DNA testing - results

[IanD]

Re: DNA testing - results

Family lore says that we are related to Michael Collins, he of the IRA. Not, yet, proved a link on paper but do know the Irish side of the family were from Co. Cork as was Collins. Not sure how I'd feel if a DNA test put substance to the story.

[The Lone Gunman]

Re: DNA testing - results

Leaving aside all the surprises DNA testing may show and the ethnicity report, the one BIG result of testing, which hasn't been mentioned, can be confirmation that our carefully drawn-up family trees are demonstrably CORRECT.

All those fears, which have been expressed, about incorrect information being recorded over decades for whatever reason may be banished.

Can be. May be. Exactly.

[Bondi Bluebird]

Re: DNA testing - results

Excuse my ignorance as I haven't paid much attention to these DNA tests although always been curious.

I understand the concept of the ethnicity by geographic region and matching distant family members because of their DNA profiles, when they have all registered with Ancestry or whatever provider they use.

What I don't understand is how people find out because of these tests that their father isn't their father or they have half brothers etc when those people haven't done the DNA testing and are therefore not on the database?

Apologies if this is something obvious but I had no idea this was something these tests unearthed until I read this thread.

[Des Parrot]

Re: DNA testing - results

Excuse my ignorance as I haven't paid much attention to these DNA tests although always been curious.

I understand the concept of the ethnicity by geographic region and matching distant family members because of their DNA profiles, when they have all registered with Ancestry or whatever provider they use.

What I don't understand is how people find out because of these tests that their father isn't their father or they have half brothers etc when those people haven't done the DNA testing and are therefore not on the database?

Apologies if this is something obvious but I had no idea this was something these tests unearthed until I read this thread.

I can explain in the case of my wife. When you get your results on Ancestry, it gives you matches with other people in the Ancestry data base. In my wife’s case around 5000 people. You would expect around a 50:50 split between parents, as mine was. My wife’s mother in Manx, her father Irish. In her feedback there were zero matches to either her father or Ireland. Instead her ethnicity was 50% Welsh & she had over 2000 matches to a new family, which included immediate family. It was very obvious & quick to establish who her real father was through the link to brothers & sisters.

In our case, over 9000 people globally in our family trees have had DNA tests, which is way more than enough to collaborate the relationships in detail.

As a side comment I have a large family in Australia and I was able to research their whole tree, as the Oz databases , newspapers and shipping records are comprehensive. They’re all tin miners from Cornwall (Poldark) who emigrated en masse in the first settlement convoy.

[Cyclops]

Re: DNA testing - results

Additionally to the comprehensive comment above, the lack of a DNA match can be revealing.

I have a dead end in my tree of someone (GP), born in around 1760. His surname is uncommon and he lived around the Portsmouth/Gosport area of Hampshire. I have a DNA match to one of his grand-daughters so my line to him is confirmed.

There is a large cluster of inter-related P's in a village near Portsmouth in the 18thC who were potential relatives. I can now discount them as being connected to my family because I've learnt that two people who provably descend from them have their DNA in the Ancestry pool. They have not appeared in the list of matches.

So no DNA matches can be as significant as actual matches. Its the Holmes 'Dog that didn't bark' factor.