DNA testing - results

[NYCBlue]

Re: DNA testing - results

Let us know the results!
I've recently finished a course on researching Welsh ancestors which was absorbing and instructive.
To my chagrin, the DNA test revealed that I am only 1% Welsh.

This is why I don't and won't do it. I know half my family is English. And the Welsh half are from "out west".

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Re: DNA testing - results

This explains all those places you've name-dropped this year.......

I'm keeping schtum about my movements in the coming months....

[Cyclops]

Re: DNA testing - results

I'm keeping schtum about my movements in the coming months....

And I thought Tan was employing you as his Chief Scout to roam the continent of Europe.
I was convinced you were responsible for all those transfers. They had your mark.....

[Des Parrot]

Re: DNA testing - results

Thanks for sharing what is very personal information.
On reflection my enquiry was intrusive - and I apologise.
I fully understand your dilemma.
What an unfortunate result from what was an innocent action in ordering the tests!
It's hard to imagine the stress the result has created and I meant no implied criticism of your action in telling your wife.
It must have been a terrible shock for her.
Perhaps sometime later, when she has absorbed what has been discovered, her reaction may soften.
I do hope so.
Your experience is valuable to me because I have to pass on all manner of sometimes terrible events I discover when investigating other people's ancestry. These have included rape, suicide even killings. Often I have to ask whether they really want to know - and even when my report is finished, I've asked the person's partner whether they can cope with harrowing events in their ancestor's lives. Just recently I looked into the family of one of my close relatives and opened a can of worms. Fortunately, I was in contact with a responsible daughter and we decided on an appropriate course of action. Once information is out there, it can't be redacted.
So I'm grateful to you for you describing what is for me a salutary experience.

It was actually therapeutic to respond, so it’s not an issue, sort of unburdening myself anonymously.

I’ve got around 3,700 in my tree plus two offshoot trees. The WW1 stories are interesting but normally turn out sad. Finding the many rogues & gaolbirds is always amusing.

Americans pee me off, they grab at any hint, stick it in their tree, no research and it then becomes factual family history.

[Gofer Blue]

Re: DNA testing - results

I bought the Ancestry kit for my wife & myself at Christmas. My was fine and as expected. Hers was a total shock & proved that her father was not her biological father. It took me 4 months to pluck up the courage to tell her. She doesn’t want to know and says it’s wrong. She has 4 half siblings & 550 close relationship but is not interested. It has caused lots of tension!

The morale be careful & be prepared

How amazing is the timing of this thread for me!

My wife has just had her DNA profile back this week. Her biological mother was unmarried and had several (seven so far, we have discovered) children. Hence she has a number of half brothers and sisters, all of whom are now known to her and vice-versa. We don't know if there was a common father. Her DNA has a 100% probability match with a lady who was born the same year as her and in the same town. The issue is that we have discovered that this lady's father was married at the time to someone else! Therein lies one of the dangers of DNA testing - the moral of the story is.... be very wise what you do with the information. Imagine the scenario if my wife were to share this information with the lady....... "your father is my father too" !

[Gofer Blue]

Re: DNA testing - results

How amazing is the timing of this thread for me!

My wife has just had her DNA profile back this week. Her biological mother was unmarried and had several (seven so far, we have discovered) children. Hence she has a number of half brothers and sisters, all of whom are now known to her and vice-versa. We don't know if there was a common father. Her DNA has a 100% probability match with a lady who was born the same year as her and in the same town.

---

Therein lies one of the dangers of DNA testing - the moral of the story is.... be very wise what you do with the information. Imagine the scenario if my wife were to share this information with the lady....... "your father is my father too" !

Apologies, on re-reading the sentence about the father "The issue is that we have discovered that this lady's father was married at the time to someone else" it doesn't make sense. What I meant is this lady's father was married to her mother but fathered my wife with another woman at the same time.

[Cyclops]

Re: DNA testing - results

Is it me, but is it a bit weird that folk have 'carried on' and thought no-one will ever know - and now it's possible that their actions may be potentially laid bare because of DNA evidence.

We all know how criminals are being caught decades after committing crimes because of advances in DNA science, but here we are talking about the man/woman-in-the-street having the means to discover the truth about long-lost family secrets.

Don't really know why I feel uncomfortable about this. I know my paternal great grandmother was immoral before she married, when she was married and after she was married. But I know this from the available records in newspapers and birth and census records. I don't feel anything about it - I just accept it as a fact of life, I suppose. Is there really any difference between having this knowledge from these sources and getting DNA matches? Logically not. But it feels different to me somehow.

[Des Parrot]

Re: DNA testing - results

Is it me, but is it a bit weird that folk have 'carried on' and thought no-one will ever know - and now it's possible that their actions may be potentially laid bare because of DNA evidence.

We all know how criminals are being caught decades after committing crimes because of advances in DNA science, but here we are talking about the man/woman-in-the-street having the means to discover the truth about long-lost family secrets.

Don't really know why I feel uncomfortable about this. I know my paternal great grandmother was immoral before she married, when she was married and after she was married. But I know this from the available records in newspapers and birth and census records. I don't feel anything about it - I just accept it as a fact of life, I suppose. Is there really any difference between having this knowledge from these sources and getting DNA matches? Logically not. But it feels different to me somehow.

I never knew my great grandfather as my grandfather was a bastard. No-one had any idea, as it was 120 years ago. DNA testing enabled me to find him and verify through court and newspaper reports about non payment of alimony. I have no intent of pursuing it & have a separate private tree but it’s good to find the link of something that was a mystery for over a century.

[Mario Miethig]

Re: DNA testing - results

I had the dna test done though ancestry, because I was curious of my ethnicity. My Nan came from Belfast, so knew I wasn’t 100% Welsh. Results came back 53% Scots Irish, 43% Welsh and 4% Irish.
The real shock though, was later finding out the man my Mum thought was her Dad wasnt. A bit of detective work with some new found relatives, found through Ancestry and we’re more or less certain we know who her real Father was. My Mum passed away in 2014 and in a way I’m glad she wasn’t around to find this out, as she would have been devastated.
These DNA tests really do open up a can of worms, as this thread has shown.

[Baloo]

Re: DNA testing - results

Received a heritage DNA kit as a gift.

76% Welsh/Scottish/Irish
12.5% English
10.5% Baltic (Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania)
1% Middle Eastern

[Cyclops]

Re: DNA testing - results

Thanks for all the comments on this subject.
It won't have escaped the notice of anyone who's read this thread that no-one has said DNA testing is rubbish and one big con-trick - which is quite unusual on this forum.....

[Baloo]

Re: DNA testing - results

Thanks for all the comments on this subject.
It won't have escaped the notice of anyone who's read this thread that no-one has said DNA testing is rubbish and one big con-trick - which is quite unusual on this forum.....

I was a little sceptical as the kit was gifted to me and I sort of went along with it. After a few months though I received a close DNA match from Australia and it turned out to be a relative that my mum knew and we exchanged an email or two. Haven’t been able to track down the Baltic heritage yet so maybe a family secret!

I get lots of 3rd-5th cousin matches. Although I read that we each have 17,000 5th cousins on average so I don’t pop them all onto the XMAS card list.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: DNA testing - results

Is it me, but is it a bit weird that folk have 'carried on' and thought no-one will ever know - and now it's possible that their actions may be potentially laid bare because of DNA evidence.

You mean to say that human beings **** around? They don't stay faithful to one partner throughout the entirety of their adult lives? People have lovers, affairs, stuff like that?

Wow! Thank God for Ancestry and DNA 'evidence'. We'd never have known otherwise....

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: DNA testing - results

I never knew my great grandfather as my grandfather was a bastard. No-one had any idea, as it was 120 years ago. DNA testing enabled me to find him and verify through court and newspaper reports about non payment of alimony. I have no intent of pursuing it & have a separate private tree but it’s good to find the link of something that was a mystery for over a century.

So what actual good has this 'knowledge' done for you or your family? Have there been any tangible benefits?

What fascinates me about all this stuff is simply that people are fascinated by it. I don't understand it at all.

[Lither_1927]

Re: DNA testing - results

Received a heritage DNA kit as a gift.

76% Welsh/Scottish/Irish
12.5% English
10.5% Baltic (Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania)
1% Middle Eastern

I don't believe them