Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
What should I look for at first, anything in particular?
As I've mentioned, hoping for a more exotic background than just British, which is what I expect. No offense Britain, just hoping for a little something different. Mongolia? India? Eastern Europe??
I know for sure Welsh and Scottish...
Should I go deeper into genealogy?? What have you done to further expand on your history??? Has it been worth it??
Should I try results from Ancestry or other cos.??
If your known ancestry is entirely British then you’re unlikely to get anything much different than that. You might get some results in neighboring regions, like France/Germany or Scandinavia, but much further than that is unlikely, unless there’s more to your ancestry you don’t know about. Keep in mind small percentages can just be noise, like a false positive.
If you are interested in genealogy, I would recommend researching your paper trail before doing another DNA test.
If your known ancestry is entirely British then you’re unlikely to get anything much different than that. You might get some results in neighboring regions, like France/Germany or Scandinavia, but much further than that is unlikely, unless there’s more to your ancestry you don’t know about. Keep in mind small percentages can just be noise, like a false positive.
If you are interested in genealogy, I would recommend researching your paper trail before doing another DNA test.
My dad's grandfather was FROM Wales, but maybe he wasn't British, don't know...
My mom's dad was Scottish, that's all I know, so I have 2 family sides/grandmothers I know nothing about...
How do you go about doing a paper trail? Is there a website or book you know of personally that would be helpful?
Should I go deeper into genealogy?? What have you done to further expand on your history??? Has it been worth it??
Should I try results from Ancestry or other cos.??
Quote:
Originally Posted by greatblueheron
My dad's grandfather was FROM Wales, but maybe he wasn't British, don't know...
My mom's dad was Scottish, that's all I know, so I have 2 family sides/grandmothers I know nothing about...
How do you go about doing a paper trail? Is there a website or book you know of personally that would be helpful?
You should at least make a tree at Ancestry and also consider doing your DNA there too. For ethnicity it may be the same as 23 and me but the gem is in the matches, especially if you're gonna do a tree. They have the largest DNA database which supposedly grew a lot this last holiday season. Also do a tree on family search which gives free records. I keep my public tree there. With Ancestry having the largest DNA database it may be worth it to do it there to see what kind of matches you have. It may help you break down a brick wall. See my thread Family tree and DNA general instructions which tells about all the sites and how to get started.
Quote:
Originally Posted by greatblueheron
What should I look for at first, anything in particular?
As I've mentioned, hoping for a more exotic background than just British, which is what I expect. No offense Britain, just hoping for a little something different. Mongolia? India? Eastern Europe??
I know for sure Welsh and Scottish...
When I got my uncles DNA back, I couldn't wait to see if he matched my 3rd cousin match, he did! I then downloaded the raw data to upload to the free sites; my heritage and FTDNA. If you need directions on how to upload to the free sites; it's in the family tree and DNA general instructions thread. You just never know what matches will help you with your paper trail.
I haven't uploaded my uncles to GEDmatch Genesis (a large public database) yet but will when I get my new computer; because I'll add him to the Hungarian DNA FB group which has a tool called Matchmaker that matches people in the group with their GEDmatch and Genesis kits. It's pretty cool. They also have a Scottish DNA FB group as well as Irish, British, Polish, German and Swedish to name a few. They all have the Matchmaker tool which also could help you find more of a paper trail.
I also started playing with DNA Painter to try to figure out what lines my matches are from. There's so much you can do with DNA. The more databases you're in, the better chances you have of finding your family.
With My Heritage, they used to give a bunch of free tools but have started charging for them. It's still worth it to upload for family matching. I'll paste in my reply about what's still free and what will have a charge. They have not announced on their blog how much the charge will be but in my opinion is that if it's under $30 it's worth it. Buying a test is $59 so I don't see it being more then $30. FTDNA does the same thing, they charge for chromosome browser, my origins and ancient origins. I wasn't impressed with any of it after seeing what My Heritage offers, and offered for free! I have one more test; for my male cousin (my mothers brothers son) that I will pay to upload to My Heritage and I'll eventually do his Y-DNA at FTDNA to get my grandfathers male line.
Do you have any family members you can test like your parents? If so at some point you may want to test them too which will make it easier for you to see which side your DNA matches are on
No more extensions. Basically, uploads are still free. So is Exporting DNA Matches, Contacting DNA Matches, Shared ancestral surnames. They will be charging a one time fee for Ethnicity Estimate, Chromosome Browser, Trees of DNA Matches, Shared DNA Matches, Shared Ethnicities, Shared ancestral places. They do not know how much they will charge and will be testing different price points for the one-time fee. MyHeritage subscribers who already have a Premium, PremiumPlus or Complete Subscription do NOT have to pay anything to unlock the extra features for uploaded DNA kits. They can upload as many kits as they want and enjoy all the premium features for all uploads.
If you’ve done a DNA test before on another service, uploading your DNA data to MyHeritage can help you break down genealogical brick walls and uncover new relatives. Genetic genealogists call this “fishing in another pond” for DNA Matches, to benefit from the opportunity to be matched with the huge base of customers who have tested their DNA exclusively on MyHeritage. As we announced previously, starting today, December 16, 2018, users can upload their raw DNA data from other testing services for free, and they will still receive all DNA Matches for free, but unlocking extra features for uploaded DNA data will cost an extra fee.
Quote:
For a few days, starting on December 16, 2018, we will be testing different price points for the one-time fee, and different users may notice different prices. This will be finalized within a few days and then we will update this blog post to indicate the final fee.
You should at least make a tree at Ancestry and also consider doing your DNA there too. For ethnicity it may be the same as 23 and me but the gem is in the matches, especially if you're gonna do a tree. They have the largest DNA database which supposedly grew a lot this last holiday season. Also do a tree on family search which gives free records. I keep my public tree there. With Ancestry having the largest DNA database it may be worth it to do it there to see what kind of matches you have. It may help you break down a brick wall. See my thread Family tree and DNA general instructions which tells about all the sites and how to get started.
When I got my uncles DNA back, I couldn't wait to see if he matched my 3rd cousin match, he did! I then downloaded the raw data to upload to the free sites; my heritage and FTDNA. If you need directions on how to upload to the free sites; it's in the family tree and DNA general instructions thread. You just never know what matches will help you with your paper trail.
I haven't uploaded my uncles to GEDmatch Genesis (a large public database) yet but will when I get my new computer; because I'll add him to the Hungarian DNA FB group which has a tool called Matchmaker that matches people in the group with their GEDmatch and Genesis kits. It's pretty cool. They also have a Scottish DNA FB group as well as Irish, British, Polish, German and Swedish to name a few. They all have the Matchmaker tool which also could help you find more of a paper trail.
I also started playing with DNA Painter to try to figure out what lines my matches are from. There's so much you can do with DNA. The more databases you're in, the better chances you have of finding your family.
With My Heritage, they used to give a bunch of free tools but have started charging for them. It's still worth it to upload for family matching. I'll paste in my reply about what's still free and what will have a charge. They have not announced on their blog how much the charge will be but in my opinion is that if it's under $30 it's worth it. Buying a test is $59 so I don't see it being more then $30. FTDNA does the same thing, they charge for chromosome browser, my origins and ancient origins. I wasn't impressed with any of it after seeing what My Heritage offers, and offered for free! I have one more test; for my male cousin (my mothers brothers son) that I will pay to upload to My Heritage and I'll eventually do his Y-DNA at FTDNA to get my grandfathers male line.
Do you have any family members you can test like your parents? If so at some point you may want to test them too which will make it easier for you to see which side your DNA matches are on
I wouldn't be surprised to get some percentage of Scandinavian if I thought I was heavy into British ancestry. Maybe Irish or Orcadian? Gedmatch could break down some of it as to more ancient roots if you load your data file over there. I find that the "new" ethnic reports out of 23andme are somewhat close to Ancestry but MyHeritage is out in left field somewhere. I used to like the DNA matches out of MyHeritage but they have gotten a bit weak lately in my experience.
My dad's grandfather was FROM Wales, but maybe he wasn't British, don't know...
My mom's dad was Scottish, that's all I know, so I have 2 family sides/grandmothers I know nothing about...
How do you go about doing a paper trail? Is there a website or book you know of personally that would be helpful?
Ancestry.com is the biggest online database of genealogical records - if you can’t afford it, I would at least see if your library offers access to it for free (many do) to check it out. You can build a tree at Ancestry.com for free, it’s just access to records that costs money. FamilySearch.com has the biggest free database of online genealogical records and is a good starting point, but keep in mind if you build your tree there, it’s a crowd sourced tree, meaning anyone can edit or add to it.
Ancestry.com is the biggest online database of genealogical records - if you can’t afford it, I would at least see if your library offers access to it for free (many do) to check it out. You can build a tree at Ancestry.com for free, it’s just access to records that costs money. FamilySearch.com has the biggest free database of online genealogical records and is a good starting point, but keep in mind if you build your tree there, it’s a crowd sourced tree, meaning anyone can edit or add to it.
What I do is keep my main tree at Ancestry, I work with 2 devices, my tablet or cell and computer. I will hand type in stuff from census hints and will also have a tree going on family search but what sucks is you can't back up the tree there but they're great for records which I hand enter on ancestry
What should I look for at first, anything in particular?
As I've mentioned, hoping for a more exotic background than just British, which is what I expect. No offense Britain, just hoping for a little something different. Mongolia? India? Eastern Europe??
I know for sure Welsh and Scottish...
Should I go deeper into genealogy?? What have you done to further expand on your history??? Has it been worth it??
Should I try results from Ancestry or other cos.??
Just did 23andme for similar reasons to yourself...want to see what and if anything "exotic" comes up when I get the test results.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
