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Old 10-15-2013, 06:50 AM   #41
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My local library has a subscription to Ancestry.com that can be checked out. Not sure if this is common, but worth checking.
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Old 11-20-2013, 10:50 AM   #42
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Remembering this thread, in the "Ask an Expert" section of the NYT there are a series of columns titled "Advice on How to Research Family History". http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/bo...pagewanted=all
Quote:
Elizabeth Shown Mills, a genealogist and historical writer, is answering readers’ questions about how to research family history using online sources, physical public records and the stories and DNA of living family members.
Some helpful web sites (and book plugs) are also referenced. I've just browsed so far but it looks helpful.
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Old 11-20-2013, 01:41 PM   #43
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My dad's military induction record showed his race as Asian. He was from Scotland, with no Asian ancestry. But he could tan really dark! The rest of the info was distinctively him. I think whoever wrote out the card (and I was looking at a scan of the original) was doing it very quickly.
That's funny stuff. It's really hard to turn a Scotish into Asian. And it's not like there were a lot of Asian recruits/draftees in your dad's time.
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Old 11-20-2013, 01:47 PM   #44
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My DW has a family tree book that goes back about 500 years to a Chinese who ended up in Korea. The book starts with one liner info on that - paraphrasing, our ancestor was from China in such and such year." No info as to who, why he ended up in Korea. The surprising thing to me was that, according to what I read, almost everyone with the last name Song in Korea may be from the same ancestor.
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Old 11-20-2013, 03:13 PM   #45
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I am reasonably sure that I come from a long line of serfs.
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Old 11-20-2013, 06:43 PM   #46
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Distant male relative on my mother's side was a privateer in the Caribbean and spent time time locked up in El Morro in Puerto Rico.
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Old 11-20-2013, 07:18 PM   #47
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I am reasonably sure that I come from a long line of serfs.
Ditto...

I have been back to the "old country" on my mother's side of the family and I can say this with a high degree of certainty.
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Old 11-21-2013, 10:40 PM   #48
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Through 23andme I found a third cousin I was unaware of, lives nearby but far from where I was born. Also discovered, although Eastern European, I have a Mongolian gene. There were invasions back a ways. Does make me laugh at the idea of any pure European. Even the 'purer' Scandinavians had foreign outposts and imported slaves.
Oh, I am 3% Neanderthal.
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Old 11-22-2013, 04:36 AM   #49
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Mostly peasants in my family line, too. Ancestor pictures show women with huge "man" hands and thick peasant necks. My grandmother was less than 5 feet and thin but I can't wear her ring because it is HUGE on my finger. It is pretty disappointing to find that old world ancestors often couldn't even afford gravestones, so graves can't be found.
I'm going to do the 23andme! Can't wait to find out how much Neanderthal in the family!
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Old 11-22-2013, 07:23 AM   #50
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Mostly peasants in my family line, too. Ancestor pictures show women with huge "man" hands and thick peasant necks. My grandmother was less than 5 feet and thin but I can't wear her ring because it is HUGE on my finger. It is pretty disappointing to find that old world ancestors often couldn't even afford gravestones, so graves can't be found.
I'm going to do the 23andme! Can't wait to find out how much Neanderthal in the family!
You are braver than I am! I thought about doing 23andme because I am very curious about that sort of thing. However, I am worried that if they told me I had some sort of unknown genetic flaw, I would become a hypochondriac and worry about it a lot. Even if I had a choice of not learning about possible health problems, I would be too curious and I would look.
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Old 11-22-2013, 08:00 AM   #51
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Two sides to every story...
On one side... traceble history, some kind of nobleman in England...1800's.
On the other, a woodcutter in Quebec in 1665, and before that France.

Neither one providing a dynastic inheritance... Grandmother was a Cluett, Arrow Shirt/Collar industry...

Have a nephew named Adam.
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Old 11-22-2013, 09:34 AM   #52
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I can remember my GGM telling a story about taking a train to the east coast so that her mother could do the research to become a DAR. I found 11 more RW vets sitting on my comfortable sofa. The people whose origins were lost in time turned out to be Puritans and even a handful of Pilgrims who arrived on a certain boat. There was also one poor ancestor executed at Salem for witchcraft. It prompted me to read some more history.

The first time ancestry.com reported the DNA it came back as 98% British Isles and 2% other. They re-ran it and this year the 98% broke down to Germany, England, and Ireland which was known, but the 2% came back as Senegal. My father enjoyed sharing that with his extremely racist sister. She's still miffed and convinced it can't be true.
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Old 11-22-2013, 02:56 PM   #53
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If I found out I was Mayflower material, I would be embarrassed at turning out so ordinary myself.

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Old 11-22-2013, 03:44 PM   #54
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The first time ancestry.com reported the DNA it came back as 98% British Isles and 2% other. They re-ran it and this year the 98% broke down to Germany, England, and Ireland which was known, but the 2% came back as Senegal. My father enjoyed sharing that with his extremely racist sister. She's still miffed and convinced it can't be true.
She can deny it all she want. But if we go far enough, that 2% from Senegal will turn into 100% from Africa. Human races didn't sprout from 10 different places simultaneously.
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Old 11-22-2013, 04:33 PM   #55
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I did the 23andMe and found that I have a gene for curly hair and that I am basically a blue eyed, fair haired, of northern European heritage. They could have seen that from a photo.

What was valuable, to me, is that I have no genetic markers for cancer or alcoholism. Given my brush with breast cancer last year there is hope that it was a one-off and my love of wine is preference, not need.

The lost cousins were a fruitless effort, although they did nail my daughter as mine. I think male dna is more specific.
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