\nWill I bother?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nNo.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nBecause:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nIn short, I don\u2019t think DNA testing could tell me anything I haven\u2019t or can\u2019t find out other ways.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nBut fast-forward a while, and after being pestered by \u2018special offers\u2019 on DNA tests on Ancestry, I\u00a0 decided \u2018don\u2019t knock it if you haven\u2019t tried it\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not because I\u2019d changed my mind to any great extent about how useful (or not) it might be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But because I had discovered a \u2018brick wall\u2019 on my paternal side \u2013 a direct ancestor born to a single mother. And I wondered if maybe, just maybe, a DNA test would help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spoiler alert: it hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Told you so\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In my original post, I said that the main things DNA tests were likely to do was find a bunch of distant cousins etc. And give some idea of geographical origins. But that these wouldn\u2019t be 100 per cent reliable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also pointed out that you can (obviously) only match to people who have done the test and uploaded the results to the same website as you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that if their online trees are full of errors, you\u2019re not going to learn anything useful from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s if they have an online tree at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What have I actually found?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, all of the above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Geographic origin<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
While it\u2019s interesting to know I am a few per cent \u2018Sweden and Denmark\u2019 (ie Viking), it\u2019s quite useless to be told that my matches have \u2018journeys\u2019 that I don\u2019t. Eg, Quebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Lincolnshire to Cumbria\u2019 as one of my key regions is also useless. Just has me thinking: \u201cThat will be Cumbria, then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Cumbria and Eastern Dumfries and Galloway\u2019 is likewise: \u2018tell me something I didn\u2019t know\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it comes to Scotland, I get: \u2018Your ancestral region estimate is 20%, but it can range from 6 to 30%\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Estimate\u2019 indeed. And given I have some Scottish surnames on my maternal tree, no surprise there. While the Scottish DNA from my father\u2019s line can be explained by someone a few generations back. Or could be the \u2018mystery man\u2019 I was looking for. Who can tell?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was the surprise of a chunk on Mum\u2019s side labelled as Irish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But then this estimate could apparently range \u2018from zero\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it could also mean I have ancestors from the Channel Islands, Faroe Islands, France, Iceland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland\u2026 and Scotland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So pretty meaningless, really. Either an ancient Celt, perhaps from the same time period as my \u2018Swedish and Danish\u2019 ancestors. Or another Scot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except\u2026 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Since writing the above, they\u2019ve changed it. And made it harder to pinpoint, if anything. The \u2018Irish\u2019 is down 3%. But there is a sub-region of the Channel Islands, based on some of my matches having links there (which I don\u2019t)\u2026 The Vikings have gone (but been replaced, perhaps, by 2% \u2018Germanic region\u2019\u2013 which includes Sweden and Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s also a think called Journeys<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\u2018Our closest DNA matches have some journeys you don’t have. You may still be connected to some of these journeys, even though we can’t tell how.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nWell I can. Because, for example, two of my grandfather\u2019s siblings emigrated to Canada; an uncle a few generations back emigrated to Australia. Their descendants married \u2018locals\u2019. THAT is my only connection to either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I can now say I am 3% more Scottish than I was a couple of weeks ago!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DNA traits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What I didn\u2019t expect, ask for, or want, was Ancestry\u2019s so-called Traits. A list of things I am supposed to have inherited from my parents. All of which are 50:50 options for anyone, really (\u2018night person\u2019; \u2018likely to have a pet\u2019\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And which is about as accurate as a funfair fortune teller\u2019s cold guessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u2018Likes to drink a lot more caffeine than average\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nPerhaps, depending on whatever \u2018average is\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But \u2018less attractive to mosquitoes\u2019? I wish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The whole section is annoying, and there\u2019s no option to say \u2018wrong\u2019 to any of it. (Though doing so would be giving them extra personal data).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DNA tests matches<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As I predicted, these show up a lot of distant cousins. They also show up people whose online trees are works of fiction. And people who haven\u2019t got an online tree, which means the chance of working out how they are related to me is between slim and none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a thing called ThruLines which shows you how you may be related to your DNA matches through ancestors you share.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the key words are \u2018may be\u2019. Because it\u2019s only as good as the other person\u2019s online tree. And sometimes fills in gaps with suggestions to \u2018evaluate\u2019 that turn out to be wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And while it\u2019s very nice to know I have fifth cousins in places like New Jersey and Tasmania, it isn\u2019t that helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not about to try to say hello to every person I match to (there are literally thousands). And filling in the descendants of every bygone uncle and aunt could get silly. I already have some 20,000 names on my \u2018big\u2019 family tree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The puzzles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Even matches with large trees can be hopeless, if you can\u2019t spot any names on there that could connect to you, and they don\u2019t even have any \u2018shared matches\u2019 to help narrow it down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in a couple of instances, there are people I\u2019ve found in 18th century land records and parish registers who I feel should be connected to my family, give their names. And people who have them on their trees and have a match to me. But still nothing to show HOW they fit \u2018my lot\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The positives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
That said, I have swapped messages with a few \u2018new\u2019 people. And confirmed that people I\u2019ve been in touch with for years are truly related to me. It wouldn\u2019t bother me if a female ancestor had played away from home a century back, but it\u2019s kind of nice to know they didn\u2019t!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Present-day matches that could only have come via one person have confirmed a long-held theory as to who my 6x great-grandparents are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I have finally resolved a 1700s mystery that years of conventional research couldn\u2019t. Because the ascendancy of a DNA connection has to mean my ancestor and theirs were brothers. And that\u00a0confirms for sure that my ancestor\u2019s father was the person I thought \u2013 but couldn’t otherwise prove \u2013 it might be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DNA tests revisited… In my post looking at whether DNA tests are worth it, for family history, I concluded: Because: In short, I don\u2019t think DNA testing could tell me anything I haven\u2019t or can\u2019t find out other ways. But fast-forward a while, and after being pestered by \u2018special offers\u2019 on DNA tests on Ancestry, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family-history"],"yoast_head":"\n
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