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Author Topic: Ancestor research  (Read 1330 times)

McThunder

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Ancestor research
« on: May 23, 2014, 03:45:27 am »
I subscribed to ancestry.com a couple of years ago and did some family research. Now I've ordered the Ancestry DNA kit and am waiting to find out what region (Western Europe) I come from. Has anyone else used this company to find out more about where you come from, or used different methods to do the research?
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from? I welcome all replies!

SerpentineSorcerer

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2014, 08:00:14 am »
Quote from: McThunder;148327
I subscribed to ancestry.com a couple of years ago and did some family research. Now I've ordered the Ancestry DNA kit and am waiting to find out what region (Western Europe) I come from. Has anyone else used this company to find out more about where you come from, or used different methods to do the research?
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from? I welcome all replies!

 
I've used Ancestry off and on for past couple years, trying to map out the line of relatives that I have or don't. For the most part it's a pretty decent resource and provided you have a pretty good idea as to who your ancestors are you can find out a number of things. I know I was able to trace both sides of my family back to their homelands (my dads side went back to Hungary, my great-grandfather having immigrated to america during the 30's, my mother's paternal side being a mix of various families that came from germany). Now problems will rise up when family members don't have many records about them. You might find your great, great, great, grandmother only showing up in a census one time with no other record about her. If someone wanted to hide who they were, or perhaps what they were, then you may find nothing about them. That's been the biggest hurdle in my own digging.

Now as for why I even bother, I have two reasons. The first reason is to get to the bottom of family oral history to see what or where the truth is. My family has passed down among my mother's mothers side the story that we are of native descent. The tribe isn't mentioned and truth be told a lot isn't talked about since back in those days it was something you DIDN'T talk about (let's give a cheer for good ole timey racism...:mad:), so here I am with a boatload of questions trying to figure out where the truth is. Turns out there is truth to it, but since my ancestor did her part to blend in and not leave any real trace of herself....it's difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The second reason is a simple one. I want to know where I came from. I want to know the culture, language, songs, beliefs, and stories of those I came from. I can trace my ancestry to Hungary, and the Pennsylvania dutch, there is a good possibility that I have jewish roots as well as tsalagi, and there may be other roots to be discovered. These all form vital threads in the tapestry that is myself. In learning the story of where my ancestors come from I learn about them, and in doing so learn about myself and how I relate, and in turn it enriches me.

Or that's what I'd like to believe.
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McThunder

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2014, 08:26:28 am »
Quote from: SerpentineSorcerer;148332
I've used Ancestry off and on for past couple years, trying to map out the line of relatives that I have or don't. For the most part it's a pretty decent resource and provided you have a pretty good idea as to who your ancestors are you can find out a number of things. I know I was able to trace both sides of my family back to their homelands (my dads side went back to Hungary, my great-grandfather having immigrated to america during the 30's, my mother's paternal side being a mix of various families that came from germany). Now problems will rise up when family members don't have many records about them. You might find your great, great, great, grandmother only showing up in a census one time with no other record about her. If someone wanted to hide who they were, or perhaps what they were, then you may find nothing about them. That's been the biggest hurdle in my own digging.

Now as for why I even bother, I have two reasons. The first reason is to get to the bottom of family oral history to see what or where the truth is. My family has passed down among my mother's mothers side the story that we are of native descent. The tribe isn't mentioned and truth be told a lot isn't talked about since back in those days it was something you DIDN'T talk about (let's give a cheer for good ole timey racism...:mad:), so here I am with a boatload of questions trying to figure out where the truth is. Turns out there is truth to it, but since my ancestor did her part to blend in and not leave any real trace of herself....it's difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The second reason is a simple one. I want to know where I came from. I want to know the culture, language, songs, beliefs, and stories of those I came from. I can trace my ancestry to Hungary, and the Pennsylvania dutch, there is a good possibility that I have jewish roots as well as tsalagi, and there may be other roots to be discovered. These all form vital threads in the tapestry that is myself. In learning the story of where my ancestors come from I learn about them, and in doing so learn about myself and how I relate, and in turn it enriches me.

Or that's what I'd like to believe.

 
What about the Ancestry DNA kit? Allegedly, you can find out what your background is by going that route. I was a bit skeptical, but hey, it could be legit, right?:confused:

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2014, 09:59:51 am »
Quote from: McThunder;148327
I subscribed to ancestry.com a couple of years ago and did some family research. Now I've ordered the Ancestry DNA kit and am waiting to find out what region (Western Europe) I come from. Has anyone else used this company to find out more about where you come from, or used different methods to do the research?
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from? I welcome all replies!

 
I did 23andme last fall for a couple of reasons - partly curiousity, partly (because I did it when they also were still doing the medical data which they aren't now, though they will give you the raw data) because I have some genetic background (Eastern European Jewish) where there's a bunch of specific gene worries.

I wasn't hugely worried about it (or I'd have already bugged my doctor) but since I wanted the ancestral data anyway, it is reassuring to know that, say, I am not a carrier for the breast cancer genes that show up in that genetic background.

Anyway, what it told me on the ancestral front is pretty much entirely what I expected: about a quarter Ashkenazim ancestry (via my mother's father), the rest European (and mostly non-specific Northern and Eastern Europe) which makes sense when you consider my father was English and my mother was born in Austria to a Jewish father and Catholic mother whose family had previously been in other bits of eastern Europe.

My known family, for a variety of reasons (starting with my parents both being only children and continuing with my mother having been born in Austria to a Jewish parent in the mid-1930s) is extremely tiny and ancestry research is very difficult (my father's mother had the last name 'Smith' and my actual last name is fairly common in the UK, my mother's side of the family has lots of records that still aren't digitised or readily accessible and are in German anyway once you get past the couple of known generations she had paperwork for) so part of my other curiousity about getting my data in such a system was seeing if any other more distant relatives show up. So far not, but who knows about the future.

(We do know there are some potential more distant relatives, but it's 'third cousin twice removed who went to Israel' sorts of family data, which makes them very hard to track by paperwork, and who knows if they had kids or what.)
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Materialist

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2014, 03:29:35 pm »
Quote from: McThunder;148334
What about the Ancestry DNA kit? Allegedly, you can find out what your background is by going that route. I was a bit skeptical, but hey, it could be legit, right?:confused:


The science is well understood now, so it works. I've done a lot of genetic testing on my family, so I can help you understand what it means.

There are two kinds of tests: haplotyping and genotyping. Both look for specific things in their own way.

The former analyzes the mutations on mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome DNA. Depending on how old the mutation is and how common, you may be able to pinpoint the national origin of one ancestor. So you need to have a carrier of that haplotype to do so, which may require some genealogical research to find that person.

For example, if you wanted to check the family tradition that your maternal grandfather was Native American, you would need to find an uncle or male cousin directly genetically descended  through the male line in order to find his haplotype.

Genotyping, though it will reveal your haplotype, also reveals the geographic origins of every gene on every chromosome. So, going back to the hypothetical grandfather, if all male descendants are dead, genotyping yourself may be able to reveal any Native American DNA left around.

However, this form of testing can only go back 5 generations because, beyond this point, you no longer have the DNA of an ancestor. So even if it could be proven through genealogical records that your grandfather was descended from a specific tribe, you may be so removed from that point of origin to have any Native American DNA left.

Also, genotyping works in probabilities of percentages. Based on the clustering of similar DNA in world populations, the origins of your genes can be determined with anywhere of a 50-90% probability. So you will be able to find the region where some of your genes come from: Brito-Irish, Franco-German, Iberian, Southern European, Sardinian, etc. It can't get more specific than that because these regions have a shared genetic heritage.

Redfaery

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2014, 03:47:22 pm »
Quote from: McThunder;148327
I subscribed to ancestry.com a couple of years ago and did some family research. Now I've ordered the Ancestry DNA kit and am waiting to find out what region (Western Europe) I come from. Has anyone else used this company to find out more about where you come from, or used different methods to do the research?
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from? I welcome all replies!


Both of my parents have used the Ancestry DNA kit, thus it would be a point of redundancy for me to do so.;) The results were mostly expected, but also contained a few surprises.

First, my ancestry is confined to an oval that stretches from Galway (in Ireland) to the border of Northern and Southern Ireland, to Northern Ireland. Then I have clusters of ancestors in the North of England, around the Danelaw area, and into the Lowlands of Scotland, with some scattered in the Northern Highlands. So Scots-Irish, as we call it here in the Southeast.

What was surprising was that....how to say this without it coming across wrong? There was no evidence of anything other than Northern European DNA in me. I'm really, really white.:eek: And that kind of goes against some of the suspicions about my paternal grandmother's mother, who was suspected to have mixed-race heritage - specifically black. Instead, it seems that these suspicions (which came from her dark complexion, and tendency to tan heavily - NOBODY tans in our family) could be explained by the vague strain of Southern European DNA that came mixed in with some of our Irish Ancestors.

And now I really hope that doesn't sound offensive...

My ancestry isn't actually that important to my actual worship, given that I am overall more influenced by historical Mahayana Buddhism. It does tend to influence my approach to the runes, but apart from that, it figures very little. On the other hand, it IS something that's important to me spiritually on a deeper level, even though it doesn't affect my praxis or pantheon. It's not readily apparent, but it DOES matter to me.
KARMA: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

herenow

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #6 on: June 24, 2014, 03:16:23 pm »
Quote from: McThunder;148327
I subscribed to ancestry.com a couple of years ago and did some family research. Now I've ordered the Ancestry DNA kit and am waiting to find out what region (Western Europe) I come from. Has anyone else used this company to find out more about where you come from, or used different methods to do the research?
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from? I welcome all replies!

 
I used 23andme

I knew my father's family was from Sicily, Italy.

My mother was adopted at birth, but we know her family lived on a reservation in South Dakota, so we assumed her line was Native American.

The results came in a couple months ago, and it turns out my mother's line is from northern Italy - no Native American blood at all!

I allowed my results to be matched with others to see if I had  any relatives in their database and 2 people showed up. One was a cousin who I talk to maybe once every 5 years.  I didn't know he had taken the DNA test, and it made me believe the tests are accurate.
The other match was a guy I didn't know, but he shared his family tree and my roots were there.  

Translating the Italian surnames on my part of the tree gave me a kind of 'confirmation'. Here are some of the names, translated to English:

-Mark or sign of the pentagram
-Those who were transformed
-(A profession which was known for magical skills)

yewberry

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #7 on: June 24, 2014, 08:02:16 pm »
Quote from: McThunder;148327
Also, how important is it to you to know where you come from?

 
Not even a little tiny bit.  My husband is fascinated with his family history, and I couldn't less interested in mine.  But then, he comes from decent people...

Brina

McThunder

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Re: Ancestor research
« Reply #8 on: June 25, 2014, 02:37:57 am »
Quote from: herenow;150947
I used 23andme

I knew my father's family was from Sicily, Italy.

My mother was adopted at birth, but we know her family lived on a reservation in South Dakota, so we assumed her line was Native American.

The results came in a couple months ago, and it turns out my mother's line is from northern Italy - no Native American blood at all!

I allowed my results to be matched with others to see if I had  any relatives in their database and 2 people showed up. One was a cousin who I talk to maybe once every 5 years.  I didn't know he had taken the DNA test, and it made me believe the tests are accurate.
The other match was a guy I didn't know, but he shared his family tree and my roots were there.  

Translating the Italian surnames on my part of the tree gave me a kind of 'confirmation'. Here are some of the names, translated to English:

-Mark or sign of the pentagram
-Those who were transformed
-(A profession which was known for magical skills)

 
I just mailed my test back to the company. Living overseas, it does take a while to recieve/send mail. I'm anxious for the results in approximately 2 months!

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