Ancestry/MyHeritage DNA

[Mostyn6]

Without divulging anything you wish to remain private, has anyone here done a DNA test and sent it into one of the Ancestry / Heritage type sites?

I did one after my brother, cousin and aunt did them.

To say it's turned my world upside-down is a bit of an understatement! ?

 

[BaaLocks]

I did one, having grown up in Derby I always thought of myself as more northern than southern. I was also very excited about the prospect of potentially having something interesting in my back story to go investigate or at least be aware of. Came back that pretty much every inch of DNA in my body comes from south of the Watford Gap, mostly south east England. Deflated would describe it well enough.

I didn't click the option to be contacted by people who might be related to you as I never knew my father or his side of the family - that is a surprise I could certainly do without.

[Stive Pesley]

14 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

Without divulging anything you wish to remain private, has anyone here done a DNA test and sent it into one of the Ancestry / Heritage type sites?

I did one after my brother, cousin and aunt did them.

To say it's turned my world upside-down is a bit of an understatement! ?

 

I'm awaiting a kit being delivered

I found out last year through some blood tests for something else that I have an obscure genotype which means I have something called Alpha1 AntiTrypsin Deficiency (A1ATD)

It means that one of my parents has it but we don't know which one, as they are both healthy and in their 80s. And possibly both my kids

Essentially it's marker that means you don't generate as much of the Alpha1 protein which protects your lungs from inflammation. If any of us had been heavy smokers we'd almost certainly all have ended up with chronic emphysema 

Weirdly it's far more prevalent than you'd imagine, because it can be asymptomatic and there is no routine testing for it. Quite important though as if you have a baby with someone else that carries the gene, you have a high risk of a very sickly child

Anyway - it kind of got me interested in genetics. Especially as I just got diagnosed with crohns - which is also supposed to be genetic. Even though no one in my family has it. I don't really suffer any symptoms - which is weird. Especially as the reason I found out was because they just removed half of my colon. They thought I had cancer - but nope it's crohns.. so now i have crohns and half a colon

yay

 

 

[Mostyn6]

I cannot click like on that post Stive, but I admire the humour in adversity

[Stive Pesley]

1 minute ago, Mostyn6 said:

I cannot click like on that post Stive, but I admire the humour in adversity

It's been a weird old year to say the least! Having been told I had cancer for most of the year , I'm just glad to still be here

I hope your world turned upside down is not too stressful for you

[Rev]

I was 18 when I found out 4 of my 5 siblings were only half brothers and sisters. 

Not through DNA mind, my Mum bought it up in conversation, and assumed she'd already told me.

She definitely hadn't.

 

[Mostyn6]

Just now, Rev said:

I was 18 when I found out 4 of my 5 siblings were only half brothers and sisters. 

Not through DNA mind, my Mum bought it up in conversation, and assumed she'd already told me.

She definitely hadn't.

 

Well, I'll spill.

I already knew the man I called Dad wasn't my biological so knew I wouldn't have any DNA from that side. However my mother refused to open up about the biological father. Anyway, last Thursday, along with being the day after I got back from Crete, the day of my Gran's first birthday since she died in June, and the day HRH Elizabeth passed away.... I found out I have 4 sisters and 2 brothers I never knew about. More trauma was discovering that one of those sisters died a few years ago and I was actually surprised how much that hurt. I have been speaking to my two younger sisters and one younger brother over the last few days. My biological father is alive and well, although I haven't yet been able to bring myself to speak with him yet. It's a bit too heavy right now.

[Rev]

3 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

Well, I'll spill.

I already knew the man I called Dad wasn't my biological so knew I wouldn't have any DNA from that side. However my mother refused to open up about the biological father. Anyway, last Thursday, along with being the day after I got back from Crete, the day of my Gran's first birthday since she died in June, and the day HRH Elizabeth passed away.... I found out I have 4 sisters and 2 brothers I never knew about. More trauma was discovering that one of those sisters died a few years ago and I was actually surprised how much that hurt. I have been speaking to my two younger sisters and one younger brother over the last few days. My biological father is alive and well, although I haven't yet been able to bring myself to speak with him yet. It's a bit too heavy right now.

Wow, that's incredible. 

Sorry to heat about your sister, but what a thing to find out about a whole family you didn't know existed! 

Family's are such complicated units, my wife didn't have any contact with her father from the age of 13 onwards. 

When our son was born, I took him to see his grandfather a few times, with her blessing, but she'd never see her dad herself, saying he was nothing to her.

[Mostyn6]

2 minutes ago, Rev said:

Wow, that's incredible. 

Sorry to heat about your sister, but what a thing to find out about a whole family you didn't know existed! 

Family's are such complicated units, my wife didn't have any contact with her father from the age of 13 onwards. 

When our son was born, I took him to see his grandfather a few times, with her blessing, but she'd never see her dad herself, saying he was nothing to her.

more complex is that I haven't been able to speak to my family about it. My mother has lost her mother and sister in the last 3 months and she's already a bitter and secretive woman. My brother acts as if it's betrayal to even talk about anyone other than the man I call dad!

I have questions and awkward ones at that. My mother implied certain things that now appear to be untrue.

 

[Reggie Greenwood]

Had mine done , main ancestry Midlands , Scotland , Ireland and a smattering of Sweden and Norway.  Dispelled family rumours of Spanish history coming across with the Armarda. Also found out that a friend of an ex we used to socialise with is a 5/6th cousin. 

[uttoxram75]

2 hours ago, Stive Pesley said:

I'm awaiting a kit being delivered

I found out last year through some blood tests for something else that I have an obscure genotype which means I have something called Alpha1 AntiTrypsin Deficiency (A1ATD)

It means that one of my parents has it but we don't know which one, as they are both healthy and in their 80s. And possibly both my kids

Essentially it's marker that means you don't generate as much of the Alpha1 protein which protects your lungs from inflammation. If any of us had been heavy smokers we'd almost certainly all have ended up with chronic emphysema 

Weirdly it's far more prevalent than you'd imagine, because it can be asymptomatic and there is no routine testing for it. Quite important though as if you have a baby with someone else that carries the gene, you have a high risk of a very sickly child

Anyway - it kind of got me interested in genetics. Especially as I just got diagnosed with crohns - which is also supposed to be genetic. Even though no one in my family has it. I don't really suffer any symptoms - which is weird. Especially as the reason I found out was because they just removed half of my colon. They thought I had cancer - but nope it's crohns.. so now i have crohns and half a colon

yay

 

 

I've put a COYR emoji because nowt else seemed appropriate. I'll have a word with the Grimsby grinch to see if he can slip a more appropiate one in.

[uttoxram75]

2 hours ago, Rev said:

I was 18 when I found out 4 of my 5 siblings were only half brothers and sisters. 

Not through DNA mind, my Mum bought it up in conversation, and assumed she'd already told me.

She definitely hadn't.

 

No appropriate emoji mate so used the COYR as default. ?

[uttoxram75]

My brother did a DNA thing. 

99.5% UK and Irish. London, Dublin, Mayo, Manchester.

0.4% Coptic Egyptian

0.1% Indonesian

Related to a 4th Century Irish High King, Niall of the Nine Hostages

 

Also, we have just under 2% Neanderthal. I suspect that's on the low side for Uttoxeter.

[Normanton Lad]

I spend a lot of time on all the dna sites on behalf of several people. I find it interesting but it is not for everyone. If you are happy with who you think your parents and your relatives are then maybe it is best not to open Pandora's Box.

If you are just interested in the health side of your dna then once you've got your raw data from the genealogy/dna site then you can upload it to other sites to get a report about possible problems with your dna for free or for very little money. I think it is important to know if you a carrier of a bad gene. One of my relatives was a carrier of a very rare bad gene and by bad luck his partner was also a carrier. The outcome for their child was not good.

Although Ancestry Dna has the biggest database it is not as useful as 23andme or Myheritage because Ancestry Dna does not have a chromosome browser. If you are interested in genealogy you often need to know which chromosomes have the dna segments you share with your relatives in order to find common ancestors.

[Mostyn6]

So, from my Paternal side. 45% Irish, and 5% Scottish.

I can trace the Ireland bit back to Donegal and now I have an urge to go there.

Never been to Ireland.

[Day]

2 hours ago, Mostyn6 said:

So, from my Paternal side. 45% Irish, and 5% Scottish.

I can trace the Ireland bit back to Donegal and now I have an urge to go there.

Never been to Ireland.

You might get a game for Somalia

[Stive Pesley]

13 hours ago, Mostyn6 said:

more complex is that I haven't been able to speak to my family about it. My mother has lost her mother and sister in the last 3 months and she's already a bitter and secretive woman. My brother acts as if it's betrayal to even talk about anyone other than the man I call dad!

I have questions and awkward ones at that. My mother implied certain things that now appear to be untrue.

Wow - quite a story. I guess that as a parent, it's a natural instinct to protect your kids. You don't always get it right, but I'd bet that anything she did or didn't say will have been because she thought (at the time) that was best for you

So - did this other family know about you all along, or was this a surprise for them too?

And because I've not had my test yet, how does this work? Do they literally give you names and contact details of anyone who your DNA shows you to be related to?

 

I have some small potential for unknown relatives as my grandfather was adopted by his Aunt & Uncle. His real mother was a maid in a country house somewhere and she got knocked up by persons unknown at a very young age. My mum was always told that his real mum never married and died young, but when I researched the family tree a few years back - she did remarry and lived into her 70s!

[Mostyn6]

6 minutes ago, Stive Pesley said:

So - did this other family know about you all along, or was this a surprise for them too?

And because I've not had my test yet, how does this work? Do they literally give you names and contact details of anyone who your DNA shows you to be related to?

When you register your DNA test, you have an option to show on the list. When my results were showing, there was a list of upto 14000 people, but it's in % order, so my brother is at the top, then my aunt, then a load of people I didn't know (the paternal side), then some cousins and relatives of my gran. Obviously, it all depends on you having DNA matches that have taken the test and allowed results to be visible.

I knew about my biological father and potentially two older half-sisters. I've been told he knew nothing about me. But my mother told me years ago that he did. The younger sister I've discovered is a young sweet girl who I'm already attached to as she's so lovely and funny, told me when I said that, that her dad would explain it better. Mentioning something about dates not adding up. Reading between the lines, I suspect he didn't think he was the father and legged it. But I've since been told by 2 sisters and 1 brother that he's been crying a lot and talking about meeting me and how he missed out on 46 years of my awesomeness.

Like I said, it's conflicting. Did my mum lie? Was he "not a nice person"? Or was she a bit mental? If he thought he wasn't the father, why? etc etc.

In terms of contacting people, it's like here, you get to PM someone. They then get an email saying they had a message. Then they can respond or ignore I imagine. You cannot see ages or locations unless someone puts that as visible. You cannot see names either, only username.

[Mostyn6]

41 minutes ago, David said:

You might get a game for Somalia

Tibet offered me the captaincy and penalty duties, so I think I'm going to play for them.

[Rev]

38 minutes ago, Mostyn6 said:

Tibet offered me the captaincy and penalty duties, so I think I'm going to play for them.

Managed by Garry Monk, aren't they?