DNA testing - results

[Cyclops]

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.....

[Cyclops]

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]

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.

[The Lone Gunman]

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.

[Des Parrot]

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.

Some people play internet games, breed spiders, spend all day on their phones, which I don’t understand. For me i like the detective work, it’s a giant puzzle and when I solve a link or find out something interesting it gives me a buzz. I’m related to Scott, my wife to Oates, now I love that type of obscure but interesting fact. Each to there own.

[The Lone Gunman]

Some people play internet games, breed spiders, spend all day on their phones, which I don’t understand. For me i like the detective work, it’s a giant puzzle and when I solve a link or find out something interesting it gives me a buzz. I’m related to Scott, my wife to Oates, now I love that type of obscure but interesting fact. Each to there own.

Fair enough. The detective work angle I get. I can also understand tracing family trees as a hobby. What I’ve never understood is the emotion some people attach to the whole thing, or the apparent desperation some seem to have to track down distant relatives.

[lardy]

Some people play internet games, breed spiders, spend all day on their phones, which I don’t understand. For me i like the detective work, it’s a giant puzzle and when I solve a link or find out something interesting it gives me a buzz. I’m related to Scott, my wife to Oates, now I love that type of obscure but interesting fact. Each to there own.

That's awesome. I loved Neighbours.

[The Lone Gunman]

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....

[Mario Miethig]

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]

Received a heritage DNA kit as a gift.

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

[Taunton Blue Genie]

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 think it's the case that the DNA test concerned doesn't relate to nationality (Welsh, Scottish, Irish etc) but to the commonality of your genes with those found in Wales, Scotland, Ireland etc. and at a certain point in relatively recent history.

[Cyclops]

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]

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.

[Lither_1927]

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

[The Lone Gunman]

It's great fun. I had incest, child beaters and adulterers in my family history, also thuggery and fraud, in fact, fraud is how i got my surname.

Allegedly.

[Cyclops]

Allegedly.

Nah - provably

[The Lone Gunman]

Nah - provably

So you claim, but I’d take it with a large pinch of salt.

[Cyclops]

So you claim, but I’d take it with a large pinch of salt.

Supported by documentation that would be accepted by reasonable people

[life on mars]

I know a few folk that have found solace tracing such data as family and loved ones depart thier lives , and they seek the families heritage they even incoporate travel to many towns and countries , visiting graves and libraries.

Everyone to thier own ..

[celever]

My parents divorced many years ago.

On my father's side, my great great grandfather was illegitimate. He was a pimp in Temperance Town (site of the bus station) in the 1880s. Did a bit of robbery, stealing from the punters and spent some time in Cardiff jail. His wife was in court many times for having a brothel. She died of alcoholism at 23. Her dad ran the Lamb and Flag in Canton.

I mentioned this to my mother, her reply 'I always knew you were from a long line of bastards'

[celever]

I recently got my DNA results from Ancestry. 34% Wales, 23% Ireland, 17% England, 16% Scotland, 10% Denmark/Norway

I must be British with a bit left over from the Vikings.

[The Lone Gunman]

Supported by documentation that would be accepted by reasonable people

Sure.

[Cyclops]

Sure.

Totally

[Bluebirds over Galway]

I have been compiling the family tree for around 20 years and found other family members doing the same but none of us ever found out where in Ireland my fathers side originated from.
The wife got me one of those DNA tests and I have had a Cluster report which is the connection between the 8 closest matches, I know for certain that the connection is from the Irish side and there are 2 people in this cluster unknown to me who are from Ireland.
I may finally solve the mystery.

[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.