DNA results are back!

[Finley 1]

OK

So I have gone through the results.. and now I KNOW that the whole thing is a big CON  -- guesswork and a bit of spit  do not tell me anymore than where I was previously.


They are telling me that my Sarah Argyle for some reason was born somewhere in America!  no explanation as she is entered up on my tree as being born in HINCKLEY UK  oh.. silly me there is a HINCKLEY in USA 

The only good thing is the match with my Nephew that proves that the 'spit' does count for something..

But as for the rest of it.. its rubbish.. MY ethnicity is mostly guess work on their part.. as they have done no more than collate the info from MY hard work over many years  --  and then they get it wrong.

Angry no .. well yes a little.. too trusting thats me... hoped for more from a reputable company... but they are just selling their wares and encouraging people like me 'laymen' - dabblers - to fall for their tricks.. what a fool .. I am.. 

they have given me plenty of pages to view and I can pm people with details  if they want. but its useless 10th cousins that have 1 segment..  and then when I click on the tree to see the matching names.. Yes they have a Sutherland or a Green but - not linked to mine  born in timbuctoo .. so I am excited to find that somewhere along the line a Green took himself off to gnw and left a marker to prove he had been there.  NOOOOO.. rubbish - ask me and I can give more details pm.

here is a pic of one breakdown--- and this lead to their family member named GREEN (such an unusual name  )  being born in Missouri........fgs...

why did I bother.. what made me think .. it would help.. its just a toy, and I do not want it anymore than the latest 'APP' for telling me where the kettle is and how to switch it on. 

I was born in a time when there was NOT even a BIRO  so ..  it is so much hard work attempting to keep ahead of these  ..... online wise birds... 
I am sorry
forgive me
but as you
can see
I am not a happy old bird...

take me back to the records offices and micro-fiche

xin

[sugarfizzle]

Xin.

Sorry you are so disappointed with your results.  When you have had a few days to think about things, go back and look again.

They do not confirm which family you are connected to, but if you share a reasonable amount of DNA with someone else, the connection is there somewhere. The names it gives are shared surnames from each tree, not meant to be proof that you share those surnames. Could just as easily be a surname that is in neither of your trees. Ancestry don't make any guesswork about matches, it is up to you to do that.

You say 4th cousins are no good to you, not sure what you mean by that. I have broken down one long standing brick wall with use of DNA results, and made positive connections to 8th cousins.

It is not intended to replace the paper trail, without a decent paper trail it is impossible to find connections through DNA matching.

If there is a con, it is with the ethnicity results, which are at present untrustworthy, but even that will improve as more people get tested. They have not taken any information from your tree to give estimates of ethnicity, they are relying on their database.

As for placename, Ancestry is quite confused about them if they have anything else written before the town name or don't include a country. Something you have to bear with, I'm afraid.

In short, it is up to you how much you get out of DNA testing - read up about it, don't set your expectations too high, but now you have done the test and got your results, you might as well work with it rather than against it.

Regards Margaret

[Finley 1]

You sound like a strong sensible lady Margaret and I appreciate your input..

I shouldn't looooose my cool as quickly as I do.. but I do.  To be told at 70 that I am European  is a bit scary for me on a personal basis.  for no other reason than having been brought up as a STRONG BRIT.. there you go. 

I get they get the place names wrong.. and therefore put my Gran in Hinckley Maine instead of Hinckley Leics.. I get that... (it still makes me angry )  and one or two of the matches are correct.

Will a possible fourth cousin of my Frederick Raven Patrick (no definate father !!!! ) help me find his dad...   I have been trying since the year dot.

Sorry I will calm down and go back to it.. eventually. 

So you are assured that the spit is what they worked on to find my results?  I do hope so..
But this doesn't help with my argument (just now with my OH) that it says I am European.  !!! and only 2% British.. How did they discover that.

I better leave this alone and get on with my day...

I will find Freds' Dad when I actually meet him - no doubt.

xin

[jillruss]

Hi Xin,

I got my results yesterday and I must admit that I panicked a bit but please don't let that cloud your judgement. Margaret (and, yes, you're right , she does sound like a very sensible lady) is right saying that we've done the test so may as well try and make sense of the results AND, don't forget, its also about future matches as this DNA thing becomes more and more popular and more and more people take advantage. Hopefully, we will be getting 'new' matches every few days.

I also think you have to use Ancestry's placename dropdown lists when adding to your tree - if they don't conform, they're not going to match! having said that, I have typed in a lot of 'my' placenames in the search facility and most of them come up with no matches at all!

All I got was a plethora of 4th-8th cousins plus one 2nd cousin (who I have managed to trace using FreeBMD and intend to contact: his grandmother was my grandmother's sister!) The other none 4-8th cousin is someone I'm pretty sure I've been in touch with previously via another website (probably Rootschat!!).

Oh, and those 4th cousins are worth checking on. I went down the list feeling more and more like you do that I was wasting my time and then I got to a 4th cousin with only a 'good confidence' rating rather than 'high' - and have found someone on a 2nd marriage line of my 2x gt grandmother who might just be able to help me with some outstanding questions - if she answers my email!

I get the point about North Americans being more into this DNA thing: I have numerous matches to people related to the siblings of another of my 2x gt grandmothers who emigrated to Ontario in the early to mid 1800s.

Have you read the Lost Cousins Masterclass on searching? It helped me a lot. So, as Margaret says,nil desperandum! Take a breather and then go back and sock it to them!!

Jill

[Finley 1]

Yes Jill

I am taking a sabbatical for at least 1 day to enable my head to clear

this old 'western european' me...



xin

7 gens British is the truths known..

[sugarfizzle]

Xin, My origins are British for as far back as I can go, nearly all from London and Home Counties, with one exception, my 4G grandfather born in Ireland. If you think about it, this accounts for 1/64 of my tree, 4/128 (1/32) if his parents and grandparents etc were all from Ireland.  So, about 3% of my ancestry.

My ethnicity at Ancestry shows 48% Western European, 33% Great Britain, 12% Ireland/Scotland/Wales, 3% Iberian Peninsula, 1% Scandinavian, plus a few minorities.

This may reflect ancestry from the way distant past, as GB was colonised by many different countries, but does not reflect my ethnicity for the past 200 - 300 years.

At other sites my ethnicity shows differently, but I am only vaguely interested in my roots from thousands or even millions of years ago.

As has been said on this thread and others, the ethnicity reports are next to useless, but it it is considered one of the main selling points.  My next door neighbour has had it done for this reason alone, not interested in family history at all. She is in for a big disappointment, I think.

Regards Margaret

[youngtug]

The average Briton is, it seems, 60% European. The other percentage is also from somewhere else being that we are all descendants of immigrants.

[Jill Eaton]

Not sure if this is going to help but I've been in contact with one of my husband's 4th cousin connections only to find out she lives just 15 miles away and we are going to meet up sometime this month to compare trees an discuss gt grandfathers.

It can work but you do have to be patient and not expect miracles. it's a tool in the way certificates and census returns are a tool.

[BushInn1746]

Hi xin and All

xin, you've probably guessed I'm a documents fan.

But when you don't get, an unknown near match, isn't it now a question of waiting until someone in the future takes a test, which turns out to be a nearer match?

Since I've been stuck over 200 years ago, I've sent for £100s of alternative documents, they do make my known solid tree, rock solid, but it hasn't revealed one new Hood, or ancestor, only told me more about them.

Try not to be too disappointed

Mark