Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Giving DNA another chance

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Confession time: I have the hardest time understanding genetic genealogy. I have spent hours in seminars at various conferences. I even had a one-on-one consultation about my DNA results with genetic genealogist and consultant Diahan Southard, Your DNA Guide.

For some reason, these concepts are hard for me to grasp and retain. As a result, I do very little with my DNA results. I occasionally check matches to my autosomal test (which I did through Ancestry DNA and transferred the results to Family Tree DNA) but that’s pretty much it. Every year I hope (but don’t plan) that this is going to be the year that I harvest the power of DNA in my genealogy research.

An opportunity to learn more was just handed to me on a silver platter. Diahan Southard is coming to St. Louis for a Summer Speaker Series event put on by the St. Louis Genealogical Society on July 28. I just registered. (If you’re in St. Louis and interested in going, today July 10, is the early-bird deadline. Tomorrow the price goes up by $10.)

I know what a great speaker Diahan is and it couldn’t be more convenient for me to go. So I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to hear her speak. (Plus Diahan holds a special place in my heart because she was one of the first people to consent to being interviewed for my How They Do It series.) I’ll be attending her talks on July 28 with an open and curious mind and I’m hoping that they will help me incorporate more genetic genealogy into my research.

If you’re in St. Louis and going, please let me know so we can meet!

Unmodified photo by Alf Melvin via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Kiss me, I’m Irish!

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DNA test. Now what?Last year on St. Patrick’s Day, I wrote a post about my DNA ethnicity results. It seems appropriate to run it again today. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I never felt much of a connection to March 17 until I had my DNA tested through Ancestry DNA. Then I discovered in that test that I’m 38% Irish. (That’s my pie chart in the picture.) I knew that Ireland was in my family tree, but I haven’t researched much that far back to realize that it was an important part of my heritage.

Growing up, Irish roots were never mentioned. All that came up was vague mention of England, though in reality our heritage wasn’t much discussed. That’s probably because there were  no immigrants recent enough for my parents or grandparents’ to have known them. We always just felt American.

When I had my DNA tested, it was in an effort to meet cousins and further my genealogical research. (Understanding those results is an ongoing project.) The ethnicity component of didn’t even enter my mind. But today, St. Patrick’s Day, it feels nice to have a kinship with my Irish forebears, though I’m still learning about who they were.

If you’re curious about your own DNA, Ancestry DNA is having a sale–10% off kits through March 19, 2017.

If you’ve had your DNA tested were you surprised by the ethnicity results?

Ethnicity: The fun byproduct of my DNA test

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DNA test. Now what?Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I never felt much of a connection to March 17 until I had my DNA tested through Ancestry DNA. Then I discovered in that test that I’m 38% Irish. (That’s my pie chart in the picture.) I knew that Ireland was in my family tree, but I haven’t researched much that far back to realize that it was an important part of my heritage.

Growing up, Irish roots were never mentioned. All that came up was vague mention of England, though in reality our heritage wasn’t much discussed. That’s probably because there were  no immigrants recent enough for my parents or grandparents’ to have known them. We always just felt American.

When I had my DNA tested, it was in an effort to meet cousins and further my genealogical research. (Understanding those results is an ongoing project.) The ethnicity component of didn’t even enter my mind. But today, St. Patrick’s Day, it feels nice to have a kinship with my Irish forebears, though I’m still learning about who they were.

If you’ve had your DNA tested were you surprised by the ethnicity results?

Had my DNA tested: now what?

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DNA test. Now what?Last spring I blogged that I wanted to do a genealogy DNA test but was overwhelmed by the options. In July, I reminded myself that done is better than perfect and I took advantage of a sale that Ancestry DNA was having and sent for an autosomal DNA kit.

I got the results back in August, and was tickled to see my ethnicity breakdown. I’ve never felt a kinship with any particular nationality, but I was very interested to see that my primary ethnicity is Ireland (38%). That didn’t come as much of a surprise since the first immigrant ancestor I’ve confirmed so far in my research was from Ireland. After Ireland, the breakdown is West Europe (23%), followed by  Great Britain (11%), Scandinavia (9%) and Finland/Northwest Russia (7%). Before this, when asked my ethnicity I would have guessed Great Britain.

I saw a few DNA matches on Ancestry DNA, but beyond reaching out to one match, I haven’t done much with it. Recently, I decided to upload my Ancestry DNA results to Family Tree DNA. For a small fee, my matches were displayed. They presented me with some 900 matches, ranging from 1st to 3rd cousin all the way to remote cousin. I just reached out to the closest match.

At this point, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and wondering “now what?” I was contacted by a cousin and asked to join a surname project, which I did. I uploaded my GEDCOM to Family Tree DNA. But I’m not sure what, if anything, I should do next. When I start to read about genetic genealogy, something in my brain rebels. (I’m more of a social science than a hard science person.)

My inclination is to sit tight and wait for people to contact me. But I’d love to hear any suggestions from you about more active ways to benefit from my DNA test. Thanks in advance!