WHY FIND YOUR ANCESTORS

There are many reasons why you may want to find your ancestors.  Maybe you want to know about possible medical questions you need answered.  You may want to know where your relatives show up in history.  Or you just may be curious.  All are good reasons to find your ancestors.  And any of these online sites can help you with your research.

But there are also other questions to ask yourself before deciding which direction to go for your DNA testing.  Questions like “how do I take my DNA?” Or which test is right for you, how much does it cost and which company should I actually use.  All are good questions, but with a bit of research you can answer all your questions.

                          Edmund Pendleton, 5th Great Grandfather, 1744-1827

WHAT IS DNA?

What exactly is DNA?  Today, we can swab our cheek, send the swab through the mail, wait for what seems like forever (about 4 weeks) and then you can discover all kinds of information about your family history, good and/or bad and meet previously unknown relatives that you were not aware of.  Again, good and/or bad.

To streamline the explanation of DNA, I’ll make this short and sweet.  When you swipe your cheek with a cotton swab, some of the type of cells that are collected contain DNA that are inherited from your parents and are called germline cells.

DNA is very stable and very precise.  Because it’s stable, you can send it through the mail.  It doesn’t matter if the container gets bumped around or it’s too hot or cold.  Our DNA molecules are pretty hardy stuff.  And the information contained in these cells is like a road map of our inherited genetics from those that came before us.  An even better explanation of DNA and the process can be found on this site.

When I did my DNA several years ago, I had to spit into a tube (disgusting)!  I was looking for someone and the only way I would be able to find this person was with my DNA.  What I found was all kinds of family stories that I wasn’t aware of and other family members that were not aware either.  It was enlightening, time consuming, but also satisfying in the end.

THREE TYPES OF DNA TESTING

Autosomal which is DNA you inherit from all of your ancestors and is not gender specific.

yDNA is DNA that is passed down through the males of the family or their direct paternal line.  This test only looks at the Y chromosome which only males carry.

mtDNA or Mitochondrial DNA is inherited by both males and females directly from their maternal line.

Both yDNA and mtDNA change very slowly through time.  This is why we can now trace ancestors back thousands of years.

Some DNA tests can reveal unique traits deep in your genetic code.  These traits could put you at risk for certain health conditions.  Knowing about possible health conditions can help you change your lifestyle, if necessary.

TO DO OR NOT TO DO YOUR DNA—THE DARK SIDE

Who gets to see your DNA?  It’s been in the news several times about law enforcement wanting to use DNA at testing companies to catch criminals.

At this point in time, it looks like law enforcement doesn’t have full access to people’s DNA.  Rather the company takes the DNA given to them by law enforcement, runs it through their system and only informs law enforcement about relative matches.  And so far, this has only been done for violent offenders with privately owned company, FamilyTreeDNA.

It seems your DNA itself is not shared.  Rather the company puts the offender’s DNA through their system and then shares matches, not the DNA, with law enforcement.

FACTORS IN DECIDING ON A DNA TESTING COMPANY

There are some things to think about when you start looking at the testing companies that are out there.  What services does the company offer and do those services fit what information you are looking for.  What kind of testing does a company do; what’s their reputation and reviews for the company.  And don’t forget about what kind of customer service they practice and lastly; what do they charge for your testing and then being on their site.

Online Sites for Ancestry Research

FamilyTreeDNA

Ancestry

CRI Genetics

Living DNA

23andMe

MyHeritageDNA

HomeDNA.

Some of these companies I’ve heard about and some I’ve not.  I’ve checked out several, used at least four of them, but I’m going to talk about the two I went with.

HOW I GOT STARTED

I decided one day about two years ago to go looking for the proverbial long lost relative I knew I had.  I bought a DNA test and sent it off.  Results came back in about four weeks, so I started exploring on different DNA websites.  After several months of researching, I found who I was looking for.  Then I had to make the decision of whether to reach out to people that may not have known about my side of their family.  I didn’t want to surprise anyone, and I certainly didn’t want to drudge up skeletons, but there was information, I needed to know.

It helped me make the decision to start contacting some of my matches, when I began getting emails from others that were also trying to figure out how we were related.  This happened because I was also on their DNA list, like they were on mine.  It only takes one or two people to explain those “glitches” in families that we all have.  As I had found who I was looking for and now had one or two contacts, the pieces began falling into place as to what happened with this “glitch” in my family.

I want to give you a broad picture of what finding your ancestors looks like.  And, also warn you.  There is always one more new stone to look under.  Once you get started, it can be very hard to stop.  Ancestor hunting can be very time-consuming, but fascinating at the same time.

ONLINE SITES I USED

The two main sites I’m going to write about work a little differently than the others, but they all do the same thing—just when you think you have found all the information you could about a relative, up pops another tidbit and you can’t just leave it hanging out there just calling your name…LOL

Each provides a long list of people that match your DNA in some way, so you can compare as there will be differences.  One of your relatives may have gone through one site, but not the other.  This is good as it allows you to collect different information from each site.  Each new piece of information may give you a different avenue to search or just learn about your relative.

William Pendleton, 4th Great Grandfather, 1808-1889

OLIVE TREE GENEALOGY — Another Resource

This site was created by Lorine in February, 1996.  She has accumulated more than 1900 pages of free genealogy records that can be used to help find what or who you are looking for.

This site has collected Passenger Lists (including the Mayflower and Titanic), Immigrations Tips, Loyalists, Native American, Palatine Genealogy, Orphan Records, just to name a few of the genealogy records that can be used for free to help with your research.

Olive Tree is a 3-step genealogy finder that can be used as another research resource.  The first being with the free records you can look through, then they have plenty of tutorials and a help file and third; they have Genealogy Resource Guides and books that you can use.

There were actually four companies where  I uploaded my DNA.  Ancestry was the first and then I followed up with 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA and MyHeritage.  I did not go very far with FamilyTree and MyHeritage.  It was just taking too much time trying to research on several different sites, so I limited myself to Ancestry and 23andMe.  These were the two sites I felt I’d find the information I was looking for.  Both offer different information than the other.  This made me feel like I would get some well-rounded answers for what I was looking for.

I have used all four companies in my quest to find my relatives and figure out missing pieces in my family history.  Some, I found very easy to use and others I just didn’t click with.  I also came to realize just how much time hunting down ancestors takes.

Each of these companies have their sameness, but also differences and sometimes very big differences which is actually a good thing.  I continued using Ancestry and 23andMe.  I went with these two mainly because of the differences so all my bases would be covered.

Ancestry we all know about—can’t really miss them and when I first sent my DNA in, I really didn’t realize that there were other companies out there.  And luckily, I did not have to pay to have my DNA done separately by any of the other companies I’ve mentioned.  Just do your DNA one time, then download your results and turn around and upload that information to another site.

Lucy Nelson Pendleton, 5th Great Grandmother, 1778-1812

Ancestry

Ancestry is easy to use, but time consuming because of reading all the information you can pull up on numerous ancestors in your tree.  This site has many different sections that you can use to see information and do your research.  Some of those sections are:

*DNA Story:  shows your ethnicities found in your DNA.  This lets you see what parts of the world you came from and where past relatives settled.

*ThruLines:  Gives you a place to start after your initial search.  This section of ancestry gives you suggestions and possibilities of other relatives.  Then you can choose one of the new relatives to do a search on and see if you really are connected.  Ancestry can give you suggestions of possible links because their database is so large since they have a lot of people that have already put in their family information.  This is the information that comes up, if there is a possibility that someone may be related to you.

There are actually so many suggestions once you hit on a branch of your family that your head can spin.  It’s like never-ending.  LOL

Additional Catagories

Personal Discoveries:  This section shows you what similarities you have with others who take the available surveys.

DNA Matches:  It’s amazing how many people pop-up that have some kind of connection with your DNA.  And this list is constantly changing as more people get their DNA done or leave the site.  So, someone may not be on your list today, but three days from now there can be several new connections on your list or some may disappear.  That’s because their DNA results have recently come in and posted on the site or they have discontinued use of the site.

What’s nice about this list is that you can filter out what you want to see several different ways.  For instance, newest at the top, unviewed, common ancestors or family trees.  You can also choose to look at the family trees of people on your list if their family tree is public.  You can take notes, put people in groups and you can message them.

Being able to send messages to others is a big plus and really helps with trying to figure out connections.  And on the other side of that, you may get emails from others on your list that are also trying to put pieces of their family tree together.  And that’s how you end up finding out about things you had no clue about.  It’s fun, but I can also see that it could be unnerving to some.

FURTHER RESEARCH

Once you’ve zeroed in on a few people you want to know more about, you can look those persons up on the numerous search sites that Ancestry makes available.  Census & voter lists, birth, marriage and death lists, immigration & travel lists, public member trees, military, card catalog and member search are just a few of the search sites available on ancestry.

And when you do this research, Ancestry shares everything they have in their data base on the person you are researching as long as the information is public.  You get tidbits of information along with spouses, children, siblings and possible parents.  And this is when you are off and running with even more research.

I’ve found out things such as having relatives on both sides of the Civil War, one or two in the Revolutionary War and I’ve been able to take one side of my family tree back to the 1300’s.

Another relative had around 30 some kids from four wives and Ancestry had their names all right there in front of me.  And that’s where I stopped researching that great grandfather.  I didn’t need to know anything else as I already could assume what he spent a lot of his time doing.

                             Phoebe Pendleton Clayton, 7th Great Grandmother, 1722-1761

 23andMe

This site is a bit different than Ancestry in that 23andMe provides a lot of medical type information.  Please note that this site does not profess to being backed or published by doctors.  They just report what they find in reference to your DNA.

23andMe considers itself a “health and ancestry” site.  And it’s pretty cool.  This site shows different variants for different illnesses such as:   BRCA1 and 2, late-onset alzheimer’s and polycystic kidney desease to name just a few.  They also provide reports on health predispositions and carrier status for some health traits.  All very interesting information, at least to me.

One interesting health tidbit for me had to do with getting bit by mosquitos.  It showed I was more likely to get bit than others.  And boy, is that the truth—the little buggers love dining on me.  Another little tidbit of info showed I was probably more likely to prefer salty foods rather than sweet.  Once again, it’s true.  I’ve no idea how that could be determined by someone that doesn’t know me and I suppose someone else could say that’s easy.  It’s just a 50/50 chance that one or the other (salty vs. Sweet) would be correct.

Unique Traits

Some DNA tests can reveal unique traits deep in your genetic code.  These traits could put you at risk for certain health conditions.  Knowing about possible health conditions can help you change your lifestyle, if necessary.

What you won’t find with 23andMe is tidbits about different past relatives.  You only get a list of those currently alive, possible relatives that have also had their DNA done and whose information is in the database for 23andMe.  But you can email anyone on your list through 23andMe to connect with those that you have questions for or to just introduce yourself.

I love that I found out all the places it looks like a lot of my past relatives lived and immigrated from.  And then what parts of the US they settled in.  I was happy to see that both Ancestry and 23andMe had almost identical information in this section of their sites.  So, I definitely know where my ancestors originated.

I hope you find this article helpful when looking for your ancestors or even newer relatives.  I found both of these sites very helpful and would recommend either one or both since they offer different types of information.  While 23andMe site is free to use, Ancestry does have a monthly charge to use their site.  Both charge for the DNA kit and analysis.

After a good research session, take a look at putting together your own personal home retreat.

Stay Awesome!

Cher

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