Ancestry

[Morbid Minish]

Have you ever taken a DNA test the like 23andMe one to find out your ancestry? Or even just did some research into your family lineage? I'm sure for some people, you even had a project at some point in school where you had to make a family tree.

Anyways, I'm curious for those of you how have, what were your results? Were you surprised by anything in particular?


I haven't gotten to do the DNA test yet, though I would love to sometime. I did however, get a month subscription on ancestry.com once and did a bit of research there.

Most of the stuff I found, was info that I had been told before about my family's history. I knew we were mostly from areas like Scotland, England, and Whales. I also have a bit of Cherokee ancestry. I had been told our family had some Cherokee heritage my whole life, and it was nice to see that proven on ancestry and to learn more about that part of the family. Especially since it seems to be a popular trend among Americans to claim Native American ancestry without any proof, and a lot of the time it turns out to be false.

At one point I was just messing around, and seemed to discover some German heritage as well. But I wasn't really "researching" stuff seriously at that point, just following some links, so I don't know how accurate all of that was. I'd love to be able to take the DNA test and get a more accurate representation of the percentages and areas.

 

[Fraxinus]

Have not taken those online tests, as they are largely scams and made up. There's the story of two identical twins signing up for 23andMe and ending up with a 20% difference in their French heritage. So, yeah, it's a fraud. Some information taken may be from real archived informatjon on your family tree, but the algorithm likely just fills in blanks at random if they lack sufficient data.

I already have a general idea of what my heritage is so I don't really see the point in investigating further. Not much you can do with the information anyway.

 

[YIGAhim]

My grandma has ancestory.com and shares tiny facts with us now and then.

Apparently one of my ancestors was on the Mayflower, and actually lived. Also I am apparently like 17th in line to be duke somewhere in a tiny country

 

[CruddyR1]

Did some a while ago. Found out my Great grandpa on my dad's side, died when his tractor randomly caught fire. So that was fun. Also on my mom's side, I found out that I'm related to Vasco da Gama the Portuguese explorer. Also fun lol

 

[DekuNut]

Both of my grandfather's are super into the whole lineage thing. Don't have much on either of my grandmother's sides though.
I'm mostly British. Mom's side from Ireland and Scotland, dad's side from Scotland and England. Also some random like French stuff in there. Of I have anything non-western European in me though, I dont know it.

 

[Jimmu]

I’ve heard that those companies can store your DNA and potentially do things with it you wouldn’t like such as find out which diseases you are susceptible to and then sell the information to insurance companies so that they can increase your premiums. So I wouldn’t get one of them done.

I assume my ancestors are from somewhere near England but I don’t really care enough to look into it if I’m honest.

 

[Stormageden747]

My mom does a lot of that type of stuff. Apparently I'm related to the Duke of York and possibly King Edward II of England. So yeah.

Edit:
Also my family once owned this castle.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashby_de_la_Zouch_Castle?wprov=sfla1

I know I'm part German, English, French, and Native American.

Edit 2: I keep remembering things lol. But it's a small chance I'm related to William the Conqueror. Also, I'm distantly related to Jessie James. Ironically his robberies were in Missouri and I live in Missouri, but our relation goes all the way back to England.

=====================

My grandma has ancestory.com and shares tiny facts with us now and then.

Apparently one of my ancestors was on the Mayflower, and actually lived. Also I am apparently like 17th in line to be duke somewhere in a tiny country

The Mayflower thing, same here. What if it was the same person?

Hey there cousin

EDIT: Merged Double Posts - Jimmu

 

[DekuNut]

One of my mom's ancestors was the chief of staff for the king of Scotland a few centuries back, and one of my dad's was one of Napoleon' s personal bodyguards. I'm also somehow related to President Ford I guess.
That's the closest my family has been to just about anything in aware of.

 

[YIGAhim]

When we think about it, we may all be related if the story of Adam and Eve happened to be true.

Hey there cousin

I'm going to start calling you cuz from now on.

 

[Rubik]

My ancestors probably stole sheep for a living, tbh.

 

[Maniacal Ezlo]

I'm at least a 4th generation Canadian on both sides. Someone on my dad's side evem worked on the railroad that eventually led to Canada's designation as a sovereign state, so my family has been in Canada for as long as it's been a country.

But before Canada, I know that my ancestry is primarily based out of England. Most notably, I've been told several times that we're related to Charles Dickens, on my mom's side, but I'm not sure how directly. Also on my mom's side, I have some Scottish and Welsh blood, but my family was primarily from England (it's all part of the same country though so eh). Aside from that, my grandfather on my dad's side was involved with a European mafia during WWII, but he's not actually my biological grandfather.

Going along with that, my ancestry is complicated because neither of my grandfathers are my parents' biological fathers, since my mom was conceived from an affair and my dad came from a relationship that lasted less than a month. So there is a lot that is unknown.

 

[Dizzi]

Well my family is scots and english and others, like my dad does those site and does family trees but were so dang big that....

 

[Beauts]

I've never done the DNA test but I have looked a little into my ancestry. On my mum's side I've managed to trace us back to around the 1700s, they were clergimen and poets from the West Country in England, possibly originating from Ireland judging on the root of my surname but it's also hard to say for sure as there are several different versions of the name from different areas and places. Before that I don't know and nor does anyone else for sure in my family.
On my Dad's side I've not really done any research but my grandfather was from the Isle of Skye in Scotland. My grandmother's parents were Russian Jews but that's as much as I know.

 

[CapitalG]

Why would I pay a company an exorbitant amount of money only for (((them))) to archive my DNA in a database somewhere and tell me I have undesirable genetic makeup when I know full well who I am and where I'm from?

 

[Kirino]

undesirable genetic makeup

Out of curiosity, what do you mean by this?

(((them)))

And this?