  So that part at least made sense to them.  Fortunately all of the parents were gone before any of this came out.  
 

Seamus

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

I'm not inclined to give a DNA sample to an unknown database just for my entertainment. Doesn't matter to me if one of my ancestors was a Prussian Prince, or oxcart driver.

 

My ancestor is likely the one on the guy’s shoulder… 

 

 

[Pat Riot]

When I was doing my research I discovered a guy in South London in 1726 that was hanged for murder. His last name matched the name of my Dad’s ancestors. This guy was a real piece of work. He ran gangs in London. Gangs of pickpockets and conmen. He was a dirtbag of the highest order. Knowing my Dad’s side of the family I was not surprised. I was truly hoping this guy was our ancestor for one reason; to put some people in my family in their place. But, alas, this does not appear to be the case.