Geneaology and DNA

Chuckman

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I am not a real genealogy buff, but trying to figure some stuff out with my family tree. I am finding some stuff on some websites and old family docs that have been interesting, but definitely looking for more.

Has anyone done the genealogy DNA stuff? I have been opposed to it, now thinking about it.
 
My grandmother started working on our family tree and passed her paper trail on to my mother. Mom made a great deal of progress on Ancestry.com and has a few family members linked via DNA. By way of my youngest sons dna she found my A-hole father's real father, a week after he died. She found a 1/2 brother or two of A-holes as well.
My mother made me an admin on her account a few years ago, the only thing I have done was enter her time and place of death. I will get busy with it sometime in the future.

I'll have to track down the specifics but the Mormon church has a huge repository of family tree/dna info that, according to my mother, they are very happy to share with anyone. And iirc the
Jahova Witness group has a bunch of records as well but I could be mixing up my religion.
 
My grandmother started working on our family tree and passed her paper trail on to my mother. Mom made a great deal of progress on Ancestry.com and has a few family members linked via DNA. By way of my youngest sons dna she found my A-hole father's real father, a week after he died. She found a 1/2 brother or two of A-holes as well.
My mother made me an admin on her account a few years ago, the only thing I have done was enter her time and place of death. I will get busy with it sometime in the future.

I'll have to track down the specifics but the Mormon church has a huge repository of family tree/dna info that, according to my mother, they are very happy to share with anyone. And iirc the
Jahova Witness group has a bunch of records as well but I could be mixing up my religion.

The Mormon Church site is Family Search. I am on it, and it is pretty darn good.
 
I am not a real genealogy buff, but trying to figure some stuff out with my family tree. I am finding some stuff on some websites and old family docs that have been interesting, but definitely looking for more.

Has anyone done the genealogy DNA stuff? I have been opposed to it, now thinking about it.
I was not big on the DNA stuff either, but my granddaughter wanted to know, so ....

Some months later I got a note from a woman with shared DNA at the level of Xth cousins who was adopted and trying to identify her father. Looking at my family tree information, I had identified only five relatives (husband, wife and their three children) who had ever lived in the woman's birth state. Given that the DNA indicated the woman was a Xth cousin, there were limited combinations of generations in our ancestry that would result in a common ancestor. I counted back generations for me and my relatives in the woman's birth state and the husband fit perfectly. He was also the right age to potentially be the woman's father and had moved to her birth state (and city) a couple of years before her birth and then moved away a couple of years afterward.

I would not say my relative is the woman's father, but the coincidences certainly stacked up strangely if he is not.
 
My dads side great aunts did,
Notables were a family member on the Mayflower,
Member of Continental congress
Some brass in the CSA

never did the DNA.
 
I've been doing genealogy research since about 1995. Started out with my great-grandmother's family bible and then on to on-site, paper-trail research at a lot of old courthouses in NC and VA. Have hit a number of stone walls that I just can't get past. A couple of years ago mu wife gave me Ancestry DNA for Christmas and it has opened up a lot of new leads and I have found a few close first and second cousins I never knew existed. Ancestry is not the be-all, end-all answer to your family searches because a lot of records have not been recorded by them or digitized and put online. But, then again, a lot of very obscure records are there in their data base such as a small church listing of marriages up in Maryland in the 1900s that had one of my ancestors in it. It's the only record I've found of his marriage, so that was luck. I need to get up to Eden, to Winston-Salem and Statesville to verify some records at the county courthouses there now that I've found out that's where I need to go.
 
I am not a real genealogy buff, but trying to figure some stuff out with my family tree. I am finding some stuff on some websites and old family docs that have been interesting, but definitely looking for more.

Has anyone done the genealogy DNA stuff? I have been opposed to it, now thinking about it.

The military already had your DNA. So doing a "family" DNA kit will not put you on the radar with the Intel agency.

Go for it
 
The military already had your DNA. So doing a "family" DNA kit will not put you on the radar with the Intel agency.

Go for it

Yeah, I thought about that as well, that's a really good point. They already have it on record.

@charliesgrave , The security is a good point, and one company I looked at actually has a pretty good track record with security, and if they run your DNA for genealogy and not health genetics, then that DNA can't be used to run health genetics, you would have to supply a second sample. But the security, it is important.

Interestingly, on my mother's side there was an obscure cousin who was an admiral in World War II (last name Bass) who wrote a book about that family going back to the 1600s. I can get through my great great grandfather, then there's a generation that's a little obscure, and I can kind of pick up the trail again.

According to the book, my grandfather however many generations removed in the 1700s traveled to New England and actually married into the John Adams family.
 
I did the DNA at my mom's request, I wish I had had the good sense to at least throw down a fake name. Anyway, it turned up a ton of stuff and I have some living relatives in NC not too far removed, it also smoked some family tales of heritage.

After that I found Family Search it has gotten an almost if not identical tree by just punching in the names I knew, which is only two gens back. So I wouldn't swear the DNA is worth it unless you wanna pay for euro results and all the additional stuff.
 
I plan to do the DNA at some point, though I've found out a lot on ancestry.com already. I'm adopted, and this is kind of a thing with me.

Since my biological parents didn't marry, and bio-dad's kids had no idea I was alive on the planet, who knows how many others of us there may be out there!

Bio-mom's sisters knew I existed, or at least the one I was named for (Millie) did, but I'm not sure mom's other daughter knew until I popped up! Shocker.
 
@Chuckman I bet you $100 these DNA companies are owned by the FBI or NSA.

That's a bet I would not take. No doubt in my mind they are either owned or financed heavily by them or some OGA. Too big of a honeypot not to be.

I've traced my name sake back to the 1600's in England, found out why they came to this country (sentenced to travel and shortly after denounced Church of England), found all sorts of other cool info and stories. Even found out a close friend and I share a grt/grt/grt grandfather.

I have not and will not be submitting my DNA to any corporation, far too many long term risks in a company owning that info IMO.
 
When my Dad retired from IBM he started taking community college history classes for fun since they were almost free for old farts. He also worked on our family tree. He had a lot of fun and made some overseas friends. Not my thing but it is interesting and a better use of time than Netflix or Facebook. I have exactly zero fake Facebook friends but now know of a few extra ancestors thanks to Dad. And a non relative in the UK that complains about damn immigrants and their foreign language and habits. Them damn Polish!
 
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My great grandmother & grandmother have done a ton of work on our (dad's side) family tree. Regained contact with the German side & they've got documentation going back to some (very) minor noble in the Black Forest region in the 16th century. Some of that great grandmother's people were Huguenots. Some of that grandmother's family split apart in Missouri, along blue & grey lines. No ideas about my mother's people. Everything out of her mouth is a lie & my 23andMe results say her stories of Swedish & Cherokee were complete & utter lies.

We'd always been brought up that we were German & the DNA test bore that out, based on our documentation. Also much more Irish than expected (paternal grandmother's peeps), so apparently my mother's family are "broadly northwestern European" mutts. Aside from one aunt, I don't have any contact with that side, to include my siblings, so whatever.

I find it interesting, but that's just me. Maybe it's the sense of roots. An aunt has a lot of our staff on Ancestry & I'm fixin' to buy a membership & dig into it. There's 4 or 5 branches that came over in the generations preceding my great great grandfather, though we've only had contact with one of them. Also found on a German genealogy site, that there was a branch that went to Romania in the 1860's & apparently stayed, as there are some of us there now.
 
I am adopted, and I did it in the hopes of discovering information about my biological parents. I now know who they are, and even though they have declined to have any contact with me, I am piecing together some family tree info that will be useful for my kids if they ever have an interest in it.
 
My family has done ancestry and it really did have a lot of info my family members didn't have despite decent record keeping. If you are interested, go for it.
 
My mom was contacted by a woman older than her, asked her to do the DNA test.
Turned out, my mom has an older sister- seems Grampa was a playa...
It was a good thing for my mom, she had just lost her older sister a couple of years before. I think it was good for both of them, as my aunt never really knew her birth dad's side of the family.
My mom turned 80 this year; I dread what's coming, but at least she gained a sister and more.

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I haven't done the DNA tests and I don't plan to. I strongly suspect LEOs have access to the results for investigate purposes.

And that's coming from someone with a PhD in genetics. :p
 
I haven't done the DNA tests and I don't plan to. I strongly suspect LEOs have access to the results for investigate purposes.

And that's coming from someone with a PhD in genetics. :p

They'd still have to get a subpoena and have probable cause. But as @JBoyette said, Uncle Sugar took our DNA anyway, so there is no downside from that angle...

Me, I took my required semester and hated every second...
 
Don't ever use one of those DNA ancestry services. They share that data base with law enforcement without a warrant.
On the more conspiracy side, those data bases can be used, maybe even already used, to create an organ donor match database. Access sold to the very wealthy. Of course it would be illegal. But so is using the FEC to go after political enemies, (lois Lerner), or the IRS to target political enemies (also Lois Lerner) or use IC to attack a duly elected president, or operating a pedophile island for the wealthy and powerful.
So it is not that much of a stretch to believe that people inside these companies with access are doing things they aren't supposed to do and making bank doing it.
Plus, these companies falsify results for white folks by putting non-white dna items in the summary. They think they are being cute.
 
beware of the risk of NPE
(not parent expected).
two friends got that result.
now they have no idea
of their genetic risks.

some services call NPE:
Non Paternity Event.
there's NME, too.
 
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I strongly suspect LEOs have access to the results for investigate purposes.
I have nothing to be investigated FOR, though. I'm a really boring person, and haven't done anything illegal in many, many decades!

I'm sure they have better/more important things to do, and anyway, I'm old, so if I do decide to get all criminal/wild/crazy at this late date, by the time they get around to me, I'll be dead. Win for me, I guess.
 
Speaking of DNA/Ancestry....... when I found a first cousin - my dad's sister's kids I looked him up and called him. I asked him if his mom ever talked about her brothers. His immediate reply was "mom didn't have any brothers." When I filled him in on my research he was astounded. Haven't heard from him again in 2 years....BUT... he had his brother do an Ancestry DNA test and the results came back. Yep! First cousins. His parents lied to him/them and so did mine about what happened to the family back in 1923. Now there is no way to find out for certain.
 
I bit the bullet and did the Ancestry dot com thing when it was on sale. I have gotten some good "additional" information but nothing earth shattering. I got a lot of 3rd thru Xth cousins that didnt really tell me anything. A lot of folks are private. Ancestry wont let you see others trees or research unless it's been made public and you pay them by the month or year to look at it. I wont pay. I did a deep dive on this stuff back in 2006-07 when I wasnt working full time. NC has a lot of resources scattered about but if your roots aren't here it wont help much.
 
My grandmother is the keeper of the family tree & will be passing on all her documents & whatnot to me, next time we visit. She's got everything the German side had, as of 1985, as well as everything on this side, since great grandpa x2 got here in the 1890's.

Lot of documents auf Deutsch, so I'll be able to read & translate them for any of the fam that wants 'em.

I'm going to pony up for an Ancestry account, as well. An aunt is on there & has done a lot of work on my mother's side (their families have been friends since the '50's), as well as my paternal grandmother's family, going back to the Civil War. Plus, she's got several photos of photos of Mad Max(imillian)- great grandpa x2, as well as a pic of his father Jakob from the 1870's.

I find it fascinating due to having moved 7 times by the age of 18 & another 8 times in my first 10 years in the Army. Gives me a sense of roots.
 
We're gonna buy an ancestry.com account the next time there's a deal.

My mom's paternal side should be easy enough to track, everyone else is a hot mess. I'd love to know more; something is better than nothing.
 
be careful.
your DNA will be bought and sold....

Blackstone Group will become the latest private-equity firm to own Ancestry, a provider of digital family history services.
Ancestry uses information found in historical records and family trees to help its more than 3 million subscribers discover their family history.
The company also uses DNA tests to give users more data about their family tree and recent genetic ethnicity.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/blackstone-group-is-buying-ancestry-for-4-7b-51596660098
 
My cousin posted this on Facebook, so I guess it's okay to share, lol.

"A few hours ago I posted about Isaac Smith, and now I found his father was a Revolutionary War Private in Gerrish's Regiment of the Massachussetts Militia.

Another Bohrer link.

Samuel Smith 1750-1841
5th great-grandfather

Isaac Smith 1788-1898
Son of Samuel Smith

Eliza Anne Smith 1838-1920
Daughter of Isaac Smith

Mary D. Manda (?Amanda Coffield) McCloud 1863-1900
Daughter of Eliza Anne Smith

Arminta Anderson 1880-1966
Daughter of Mary D. Manda (?Amanda Coffield) McCloud

Jesse Raymond Bohrer 1911-1977
Son of Arminta Anderson

Charlotte Rosemary Bohrer 1935-2016
Daughter of Jesse Raymond Bohrer

Deborah Jessalyn Holowatuk Kameyer
You are the daughter of Charlotte Rosemary Bohrer"

So, I guess this explains my independent streak...


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