Any ancestry surprises when researching your family tree?

[imoldernu]

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.

 

[AllDone]

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.

 

[haha]

If I found out I was Mayflower material, I would be embarrassed at turning out so ordinary myself.

Ha

 

[robnplunder]

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.

 

[Brat]

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.