DNA test

@lizzie27 Thanks for the info. My cousin died 8 years ago and started researching probably 40 years before that.

 

@KT53, I'm sorry to hear your cousin had died. Researching family history 40 years ago must have been very hard work and time consuming so great respect to your cousin. As you said, most parish registers were then still kept in local churches which meant actually travelling to inspect them after getting permission from the vicar. In some instances, they still are despite official encouragement to deposit them in a local Record Office.

 

My Husband did a DNA test through ancestry after I did one a few years ago and found out his Dad wasn't his Dad at all. So half of his family tree completely fell away as soon as he got his results.

It's done a lot of harm as even though he tried to put it past him it's very much the elephant in the room. He decided not to make his DNA result searchable as most of the family doesn't know still and may never will.

 

My ex. did a huge amount of work on our family trees and my sister took up the research as well. On my mother's side we come down from a small clan of Borderers and on my fathers side from immigrants who came over with William the Conquerer. I had my DNA tested many years ago to see where we originated and still have 3rd, 4th, cousins sent to me via Ancestory every month but I have never contacted any as we tried to keep the family lines direct and not go wandering off down distant relative avenues. My tree is private on Ancestry as my sister had several contacts who wrongly thought we were linked. One lady had a misconception she was the eldest of 4 siblings but we proved she was the middle one of 7 children born to my great -grandmother. Quite a big pill to swallow. We were able to send her birth certificates proving she had followed a wrong line somewhere, very easily done.
It is a fascinating, time consuming and expensive hobby, uncovering family skeletons.

 

P.S. We also did our reseach many years ago before the internet etc. It involved spending a day in London in St. Cartherine's House looking through record books, massive tomes, and sitting viewing microfisch Census records. We spent a couple of holidays in the Lake District around Bakewell where we found a book in a tiny bookshop which was the diary of one of my forebears who was a Dr.
Cost comes from paying for certificates, essential to verify, no idea how much they cost now, we paid around £30.00 each. I had to pay£35.00 for my grandfather's war records.

 

Last time I bought a certificate the cost was £11.50 from the online National Registrar's Office but you can view many certificates online now via the big family research websites.

We've still got our microfiche viewer machine somewhere @Goldenlily26. Probably completely obsolete now.

That was an upsetting result @Jungle Jane, I always warned friends and relations that when I looked up their records they ought to be prepared for the worst.