Skip to main content

Week 17: DNA #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 DNA testing is now immensely popular and programmes such as "Who Do You Think You Are?" on BBC,  "DNA Journey" on STV and "Finding your Roots" on PBS are bringing it more to the fore. Companies such as Ancestry, 23andme, My Heritage and Family Tree DNA all offer the opportunity to have your DNA tested and have a variety of tests on offer. The 'normal' DNA test is called an autosomal test. The process is simple - you spit into a tube, post the test back and a few weeks later you get your results. Then the fun begins!

But firstly - why would anyone want to do a DNA test? Many people are interested in what their DNA can tell them about their ethnicity. Some are seeking information about their genetic health (only 23and me provide this). Others are seeking to find answers about family that DNA could provide - adoptees seeking to find their parents, people wanting to identify an 'unknown' parent/grandparent. DNA is a powerful tool in those situations. Although I haven't had to use it like that for myself, I have used DNA to 'solve' a friend's father's unknown parentage and help another confirm a suspected grandfather. Not with DNA alone, I hasten to add, but using DNA test results alongside traditional genealogy. Science and hard graft!

My own DNA journey started off  with a test at Ancestry, the company which has the largest database of testers.  This gave me a breakdown of my ethnicity. As you can see, I'm not very exotic!


However, it also confirms all the genealogical research I've done, which is a good thing. No surprises there.

More interesting, however, is the list of your DNA matches which they provide for you. Every person on that list shares some of your DNA. Every person on the list is related to you in some way. And this is where I get excited as I absolutely love trying to find out how I am related to these people. Do we share great grandparents? Do we share great great great great ..... grandparents??

Finding those connections is what I find fun.  I have over 26,000 DNA matches on Ancestry alone and more with other companies. It's like a never ending puzzle just waiting to be solved. Not everyone's cup of tea, but it is mine.

Researching those connections allows you to confirm or reassess the information you have in your family tree. I've been lucky in that I have turned up no shocks or surprises. I haven't discovered any " mis-attributed parent" ... yet. But it is one thing that should be considered before you do a test - are you ready for what your DNA might tell you, that your family didn't? Or that your family didn't know? 

But back to those connections I mentioned. Connecting the dots on paper is one thing, but you can make real life connections too. I have met a couple of my DNA matches. Lorraine, who is my half fourth cousin twice removed, our common ancestor being my 3 x great grandmother Jean Russell, who married twice. Lorraine actually still lives in the same Lanarkshire village as our common ancestor did! I've also met a much further flung 'cousin' - Robyn, who lives in Australia! She came to Scotland with her husband a few years ago and we met up in Glasgow. She is my third cousin once removed - we have my 2 x great grandparents in common.

I've made many more connections through messages and emails, backwards and forwards from my 'cousins', some seeking information, some just saying hi. Jean, who lives in Canada, is related to me on both my dad's (fourth cousin) and my mum's  (fifth cousin) side of the family and is a friend on Facebook.  Last week I was contacted from someone who lives in East Kilbride - I've still to work out who she is :)

I'll continue my own DNA journey as there are always new puzzles to solve, new relationships to discover and confirm, and I am always willing to help others start their DNA journey too. Are you tempted??


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2024 Week 43: Lost contact #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 When we research our ancestors and their families, it is all to easy to become a collector of names, dates and places. After all, we want to 'know' who they were and where they lived and when, in order to get a glimpse into what their life was like. We look for photographs of our most recent ancestors to see what they looked like. We trawl censuses, Poor Law Applications, Wills and Testaments to get some detail about their rank in society, their jobs, their financial circumstances. We discover their families, the children they had, the children they lost. We may read their obituaries and gravestones and scan their death certificates for cause of death. Through research, we can slowly start to build up a picture of them, a notion that we know 'who they were'. But something will usually elude us - we will never truly know their feelings/emotions, even if we know the key moments in their lives. Take my grandmother, Christina, who lost her first four children and then anot...

2024: Week 41: Most #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Looking at my DNA matches over various platforms and my family tree research, it is obvious to me that my paternal grandmother's line - the Walkers - are the line which have the most descendants (or at least the most descendants who have tested) and who have spread out furthest over the world. My great great grandparents James Walker (1777-1862) and Ellen Muir (1790-1866) from Linlithgow in Scotland had ten children - eight boys and two girls. Such large families were not uncommon in those times. Two of the boys never married, but between them the other eight siblings produced at least 52 grandchildren! The eldest of the siblings, George Walker was, however,  the only one of the children to ever leave Scotland and that was later in life, when he followed his son John, a miner, over to the USA. It is, however, many of the grandchildren of James and Ellen who decide to leave their homeland for the USA and for Australia. Their USA destinations included Kansas, Colorado, Ohio and Maryl...

2024 Week 19: Preserve #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 A few years ago, I came into the possession of a family bible. It was the family bible of my paternal grandparents, John McAra and Christina Walker. Until her death in 2018, the bible had been in the hands of my Aunt Inez, widow of my Uncle Will McAra. When I started enquiring as to its whereabouts, I found that it was her grandson, John, who now had it. John himself had no real interest in it at all, so he was quite happy to hand it over to me. However, it was, to say the least, in a bit of a state. The front cover was completely detached and there were many loose pages as the spine of the book was also damaged and detached. I had no choice but to take it to a book repairer in Glasgow, where it was repaired as best it could be. The bible itself had been originally published in Glasgow in the late 19th century. In Victorian times it was common for Christian families to have such a large bible in which they could record events such as births, marriages and deaths. The one I have al...