I got the results of my second genealogical DNA recently, this time from Ancestry.
Like the first one, from NatGeo earlier this year, I’m barely half sub-Saharan African. The 23% from the British Isles doesn’t surprise me. The 11% Scandinavian does.
I shared that fact with an ex of mine, who believes she is 100% Scandinavian. Now she’s thinking of doing the DNA test too, hoping, actually, that she’s not.
There are four people in the database who are likely my second or third cousins. One of them actually IS my second cousin, Lisa. There are about a dozen candidates for third or fourth cousins. And a couple hundred fourth to sixth cousins.
One of these is a Walker, which is the given surname of my maternal grandmother. His first name is the same as one of her brothers, who has been long deceased. I have contacted him and a select number of others, hoping for more information.
There’s a way to share the family tree, and I am hoping that the combination of the DNA tests and the various trees of other contributors will lead to greater insight.
Of course, I need to fill in my own family tree more vigorously. I have – somewhere – far more data than is currently presented. Some of it just needs more specificity, such as exact dates of births and deaths.
I also need to go back a couple more generations, particularly on my maternal grandmother’s side, which I have on something called “paper.” Then I need to check old Census records to fill out more of the details. It’s a very interesting process but an amazing time suck.
Several people have wondered what I’ll do when I retire. Travel, probably and write, read, and sort a lot of stuff that’s stored in the attic.
The genealogy project undoubtedly will be a huge piece.
Considering that some parts of the British Isles were heavily colonized by Scandinavians (Viking era and similar), could that be where the Scandinavian came from?
These things are not 100% accurate, I guess. I remember my dad’s (full) brother being irritated with him because my dad got a higher percentage Irish heritage on his test than my uncle – who has been involved with Hibernian Society and similar – did.
I would like to do a test like that but I admit I’m kind of cheap and not sure I want to pay the $150 or so.
Very interesting. I’m concerned about the data storage and privacy issues. Have you researched that at all? Forgive me if you’ve covered that previously; I missed a lot of your blogs until I began having them emailed to me.
Very interesting. I’m somewhat concerned about the data collection and retention, and privacy issues.
thanks for finding out more of our family tree! 🙂