Who Am I? DNA tells all :)

[LovelyLadyLux]

From time to time we've touched on our family lineage here and talked about family and where we came from. I think Grandad has been researching his family tree too. I have a cousin back in Eastern Canada who is avidly researching the family and making family trees etc. She joined Ancestry.ca and through them did a DNA analysis. Her results were interesting so about 6 weeks ago I spit in a tube and did the Ancestry thing too by way of having my DNA analyzed.

Just got the results back from Ancestry.ca and they're honestly quite interesting. Basically it gives your DNA results over THOUSANDS of years ago which break into the following Regions: Africa, Asia, West Asia, South America, America, Pacific Islander and European. Then within these big Regions there are other breakdowns i.e. European breaks down into Ireland, Great Britain, Scandinavian, Europe West.

The second category of your DNA over the last hundred or so years and is your "Genetic Community" where your relatives are from.

I've watched the TV advertisements where people talk about being from two or three groups and suddenly finding out they're Spanish or Russian or from some group they never heard about. That would have been interesting but when I got my results back I'm ONE group only.

Basically, via my DNA I'm 99% European with this breakdown:

55% Ireland
16% Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland)
12% Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway & Denmark)
8% Europe West (Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg & Liechtenstein)

My genetic community is Scotland (and nowhere else)

I also link with Ancestry Researchers indicating "extreme confidence" to 3 second cousins. There is an option to contact them so will be sending off emails to ask who they are although I do get two names (never heard of them ever and 1 set of initials).

Lots to read on this site but it definitely does give you a sense of where your ancestors hail from (and definitely where they do NOT come from). I don't think mine moved out of Europe ever! Guess we were not adventurers.

[Horus]

All very interesting LLL, I have seen those adverts and toyed with the idea of sending off for one
but does it really give you anymore than just a general idea of your ancestry?

[Grandad]

All very interesting LLL, but does it really give you anymore than just a general idea of your ancestry?

Those were my thoughts as well H. Some historical regional background would seem to have little relevance in normal family genealogy that normally only goes back a few hundred years for most peoples searches.

What I did find interesting in LLL's post is the possible identification of distant cousins. That is more recent and possibly useful in filling gaps in ones family history knowledge. I may have mentioned in the past that via Ancestry.com I found a link to a lady of similar age to myself who has possibly, or even probably, had the same grandfather as myself. Hers would have been paternal and mine maternal.

Almost conclusive evidence says that my Grandad had an illegitimate relationship with a lady in Cambridgeshire. He lived in Kent and died at sea in 1914 after being torpedoed by a german sub. In this instance DNA would probably confirm the relationship but, to date, neither of us has suggested that...

[Horus]

The plot thickens Grandad get spitting

[LovelyLadyLux]

I was curious as to 'me' and what my DNA might indicate. Was well worth the spit and wait. I've already linked to a cousin I never knew I had on my father's Mom side (paternal Grandma) AND whilst I haven't 'joined' as a paying monthly member I have a "leaf" when I put in my maternal Grandmother's name so am hoping this might link to more family.

Long story short I had a maternal Grandfather but because he and my Grandmother divorced when my Mom was really young nobody knew anything of him at all. Only his name (very common name too) was known and that he was from Ireland. My Grandmother refused to talk about him....PERIOD and my mother always seemed so emotional whenever his name was brought up i.e. "He didn't want me" type reaction that it was just a taboo topic.

I have to say that while I loved my Grannie dearly she was well capable of being a b.... or putting it mildly 'not very nice' and was on more than one occasion the instigator of family feuds soooo am not too sure Grandpa BILL didn't recognize this way back when and considered himself well rid of her. OR she could have driven HIM off

AND, for me, there has always been a thread in the family that the woman I refer to as "my mother" really never was my mother. Theory being my father somehow ended up with me and "my mother" simply raised me. LOTS of family dynamics surrounding that theory too.

Ancestry.ca immediately linked me to 4 cousins on my Dad's side who already did this test so I'm hoping to discover more family and 137 hits to work my way through.

You do have to pay the monthly fee to be able to access the records and I'll probably wait 'til a quiet time to do that so I can concentrate.

I figured IF I did do this DNA deal it was a valid way for future generations of my family to find me in a really valid way.

[Horus]

I suppose with all that family background to discover then it may not be a bad way to get started

[Ruby Slippers]

All very interesting, LLL! I must admit to having a lot of immediate family (cousins) that I wouldn't know if I walked past them in the street, though, so the thought of relatives further afield doesn't appeal! I'll be following your discoveries with interest!

[Grandad]

Wow! You seem to have some skeletons in your cupboard as well as me LLL

Obviously the links you mention depend on many people doing the DNA thing. I think one needs to consider carefully before going down that route. I had an example where my mother was pestered by a lady in the US who had found a link via Ancestry or Friends Reunited and was claiming the hardluck story and looking for some financial support. She believed my family were wealthy which was never the case.

I had an interesting coincidence just this morning. My daughter is a teaching assistant at the junior school in her village. They have been discussing family trees and a little girl brought hers in to class. My daughter looked at it and saw a couples names from mid 1800's, George and Eliza (nee Downes) Madams. Madams was my maternal grand mothers maiden name and my daughter remembered the ancestors names from a book I had printed for the family of all that I had found in my searches.


It seems most likely that I am a many times great uncle to the little girl in my daughters class.

[Grandad]

To close off this little coincidence, my daughter talked to the little girls mum when she came to meet her this afternoon. My daughter confirmed with the lady that they had the same x3 great grandparents. This meant that my daughter is a distant aunt to the little girl and she found that so funny and burst with laughter. Happy ending.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Talk about finding relatives! Seems MY family should be winning an gold medal for keeping locked down secrets for years! Turns out and I found this with extreme ease - my Grandfather from Ireland was NEVER from Ireland at all. He was actually from Scotland and following his divorce from my Grannie he never did disappear into the ozone he actually remarried, lived about 20 or so miles from us and had FOUR more children (2 boys (one now deceased) and 2 girls)

I have FOUR more Aunts and Uncles I never knew existed.

And to make finding him more difficult it seems my own mother changed ONE letter in her middle name essentially giving her a totally different name but definitely distanced her from her father.

Also more than interesting is what Ships manifests tell and having them now in cyber world on microfiche makes research quite interesting too. Grannie was 2 yrs older than my Grandfather Bill, she NEVER waited 6+ yrs to join him in Canada (as always told to me). Grannie basically waited 10 months and then they had my Mother 11 months later and on and on.........OH what a tangled web they all wove for years probably over emotional hurt from their break up and marriage dissolution.

Did Grandpa Bill really totally and completely walk away from his 3 little kids all under 6 yrs of age? Was he really the rogue B*****d they let on he was as a basis for declining to ever talk about him?

Now it leaves me wondering IF my Grandpa Bill's family - all of whom I've found with the help of FB (and my daughters skill in searching on it) know anything about my brother and me and all our other cousins?

I can see from records that Grandpa Bill passed in 1980 but his second wife (9 yrs his junior) didn't pass until 2005. They had 4 kids who have had kids and "wow" there is a photo of an Aunt who looks like a heavy set version of my mother.

HOW now to approach this? Do you simply drop an email saying "hi - guess who I am?" "hi - did you ever know your Grandad had two wives?" "Hi - Did you ever know you all had 2 other Uncles and 1 Aunt plus 7 cousins?"

And - WHO do I contact to introduce me?

Gotta think on this. MY Mother and Grandmother NEVER talked about this topic. It was totally verboten and the dribs and drabs that did come out are now highly suspect as being the truth.

This Ancestry thing IS interesting

[Horus]

Yours really does sound a tangled web, but I think that most of us find out some surprising facts when we start digging, I have several examples of this myself. One that made me smile was my own grandfather on my mothers side, she had mentioned the fact that her father was in the army and how he told the younger children (she was the youngest of a large family) of his military adventures. I once asked her how she knew he was in the army and she said well he had this large military tattoo on his arm from his service days. I could not bring myself to tell her I had a copy of his army records and he was conscripted in for about 3 days! He was discharged on some grounds or another, but it basically said “this man will never make a soldier as long as he has a hole in his bum”

[Grandad]

Oh Yez Oh Yez! Bring out your skeletons

I am sure you are both correct, if we dig a little we can all find the odd skeleton lurking in our history.

The coincidence that I mentioned with my daughter actually related to an uncle, by marriage, to my mothers (half) sister. The childs mother found she was related to my aunt via the marriage of her uncle to my aunt.

I didn't have the nerve to confuse her by saying that my aunt was actually born from an out of wedlock liaison between my maternal grandmother and an American serviceman in WWI. This was after my Gf had been killed at sea. And this is the same grandmother whose husband, my grandfather, almost certainly fathered at least one son to a woman in East Anglia England.

Little wonder there was always a cloak of secrecy if you ever talked to parents or grandparents about other family members. BUT NOW IT CAN BE TOLD.

[Horus]

I have another complicated story, often in my working days I would come across a guy always known to me as my uncle Ron, but his surname was (let us say) Jones, so he was my uncle Ronnie Jones. This seemed normal as his family name was Jones and I knew the rest of the family by that surname, after his early death I visited his grave only to find that he had the same surname as myself, which is not Jones? This puzzled me, but as I was doing the family history thing I soon figured it out, his mother was the sister of my own father and as such had the same surname while she remained an unmarried woman. It turned out that my uncle was born out of wedlock and the mothers maiden name was put on his birth certificate as was the custom of the day, even though they did later marry and have other children. I and others including my own mother had always known him as Ron Jones, but it seems to me that the church must insist upon a headstone having the persons real birth name on it and this is how it came to light. No doubt just another example of how our families would hush up any indiscretions and they were never spoken of openly and brushed under then carpet, I can imagine that many who are long gone would be spinning in their graves to know that modern technology and records have let us peek in on their private lives and liasons.

[LovelyLadyLux]

Sent an email to my cousin asking if he in his life has ever had any contact with or information on our Grandfather. True to form he said he has "no idea" about this man explaining to me how "hush hush" any mention of our REAL grandfather was.

Am going to connect with this branch of the family. Worst they can do is tell me to "go away" (and maybe the won't be polite about it) but at best we'll talk and I'll learn something about this man and ALL the rest of the family I had no idea ever existed.

What I'd love most is to actually see a photo of him when he was younger, know what he actually did employment-wise and recreationally during his life and if there are any health related issues. Those would be my three really 'want to know' things and anything else would be a bonus.

Am also wondering IF the other half has any idea WE ALL exist? I wonder if they ever made contact with us and were unfortunately rebuffed (and I have absolutely no hesitation in confirming that my Mother would have rebuffed strongly severely with malice and intent having learned that from her Mom)

Ahh the ties that bind and gag!

[Grandad]

What I'd love most is to actually know what he actually did employment-wise

That is always an interesting bit LLL to help paint a mental picture of the person. Returning to the aforementioned Gt Gt grandfather the history looks like this:

Gt Gt Gf George 1836 - 1867 Captain of Brigantine Bethesda, drowned when ship sunk off Portsmouth

His son, Gt Gf George 1856 - 1904 Captain of barge. Fell overboard and drowned when returning to vessel moored at Greenwich, probably inebriated.

His daughter Alberta 1887 - 1928 married James 1886 - 1914 (died at sea). Both had illegitimate relationships.

So, although I have the sea in my blood, it is the sea that has taken the lives of my three nearest grandfathers.

[Horus]

Keep away from the beach Grandad

[LovelyLadyLux]

Geez with that history, if I was Grandad, I'd be worried about going near a bathtub!!

[Grandad]

I never take a bath and only shower............why push your luck