DNA test

I'm wondering if anyone has done a DNA test, and have they opted in to match their DNA results with other people.
I did a test in 2020 but decided not to match with other people because I was afraid I'd get lots of distant 'relations' bothering me.
However I've become curious and am now thinking it might be a good idea, but I'm having some reservations .
Has anyone had experience of doing this ?
(N.B. I'm not asking for any result details or family details)

 

Hi,

Very surprised to hear you had already done such a DNA test, though not really sure why you did it ?

Surely you would be better with creating your own Genealogy chart which is easily done with many of the online tools and record centers these days.

You can then see if these are any unknown family members still alive and then consider if you want to try and contact them, but as you say that could lead to as much trouble as possible joy.

We would also suggest you might easily become a victim of a scam when trying to contact any such 'distant' relative who might see you as an easy mark, so do please take care !

 

No and I wouldn't. I really don't want it confirmed that some of my relatives are related to me and not swapped at birth or found somewhere.

 

Yes, I did mine with Ancestry and it has led to a few interesting finds. My tree on Ancestry is private so it’s up to me how much I connect with new-found relatives I mainly choose to ignore them ….

 

I did the DNA test because I was curious as to where my DNA originated from.
I don't know why I was curious, we're all interested in different things, and I find genealogy fascinating.

I actually did a Genealogy chart/Family tree in the 1970s and 80s many years before on line tools were invented, and I always knew even before that, that I had ancestors from Devon and Lancashire as well as around here ... but I wanted to know if there were older generations from other places (and from the DNA result, there were !)

I don't really want to contact any relations, they would be distant relations anyway. I know the closer ones, most of whom are dead now, and I am nearly the oldest member of my family ... I was just curious.

I wasn't swapped or found, if you saw my father, grandfather and great-grandfather you'd be able to tell that I am related to them. I look very much like my paternal grandfather's family.

I haven't got a tree on Ancestry because as said above I did it many years before computers. I've got it written down on paper and stored in files, and that suits me better.
If I found any new relatives I would probably ignore them too.

Anyway I've decided not to pursue this matter now. I was just curious but it has abated

 

I imagine many people at some point in their lives are curious about their backgrounds. I can remember my father ( an only child ) making enquiries in the late '70's and finding someone of the same uncommone surname. My father died a few years later but never left any info behind.
I have wondered over the years about looking into it, especially given the tools so readily available now but never felt driven enough to begin delving.
Reminds me of that TV programme Who Am I which did make some interesting viewing.

 

My nephew, whose job it is to write very complicated computer programmes for very large organisations, absolutely refuses to do any sort of DNA test using commercial genealogy companies. He says that they are too open to hacking and misuse of the information in them.

 

I'd probably find I'm related to one of the Brooke Bond chimps knowing my luck.

 

DNA test is at least as much about discovering the areas of the world your ancestors came from as actually finding living relatives. At least it would be for me. A cousin has researched the maternal line of my mother and hers, but could find out very little on the paternal side. They lived in rural Scotland and as she doesn't even know where her Grandfather's parents were born, it's close to impossible to trace that line. Many old records are still only held in parish churches, or were when she was doing the research.

 

Unfortunately even long standing family members can put money long before any family hurt or loyalty, why try and find more !!

We have an nephew and a second cousin who both tried different ways to gain money and fraudlent actions from other members of our family.
Both thankfully failed and though we will never see them again. the hurt to the older ones stayed with them to the end.

 

@KT53, most of the parish records are now online including Scotland via a website called Scotland's People which I believe still exists. I think it's still a paysite but I could be wrong. Scottish records are generally more extensive than English ones and if your cousin is still interested, she needs to find the grandparent's marriage records as that might well hold clues as to where the participants came from.

I've done a DNA test via Ancestry who list possible matches for you to contact or not. I've only bothered to contact 1st or 2nd cousins who have all been interesting and enthusiastic. What I find interesting is the ethnicity research which can identify what areas your ancestors came from. Very intrigued to find I've got Norwegian and Danish ancestry - thinking Vikings!!!

I've been doing what is called a One Name Study for over 20 years, researching my maternal line first then every family in Britain (and some abroad) with the same surname, as far back in time as possible, thousands of them. I have about 70 family trees. Earliest recorded name found was in 1190 when the head of an outlaw was carried into Westminster by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury!

Made lots of online friends and have met some of them in person.

Happy to help anyone with their family history, just PM me.

 

One of my sisters submitted DNA to find where our ancestors came from rather than to trace any living ones. As we know very little about our maternal grandmother (only date of death, not birth or place of birth) who was French, she was interested to find out.

As I share 25% of her DNA, I guess a bit of me has been analysed, though I would not have chosen for that to happen.

I think family trees are more interesting than DNA on the whole. My paternal grandmother was the eldest of 13, but we know nothing about the other 12 except that one was called Alice and at least one died in childhood. We are not even sure about my grandmother's actual birth name as she seemed to use several.

 

3 years ago, I found my second cousins via a local FB site. I didn't even know they existed. They didn't know I did either.
DNA has shown I'm 98% Welsh but never traced anybody through ancestry. -