Community Chat

[judgejudith]

I have bee doing genealogy since 1974 when I went to visit my great Aunt Clara in a small town in Kansas. I have belonged to Ancestry on and off throughout the years. You can stop and then renew your membership and go on. But, one very important thing to remember is you need to accept the info you get as "hints" not "absolute fact". You need to prove out each generation as you go. By that I mean...birth, death, marriage records. The further back you go, you will not be able to find all these records, you will need to compile evidence of census, land records, cemetery records, etc.

Genealogy is a great hobby and Ancestry does make it easier.

Edited for security info: You can make your trees private. Also, NO information on living people is displayed to the public. But like everything on the internet once it is on-line, it is always on-line.

[Linders Back]

On 5/31/2014 di-mc said:

Fortunately, for our family a cousin did our genealogy. He used Ancestry.com as well as searching census records and visiting various courthouses. I was surprised at how much he discovered.

However, do not try their DNA analysis! My husband who is of Slovak descent and I who am both Irish and Italian descent sent in our specimens. The results showed my husband's ethnicity as every single country in eastern Europe. Mine was 89% British Isles and the remainder - elsewhere. Somehow my Italian genes didn't show up. BTW, my Dad was 100% Irish American and my Mom was 100% Italian American.

Save your money!

Before anyone can understand DNA evidence, they need to understand history and the fluidity of country borders and nomadic people. The ethnicity that shows up in one's DNA goes back way farther than most of our families recorded information and will show traces of ethnicity that might only be tiny bits, but my guess is someone of Slovak descent (In your husband's case) could have DNA from many Eastern European backgrounds.

I also am not sure what "100% Irish-American" means. How can someone be 100% Irish and American? And what would 100% American be anyway? I would venture to guess NO ONE is 100% any Ethnicity which is what makes this DNA testing so interesting.

I was always told I was Scotch/English but Scots were also Celts and Norse people (15th C Scotland is often referred to as Scandinavian Scotland) and even Basque. Same for Ireland. My English ancestry can be traced to Normandy and Flanders from the days of William the Conqueror so what exactly is English? We are all a mixed bag.

This is another tool to help people understand themselves. The data base they have is constantly expanding as more people do the test in additional to the original Beta-testers, so new information will be updating your results. Possibly not enough people of southern European/Italian background took the test originally.

I'm waiting for them to get more Native American information as all my Mother's ancestors were either here from the early 1600's or came from England and Wales in the late 1800's. Her results came back 96% British Isles and 4% unknown. As rumors of Native American ancestry have been floating around since the middle 1800's in the branch that lived in the Indian territory of Maine we were hoping for something definitive. It may still emerge.

I would not do the DNA test as the first step into a genealogy search but some may find it interesting.

[Love my grandkids]

I don't trust the Mormon Church which owns and runs this site. Too many foul ups and I loathe how they tried baptizing dead Jews and got flack for that. No thanks.

[Snowpuppy]

I'm not a fan of DNA testing for family history.

What safeguards do you have as to the disposal of your DNA once they have it? After all......it's YOU!

You can also use Find A Grave's website.

[Linders Back]

On 6/2/2014 Love my grandkids said:

I don't trust the Mormon Church which owns and runs this site. Too many foul ups and I loathe how they tried baptizing dead Jews and got flack for that. No thanks.

ancestry.com is not the Mormon Church website, familysearch.org is. But the Mormons do have the largest genealogical database and can be very useful.

As for the baptisms, that is a problem. Once anyone joins the Mormon Church, they can have all their ancestors "baptized" and hence, they "become Mormons", too. I am not particularly happy about many of my ancestors being listed as Mormons when they were Puritans and Pilgrims and Atheists, but it isn't something I would lose sleep over. If there is an afterlife, they know they weren't Mormons and that's what counts.

[Linders Back]

On 6/2/2014 Snowpuppy said:

I'm not a fan of DNA testing for family history.

What safeguards do you have as to the disposal of your DNA once they have it? After all......it's YOU!

You can also use Find A Grave's website.

LOVE Find-a-grave. It is a great resource and I have found ancestors there and have posted there.

So much info can be gleaned from cemetery records and it is a wonderful way to share info with people who can't get to the grave sites of their relatives.

I love the help feature where you can go and photograph graves or just gather information for people who can't physically visit the site of their ancestors graves.

Another wonderful interactive source. Connecting and sharing is such a rewarding part of this hobby.

[RubyinNE]

Gidget, It sounds like a fun project. I'm off work for the summer, and am also looking for something, too. I think you can join for just one month at a time. I wouldn't take it too seriously, but who knows, you might find something interesting.

[colliemom4]

I didn't know the Mormons owned that site. Interesting.

[sylviahomeatlast]

one of my sisters does family research--on her own not on a website

[hyacinth bucket1]

I use Ancestry.com on and off. It can be useful, but I have found that there is a lot of incorrect information posted. There are 5 family trees for my paternal family and the only accurate one is mine.

There are random person's there that believe themselves to be expert genealogists that post inaccurate rubbish. Many of the so called experts simply copy inaccurate information.

As for this comment:

However, do not try their DNA analysis! My husband who is of Slovak descent and I who am both Irish and Italian descent sent in our specimens. The results showed my husband's ethnicity as every single country in eastern Europe. Mine was 89% British Isles and the remainder - elsewhere. Somehow my Italian genes didn't show up. BTW, my Dad was 100% Irish American and my Mom was 100% Italian American

I have to disagree. There is nothing wrong with the results. Just because a person is born in a country does not make them that nationality. I tested both on Ancestry and 23andme and the results are nearly identical. Just because your parents are "100%" something doesn't mean squat, DNA is science, anything else is BS.