Genealogy Chat

Has anyone done a DNA test for ancestral purposes? Know only a very small amount about doing this and don't want to get conned by a disreputable company....so any help would be most welcome, Thabnks

Rae

Well it all depends on what you want it for

1: to prove you are related to someone you have recently found - yeah do it

2: to see where your ancestors came from - well we all came out of Africa, most of those from the North of England will have lots of Viking antecedants and those of us from the South will have Saxon

3: The Scots, Irish & Welsh will have Celt mixed with Viking

So for genealogical purposes I do not think you will learn enough to move any research on.

In my honest opinion DNA is still very much in its infancy for genealogical purposes. And as such is a waste of money.

But I am sure that there are others on here who will disagree. :-D

I don't think you should part with your money if you don't know that much about it. I think it would be better to spend that money on more reliable forms of research.

I think you'd be wasting your money........but, that's only my opinion

What would you hope to learn?

Most of the DNA tests are for the male line or female line. The markers in the DNA can indicate the route that line took out of Africa.

As DC says the subject is still in its infancy and is being continually refined as more markers are idemtified and more data is accumulated.

As the markers identified at present are from at best hundreds of years ago, it will not help in developing your family tree.

Over a period of a thousand years your number of ancestors will increase by roughly ten billion (not allowing for inter-marriage) so the relevance of the most recent marker in your DNA, to your genetic make-up in infinitessimally small.

DNA results have however tended to dispprove DC's description of Celt, Saxon and Viking influence. It is thought that each of those immigrations had about a 5% affect on the indigenous population. The original inhabitants coming over when there was a land bridge between Europe and the continent.

Hi all, thanks for the replies. To clarify, this is a search simply to try to find out where a (possible) Hispanic ancestry came into the family from. Still cropping up - generations later - are dark (brown to olive) skin, dark haired, dark eyed genes.

It appears to have been known within the family (certainly by my Grandmother) that one of her 'Grandfathers, served his time before the mast and brought back with him a Hispanic Wife'.

We believe we know which of her lines this is and I can get an all-male-line specimin, (from a great nephew of my Grandmother); we have no idea where this Hispanic line came in, ie how many generations back and, unfortunately, this Miller line draws a blank after my x3 Gt Grandfather (As do all female lines coming into the family later than him).

I am fully aware that any result I received would be extremely generalised, but it is more a matter of interest, simply trying to rule out other areas, which I hope it might do if there is strong South American/Hispanic/Indies genetics showing in any way. (and I mean going back past this early female ancestor).

This is purely, an 'interest factor', being that we can get no further - at the moment - with this line - to have a possible, potential, geographical area would be of interest.

Looking good at the moment is the National Geographic Genome study.

Cheers

Rae

I have dark hair, eyes and olive skin...but not found one ancestor born outside of England all direct lines go back to at least 1800

So not sure how that would work

My father was very dark skinned with black hair. In fact when I showed a friend a photo of him at school (many many years ago) before I pointed him out they asked who the Indian bloke was, and that was my dad.

No foreigners found in the family to date. Just Liverpool & London (so maybe as passing sailor nipped in somewhere!)

Perhaps you should have a DNA test DC ;-) :-)

My father looked like a stranger, stood between his two siblings. A neighbour teasingly called him 'Rasta' and that was in the 1920's! In our case we are fairly confident there is a foreign link - finding it is a problem!

Well I'm having a go just for the fun of it. As woman it can only be mitochondrial dna - but regardless it's so interesting

don't forget that Spanish blood lines entered the UK after the Armada dring Elizabeth I time .........................


an unknown number of sailors from sinking Hispanic ships are beleived to have managed to reach shore, all around the UK .......... and are believed to have had children with local girls.


This is often forgotten as a means of getting new blood, or genes, into the UK ancestors.

The very same info came to mind as well Silvia & included the coastlines of Wales & Ireland re ship wrecked Spanish mariners.
My parents had friends from Ireland, that had migrated after WW2.
Thinking back, the fellow was quite swarthy looking, dark brown eyes & the shape of his nose intrigued me....There's some good info on Wiki with regards to those times of the Armada.

The UK has had a constant influx of people from Europe for thousands of years. It is hard to imagine, therefore, how a DNA test would help determine exactly who your ancestors were.

The 'Romans' were from all over the Roman Empire, which stretched from Africa to Eastern Europe.

And we were trading with other countries long before the Romans.

Hi A/C


The Armada was disrupted by major storms, and ships were blown all the way up the east coast to the tip of Scotland, and then round there to the Atlantic adn the Irish Sea, with ships being wrecked all the way


................. so, yes, tales of Spanish mariners will be found all round the coastline.



Personally, my background in science tells me that this mitochondrial testing is a waste of time and money .................... information obtained vs money spent will be minimal.

Thought we weren't allowed two people with the same Board Name??


ah no!


it's CupCake, and t'other one is cupcakes



still confusion!



edited once for clarity

Have now decided my paternal side stems from Spain have got them back to early 1600s in Cornwall with a foreign sounding name....so they must have come over in the late 1500s with the Armada and settled here

That sounds like a good story will have to tell my parents :-D

I prefer my 6 x gt grandfather arriving by being left behind by the alien space ship :-D


My father would have loved that


He loved a good story, especially one that would upset his sisters :-)

A friend has the married surname of Sabiston. Her husband's ancestors were Scottish. Family legend has it that they are decended from a Spanish sailor ship-wrecked when the Amada rounded Scotland. Who knows for certain? :-D