DNA and what it can do for family history.

In 2000, probably before, I signed on for ancestry.com. In 2016 my husband and I took our first genealogy tests. In three years the journey of discovery has been amazing. At this point for me fourteen close relatives have been tested through ancestry.com. Of two immediate family members, two close family members, three first cousins, and twelve second cousins, only four second cousins am I unsure of. Of the thirteen third cousins seven are known relatives. There are a total of 40 matches through to the fourth cousins. Fourth cousins are way out there and will wait until I have more time to play with this. Searching by surname or location does help to pull up connections to the unknown.

This year so far we had two new first cousin matches who we had no idea even existed. Eight of the tests for family members I paid for and the results have helped to narrow down who some of the others are. We did have two people test who did not have matches to us and this brought forward even more interesting results. The greatest advantage to this new information is that it confirms the research done on our family history for over fifty years. The main reason we tested is that both of our parents have passed on and we want to secure this information for our posterity. My husband even found his mother had tested when we transferred his results to FTDNA and the family finder test. Understanding the past has its risks, but the value of knowing about our ancestors is invaluable.

To be honest I do not have a family tree on ancestry.com. I want the tests to be based on DNA, not on someone's interpretation of our family tree. I do direct people to familysearch.org for the tree information there. I will also print out, scan and send information pertaining to the family connection, with notes and sources, upon request.