I wanted to start a thread where members can share about their ancestry and family. I will start. According to the research I have done within my family I am a German, Polish, Irish, and Russian American. I was born in the US and I still live there. I did some research on some family surnames but I discovered that a surname can belong to one culture or another and is different for each person. My great grandfather served in the US army during World War 1 in France. My grandfather joined the US Navy in 1946. I am thinking about getting one of those ancestry DNA tests to find out more about my ancestry.
Check some feedback first. Seems there is a pretty wide margin for error. https://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2018-2019/dna-ancestry-tests-can-you-trust-the-results You may be wasting your money.
Also, read the small print. They own anything they take out of you. Hopefully, not a pound of flesh, Antonio...
heroin for the masses no mention of your grandmother or great grandmother... remember, the best way to make sales is to tell the customer what they want to hear. regardless of what the truth is. if you are paying for a scientific medical test, you want a scientific medical answer. imagine how costly and time consuming the tests are. then imagine if you could just copy & paste the same generic results to sub-groups listed by national heritage after only having to do 100 tests instead of 100,000 tests. wall st bankers did it with sub prime mortgages what makes you think the people running the dna test company have better morals ?
On the positive side, my parents are Eastern European - sort of Polish/Hungarian/Czech/Rumanian/Croatian/etc. But remember what the speaker in Hyde Park said to the gathered Brits: "There's a little bit of Turkish toffee in every one of you." That goes double for me, and given that my spouse is of similar background, it could very well jump up and bite our Celtic wannabee kid in the ass. (Serve her right, too.)
Up until just this week, I was only aware of my Finnish heritage. All the family lines I could trace ended in Finland, as far back as the 14th century. However, I just came across some new info on a branch that I has only been able to take back as far as my great grandmother. It turns out that I am only 98.4375% Finnish. The remaining 1.5625% contains elements of Swedish, Danish, and Russian.
Family history says all my great-grandparents came from the same town in Ireland and left there because they were Prots. So, thanks to religious bigotry I was born in the US. Positive or negative, too close to call.
Seems odd when the Protestants were in charge in Ireland, as a sort of occupying power, until independence. But then again, looking at this, it seems there were some Protestants who did not benefit from that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Ascendancy
I am afraid to take a DNA test. It might say I am not human then I would have to register as a resident alien. I dislike labels.
My paternal grandfather was Prussian, born in Ukraine, served in the German Army pre-WWI, came to Canada in 1907. My other three grandparents were Mennonites, all born in Ukraine, all came to Canada between 1893 and 1907.
My one son ordered the dna test, then got 2 more for his mom and me. From the "results": It would seem that he is not related to the woman who carried him in her womb. I suspect that there is much guesswork in obtaining the "results". ..................... Meanwhile My older 1/2 brother traced our father's lineage. My mom had thought him Irish It seems that we are Scots---most likely from Dalriada and that an ancestor was fighting on the losing side in a war with England, was captured and sold into bondage to an american planter over 300 years ago. and a cousin on my mother's side traced her father's ancestors back to the 16 hundreds in Wahlstedt, Germany Kunta Kinte or Toby? Does it really matter?
Paternal Grandfather: born Pudasjärvi, Finland ( ~360 mi N and slightly east of Helsinki) 1854, Immigrated 1883 ( along with 8 siblings). Paternal Grandmother: born Finland, (exact location unknown), 1867, immigrated 1887 Maternal Grandfather: Born Kangasneimi, Finland (~135 mi NNE of Helsinki) 1886, immigrated 1906, along with 1 brother Maternal Grandmother: born Reisjärvi, Finland ( ~235 mi N of Helsinki) 1890, immigrated 1893 with mother ( father was already in US). They are the only ones I can find an entry record for. They arrived in Boston on the S.S. Scandinavian, which sailed from Glasgow. I suspect that others came in through Canada, as this was a common practice at the time. Unfortunately, I never knew any of my grandparents, as they all passed before I was born, the last being my maternal grandmother who passed 1 1/2 years before my birth.
I knew both my grandmothers quite well as a child. Both were long-time widows and neither showed any interest in their family history. My paternal grandmother spoke about her husband who died at age 30, leaving her with two small kids to raise. She gave me the sketch-book he had brought back from military service - c. age 19 - full of pencil portraits of soldier boys, landscapes and flowers. He was very good at roses. My mother told lots of stories about her father. I'm really sorry I missed them - would probably have liked both men very much. But I honestly don't care what genes they carried, beyond the fact that my brother and I are quite presentable specimens. * (* allowing 20% for temporal damage)
I, for one, would be very interested in hearing about the results. I'd like to see how guessy they are too.
Thanks. I thought I read somewhere that the company that analyzes your DNA may have some sort of ownership of your genetic information.
I know my great grandmother on my grandfathers side died of cancer in Germany before my grandfather and his brother immigrated to America. I am unsure about my other three great grandmothers. Both of my grandmothers were great people and great cooks. Do you have any proof of is this just a hunch?
I do believe there is still fighting going on between Protestants and Catholics in and around Northern Ireland.