I am a big genealogy geek and love this stuff but I won't do it until the legalities about data (plus the mormon church stuff) are hashed out in more detail. I have traced my family lineage back to the 1400's on both sides so that's about as far as I am going to get until data privacy laws catch up.
I sent in the Ancestry DNA kit, you spit into a tube and a couple weeks later the results are loaded onto your membership page.
I'm also a genealogy nut and spend my free time researching both my husband's and my family tree. I use Ancestry but I've heard good things about familysearch.org directly from a family member who works with the Mormon Church in Salt Lake. Her job is to help people start their research. She asked me which program I use and I said, "I'm using Ancestry." Her direct response was, "wrong answer! you need to check out familysearch.org"
I have over 4300 people that I've placed in my tree, no way am I going to transfer them all one by one into Family Search, but it was interesting to "talk shop" with her. I have the World Explorer membership which is really nice if you know you have family from outside the US.
One neat fact was happening upon finding that my 43rd great grandparents are Ragnar Lothbrok and Aslaug. Both portrayed in the show, Vikings.
See, the two things here regarding being adopted and being found through my dna are reasons why I would not do this. I have parts of my family that I, very happily, do not know, nor do I want to know. I don't want a forced connection just because we happen to share the same dna.
See, the two things here regarding being adopted and being found through my dna are reasons why I would not do this. I have parts of my family that I, very happily, do not know, nor do I want to know. I don't want a forced connection just because we happen to share the same dna.
Apart from the data privacy issues, DH and I have agreed to not test his DNA until after his parents have passed for this reason. FIL was adopted in a closed adoption in the 50's by a devout Italian Roman Catholic first gen immigrant family and he's an only child. His parents only "knew" (insofar as Catholic Charities told them) that his birth mother was also Italian and Roman Catholic, and a large part of the family identity comes from that. We don't want to unintentionally rock the boat if we discovered that somehow any of that family story wasn't true.
This has always fascinated me also. I traced my ancestry on my mom's side pretty far back a few years ago. I used ancestry and geni. I traced my roots back to Charlemagne which is just crazy, also I am the tenth great-granddaughter of Benjamin Rush - one of the founding fathers. Also Geni once sent me an email saying I was related to Chuck Norris and it had the tree mapped to him and everything hahaha! He is like my 5th cousin twice removed or something.
My father passed away when I was a child and I do not know much about his family - they are all gone.
Post by cattledogkisses on May 2, 2016 11:53:26 GMT -5
My molecular genetics professor in college said that apparently a surprising amount of people find out that their fathers aren't their actually their fathers when they do stuff like this.
You have to be prepared for the possibility of finding out unexpected things I guess!
Post by MixedBerryJam on May 2, 2016 12:30:22 GMT -5
I did 23 and Me back when they included the medical/disease stuff they don't do anymore, solely to find out my likelihood of developing Alz (lower than average) but I really enjoyed finding out I'm 2.9% Neanderthal.
I would probably not do it now knowing what I know about data security etc., but I also did it once I knew that, if really bad information came back, I would not ever need to get additional insurance.
This has always fascinated me also. I traced my ancestry on my mom's side pretty far back a few years ago. I used ancestry and geni. I traced my roots back to Charlemagne which is just crazy, also I am the tenth great-granddaughter of Benjamin Rush - one of the founding fathers. Also Geni once sent me an email saying I was related to Chuck Norris and it had the tree mapped to him and everything hahaha! He is like my 5th cousin twice removed or something.
My father passed away when I was a child and I do not know much about his family - they are all gone.
We're cousins! I have a strand on my father's side that goes back to Charlemagne as well!
This has always fascinated me also. I traced my ancestry on my mom's side pretty far back a few years ago. I used ancestry and geni. I traced my roots back to Charlemagne which is just crazy, also I am the tenth great-granddaughter of Benjamin Rush - one of the founding fathers. Also Geni once sent me an email saying I was related to Chuck Norris and it had the tree mapped to him and everything hahaha! He is like my 5th cousin twice removed or something.
My father passed away when I was a child and I do not know much about his family - they are all gone.
We're cousins! I have a strand on my father's side that goes back to Charlemagne as well!
I sent in the Ancestry DNA kit, you spit into a tube and a couple weeks later the results are loaded onto your membership page.
I'm also a genealogy nut and spend my free time researching both my husband's and my family tree. I use Ancestry but I've heard good things about familysearch.org directly from a family member who works with the Mormon Church in Salt Lake. Her job is to help people start their research. She asked me which program I use and I said, "I'm using Ancestry." Her direct response was, "wrong answer! you need to check out familysearch.org"
I have over 4300 people that I've placed in my tree, no way am I going to transfer them all one by one into Family Search, but it was interesting to "talk shop" with her. I have the World Explorer membership which is really nice if you know you have family from outside the US.
One neat fact was happening upon finding that my 43rd great grandparents are Ragnar Lothbrok and Aslaug. Both portrayed in the show, Vikings.
My DNA came back as:
Were you able to find a lot of information in Scandinavia? That's where my relatives are from and I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading to the world Traveler subscription. I have gotten as far as I can go on ancestry.com.
Were you able to find a lot of information in Scandinavia? That's where my relatives are from and I'm wondering if it's worth upgrading to the world Traveler subscription. I have gotten as far as I can go on ancestry.com.
Yes and no...
I've had the most luck with finding info. on ancestors from Germany, France, England and Ireland.
Scandinavia has been a little tough for my Norwegian relatives because when they arrived in Nova Scotia back in the 1800's, their surnames were changed. I can't figure out what they went by before they moved over the Atlantic. I do have a lot of info. on other families that have Dutch roots that came over to the US earlier in the 1600's. They didn't go through any name change back then.