Ethnicity/Ancestry Testing

[nevercanhavetoomuch]

I started with only my grandmother's maiden name on Ancestry and have traced my family back to Wales in the 1770s. Also have located some 'long lost cousins' that I had not seen since I was a teen. I got a lot of information from death certificates. They usually show the name of the parents of the deceased and enable you to go one generation further back.

[Guest110920]

Originally Posted by nevercanhavetoomuch

I started with only my grandmother's maiden name on Ancestry and have traced my family back to Wales in the 1770s. Also have located some 'long lost cousins' that I had not seen since I was a teen. I got a lot of information from death certificates. They usually show the name of the parents of the deceased and enable you to go one generation further back.

Fellow "Welshman" here!

[Vannah]

I got my grandfather one of these for Father's Day and we got the results in last week. They came back as:

57% Great Britain
23% Ireland
5% Scandinavia
8% Italy/Greece
3% Western Europe
2% Iberian Peninsula
<1% Finland
<1% Eastern Europe

I'm excited to do one and figure out what I am!

[JdeHog]

I've always been told that I'm German, Russian, and Scottish, but now I'm curious as to what else might be in my ancestry. May have to give one of these services a try!

[Vannah]

Originally Posted by JdeHog

I've always been told that I'm German, Russian, and Scottish, but now I'm curious as to what else might be in my ancestry. May have to give one of these services a try!

It's definitely worth a try. We thought we were a mostly Scandinavian and Native American.

Bloody Hell! I can't believe we're British!

[tigerwoods61]

OK, call me skeptical....

These companies are owned by governmental agencies and now they have your DNA....

[Vannah]

Originally Posted by tigerwoods61

OK, call me skeptical....

These companies are owned by governmental agencies and now they have your DNA....

I thought about that too, but I figured since I don't have plans to go on a murder spree anytime soon, I should be ok.

[Johnnytricks]

I wouldn't worry about it either Vanna,FBI has prints of all ten of my digits and the TSA scanned my eyes,so if they want to bust me for being a hobbist oh well not something I loose sleep over.

[arealone]

Actually Ancestry.com is owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints.

[Vannah]

Originally Posted by arealone

Actually Ancestry.com is owned by the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Very interesting.

[bluffcityguy]

Originally Posted by Vannah

Very interesting.

I may be oversimplifying things a bit, but basically a doctrine of LDS faith is that living members of the LDS church can undergo baptism and other "ordinances" of the faith by proxy for their dead ancestors. For that reason, genealogical research has been a big interest of Mormons for most of the religion's history (so living Mormons can determine the dead ancestors they need to perform their proxy ordinances for), and the church has compiled some of the most extensive genealogical research resources available in the US (up to and including copies of all available public genealogy records stored in nuclear-blast proof bunkers, IIRC), and they have never restricted access to those materials to Mormons only. So it's no surprise if ancestry.com is owned by the church; it would be in keeping with their past practice pre-Internet.

Cheers,

bcg