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Finding out about ancestors

 
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Post Finding out about ancestors Link
Have any of you done any ancestor research? My parents did DNA tests that showed no Indian blood on either side, which was contrary to family lore. So I started researching ancestors. I think my cousin must have put his ancestor research on geni.com. I was able to look up previous ancestors.

My mom's first ancestor in the New World was neighbors with my dad's ancestor. My dad's family got to Virgina a generation or two before my mom's did. Someone posted online that my mom's first ancestor hear married one of my dad's ancestors, but that was just guesswork. There was no evidence for her last name, apparently.

My mom's first ancestor here was buried on one of my dad's ancestors' farm. It's kind of funny because their families, their parents, did not know each other at all. They are from different states and met at a chicken restaurant in Atlanta.

I also found out that I am distantly related to Henry Clay, the former speaker of the house and secretary of state who ran against Andrew Jackson, someone I remember from high school American History class. He's not my ancestor, but we have ancestors in common. Another relative, not ancestor, was a famous explorer. And another one was 'Sir', but his father wasn't so he must have been knighted back in the 1400's.

I am not a serious ancestry researcher. Some people really dig through court records and look at tombstones and old family Bible's and such. Now that the Internet is out there, I can just read what they posted online.
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1/24/20 2:21 am


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Post Preacher777
Does anybody know which services seem to get the best or most accurate results? Friendly Face
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1/24/20 6:51 am


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Post UncleJD
Just one comment on Indian DNA, it hides and usually vanishes after about 3 or 4 generations. So not having the DNA does not mean that you didn't have Native Americans in your family tree. This has been discussed a lot in the DNA discussion boards.

For instance, we have pictures of my wife's great-great-grandmother who is clearly Indian, but my wife's DNA shows zero Native American. I show only 1% (and my brother shows 0%) and my grandparents on both sides were supposed to be 25% according to family history.


Last edited by UncleJD on 1/24/20 10:46 am; edited 1 time in total
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1/24/20 10:17 am


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Post UncleJD
Preacher777 wrote:
Does anybody know which services seem to get the best or most accurate results?


All of them and none of them, its all based on samples and guessing algorithms. Honestly the DNA relationships are VERY accurate of course. The ancestry/origins part are not. I'd trust ancestry.com the most since its the most used and has the biggest sample size. But I don't necessarily trust their algorithm because I'm not sure they take everything into account as I would. For example, my family came out of Ireland in the 1700s, most other Irish families came in the late 1800s. So the Irish DNA samplings, in my opinion, are far more influenced by Brittish and other European DNA in the more modern samplings. So they have to make their best guess (which btw, changes every year, i.e. I started off as 30% Irish, then went down to 5%, and now I'm back up to 17%). So you really only have an idea of what your heritage is, not really anything you can rely on.
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1/24/20 10:46 am


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Post Quiet Wyatt
My wife and I both did the Ancestry DNA test a couple of years ago. Both of our families had said we had Native American heritage, but according to their algorithm, neither of us had any NA DNA. Everything else on our respective DNA came out as we expected, from our family histories. According to our family history, the NA blood would have entered our lines in the late 1700s and early 1800s, before the US Govt started doing rolls or censuses of the Native American tribes we were supposed to be descended from (Choctaw and Cherokee). That far back, with all the European DNA in our tree, any NA DNA would be so diluted it basically wouldn’t show up. In any case, I’m pretty sure we have at least as much NA DNA as Elizabeth Warren. [Insert Acts Pun Here]
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1/24/20 12:39 pm


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Post Cojak
Quiet Wyatt wrote:
...., I’m pretty sure we have at least as much NA DNA as Elizabeth Warren.


Shocked Wink Smile
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1/24/20 1:25 pm


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Post Cojak
I am just curious. So I will ask here and research later today anyway, but how does one get a DNA analysis? What is used? Blood, hair, saliva ....?
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1/24/20 2:37 pm


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Post UncleJD
Cojak wrote:
I am just curious. So I will ask here and research later today anyway, but how does one get a DNA analysis? What is used? Blood, hair, saliva ....?
Confused


spit in a tube and mail it back to them.
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1/24/20 3:35 pm


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Post Link
I had about decided that 23and me was better because it showed counties where it thought your ancestors came from, instead of a vague map that you couldn't zoom into. I also liked the map of registered relatives and the distribution, as opposed to the ancestry upsells asking you to subscribe to get more information. 23andme gives you more, but if it isn't as accurate, that's something to think about.

They must only be looking for certain markers for Native Americans. The Cherokee and other groups may have lost some genetic diversity represented in those who got married in with the whites or stayed behind after the trail of tears. They probably aren't using samples from the 1800's. We could be carrying native DNA but those markers aren't in the database.

I've also looked online for native ancestors. My dad sent me a picture of a couple of ancestors and the wife was supposed to be full blooded Indian. She looked like a dark-haired white woman to me. I want to get her name and see if geni.com gives her two white-sounding parents. That side of the family is pretty well documented on geni.com.

There is one grandmother whose ancestors I can't find on any of the free sites that have family trees on them.

I found out last night that my grandmother's last name was an Anglicized German last name and not Irish. One of my ancestors was apparently a Hessian who came to fight the Revolutionary Army. One of my aunts said we had ancestors who fought on both sites.
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1/26/20 10:04 am


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Post UncleJD
Link they are all educated guesses but 23andme is fine. I have found the actual DNA relatives feature much more useful than the ancestry/racial stuff and we were able to locate my wife's biological family using ancestry.com because the user-base for ancestry.com is the largest. There are some specialist companies that focus on Native American DNA, or Irish DNA that if you're really into it you can do theirs too. One of the Irish ones claims to show you which counties your family was from. However, knowing that this all ties to the samples taken and their ability to extrapolate changes over centuries, I don't have a lot of confidence in it since as time has gone on, people have moved from county to county based on simple politics and economics, so I don't know that they could be accurate on my family having left in the 18th century, compared to those that are there now. Golf Cart Mafia Consigliere
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1/27/20 10:06 am


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Post Link
UncleJD wrote:
Link they are all educated guesses but 23andme is fine. I have found the actual DNA relatives feature much more useful than the ancestry/racial stuff and we were able to locate my wife's biological family using ancestry.com because the user-base for ancestry.com is the largest. There are some specialist companies that focus on Native American DNA, or Irish DNA that if you're really into it you can do theirs too. One of the Irish ones claims to show you which counties your family was from. However, knowing that this all ties to the samples taken and their ability to extrapolate changes over centuries, I don't have a lot of confidence in it since as time has gone on, people have moved from county to county based on simple politics and economics, so I don't know that they could be accurate on my family having left in the 18th century, compared to those that are there now.


23andMe links my mom's DNA to certain counties in Ireland, too. But my guess is they weren't digging up bones from the 1700's or 1800's. It is possible though that a lot of families in rural areas in Ireland stayed there, but cities tend to attract people from all around. The rural Irish groups they compare with may be useful.

Famines and wars would cause people to migrate, though.
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Post UncleJD
Link wrote:



Famines and wars would cause people to migrate, though.


True, and then there's the whole Ulster Plantation thing with the English kings (think "Prima-Nocta" from Braveheart, only for real)
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1/28/20 12:16 pm


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Post Link
Following one of the materalineal lines, I saw that I was descended from a Scottish nobleman, and tracing back through some of the ancestors, I appear to be descended from Henry I and William the Conqueror and Malchom III. There were also various European noblemen and crusaders. That would make a descendant of kings going back to Alfred the Great.

Then I looked up the US ancestor who was supposed to have descended from the nobleman who had these ancestors, and ancestry researchers said there was no evidence of it. I've got an early corporate owner in the genealogy was was an alderman of London, and that one seems pretty legit as long as my female ancestors were faithful and there weren't any other surprises. That's the most well-known ancestor I had, I think, other than Adam, Eve, Seth, Methuselah, Enoch, Noah, Noah's kids, and all those people we all have in common.

I was reading online that it is likely most of Europe is descended from some king or another. If you multiply every generation by two going back, after a while you get more people than have ever lived as your number. So family trees eventually cross and one ancestor could be an ancestor multiple times on a family tree.
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