DNA Family Secrets

[KateMiddletonsExtensions]

Has anyone watched this? It's quite emotional though Stacey Dooley is grating on me. It's a geneALOGIST not an -ologist.

Is this a new series or the old one?

New one.

How Stacey pronounces things is odd. Geowws instead of girls is my favourite.

I have just watched it and felt so emotional for 91 year old Jean. All of the people featured tonight just seemed so grateful. The DNA expert is so kind and calm.

I think it is great that we hear regional accents and why should Stacey change the ways she says 'girls'. At the end of the day she is an excellent journalist and presenter who comes from an atypical BBC background. She shows other young people that you can be successful in the BBC even if you don't talk proper do have a regional accent.

She can’t say “geneticist” either. Gen-en-uh-sist. I do like the show, not so much how they gloss over the huge amount of work the genealogy team must do behind the scenes.

Brilliant

I was so sad for the twins. I really like Turi too, Stacey is the public front of the show, there's so much in depth work going on behind the scenes. I like Ariel too who works with Nicky Campbell and Davina McCall on the itv show.

She can say it, she might say it differently to you and have a different accent but she can definitely say it.

I cried at the lovely twin. 😞

I love this show, I even put up with SD to watch it, her voice is just so unpleasant to listen to. I watched it and then ‘Stranger in my family’ straight after, brilliant but emotionally draining.

This episode was a real tear jerker. Jean must wonder and feel sad that she grew up without her mother, while another little girl had her mother. The marriage must have been hell for the mother to leave the father and not take her daughters with her. I’m pleased for Jean that she discovered the truth, but it must hurt on some level. Her new family seem to really want to know her which I’m glad about.

The twins! Wow! I cried, but am pleased that they found out the truth and I hope the surviving twin gets more information.

And as for Stacey’s accent - I don’t mind it but maybe that’s because she is from Luton, I am from Bedford and so to me it’s familiar.

So glad you don’t have to speak BBC RP to get on in TV nowadays.

@Twospaniels I know am so happy for Jean that she got answers.

I like SDs voice. And she's very warm hearted which comes across. I'm from the north east.

This week’s speech gripe then was those twins’ vocal fry - I could hardly listen to them!

I was pleased Anthony from Merseyside found out who his father was, and he looked Italian / Spanish too.

And the other woman found out that the man she thought was her father was in fact her father. I wonder why when she was 7 he told her he wasn’t her Dad? So confusing for her.

I'm watching the third episode, Stacey had never heard of a foundling. Wouldn't she have been briefed?

They used to have three stories on didn't they, one about genetic health conditions that they seem to have dropped.

Yes they used to feature a genetic health condition and have dropped that segment to focus on genealogy content. Probably fits the show anyway, DNA testing through sites like Ancestry will not reveal health information.

Having done quite a lot of work around genealogy and DNA i'm nor surprised that they couldn't establish the exact parentage of the abandoned baby - and wasn't her adopted father lovely with his comments about her.

This is upsetting to think of and I'm between two minds whether to type it or not but did anyone else wonder that perhaps the abandoned baby's origins were such that she might be better off perhaps not knowing.
Rape or Incest.

On a separate note, so many of the mothers were left literally holding the baby and the men just didn't want to know or contribute financially.

This is always something which I would urge people with an unknown father or unknown parents to think about. Everyone automatically assumes it was a one night stand or a short term relationship gone wrong but this isn't always the case. We all know that a small percentage of rapes are ever reported or convicted in 2023, in 1973 or 1963 that percentage was even lower. And a woman getting pregnant before 1967 did not have the option of a legal, safe termination.

However from a DNA genealogy point of view it is not that unusual to get not very many matches. DNA testing for ancestry in Britain is really not a big thing, especially if you are white British with a British surname and know that all your grandparents were British etc etc. You don't have the same "where did my ancestors come from" questions like a white European-looking person in Australia or the US. My family roots are 100% UK and Ireland and I have a very low number of matches, my very best is a second cousin (our grandparents were siblings) and after that it's third and fourth cousins.

If you have one unknown parent then it's easy to park all the DNA matches which you know are matching with your known parent, and research the rest. But if you don't know either parent, then it's ten times harder. Plus - althoguh they always make it sound easy on the telly - approaching people who don't know you from Adam and asking whether they'd take a DNA test to narrow down things a bit doesn't always work. Can you imagine the AIBU thread - I've been approached by a randomer asking me for my DNA, AIBU to refuse?

Yes I did wonder about the foundling lady. She was dumped not far from me by the sounds of it? I hope she finds peace whatever the outcome?

Prof Turi King is touring at the moment. I've been, she's really interesting turiking.co.uk/speaking-and-presenting/

Gosh this weeks episode was informative.
And heartbreaking.
I didn't know there were forced repatriation after the war of hundreds of Chinese workers in the UK.
Men ( women weren't mentioned) just disappeared leaving behind bewildered wives and children.
At least the lady found out that the ship her dad was probably put on wasn't blown up at sea as her mother was led to believe.

The treatment of Chinese mariners was disgraceful. I’m glad that awareness has been raised. I never knew about it until last night.

I hope that a member of his family adds themselves to a DNA database before too long so that his daughter can learn what happened to him.

I liked Oksana and Svitlana . They seemed like such strong women. I’m glad they found some cousins.

The chap who found out about his Punjabi heritage will hopefully get some DNA matches too.

I love this programme. It never disappoints.

I'm just watching latest.

Do any of you guess where the people originate from? I knew twins were British although that wasn't obvious
Also knew guy wasn't Egyptian but Pakistani.

Such a moving series.

I wonder why the Chinese men didn't write?

I thought that too