Anyone had a DNA ancestry test?

JackG

Well-known member
The Highland Clearances thread raised questions of nationality and ancestry. Almost by definition, Infant Herculeans are often of migrant stock. I'm mostly Scots/Irish going back a few generations, but my knowledge is pretty much limited to an oral history from family members. I'm thinking of trying a DNA ancestry test. Does anyone have experience of these?
 
Not me, but my kids did. It just told me what I already knew - I'm from Irish stock from both my parents' families. Tons of Boro folk are the same. It's interesting if you look around Linthorpe cemetery, there are 1800s-early 1900s gravestones with lots of foreign names, even some from Japan. The people who came to build the early industries in Teesside were from Germany, Holland, the far east, all over the place. But loads were from Ireland. The first establishment of our iron works and furnaces, and hence our great expansion, was at the height of the 1840s famines, with the mines following soon afterwards.
 
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I did one. I'm like 91% Northern English and Scottish so not a big migration for me. The other was Icelandic and Norwegian which I kind of new from family history
 
I was following a discussion on a history forum about these tests. The scientific basis for these test is at best "questionable". For example saying someone is 5% Norse is doubtful what they see is a genetic element that is common in people of Norse origin. It does not mean that you were the product of a Viking raid or settlement it means that you share an element of your genetic make up with those people. Not the same. Personally, I wouldn't waste my money on one.
 
You also have to think about how securely they keep the DNA records of people they've tested.
 
I used “23 and me” and did mine sometime ago - it’s quite interesting- they provide quite a lot of detailed information and some random stuff like if you are allergic to certain foods.

they also provide some info which they make you think twice about looking at is health information such as the likelihood that you will have Alzheimer’s and the like.
The databases are constantly updated and they will notify you if a relative joins - so far for me this has always been very distant like 4th cousin or the like.

It’s a bit pricey I think we paid about £120 each but certainly interesting.
 
i've done Ancestry and 23andme tests (and uploaded my Ancestry results to Myheritage. I was b 1948 and adopted so I'm trying to discover who my father was (I'd already found my mother) so I wasn't doing tests for my ethnic origin but in order to find a close relative and hopefully trace my father from that. My birth mother wouldn't say who he was and what she did say might not be true. Her family have been in England (Northumberland/Cumberland/N Yorks)for several centuries and back in 1600s there was some Scottish and Irish input but the tests surprised me- i'm 50% East European. All 3 sites seem to focus on Poland as most likely.

Former Prisoners of War and workers from Eastern Europe who had fled from there (from fascism or later from communism) or fought in the Second World War for the Allies were employed as farm hands on farms in northern England near where my mother lived (Northallerton) and worked (Scarborough) for some years after the war ended. This has made me wonder if my father could have been one of these workers. Another possibility is that my father may have been a US serviceman with Eastern European heritage, maybe his parent/s had emigrated to US. I say this as there were airfields near where my mother lived and at this time it was the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War. Obviously anything is possible but those scenarios seem most likely.

So at least DNA tests have given me a clue if not the answer I was looking for.
 
i've done Ancestry and 23andme tests (and uploaded my Ancestry results to Myheritage. I was b 1948 and adopted so I'm trying to discover who my father was (I'd already found my mother) so I wasn't doing tests for my ethnic origin but in order to find a close relative and hopefully trace my father from that. My birth mother wouldn't say who he was and what she did say might not be true. Her family have been in England (Northumberland/Cumberland/N Yorks)for several centuries and back in 1600s there was some Scottish and Irish input but the tests surprised me- i'm 50% East European. All 3 sites seem to focus on Poland as most likely.

Former Prisoners of War and workers from Eastern Europe who had fled from there (from fascism or later from communism) or fought in the Second World War for the Allies were employed as farm hands on farms in northern England near where my mother lived (Northallerton) and worked (Scarborough) for some years after the war ended. This has made me wonder if my father could have been one of these workers. Another possibility is that my father may have been a US serviceman with Eastern European heritage, maybe his parent/s had emigrated to US. I say this as there were airfields near where my mother lived and at this time it was the end of WWII and the beginning of the Cold War. Obviously anything is possible but those scenarios seem most likely.

So at least DNA tests have given me a clue if not the answer I was looking for.
Interesting Kuepper. I know a lad from Helmsley who was adopted, he has never managed to trace his father but told me that he was Polish. In Helmsley cemetery there is a small war graves section that has 5 Polish graves. They all died at different dates in 1947 and are listed as 'Polish Resettlement Corps' based at Duncombe Park. Apparently they came from the 2nd Polish Armoured Brigade in Italy.
 
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Interesting Kuepper. I know a lad from Helmsley who was adopted, he has never managed to trace his father but told me that he was Polish. In Helmsley cemetery there is a small war graves section that has 5 Polish graves. They all died at different dates in 1947 and are listed as 'Polish Resettlement Corps' based at Duncombe Park. Apparently they came from the 2nd Polish Armoured Brigade in Italy.
Yes there were quite a few resettlement camps like that. Amazing how many Poles were over here. Poland boundaries have changed esp over the 20th century so eg Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia all come into play for my 'Polish' origins
 
Yes there were quite a few resettlement camps like that. Amazing how many Poles were over here. Poland boundaries have changed esp over the 20th century so eg Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia all come into play for my 'Polish' origins

Until you find out the truth, you could be the issue of a soviet spy, a WW2 fighter ace from 303 squadron or even a Cossack.

How sneaky and code a decoding are you?
How good are you at Flight Simulator games?
Are you good with swords and horses and can you bust some moves on a dance floor?
 
I did Ancestry DNA a couple of years back. I knew I had Irish ancestry on both my maternal grandparents sides but wasn't sure how far back this was. I also wanted to see if it could throw any light on my paternal grandfather's family as I knew nothing about them other than he was from South London. The results confirmed the Irish part but offered little on the rest. The results are updated quite regularly so your heritage appears to change over time. Currently I'm 50% Irish, 31% Scottish, 11% English/North Western Europe, 5% Norwegian and 3% Welsh. I was able to identify an exact area of Ireland where my family originate and when they came over to England (Potato Famine). I also got a DNA link to someone on my mother's side who appears to be a first/second cousin who no one knows so I guess they may have been a bit of extra marital at some point.
 
I've done ancestry, mainly to help build/confirm my family tree. Through matches I've been able to confirm DNA matches to 13 out of 14 of my great great grandparents, plus a good number going back further. Interestingly the one that I cant find a match for is the only one with any anecdotal doubt. Hopefully as more people have their DNA done I will find out who that illusive ancestor was!
 
I've done ancestry, mainly to help build/confirm my family tree. Through matches I've been able to confirm DNA matches to 13 out of 14 of my great great grandparents, plus a good number going back further. Interestingly the one that I cant find a match for is the only one with any anecdotal doubt. Hopefully as more people have their DNA done I will find out who that illusive ancestor was!
Also had my Dad's done which helped too
 
I've done ancestry, mainly to help build/confirm my family tree. Through matches I've been able to confirm DNA matches to 13 out of 14 of my great great grandparents, plus a good number going back further. Interestingly the one that I cant find a match for is the only one with any anecdotal doubt. Hopefully as more people have their DNA done I will find out who that illusive ancestor was!
Same here, the tests are most useful for confirming or denying the "paper" trail that you build from a family tree. The ethnicity tests are a rough guide and change over time as the testing company changes their algorithms, Ancestry seems to have made everyone a bit more Scottish in their last update for example.

I find genealogy a really interesting topic and can bore my family for hours about it :sleep: I did find a murderer in my wife's tree which I enjoyed telling her about. Also found out we were 6th cousins, which creeped her out a bit until I pointed out that the Queen was married to her 3rd cousin...
 
I haven't done the check, but have family history reocrds on one side of the family going back to 1620. That part of the family were immigrants from Languedoc in the South of France. I suspect there were Huguenots (French Protestants). Many protestants left France for their own safety. Over time our French surname was anglosized. The family at first worked in a village near Reading as metal workers, then when the Industrial Revolution (early 1800s) came they moved into then new back to back slums of Birmingham and were described as wire drawers. Around 1876 the whole family moved to Middlesbrough to work in the expanding Richard Hills Wire works (near Metz Bridge).
 
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