Skip to main content

2025 Week 17: DNA #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 I can't remember exactly when I first had my DNA tested. Initially it was with Ancestry and later with 23andme. I did it out of curiosity - not for my ethnicity results, which frankly turn out to be so boring - nor to find an unknown close relative - but mainly to find out what 'cousins' are out there and if the DNA matches I get help corroborate the genealogical research I have done. I thought I would find the results interesting. What I didn't realise was analysing my DNA matches and the DNA we shared from a common set of ancestors would turn into an obsession! :)

I was lucky to be in at almost the start of DNA analysis and was able to pick up new techniques and make use of new developments provided by the testing companies and others as I went along. I also studied a few courses on genetic genealogy with the University of Strathclyde. So what have I been doing with all this 'knowledge' over the years?

Personally, I have managed to confirm the ancestors I have in my family tree up to 3 x great grandparent level (and some beyond) as being genetically related to me, not just names on a paper trail.

Tree of my genetic ancestors from dnapainter.com 

All of the coloured sections on that fan shaped tree are people I have confirmed as having inherited DNA from down the generations. Many people add their DNA matches to their tree once they have confirmed who they are, but years ago I started using hand drawn trees and polypockets and, for the most part, that is what I have stuck to. I also have a reference notebook of the surnames down the various generations of my branches and sibling branches which I can use as a quick reference to guiding me to a potential line if I'm trying to place someone. All very interesting to me at least but has it led to anything?

Well, I have been lucky enough to meet up with some of my 'cousins' - from Lorraine, a half-fourth cousin once removed, who lives locally,  to Robyn, a third cousin once removed who lives in Australia! I have also met up with Rick from the USA who is related to me somehow but we haven't worked out how yet! I am now really conscious of the fact that as I walk about Lanarkshire, I am probably walking past some distant relative!

Of course, it is not always possible to discover how you relate to a match. I have three large groups of matches, that I am still investigating - the largest involves the descendants of a couple from Shotts who became Mormons and set off to found a 'dynasty' in Utah, one is a large group that I cannot find a common ancestor for and the other newer mystery involves descendants of a couple from Aberdeen, a part of the country I have no, as yet, known connection to.

My closest mystery/scandal?? Well, it appears my grandfather may have had an illegitimate child before he married my grandmother.

My biggest success? Not a personal one but one that gave me a lot of pleasure. DNA helped me discover the birth parents of a friend's father - her unknown grandparents. It took a while, testing my friend and her elderly mother, grouping matches, drawing out multiple large trees, locating people, finding records, initially finding a common ancestor born in Ireland in 1786 for one side using multiple DNA sites and tools, finally locating the common ancestor on the other side who was in Scotland, drawing down the trees to find a couple in the right place at the right time - and then, the original birth certificate which I could present to my friend. What an emotional moment!

I am not ashamed to be a DNA 'nerd' :)



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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...
4 comments
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more

2025 Week 26 : Favourite name #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

 As well as researching my own family, one of the other trees I have spent a lot of time on is that of my daughter-in-law, Lucy. Whereas my heritage is Scots and Irish, Lucy's is English and therefore some of the names I came across were quite different to those found in my own tree. One of my first favourites was a Francis Badger who appeared in the 1851 census for England! He wasn't actually a relative, but an apprentice to Lucy's 3 x great grandfather and who also lodged with the family.  I did wonder how that  surname came about - did the original Badger have  a funnily shaped face? or perhaps a white streak through his hair?? Or was he just an annoying person?? I'll never know, but it was fun to find him! Francis Badger's entry at the bottom in the 1851 census for England. Source: Ancestry.co.uk However, my all time favourite name - and character - from Lucy's tree is a man named Golden Bridge ! He is Lucy's 5x great grandfather and he was born in Essex...
Post a Comment
Read more