Ancestry

[Saucy]

So, last time I was around, we all spoke some about our ancestry. I even had a bet with Miss Spaulding about whether or not my last name is Scottish or Irish. I figured I was Irish/Scottish on my dad's side and Native American on my mom's. I've always been interested in genealogy and ancestry, so I did one of those Ancestry DNA tests and got a few surprising results.

96% of my ethnicity comes from Europe.

-First, it says I'm 30% Irish. So it's good to have that settled.
-The first surprising results is it also says I'm 29% Scandinavian. This is very interesting to me, as I've always been fascinated with the Viking culture only to find out I share ancestry with them!
-The second surprising result is I have no Native American at all. Strange :/
-16% is from Great Britain. I had no idea about this either, but it's not too uncommon I don't think.
-10% is Europe West (France/Germany).
-A few trace nationalities include: 4% Italian, 4% Europe East (probably Polish), 2% Iberian Peninsula (Spain), and 2% from Central Asia (like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan).

What about you? Are you as fascinated about ancestry as I am? Are you proud of your ancestry?

 

[John Hyperspace]

I've never had any testing done. I'm not really into ancestry so much as the rest of my family. But apparently I'm English and have seen the coat of arms. The line has been traced back to the 1000's. I did recently find out that (apparently, as I'm no expert and don't put a lot of faith into being able to come to certainties concerning such things) on my father's side it goes back to William Wallace and on my mother's side back to Robert the Bruce. Which now makes watching Braveheart strange. But honestly, I don't know what these people were really like and so have no pride concerning the notion. My family likes to go on about how we're "from royalty" but I couldn't care less since I don't know the people. I know I'd rather be descended from a good peasantry than a bad royalty. But who knows.

 

[LauraAviel]

I would love to try taking a test. I did see that they are rather expensive though. Did you think it was worth the money?

 

[Saucy]

From what I've studied, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace weren't around at the same time like is portrayed in the movie. Scottish history is interesting for sure!

 

[Saucy]

I would love to try taking a test. I did see that they are rather expensive though. Did you think it was worth the money?

It was $100 for the test. It just depends on how curious you are in your nationality and if such things interest you. If you already know you're ancestry, then it might be, but there are so many trace regions and surprises you might not expect. The test also reveals people who've also had the same test who might be your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th cousins. I found a 1st and 2nd cousin on there, but there are over 400 cousins listed! It's cool to see how your relatives have spread out over time.

 

[alsughasoughaiuyfygh]

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[Saucy]

Way cool!

 

[LauraAviel]

It was $100 for the test. It just depends on how curious you are in your nationality and if such things interest you. If you already know you're ancestry, then it might be, but there are so many trace regions and surprises you might not expect. The test also reveals people who've also had the same test who might be your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th cousins. I found a 1st and 2nd cousin on there, but there are over 400 cousins listed! It's cool to see how your relatives have spread out over time.

I would be interest. I have no clue. It should be curious. My mom is Austrian and my dad is from the US, but my grandmother on my fathers side has Native American and Irish in her ancestry. No idea about my grandpa's side. And on my mom side I have no clue what would come out. I am sure they aren't "pure" Austrian, so that could be interesting as well.

I think the results would be surprising for sure. The thing that bugs me is that they often throw it into such big groups, like "Eastern European".

What made you pick Ancestry DNA over sa 23andme or one of the other? I did a little looking around there are quite a few that offer the service.

 

[OcifferPls]

Genealogy isn't easy. I don't know much about my ancestry, besides that I have some Cherokee in my line, and that my family's name can be traced to northern England and the Armstrong clan.

It can be fun to research.

 

[Saucy]

Yeah there are a few other services, but I already had an ancestry account, so I just went with them. It can be difficult to pinpoint ancestry as the markers vary. Going back by each generation, you double the number of ancestors.

You have:
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 great-great grandparents.

You throw in all the kids, grand kids, cousins, etc, it can get messy keeping track of it all. Just like it's showing I have over 400 2nd-3rd cousins on the site already.

But it's completely random the genes that are passed on, especially when you live in a melting pot like America. If you were born in Ireland, for example, the odds are greater that your direct ancestry is Irish because of a lack of cultural mixing.

It's still really, really difficult to tell the difference between someone from Ireland and someone from Scotland, but there are enough markers to detect those differences. That's why they say "Western European" because Europe has changed DRASTICALLY over the past few centuries. Lots of wars have altered borderlines.

My point is, Germany and France are connected, so there might not have been too many barriers keeping the people from mixing. Where, if you lived in England, Ireland, or Scandinavia, you live on an island, so the genetic markers aren't as mixed.

 

[Boogeyman07]

I would be interest. I have no clue. It should be curious. My mom is Austrian and my dad is from the US, but my grandmother on my fathers side has Native American and Irish in her ancestry. No idea about my grandpa's side. And on my mom side I have no clue what would come out. I am sure they aren't "pure" Austrian, so that could be interesting as well.

I think the results would be surprising for sure. The thing that bugs me is that they often throw it into such big groups, like "Eastern European".

What made you pick Ancestry DNA over sa 23andme or one of the other? I did a little looking around there are quite a few that offer the service.

They break it down a little beyond that. I did it some years ago through 23andMe and part of the results were -Northwestern European 94.9% then it went further saying British and Irish - 52.6% / French and German - 21.2% / etc... I just logged on for the first time in a while and it looks like theres a lot more info that comes with it besides the basic ancestory composition.

 

[Archie the Preacher]

My family name came from France, Normandy to be precise. Before that, there are two theories, one that 'we' came from Rome (a settler during the Empire), the other 'we' come from Viking settlers in Normandy.

The family - at least my line - emigrated to the British Isles rather abruptly in 1066 A. D. "We" had holdings in Wales and later Scotland. One ancestor moved to North America prior to the American Revolution and my line has been here ever since.

I do have a DNA report somewhere and it pretty much bears this out. However, my line has no financial holdings in the 'old country'.

As for the part about marrying into mountain dwarves in the old days: The DNA report was silent about that, but I am rather comfortable underground and have a marvelous sense of direction.

 

[pdudgeon]

My family name came from France, Normandy to be precise. Before that, there are two theories, one that 'we' came from Rome (a settler during the Empire), the other 'we' come from Viking settlers in Normandy.

The family - at least my line - emigrated to the British Isles rather abruptly in 1066 A. D. "We" had holdings in Wales and later Scotland. One ancestor moved to North America prior to the American Revolution and my line has been here ever since.

I do have a DNA report somewhere and it pretty much bears this out. However, my line has no financial holdings in the 'old country'.

As for the part about marrying into mountain dwarves in the old days: The DNA report was silent about that, but I am rather comfortable underground and have a marvelous sense of direction.

very interesting, as my family founders (2 brothers) on my father's side also came over from Normandy, France and fought at the battle of Hastings.
Later
they both moved to Ireland (yes, i have a Wallace in my line) and from there down into England, where my great grandfather worked as a miner until the tin ran out. Then they moved to the West side of England, where my grandfather was born and raised.
One of my great grandfather's brothers moved from the family holding at Alston and opened a pub on the West side of England.

one interesting factor is that in our family the eldest son was always named John---after the King.
Yep, they picked the wrong side to support.

My mother's side has relations who came over on the Mayflower.

 

[Saucy]

Awesome stories!

 

[EyesOfKohl]

How did you find your experience with the DNA blood test?

Have you also looked into your family ancestry through genealogy research? How did it compare to what the results found?

I just looked at it after you mentioned it, here it's about $500 though. It looks interesting.

 

[Saucy]

How did you find your experience with the DNA blood test?

Have you also looked into your family ancestry through genealogy research? How did it compare to what the results found?

I just looked at it after you mentioned it, here it's about $500 though. It looks interesting.

It was just a spit test. You spit into this tube and there's a little fluid in it to preserve the DNA. The package comes with a prepaid return box and a unique code, so you can get online and keep track of your results. It took about a month or so, maybe less, before getting my results.

They also have full-time genealogists who work on staff there. I contacted them to dig deeper and help me answer some questions, but it was going to cost at least $3,000. So, I will wait on that haha.

I'm still sort of new to this. I was just curious where my last name came from, looked it up, wasn't sure if it was Irish or Scottish and from there I just became fascinated with history. Reading a book now on the history of the Vikings ever since finding out I was Scandinavian.

 

[TheRealAriel]

Somewhat interested in the DNA test.. sounds like fun!

At a high level, my dad's side is primarily Puerto Rican and my moms side is primarily Irish.

 

[leothelioness]

So, last time I was around, we all spoke some about our ancestry. I even had a bet with Miss Spaulding about whether or not my last name is Scottish or Irish. I figured I was Irish/Scottish on my dad's side and Native American on my mom's. I've always been interested in genealogy and ancestry, so I did one of those Ancestry DNA tests and got a few surprising results.

96% of my ethnicity comes from Europe.

-First, it says I'm 30% Irish. So it's good to have that settled.
-The first surprising results is it also says I'm 29% Scandinavian. This is very interesting to me, as I've always been fascinated with the Viking culture only to find out I share ancestry with them!
-The second surprising result is I have no Native American at all. Strange :/
-16% is from Great Britain. I had no idea about this either, but it's not too uncommon I don't think.
-10% is Europe West (France/Germany).
-A few trace nationalities include: 4% Italian, 4% Europe East (probably Polish), 2% Iberian Peninsula (Spain), and 2% from Central Asia (like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan).

What about you? Are you as fascinated about ancestry as I am? Are you proud of your ancestry?

I've always wanted to do this. Maybe I'll get around to it one day.

I did take a mtDNA test a few years back that tests the mitochondrial (from the mother's side only) line and I found that my ancient maternal ancestors were from eastern Turkey. I found that to be highly interesting and something I would not have expected as all of my ancestors were from the European mainland and the British Isles.

 

[Paulie079]

If any of you like to listen to podcasts like I do there is a new one called Twice Removed that basically takes an individual and they investigate their ancestry and find really interesting people from the past in their family tree. And then they also have a surprise person in another room who is related to them that they reveal to them at the end of the episode. It's a pretty fun listen.

 

[James of Arc]

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