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I had my mitochondrial DNA testing done by the National Geographic's Genographic Project a couple of years ago. It was really interesting and showed that I'm in Haplogroup B on my mother's side (through China and Polynesia). My birthfather passed away without getting tested, and since I hardly have any contact with my male half-siblings on that side, I can't get any information from the Y chromosome test for my father's side.
Tracing my family tree has helped a lot though in gathering information from my father's side of the family. I do know that I have Taino blood from his side, and that is from Haplogroup B also, but most of his family comes from western Europe (the Basque Country, Spain, France, Norway) along with some African blood (Yoruban, I think, since that's where most of the slaves who were transported to Cuba and Puerto Rico were from).
I'm hoping to get an Autosomal DNA test done in the near future. That's supposed to show genetic percentages from different regions of the world your ancestors came from, and it will give information about both your mother's and father's ancestries, unlike the mtDNA or Y-DNA tests, which only test one side.
I'm thinking about an autosomal test and would be interested if anyone has an opinion on the different companies that offer them. I've chased several branches of my family tree back to the time before records - people listed on the earliest available census as being born in Tennessee but who were born well before Tennessee existed. At a loss as to where to go from there. And if that wasn't enough I have two complete dead ends, a g-grandfather on my dad's side and a g-g-grandfather on my mom's with their mother's last name - mother never married. One never left her parents home - the other was a live-in cook/housekeeper for a large farming family from the first record I can find for her at 16 until her death. And then there's the branch of the tree that lived in a county where the courthouse burned three times in the 1800s. All together it works out to more than half my ancestry that I'll likely never be able to identify the origin of by paper trail.
I'm thinking about an autosomal test and would be interested if anyone has an opinion on the different companies that offer them. I've chased several branches of my family tree back to the time before records - people listed on the earliest available census as being born in Tennessee but who were born well before Tennessee existed. At a loss as to where to go from there. And if that wasn't enough I have two complete dead ends, a g-grandfather on my dad's side and a g-g-grandfather on my mom's with their mother's last name - mother never married. One never left her parents home - the other was a live-in cook/housekeeper for a large farming family from the first record I can find for her at 16 until her death. And then there's the branch of the tree that lived in a county where the courthouse burned three times in the 1800s. All together it works out to more than half my ancestry that I'll likely never be able to identify the origin of by paper trail.
Actually, if you are male or have a brother or male cousin on your father's side of the family, doing Y DNA might be helpful. you might get matches with a different surname. You could then see if the person with that surname has relatives who lived where your ggfather did. Might offer a clue as to the surname of his father.
I just recently have mine done with DNA Tribes. My experience with them was great. I was somewhat surprised by my results, but I think most people are. I knew I was Native American, Finnish, and Irish. I was all of these but my percentages were all off. I also did the Native American panel test which combined with my genetic profile told me I was more than likely Apache and I was always told that I was Blackfeet. I found it to be an interesting process and would totally reccommend it to anyone
Very interested however, don't know where to begin. Don't know which test would be most appropriate. Also, I don't suppose I haven't convinced myself that these companies aren't scamming people.
Very interested however, don't know where to begin. Don't know which test would be most appropriate. Also, I don't suppose I haven't convinced myself that these companies aren't scamming people.
Any recommendations?
I'm in process of having mine done with 23andme. The biggest plus for this company to me was that they release the raw data to you which you can then use with other independent projects.
There are some limitations to this kind of testing. The current 23andme autosomal test covers about a million SNPs which is a significant sample but is not your entire genome. And you don't inherit evenly from all of your ancestors, you get half of your genes from each parent but you don't necessarily get 25% from each grandparent and the further you go back the more likely that some of your ancestors will be greatly over or under represented in your genetic profile. So if someone's results indicated something like 30% European ancestry that would mean that of the genes that were analyzed 30% were inherited from European ancestors not that 30% of the ancestors were European.
But it can also tell you things you won't find out in any other way. I'm out of paper trail on most of my lines and have not been able to determine the origin of over 3/4 of my ancestry even though my nearest dead end is in the mid 1800s, I can trace most lines back to the mid 1700s and a few into the mid 1600s. I know my people have been in the southern Appalachians for a long time but before that is mostly a mystery so I expect DNA to be enlightening. I'm not sure how useful it would be for someone who could already trace most of their ancestors to their country of origin.
I'm in process of having mine done with 23andme. The biggest plus for this company to me was that they release the raw data to you which you can then use with other independent projects.
There are some limitations to this kind of testing. The current 23andme autosomal test covers about a million SNPs which is a significant sample but is not your entire genome. And you don't inherit evenly from all of your ancestors, you get half of your genes from each parent but you don't necessarily get 25% from each grandparent and the further you go back the more likely that some of your ancestors will be greatly over or under represented in your genetic profile. So if someone's results indicated something like 30% European ancestry that would mean that of the genes that were analyzed 30% were inherited from European ancestors not that 30% of the ancestors were European.
But it can also tell you things you won't find out in any other way. I'm out of paper trail on most of my lines and have not been able to determine the origin of over 3/4 of my ancestry even though my nearest dead end is in the mid 1800s, I can trace most lines back to the mid 1700s and a few into the mid 1600s. I know my people have been in the southern Appalachians for a long time but before that is mostly a mystery so I expect DNA to be enlightening. I'm not sure how useful it would be for someone who could already trace most of their ancestors to their country of origin.
In my case, 23andme found Ashkenazic Jewish heritage that I knew nothing about; I had wondered why I had so many Relative Finder matches and why many of them were from places in Eastern Europe. Through 23andme I also loaded my results into Ancestor Projects.com, and found that I match people in the Melungeon, Ashkenazic and Afro-Latino projects.
had familytree.com dna testing of my mother's haplogroup. T1, but all in all maternal haplogroup shows next to nothing so it is a waste of $. It goes back so many generations of ANCIENT lineage but offers nothing to more recent info.
My male cousin did the Y-DNA and that DID help determine male linege and we got past two levels of brick walls with it.
had familytree.com dna testing of my mother's haplogroup. T1, but all in all maternal haplogroup shows next to nothing so it is a waste of $. It goes back so many generations of ANCIENT lineage but offers nothing to more recent info.
My male cousin did the Y-DNA and that DID help determine male linege and we got past two levels of brick walls with it.
Good luck with your search
With y-dna at least you've usually got the same surname passed down from generation to generation. However, mine was somewhat unusual and surprising for my anglo-colonial background.
yes i did money well spent. $173,
ann rice illustrated it better than anybody in interview with the vampire.
people lie alot much more than u think. u did not come over on the mayflower. they just had to pick the right story for you to tell when u go to school.
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