Find Ancestors

Anyone used a DNA testing site and would be willing to comment on same.
My ancestors are seemingly impossible to trace the ordinary way. Cost is a small factor, but actually attempting to tie it in with others is more important. ancestry are advertising such a scheme but it seems to be very much American oriented.

Happy days

There is a thread here about one DNA testing site:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1142384

- but that was the type of testing that links you to one of about 25 or so major ethnic groups thousands of years ago;

- and another thread here about whether such testing is in fact accurate:

http://www.genesreunited.co.uk/boards/board/genealogy_chat/thread/1274957

I do recall reading about someone who had carried out the test and then allowed the results to be pooled so that the closest matches could email one another - but I cannot locate that now, sorry.

There is this blog from someone who is waiting to hear back from those that he emailed....

http://blog3.craigkanalley.com/2012/06/dna-results-are-in-what-i-learned-about.html

I dont know of anyone using these sites. Tracing ancestors can be hard but everyone dose leave a paper trail somewhere it just a matter of knowing were to look. My wifes family are called smith, that lead me down many a dead end, but it was solved just by one small peice of information that was at given to us by someone we hardly knew. one of the difficult thing to do is sorting the facts from fictions. Finding ancestors is very time consumming when i come upto a dead end, i will leave my family tree for serval months than come back to it , so i have a clear head when i return. I believe dna testing can tell were you come from , but not be able to tell who you come from. i believe but i maybe wrong but everyone is related to one in seven strangers that they meet, meaning you have a common ancestor with one in seven people. The one thing i dont trust is american ancestory as they have very little history , and i find the americans will grab at anything which they believe to be there ancestors. i wish you luck on finding your ancestors

I've read through a few of these sites and as much as I would love to find my kin this way, I think it is still too much in its infancy to rely on.

What I would be fascinated to know would be my gnentic history having so many aspects to my family history.

I'm also bothered by the potential Big Brother danger.

I have no trust in the Establishment who, I am sure, would jump at the chance to access a DNA store. Or just suppose the companies offering these services, were taken over by a company linked to medical or pharmaceutical companies. All that genetic information leading to identification of medical traits within certain communities or even studying my DNA to establish my genetic medical history because I do have an illness which although not classed as hereditary, is classed as familial and several close relatives do have it.

Now if a lab or bone fide research foundation were studying the illness I have and wanted to study where it mutated or developed from, I would be happy to volunteer but I won't be party to secretive studies sanctioned by Governments.

DNA is a wonderful and fascinating development within my lifetime and who knows where it will take us and maybe we will be able to do our own DNA family tree sooner rather than later. It might sound far-fetched but then in 1988 when I was sat in an impersonal records office looking at the 1881 on a viewer, so was the idea that every house might have its own computer and I could sit here and call up a census whilst drinking my hot choc.

Sorry I've gone on a bit of a tangent. Finding your genetic family will only work the more that people become a part of it. If you do decide to try it, good luck.

J

Thank you for those excellent replies. Much appreciated. Would be nice to know from where my Hay(s) originate. Apparently they are either Scottish; Irish;or French.

Happy days

Hmmm. I would imagine that fits a heck of a lot of people in this country who claim to be English. I think it would be a real shock for them to find out just what a mix most of us are.

French would be a good possibility because of old William the 'Conker' and his lot. Hubby's family legend is that the family came over at the time of the Norman invasion.

I'm fairly sure that some soldiers who fought in France in the early part of the 1800s never returned to England but their descendents might have.

Scottish history is full of links with France e.g. Mary Queen of Scots or Charles Edward Stuart the 'Young Pretender'.

England was a major trading country and so was Scotland. Ireland was the same and the Irish being forced out of their own country, settled here or as far away as the US.

My Scottish heritage is via Shetland from the Norwegian Vikings. Family legend says that one of my lot sailed with Erik The Red to America.

And I also have a great grandfather with the surname Doyle. Apparently he and his father were both born in India so figure that one out.

All that on the paternal side whilst the maternal side appears to be boring, nothing but English agricultural labourers or industrial workers. The maternal paternal surname maybe Early English Medieval or Scottish Medieval. The maternal maternal line looks like it might be the most English of all. According to The Internet Surname Database 'The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of Richard atte Westhalle. This was dated 1302, in the pipe rolls of Lincolnshire, during the reign of Edward 1st of England, 1272 - 1307

So like you I would love to know what my genetic origins are.

Don't know if you ever picked up this item when it was in the news. It blew my mind.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1549589/posts

For more info, just Google 'Adrian Targett'

Gives me goose bumps just re-reading the articles.

J

DNA is one subject I'm very interested in. I expect in the future DNA will be taken from everybody when they are born. Tough fo anybody trying to hide a secrect.

I'm waiting for the technolgy to become more common for genealogy but I'm definately going to do it before I die. If I'd been a man would have done it before now.

I expect my line will ultimately not be English because of the movement of my ancesters. Most so called white people will find that they are not snowy white as they would like to believe.

In doing my own tree I found strange resemblances from distant female relations across the generational lines.

I've got no hangups about Big brother or anything like that - it is all contribution to history. Help loads of peoples with trees and finding family but before I start I always explain the worst senarios I've found and ask if they are prepared for the worst. DNA is just another thread.

God bless you for those replies. Best of luck in your searches. As I'm virtually 80, have posted before that it won't be long before I ask them in person.

Happy days

Harry are you going to give it a go. Would be so very interested in the findings :-) :-)

Go for it Harry. If anyone from Big Brother wants to mess with you, you can threaten to come back someday and haunt them :-D

Hope it won't be for a very long time though.xx

Not sure. Don't fancy dealing with an American firm but they seem the best bet to tie things up properly.

Was just hoping someone could put me right.

Happy days

Keep looking at all the firms and see if you feel comfortable with one?

There is always a stall at the annual exhibition Who do you think you are in London.

I know Anc... do it. Really need to contact the UK office to get more details if that is needed

Don't know if the link will show up with the movie to explain it all http://dna.ancestry.com/

Bit scarey all the people they may find with the same DNA

:-)

Not sure how your DNA will help you to find your Hayes family in Gloucestershire, which if I remember from years ago, is your stumbling block.

You'd need theirs as well, wouldn't you?

But, if you think it can........give it a try.

I wish you luck

Any port in a storm Reggie. Thank you NanaSue and Jill for your postings.

Best wishes Happy days