Ancestry DNA kits!

[tryingmybest29]

Posting here for traffic. Always wanted to do one.

I have been researching my family tree and for a long time I've wanted to do it mainly to see what my heritage is..

(Newcomer to ancestry and family tree research so apologise if it seems I don't know what I'm talking about). My mothers side of the family tree has been really interesting.

How does it work? What will it tell me?

I've seen loads of posts recently about how people have found relatives they didn't know existed 😬😬

^^this is my concern. I've never known my bio dad. I know who he is, he lives locally and would have no problems finding or contacting him.

He supposedly told my mum that he had children as a teenager he doesn't see. Funnily enough he ditched me too 🤦‍♀️ No idea where they live or anything or he could have made it up. Apparently he was a compulsive liar.

Also it seems he has a huge family locally to me too so god knows how many of her have done the dna testing. He is married with children he lives with. Supposedly they don't know about me so what the hell would I say if I linked with them??

How does it work?

So should I not do it because of the drawbacks on my bio fathers side?

I'm more interested in my heritage more than anything!

I hinted to oh about getting me one for Christmas. Not I'm not so sure

Anyone?

The kit will match you to others which you share dna with who have also taken a test. These dna connections can be recent or several generations back.
Working out the relationships can be complex the further back the connection is the more difficult it is to work out.
If you would rather not risk connecting with other family members then don't do it.
I discovered my grandmothers father was someone completely different to the paper trail I'd researched years earlier...
It didn't bother anyone as everyone has died but you never know what connections you may uncover.

The ethnicity aspect of the test is a bit dubious - not really conclusive in many cases.

It will match you to people with shared DNA but you can set yours to private I think.

Thank you. I am not concerned myself tbh. I don't know my dad but I do know how to find him (if I wanted to, I don't as he's not interested). But what if any of his family find out he has a 'secret' child. But then that's not really my fault is it and it's something that really really interests me? So think I should do it??

You download the results to ancestry, then you get people who match your DNA.
I uploaded mine to Gedmatch and am still wading through the 60k matches.
I'm an advanced researcher though, been doing it for years.
It will take so much of your time if you let it.

If somebody is alive they are private, so the name wouldn't be seen. However, if you place them in your tree, the relationship will still be visible if that makes sense.
Just keep your tree private, if you have done DNA and have leads that way, there's no need to have a public tree.

I don't see what you have to lose, it's him that has the secret child, not you.

Ancestry DNA results change over time as more and more people do them. Two things change:

1. the ethnicity results get refined
2. more potential relatives crawl out of the woodwork. But if you don't have quite a large family tree recorded already, it'll take ages to find out through which branch and how many generations back they may be related.

As you say, none of it is not your fault or secret to keep, so I wouldn't worry about it, but I feel sure that if you want to, you can opt out of the linking thing and just look at the rest of it (ethnicity, etc.).

Honestly, just keep it private, we all have skeletons honestly.
I've supported people to get help (not given it myself) when their DNA hasn't added up, there are thousands out there.

Don't forget you can always refuse to answer questions or if you are polite, just say you don't know.

No you don't owe anyone to keep their secret, but I can see why you feel you should, that's very good of you.
I wish there were more like you, I've seen people really hurt by this.
Just because it is readily available doesn't mean we can run roughshod over people's feelings.

It is possible to gain a brilliant tree, without outing skeletons, honestly.

I've seen loads of posts recently about how people have found relatives they didn't know existed 😬😬

This happened within my family this past January, and it has created an absolute fucking shit storm apocalypse.

Be wary and have a good hard think before you open yourself and your family up to potential upheaval.

I've solved family mysteries for two families. One lady asked me to do the test because she thought her great grandfather might be my great grandmother's brother, but he had a completely different name. I did the test and we were related. He had been an army deserter. The other was someone who wanted to know who her grandfather was. It was a WW1 romance. He was killed. Yes we were related and worked out who he was from my family tree. Weird thing is that I'd known her since I was 16! I love AncestryDNA but I can see that for many it's a family breaker rather than maker.

My research is to a specific race, I've known umpteen people who have found recent ancestors of consanguinity.
You never know where some of the ancestors come from, nor what horrible things you can discover.
One woman told me I should have warned her she needed a strong stomach, I had absolutely no idea. I presumed the professionals i recommended her to would have said.
That said for most people from the millions who have ancestry and other accounts it turns out fine.
I often wonder how much of Long Lost Family and foundlings can't be filmed. Or has to be abandoned.

I found my half brother through ancestry. My mom gave him up for adoption

Heritage is the fun part. I love seeing where ancestors once lived

I did an ancestry test, then downloaded my dna data and uploaded it to gedmatch. On gedmatch I set my privacy to research only, I can see matches but they can't see me. I left my ancestry open though. I don't mind if any unknown family contact me. Gedmatch has good ethnic evaluation tools.

There was a bit on watchdog last year about this.

One of the presenters did multiple tests and her heritage came back different in them all. So if that is why you want to do the test I wouldn't waste my time.