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Family History Research and DNA Tests

ArchaeC

Having submitted a sample for genealogy DNA testing with 23andMe earlier this year, I have enjoyed exploring my genetic ancestral history and discovering more about my ancient Neanderthal and Denisovan progenitors. I took advantage of the free data upload to Living DNA which gave a more detailed breakdown of my British and Irish ancestry, and discovered some ancient relatives who had  interesting histories such as a late Roman period man who was buried at Crypta Balbi in Rome, a Ukrainian prince, and a victim of the St Brice’s Day Massacre in Dorset. I share DNA with Classical period Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, which is rather exciting as it contributes to understanding of how populations shifted around that time. I’m now ready to continue researching my more recent family history through Ancestry DNA, but unlike Living DNA, Ancestry DNA don’t accept DNA data uploads, so I’ve had to order a new test, but at least it’s less than half the usual price and it comes with a three month subscription to world wide membership for £1.

Has anybody researched their more recent family history using Ancestry UK or any other company and is it necessary or worth employing a professional genealogist? I am concerned that costs could escalate as I explore the various branches of recent family.


Copied from Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, Public Library Online

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    It’s so time consuming researching on Ancestry, although I really enjoy doing it, but I really need  to be doing other things as well, and I can’t easily drag myself away from the screen when I’m on the trail as it feels addictive. I often think I would have like to have been a behind the scenes detective or barrister, if there were such a thing. I suppose that is where the interest in archaeology comes in. 

    23andMe showed my Neanderthal DNA was just under 2%, while Living DNA put Neanderthal at just over 2% along with a  tiny proportion of Denisovan, which was a surprise, but maybe because it’s so minuscule most people of recent European ancestry would have that tiny amount.

    I had always thought my recent ancestry was 50% Irish and 50% English, but it turns out that I’m nearly all English, with a bit of Viking and some other European, likely French. The Northern Irish Ancestry had been originally all or mostly English, and the Irish in the south had been mostly English too. Only 8% of my ancestry is Irish. One of my parents had an unusual surname, so I have been able to get very far back along that line, and that branch of the family has been in the same northern English county since at least 1600.  It is unusual for a non aristocratic family to be able to trace so far back, but if the name had been something like Brown or Jones, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. 

    TheCatWoman said:
    What surprised me was how concentrated my ancestry is in a small area of southern England on both sides of my family something like 87%,

    That’s interesting and all sorts of possibilities for that come to mind, though it could be coincidence as the UK Isn’t a big country. It reminds me of the time when I was a student on an archaeological dig in Kent, and I met a girl who was doing A Levels at my old school and a man who had lived in the tiny town where I had grown up, in Northern Ireland.

  • I've done my recent ancestors with it and it's by far the best site to use in my opinion, when I next have some spare moneyI want to get the one that tells you of your deep ancestry as that interests me more that my recent ancestry, although thats interesting too.

    What surprised me was how concentrated my ancestry is in a small area of southern England on both sides of my family something like 87%, my Mum did one and she has Viking, and Welsh in hers, its passed me by though, obviously washed out in the mix. Although it can be a bit frustrating doing it yourself I managed OK, I had some help from a friend about how to access some stuff, but I think that was me being a technoklutz and anybody else who's fairly familair with pooters would manage fine, I did try My Heritage, but they didn't seem to have as many records as ancestry.