DNA testing - results

[IanD]

Many on here will know of my interest in tracing mine, and others, ancestry.

In June, I sent my DNA for the Ancestry test. I had been sceptical of the value of DNA testing, but having watched some programs on TV and knowing that the DNA pool is much bigger these days, I thought I'd see what came back.

I particularly wanted to see if there was a resolution to my question of who was my paternal grandfather - I had believed for years that he was ThomasC but then found a news report of an affiliation order which indicated he was in fact WCox. But I didn't really think there was much chance of closure here.

I should mention that I hadn't put my tree on Ancestry, so there is no chance they have factored in my known details.

I received my results yesterday. There were 247 close matches!

One definitely confirmed that WCox was my grt grandfather. Worth the price of the test right there.

But then it got weird.

Ancestry ping the 247 people who had matches to my profile and halfway through the morning I had a message from a guy who wanted to compare ancestries. He gave me some names, but there were no obvious links. We got into detail and he mentioned a knowledge of the Hoxton area of London. I had ancestors living there in the 19thC. Now we got serious - bloodhounds on the scent!

He told me there was a rumour in his family that his grandmother had an affair while married. He gave dates of when this likely happened. I replied with a family surname and that they were silversmiths. That was the 'Eureka' moment - the family rumour was that his Grannie had a fling with a silversmith.

Cutting a long story short, it turned out we were talkling about his biological grandfather - he never believed that the man married to his grandmother was his grandfather. We narrowed the suspects down to two brothers. I sent pictures of the brothers and he came back with a positive ID. We knew the name of his grandfather. Further investigation put him in the same street as his grandfather (on paper) in 1901 and I even had a photo of his true grandfather in that street beside a car.

I don't have to tell you how he was feeling. He said he was shaking. I discovered that he's a univeristy lecturer.

Today, I put him in touch with his first cousin who is also a grandchild. I'd love to hear that conversation!

The moral is - if you are interested, do the test
(Memo to TBG)

Just to clarify, do you need an Ancestry account to get 'pinged' by close matches or can you make contact without? Also, is the DNA test good for both male and female lines? I would be most interested in my mother's side of the family...Italian/Irish and Norman French via Devon.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

Just to clarify, do you need an Ancestry account to get 'pinged' by close matches or can you make contact without? Also, is the DNA test good for both male and female lines? I would be most interested in my mother's side of the family...Italian/Irish and Norman French via Devon.

I'm pretty sure you would need an Ancestry account as the DNA results are available via the website. A new feature is that the DNA of each of one's parents is included - although the system only states Parent 1 and Parent 2. In my case, it was pretty obvious as to work out parent was which as they came from very different parts of this country.