Genealogy Chat

This is for those who would like to buy a DNA swab but are not sure as to what benefit it would have and are hesitating. I wanted to share my result. Well not exactly the actual information but what I did receive for my money.

The reason I took a DNA swab was for my FIL to find out what his fathers surname could be. His Mother is named on his birth certificate but not his Father. His Mother married a Nelson and this is my FIL middle name. His surname is his Mothers surname.

So the question remained who was his Father?

I sent of for a paternal test which cost £68 once converted from us dollars.

The results I recieved back consisted of a pie chart with a possible likelihood of surnames. Interestingly for the surname Nelson there is an 8% chance of my FIL being connected. Other surnames (only those there is a chance of connection)are given in percentage terms, and there are only a small amount of surnames with an 8% chance. A small number of surnames have less than 8% chance.

Also given is a list of names of possible matches with other people. Interestingly my FIL matches identically with another person. It tells how many generations there is a link. In this case within 3 generations. It also lists other people who may link but then there may be 1 number out from your own in the sequence. The person who my FIL matched with I contacted. This is done confidentially. Although a map gives a rough location to the person but no address or email is shown. Its all done confidentially. I'm awaiting a reply.
The other people who my FIL closely matched it also showed how far linked they were in generations. The second person on the list connected 6 generations back.

And finally a result is given about where your DNA descended from in the far distant past. My FIL descends from the Artisans.

So the question remains was it worth doing? I think so. If a lot of people submit DNA results and a database is collected over time, its amazing what we could find out about ourselves as a people. Maybe anyone who has missing Mothers or Fathers on their certificates could find out from this database when all else has failed.

If anyone is interested in the outcome I will let you know. In other words was I sucsessful or not.

Janet

Updated 15th feb 2009

My fingers are crossed for you Janet. I hope the contact you've written to gets back to you.

Yes please! do let us know the outcome.

Janet, very interesting, thank you. Keeping my fingers crossed that you get good results, i too would be interested to know the outcome.

Netty x.

OOOHHH Very interested!!!! Please let us know what happens, fingers crossed for you all, may be considering this myself.... good luck x x x x

I'm so pleased you posted this. I'm considering doing this to see if I can find our my father's grandfather. I hope the person you have contacted gets in touch. BTW how long does the whole process take?

Alison x

I think it took a month from the time I sent the swab sample til the time I recieved a reply. The reply comes via ancestry, not by post. They do say it may take 3 to 4 weeks but mine arrived quicker than that.

Gladly I will let you know what comes of this.

Janet x