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DNA is only informative if you have done some basic research. Having DNA cousins is not all that helpful if they haven't done any research and posted it on their profile.
]No, there are some people who do genealogy and love the research aspect of it. [/b] *waving hand*. Me. And I’m not alone. And especially knocking over those brick walls. DNA helped me with a few of those. P
No doubt. And everyone is free to like what they like.
But while the point is going to be different for different people's families, after a certain point there were no records kept and there is nothing to be found. That's partially why DNA testing is here.
Also, the US is a country of immigrants. Before one's ancestors came to the US, depending on the nation there may not have even been record keeping.
Slaves were often not even listed by name and there is no brick wall in that case if the name was never recorded. So for people of African descent to find out what regions of Africa their African ancestors are from, pretty much all they can do is DNA testing.
DNA is only informative if you have done some basic research. Having DNA cousins is not all that helpful if they haven't done any research and posted it on their profile.
Basic research depending on the group is impossible.
I'm African American. My great great great grandmother, on side of my family was a SLAVE. An UNNAMED slave. My great great great grandfather was Jewish. There was a mixed race child named after the owner (same first and last name). It's pretty obvious what happened and I do have his name.
Using census records to track people is easier along paternal lines. Women changed their names when they get married historically, and unless you know a particular ancestors maiden name you might not ever find out who her parents were.
And of course, some nations did poor record keeping, or records were destroyed due to wars or whatever disaster. In many cases the best all people can do is DNA testing.
And of course, some nations did poor record keeping, or records were destroyed due to wars or whatever disaster. In many cases the best all people can do is DNA testing.
And what do you get from DNA testing? Information about the living. It tells you nothing about the past. It presumes that grandparents have been in the same place forever. Look it up. That's the key to 23andme and ancestry methodology. A huuuge presumption, since any decent researcher can go back further than that. Of course, you don't like research.
You ought to do some reading on the methodology behind DNA genealogy, before you make bold claims. Of course that would be research. Easier to just blindly copy the work of others, isn't it, and propagate the errors. I guess for some people, any big old tree, even one full of errors, is better than a small one that's accurate?
For starters "research" is time consuming and unless someone has a particular need no one is going to spend that amount of time looking up documents. Frankly, DNA testing is easier and more to the point unless there is some sort of gain to the researcher.
I understand that the value of research is limited for some situations, and yours may be one of those. Regardless, I don't agree with you. For generations, countless numbers of people have spent the required amount of time to research and identify their specific ancestors. Part of it is enjoyment; part of it is a strong desire to know. My mother was adopted. My sister and I started our search with absolutely nothing at all to guide us. We've gotten lucky, but mainly because we put in the hours to create our own luck and have had generous help from others who did their homework accurately. My beef is with those who want to have family trees but don't want to bother with doing it right. They've simply cherry-picked ancestors from other trees, many of which had done the same for their trees. The results soon become laughable, and IMO that's sad, and a reflection on a prevailing attitude of "doing it easy" rather than "doing it right".
Autosomal DNA has been an asset in our search, but ONLY because we had done the work to have the startings of a tree we could rely upon, and ONLY because we were able to find a few DNA matches to other researchers who had put forth the effort to do it right. The vast majority of our matches either had no trees at all, or undocumented trees that had clearly been copied. These are worse than no information at all, because they are spreading bad information.
I guess it depends upon what your goals might be. If you are interested in knowing your specific ancestors, DNA can be helpful. But without the accompanying grunt work, the DNA is at best, generalities.
Basic research depending on the group is impossible.
I'm African American. My great great great grandmother, on side of my family was a SLAVE. An UNNAMED slave. My great great great grandfather was Jewish. There was a mixed race child named after the owner (same first and last name). It's pretty obvious what happened and I do have his name.
Using census records to track people is easier along paternal lines. Women changed their names when they get married historically, and unless you know a particular ancestors maiden name you might not ever find out who her parents were.
And of course, some nations did poor record keeping, or records were destroyed due to wars or whatever disaster. In many cases, the best all people can do is DNA testing.
True, it is very hard for some, especially if adopted. In your brief posting you have reported more than most people do on their DNA test profile.
-African American, surnames
-Most likely ancestry from the south or border states
-Named white ancestor, ancestry possibly traceable, surname
-Jewish ancestry possibly traceable, surname
Some countries, like Ireland, lost most of their administrative/historical records but there are some alternatives. There are tremendous language problems with some records. Old German parish records are in German or maybe Latin but in a script that few people can read even if you know the language.
If you find a scrap of a record or a clue that is speculative you might find a maiden name in the record. If your DNA cousins listed ancestry surnames you could look to see how common that name is among your 1,000+ cousins. If only they would at least list known ancestral surnames that would help with clarifying a possible direction in your research.
There are tremendous language problems with some records. Old German parish records are in German or maybe Latin but in a script that few people can read even if you know the language.
The old german script is similar to the script used in Scandanavian records. It's not too difficult to master if you know the language a bit. What is tough, though, is the terrible penmanship of some of the clerics, and in some cases, the fading of the ink!
Many lineages are difficult to trace, although probably none as difficult as african american. Jewish records in Europe, for instance are spotty at best and depend on local practices. On top of that, within the Pale of Settlement there was active effort to obscure identities, for various reasons like draft avoidance.
I understand that the value of research is limited for some situations, and yours may be one of those. Regardless, I don't agree with you. For generations, countless numbers of people have spent the required amount of time to research and identify their specific ancestors. Part of it is enjoyment; part of it is a strong desire to know. My mother was adopted. My sister and I started our search with absolutely nothing at all to guide us. We've gotten lucky, but mainly because we put in the hours to create our own luck and have had generous help from others who did their homework accurately. My beef is with those who want to have family trees but don't want to bother with doing it right. They've simply cherry-picked ancestors from other trees, many of which had done the same for their trees. The results soon become laughable, and IMO that's sad, and a reflection on a prevailing attitude of "doing it easy" rather than "doing it right".
Autosomal DNA has been an asset in our search, but ONLY because we had done the work to have the startings of a tree we could rely upon, and ONLY because we were able to find a few DNA matches to other researchers who had put forth the effort to do it right. The vast majority of our matches either had no trees at all, or undocumented trees that had clearly been copied. These are worse than no information at all, because they are spreading bad information.
I guess it depends upon what your goals might be. If you are interested in knowing your specific ancestors, DNA can be helpful. But without the accompanying grunt work, the DNA is at best, generalities.
In MANY cases worldwide knowing specific ancestors outside of those you can get from living relatives is not just not going to happen due to poor or no record keeping. Much about the past is and will remain unknowable. However if someone is interested in learning more about their ethnic identity, yes DNA exams can certainly help with that.
The old german script is similar to the script used in Scandanavian records. It's not too difficult to master if you know the language a bit. What is tough, though, is the terrible penmanship of some of the clerics, and in some cases, the fading of the ink!
Many lineages are difficult to trace, although probably none as difficult as african american. Jewish records in Europe, for instance are spotty at best and depend on local practices. On top of that, within the Pale of Settlement there was active effort to obscure identities, for various reasons like draft avoidance.
And on top of that Jewish people often changed their last names because they were persecuted and forced to convert to Christianity. They've found via genetic testing that large portions of the populations of the Southwest, parts of Mexico, and other parts of Latin America that many Latinos are part Jewish. In most cases you will not find direct records of this, in part since admitting you were Jewish meant you were dead via the Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish and Portuguese governments maintained lists of last names that were common among expelled and persecuted Jews.
But record keeping was and is extremely SPARSE. Similarly, Jews in colonial America weren't jumping up and down to write Jewish on their documents or on how that felt, and you had assimilation via marriage as well.
True, it is very hard for some, especially if adopted. In your brief posting you have reported more than most people do on their DNA test profile.
-African American, surnames
-Most likely ancestry from the south or border states
-Named white ancestor, ancestry possibly traceable, surname
-Jewish ancestry possibly traceable, surname
Some countries, like Ireland, lost most of their administrative/historical records but there are some alternatives. There are tremendous language problems with some records. Old German parish records are in German or maybe Latin but in a script that few people can read even if you know the language.
If you find a scrap of a record or a clue that is speculative you might find a maiden name in the record. If your DNA cousins listed ancestry surnames you could look to see how common that name is among your 1,000+ cousins. If only they would at least list known ancestral surnames that would help with clarifying a possible direction in your research.
And in many cases you won't.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing research. Only there's a lot of stuff that one will never find out simply from researching documents, and that for many people documents just don't exist. And yes, tracing families along maternal lines does get extremely hard due to the name changes. There are also often a lot of people with the same last names, so the further back you go the more you deal with speculation.
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