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I recently found out who my great-grandmother was, due to a DNA match on Ancestry. This was very exciting, since all I had know before was her name and approximate year of death. She died when my grandfather was about 3, and my grandfather's father died when he was 8. My grandfather died before I was born, so I was never able to ask him about what he knew.
I've found distant cousins with my DNA results, but this is the first time I've found a direct ancestor.
How about you? What is the most exciting thing you've discovered with your DNA results?
23andme says that one of my 3rd great grandparents was 100% North African. The rest of my genes are 99% North. Euro and I and my family are sure white to look at. But I always thought my paternal grandmother, my father (her son) and one brother got lucky with olive skin and slightly gypsy look.
Makes me wonder who and how this happened since genealogy has everyone living in the Mid-Atlantic US states back to that time. One-night fling? Maybe happened on the ship coming over? Traveling tinker?
I tracked down an ancestor who was a French trader that went to Senegal West Africa in 1859.
My husband's new first cousin found his 3 remaining full bio brothers and sister. They were all in their 60s. Both sides had been looking for each other for decades but not until DNA by my husband and his first cousin were "matched" did they work it out and contact was established. Happiness all around in that family.
Actually. I'm mildly disappointed in how this has gone. There has been little if any excitement but a few hints, mostly disconnected, of locations and long-lost relatives. The results mostly confirmed what I knew but the percentages were a little odd. One of the features of Gedmatch (a free service) is that people who you share DNA patterns with, your DNA cousins, will sometimes upload their Gedfile family tree. I have a close DNA cousin who is connected to my paternal line and his Ged file shows a town location and likely local relatives, possibly brothers or 1st cousins, to my gr-grandfather. Our DNA match is close enough that I'm pretty certain of this but I can't confirm it in any paper trail or independent documentation. Still hunting.
I found out that even though I have a German maiden name, I am actually only a very small percentage German/French. I also found out that I have a sizable chunk of Finnish ancestry that I knew absolutely nothing about. And Scandinavian.
I tracked down an ancestor who was a French trader that went to Senegal West Africa in 1859.
My husband's new first cousin found his 3 remaining full bio brothers and sister. They were all in their 60s. Both sides had been looking for each other for decades but not until DNA by my husband and his first cousin were "matched" did they work it out and contact was established. Happiness all around in that family.
That is awesome! What a great discovery!
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