Has anyone discovered anything cool from doing Ancestry DNA?

[fluoxe]

Unexpected ethnic origins, for example? I’m a bit wary of doing it for the usual reasons but I do think it would be interesting to find out so I get why people do it.

My friend found out her childhood friend was actually her half sister

We found out a great grandparent obviously had an ongoing affair for several years with someone they worked with, and as a result we are related to someone we know.

I'm really keen to do it, but like you I'm a bit reticent.

DH discovered something awful but to be honest it was more of a confirmation than a revelation

Kind of afraid to incase I find any more half brother or sisters .. deadly serious

I have a strong match to a young foreign athlete. Not following up because I don't know where it might lead, for their sake.

My Mum did this hoping she had some interesting DNA - she’s dark haired and olive skinned. Turns out she’s 98% Yorkshire so she was a bit disappointed (obvs Yorkshire is God’s own country but she was hoping for a bit of excitement)

Not me, mine was quite boring and predictable.
But my friend found she had some Northern Chinese DNA which was interesting (she is mixed race Indian/British)

there's a programme about all of this on R4 at the moment... I'm far too scared to do it myself!

I highly recommend listening to BBC podcast 'The Gift.'
Each episode is someone's story following what they discovered following doing one of these DNA tests, and some of them are shocking.

I was expecting the absolute worst on my paternal side and hoping to uncover some mysteries on my maternal side and have made some lovely discoveries. I’m very distantly related to an acquaintance who is now a friend and have helped her with part of her family tree she had no idea about. I’ve got secret first cousins I didn’t know about, one of whom is absolutely lovely and who I’ve stayed in touch with. I’ve got some Welsh in me, which Welsh DH was overjoyed about, I’ve got a lot more Irish ancestry and relatives than I realised, which has led to the discovery that my family were Catholic only a couple of generations back. And I’ve found some stuff out about previous generations that has explained an awful lot. The people who would have been upset about these secrets being discovered have all died, so no moral dilemmas either.

No real surprise with the ethnicity results, other than the Welsh. And the results have changed since I first got them. My Irish has gone up, my Scandinavian/Danish has gone up, my Scottish has gone right down. What has been nice is that the English and Irish results have narrowed down the part of the countries those particular genes can be found. No surprise with the English because I’ve done my family tree. We’ve stayed pretty firmly in the south east, but lots of new things to research with the Irish as, so far, none of my dna matches have come from those areas.

My biological father. (Well, from Heritage via Ancestry, thanks to a MN tip).

Someone close to me discovered in their 30s they were donor conceived this way. With 10s of siblings. Fortunately it’s all worked out well but: OMG.

My grandma found her father’s parents. He was fostered and she didnt know his real parents. They went on to have another 2 children which she found out as the dna of a first cousin came up. She’s since met up with the cousin a few times.

I discovered 3 (half) sisters and 1 (half) brother all born to different mothers during the 15 years my parents marriage lasted. I now know it was the youngest of my siblings that was the final straw for my mum not that I’m even sure she knew about all of the others. The way it worked is that my father would either have a pregnant wife and mistress delivering within a few months of each of or two of his mistresses deliver with a few months of each other. So I have one (half) brother and one (half) sister with only 3 months between them for eg.

My father who I’ve only seen twice in 50 years is a coward who couldn’t even do right by his children even when they appeared over the course of two years and it’s been my responsibility to do absolutely the right thing for them and say - yes, we’re siblings and I’m so happy to have you in my life.

Sadly one of my new siblings died a few months ago and it’s hit me very badly because of how we were cheated out of decades.

Of all of the new sidings ( I love them very much) but it’s my brother I’m closest to.

I’ve got a lot more Irish ancestry and relatives than I realised, which has led to the discovery that my family were Catholic only a couple of generations back

This made me laugh. I was brought up in a staunch RC family but I discovered that prior to 1858 we were Irish Protestants. That’s when an ancestor married his much older than him landlady in Glasgow and converted to Catholicism to be with her.

I got in touch with some family members (my granddad's brother's family) and met up with a few of them. One of them, my dad's cousin, sent me a letter with her recollections of him during the war when he was evacuated to her house. She had some memories of my grandmother that were lovely to read about. I also tracked down one of my mum's cousins in America but he hasn't been great about staying in touch with her.

My mum's grandparents emigrated from India to Guyana and we didn't know their origins but Ancestry shows that one side of her family were from Northern India and the other side from Southern India. It also showed 2% Scotland and 2% Germanic Europe that nobody quite knows how those got into the mix.

5 Illegitimate children so far (am being slightly dramatic here, its two sets of siblings and another individual) the men on one side of my family really behaved quite poorly....
I believe there is another one too as a relative mentioned to me the last time we emailed, "next time we meet up I must tell you about x" who is sat on my ancestry account DNA matches as a 3rd cousin but I cant place anywhere.

In terms of ethnicity it was pretty much what I was expecting.

Can't remember if it was that specific site as it was a while back, but we did DH's family tree and he found that someone had uploaded an old pic of his great-great-(could have been a couple of additional 'greats')-grandad, an old sepia pic in a military uniform. The likeness was incredible, it looked like DH had been to one of those dress up photo sessions. Anyone who saw it was absolutely convinced it was DH having a wind up, it was basically him with a grand moustache and a uniform!

Irish ancestry. My dad's family are English back to 11th century, mum's family, and some of dad's, have very Welsh surnames, so I was expecting all Welsh and English, but 15% Irish and 12% Welsh. It was really interesting how women disappear into family history because they lose their surname on marriage. The Welsh men left their names with us, but Miss Connor from County Tipperary, when I found her, I knew nothing about.

A lot of my research was really sad though. Deaths in manual jobs like mining, infant mortality levels. My ancestors led very hard lives.

Found out that my Grandad was not in fact my Mum's biological father and that she had a half sister. Unfortunately all the parents had passed so there was no one to answer her many questions.

Ethnicity wise. My great nan had very dark hair and olive skin and used to say she was of 'gypsy stock'. All her children were mistake for being Italian during the war. We were expecting some Spanish / Italian DNA but not a sausage. Just out and out British on that side 🤷🏻‍♀️

On the other side, I discovered a distant cousin. We share the same 3 x great grandfather. We knew that this shared ancestor was married 4 times to women in the UK and India over his lifetime and our DNA proved it. This distant cousin who descends from a white branch of the family still won't have it that his 3 x grandfather had several brown children as well, and of which I am a descendant. He doesn't seem to understand how DNA works.

I found out my German DNA is 0%, despite my very German mum and family, who backdate to 1600 based on my birth certificate. Not one person outside of Germany based on my birth certificate link

😲

@CrazylazyJane Oh that would irritate me to no end