I read somewhere where lots of siblings are doing this and finding out that they have different fathers.
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Have any of you ever researched your family tree?
I've done the ancestry.co.uk DNA test and the results have come back 41% Irish and Scottish, with the other 59% made up of south Wales (obviously), west England, northern France and west Germany.
I've been chipping away at my family tree for years and can definitely say that the West England bit is very accurate as I have relatives living in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire whose direct family have lived there for at least 160 years.
I find genealogy very interesting, although I'd advise anyone who fancies a go to be very cautious with it as you can easily be thrown off track, especially if you've got loads of Jones, Davies, Thomas, Evans etc in your family.
I read somewhere where lots of siblings are doing this and finding out that they have different fathers.
Yes, had a MyHeritageDNA kit as a present and my results were 76% Welsh/Irish/Scottish, 12.5% English, 10.5% Baltic (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) and 1% Middle Eastern. The last two were a bit of a surprise to me!
Correctly matched my DNA with a cousin now living in Australia who has also taken the DNA test.
Phew!
Back on topic, not sure i'd be prepared for "bad news".
Chatting to someone the other day about the same thing and he has been dipping in and out every so often and is really excited.
He said something like they give you little tempters to get more cash out of you. Is this so?
It can be, but I subscribe £20 per month so I've access to census records etc.
I've given up the booze, so £20 is nothing compared to what I was putting behind the bar.
It is actually good value for money if you're interested enough in it but probably not if don't really have the time or desire to crack on with it.
I've been researching my family tree for about 20 years, maybe a bit more, and would never consider the DNA route for a number of reasons,
1. The enjoyment is in the research - trying to locate a lost line for a few years then that breakthrough
through that gives you another two generations back.
2. Ancestry is a private company and taking their test means you are paying them to use your DNA for their own commercial purposes. You have paid them money, and handed over the most private part of your identity.
3. Ancestry is owned by The Church of the Latter Day Saints - The Mormans. I wouldn't want any religous group owning my DNA.
Last edited by Harry Monk; 05-02-19 at 16:21. Reason: spelling
I embarked on a search to find out who my maternal grandparents were last year - in the slim hope that I could obtain an EU passport. (My mother was adopted and diodn't even know her own parents). After putting in a bit of donkey work I had a suspicion as to who her mother was but a certain CCMB poster, who is an expert in the field, did some amazing research on my behalf and confirmed my suspicion. My mother was born out of wedlock and was given away for adoption by her mother, who, not surprisingly turned out to be Welsh - amd who subsequently married and had progeny, none of whom were necessarily aware of the fact that they had a half-sister. If they were indeed aware, the information didn't necessarily filter down to her other grandchildren, who I and the CCMB poster contacted. My mother's father is still unknown but I took a DNA test to see if that would help me track him. My DNA matched with shedloads of 4th/5th/6th cousins but the only ones that I have found a common relative with (just one or two of them) have not been from my mother's father's side, whoever he was.
I am not interested in searching for family for any fanciful reason and have always thought that adoptions, illegitimate children, shame, progeny of adultery etc may mean that many of our supposed ancestors are not related to us by blood at all.
I have done a huge amount of work on my family tree (admittedly in fits and starts, depending on work commitments etc) and have traced my family back to 1720 where the trail goes cold. The parish records before that had suffered water damage and were illegible. However the family name was around in the same area of Wiltshire about 50 years earlier, so assuming that folk didn't travel very far in those days, then it seems likely that that will be as far back as I can go. I have never been interested in having a DNA check because it will not tell me anything about what I would call the "real" history of my family. My surname suggests that it originated in France around the time of William the Conquerer as most people had no surname at that time and apparently a lot of peasants simply took the name of the particular knight that the king gave the land to. Hence I suspect all the DNA would tell me is that we originated in Western Europe - no surprise there!
As a precautionary note: my wife decided that it would be a good idea to follow my lead and try to trace her family history. At the age of 62 she discovered that she had been adopted and the people she thought were her Mum and Dad were not! This led to her brother checking his background, only to discover that he too was adopted but from a different family, so the pair of them were not related to each other either! Be prepared for a few surprises which may or may not have a happy outcome.
I had my tree done by someone with one eye ^^ it's a great eye though, found out so much great stuff, best gift ever
How crazy that after reading this thread an advert for ancestry.co.uk appeared on my phone.
I'm afraid to do it. I know I'm at least 50% English. I don't want it to get any worse.
One of the most magical and rewarding aspects of researching someone else's family history is that you never know what can be uncovered - if you look hard enough.
At the moment, I'm investigating someone's family line and found an ancestor, Rosser Richards, who was an agricultural labourer living in the parish of LLanwonno in the 19thC. Nothing of note there, I thought.
How wrong can you be!
I always check local history books to see if folk are mentioned (using Google Books etc) and got a hit. There was a book written about Llanwonno in 1888. It is written in Welsh (it's in Cardiff library) but an English translation is out there. This is what the book tells us in part (using a rough Google translation) about a seemingly ordinary man:
A NOTED PRAYER MAKER - Rosser Richards
“Pontypridd forms an important part of Llanwynno parish and it would be unfair to not chronicle names and what I can remember about some of the magnificent characters of this town. I would be able to afford time to write a variety of chapters on the old characters of Pont-y-pridd-poets, traders, preachers, and employees….a lot of names rush in to my memory, and the personality of many of the old pilgrims of the Bridge lay in front of my mind, until I desired to give a picture of each and a chapter of each picture. Here are some of them…… Rosser Richard,…. All remarkable in some way or another.
Rosser's speciality was his enthusiastic feelings and wild times, and his dreaming prayers. He praised a match for one pound, and he also won; but I'm sorry, others have done the competition, and he did not know anything about it until he was over, and his prayer was best judged. Rachel, his wife, used to break out to embrace at the meetings. She was laughed as a girl many times under the influence of the word of the Word, and she was heard to lift her voice and sometimes break out to sing another time to weep, until she pulled the singing to sing and weep with...
When we were children, we saw Rosser coming for a while from the Bridge to Ynys-y-bwl, and to sit to my father's big chair, half an hour before the prayer meeting, was quite common; and the big look would be on the old black cap that he always had on his head. He traveled a lot to pray all over the country. At the end of his life he would like to go to the Gbes-wen, where he was welcomed by Caledfryn, and the cii, but he had something for his trouble, apart from carnival for his prayer. He was one of Penuel's members."
And there's more...
Imagine how my client will feel when he learns of this person in his direct ancestral line. Rosser is now not just a name in his tree.
It's funny to think that another poster on here could be my love child....
Genetically speaking I should be supporting Millwall, West Ham,Exeter City, Caen, Dundee (possibly, can't prove that two), Plymouth Argyle, and any teams out in the sticks near Lucca and Cork. Based on the principle that the Italian/Irish side of the family were Catholics , and at the last count just one great aunt has 49 offspring, I'm very likely to be related to someone on this board or in the Canton stand....but not TBGs love child!
Without DNA testing I've managed to trace my family to Meirionydd/ Caernarfon to the 1600's; Tenby 1800; Maesteg 1840; Coychurch 1720; Bryncoch (Near Bridgend) 1838; Caerleon 1800. In 1890 we allowed some blood from Pucklechurch in Gloucestershire to get in, followed by a Ross on Wye and Gloucester City mix in 1939. A slight bit more watering down took place when we allowed some Derry City blood in in 1940.