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It's far more important that you actually map out your origin through paperwork. This takes time and effort, but is also far more rewarding.
I traced the Italian side of my family to the 1700s and I know their professions and, generally, even how they met each other. It's pretty exciting! Way better than what a DNA test can provide (in my specific case...obviously, if you're adopted, a DNA test is the way to go).
And how do you know who your grandfather's grandfathers were? Many of us have family trees, but the fact is... like it or not... paternity fraud has been a thing forever. If it happens in just 5% of cases, then going back, say 7 or 8 generations is likely to produce more than one instance of it which could significantly change what you think your heritage is.
And how do you know who your grandfather's grandfathers were? Many of us have family trees, but the fact is... like it or not... paternity fraud has been a thing forever. If it happens in just 5% of cases, then going back, say 7 or 8 generations is likely to produce more than one instance of it which could significantly change what you think your heritage is.
Of course.
However, a good portion of Americans have ancestors that are fairly recent immigrants. So if you're able to trace your family back to that town, you're pretty much set going back many centuries.
I mean does it really matter if my 6x great grandfather was a poor fisherman from a small town in Italy or a poor blacksmith from a small town in Italy?
Not particularly.
Additionally, even if a paternity fraud case were to occur in a family line, it's not like they had online dating back in the 1700s. Most women were extremely limited in who they could cheat with, seeing that they were limited to locals and only those that survived to adulthood. In small towns, there weren't many options. More in bigger cities, but, even then, still not a ton.
I do think that DNA testing is great and I was not trying to discourage it. In fact, I'm waiting on the results of two recently submitted tests right now. I'm just saying that a family tree is more important in many cases.
Here's a situation that I found in my own family line: my 3x great grandmother from Italy was married to a man that she had three children with. He died suddenly at age 30 (like his father and grandfather had before him....likely some genetic issue). Just a little over a year after he died, she had her fourth child with my 3x great grandfather and they were married. I also found evidence that my 3x great grandfather was a business owner that passed his business on, not to his biological children, but to his oldest stepson, who lived to old age (much like my 3x great grandfather).
I suspect that the 3x great grandmother and 3x great grandfather had been having an affair the entire time and that all of these children were actually his children as well based on this circumstantial evidence.
I do plan on resolving this at some point with DNA testing, but probably not in the near future.
Is anyone else beginning to lose faith in all but the most basic genealogy DNA test results? Recently one of the companies adjusted their tests and completely changed a large portion of prior results. I used to see DNA testing as irrefutable. Now I see it's how it's interpreted, which is really down to subjective criteria.
DNA research is an on going process so if you suddenly see changes in your DNA report, it isn't so much they were wrong and then changed it after the fact, it is that your DNA can be applied to current research. Any legitimate company SHOULD be constantly updating your results since we have only just scratched the surface of this area in science.
My grandmother is a mestiza Ecuadorian, but it showed zero Spanish ancestry for me and only Italian. It is unlikely that I have that much Italian ancestry and no Spanish ancestry.
My grandmother is a mestiza Ecuadorian, but it showed zero Spanish ancestry for me and only Italian. It is unlikely that I have that much Italian ancestry and no Spanish ancestry.
That really isn't unusual if you know a little about immigration to Latin America and even within Europe. It is entirely possible your European ancestor was from Italy, migrated to Ecuador and simply started writing his family name the Spanish way. Spanish and Italian are very very similar languages and there are tons for people of Italian descent in Latin America since it is fairly easy to learn Spanish (and a common religion helps too). Even within Europe people moved between countries (think merchants). So you are very likely Italian by genetics, although over the course of a few generations the Italian dude (or lady) was switched to a Spaniard in family lore.
I've always considered the genealogy / ancestry testing services as vanity marketing sell and an easy way to get sample populations dna samples for other potential testing reasons.
Call me a skeptic,
I surmise the DNA testing 'companies' simply have honed this technique with fancier tech / lab findings.
You are a skeptic but meanwhile my italian side IS ferragame or ferragamo which comes from the village of Bonito and is responsible for the big brand name shoes.
These is no question about this.
It's a small world and the combination of DNA (which may help you meet other relatives who are doing the hard paperwork and traveling) opens up an entire world of heritage.
My grandmother is a mestiza Ecuadorian, but it showed zero Spanish ancestry for me and only Italian. It is unlikely that I have that much Italian ancestry and no Spanish ancestry.
My understanding is that the percentages of your ancestry are inherited in a completely random matter. It is quite possible that you simply inherited far more of your Italian ancestry than Iberian. Also, How much of Spain has Roman ancestry as a result of the Roman conquest? I'd bet the numbers are quite large.
My grandmother is a mestiza Ecuadorian, but it showed zero Spanish ancestry for me and only Italian. It is unlikely that I have that much Italian ancestry and no Spanish ancestry.
Italy and Spain share a lot of DNA (69% of natives of the Iberian Peninsula get results in Italy/Greece), so it could just be that. However, Latin America has seen a large Italian immigration.
"Ever since most of Latin America gained independence in the 1810s–1820s, millions of people have immigrated there. Of these immigrants, Italians formed the largest group, and next were Spaniards and Portuguese."
So there is a chance that your Ecuadorian grandmother was mostly or entirely Italian on her European side.
That really isn't unusual if you know a little about immigration to Latin America and even within Europe. It is entirely possible your European ancestor was from Italy, migrated to Ecuador and simply started writing his family name the Spanish way. Spanish and Italian are very very similar languages and there are tons for people of Italian descent in Latin America since it is fairly easy to learn Spanish (and a common religion helps too). Even within Europe people moved between countries (think merchants). So you are very likely Italian by genetics, although over the course of a few generations the Italian dude (or lady) was switched to a Spaniard in family lore.
Italy used to be part of the Spanish Empire, along with Holland, under the House of Habsburg.
That is why we see many "italian" people working for the Spanish Empire, such as Columbus and Vespucci.
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