Ever learn something about your family tree you didn't expect?
 

As some of you might remember, around about Christmas I did a ancestry DNA test. They take your dna trough a mouth swab and then they give you an idea of where in the world your family came from and their migration path through history. As a woman they can apparently only test my mother's side.

Anyway, I got my results back yesterday. My mother's side has always been very 'we are German' in regards to our ancestry. According to the results, we do have a good percentage of German in us BUT we have more Finnish (ie from Finland) than we do German by just a tiny bit. Then there is a bunch of Danish and some Polish. The Danish and Polish isn't all that shocking due to border changes through history but the Finnish we never saw coming.

It was funny telling my mom and her reaction to not having German be our main DNA make up (though as Pennsylvania Dutch it certainly is our cultural make up).

So, ever learn anything 'shocking' about your family tree?

My Mothers side of the family were Nazi's 4 of them were in the SS and one of them a Captain of a Uboat.

I was kinda takin back by that, it was a bit of a surprise.

Family tree wise German with 1 generation of Irish.

My sister was a Hitler

Where'd you get that DNA test done at? I'm curious?

All of my immediate family (3 generations) is Irish...But I'm interested in what was before that. Funniest thing is that John McEnroe is a cousin of mine..and I found that out after playing tennis at a high national level for 16 years before blowing out my shoulder. :P

We are Polish Jews on mums side and strict Protestants on the other.

I have the URL - That should give them a run for their money :)

http://www.familytreedna.com/ - they are the people that are doing the testing for National Geographic's Genographic project which is attempting to map the migration flow of humans through time.

I'm 1/8 Jewish, 1/4 italian, 1/4 welsh and the rest english.
married a basque, so my kid's a great mixture.

I found out I am descended from Jesus Christ. That would explain my magic powers.

i learned recently from my dad that i have a jewish half-brother... he doesnt know how to contact him or i would... he's gotta be like the PERFECT guy.. half cool-normal-laidbad-goodlooking-jock-guyinschool and half smart numbers crunching, take no prisoners business master jew!

let's not factor in my perversions, because we dont know what his perversions are!

A few interesting things we've found out (interesting if you're in our family at least):

On my mom's side, found out that back in the mid/late 1800s in London that my great grandfather's siblings were real shits - Drunks, vagrants, criminals and wife beaters. I saw some of the clippings from the local paper, including one where one of the brothers dragged his wife across the house by the hair and then punched her out before being arrested.

For years it was rumored there were gypsies in our past, again on mom's side. Still haven't found direct evidence, but did find out an ancestor moved from France to Guyana and started a family there. Still don't know if the mother was native or French (we assume the latter, but they did drink a lot so ...)

A lot more is being collected as some distant relative in Spain is using one of the ancestry web site. It's actually quite fascinating.

It would be interesting if he knew about you but also thought he couldn't find you.

My dad is adopted and I have bought him one of these DNA tests too so we can get a better idea of his make up just out of curiosity. That will be really neat because it is a total dark zone for myself and my sister..not to mention him.

My family likes to pop up with "little" items. Just 2 nights ago my father told us that his grandfather was had what was then today's equivalent of a PhD in Physics. We thought they were all miners, lol.

A few months ago my mother tells us HER great grandfather was a teacher, preacher, doctor, storeowner and farmer - all at the same time.

And one time during dinner my grandfather tells us the story of how he is the one who penned the "Holiday Inn" which later became the hotel's trademark :)

I also found out recently that for a brief period of time in WW2, I had a great uncle who was a general. Apparently then (maybe even now) they could promote you if they needed you for the task at hand, but then later demote you w/o it being a penalty type thing.

My father's mother told my mother that she (my father's mother) had been married at 15 to someone from the wrong side of the tracks. Her parents had the marriage annulled almost immediately and several years later she married my grandfather. No one knew about it until she told my mother - 50+ years after it happened.

OH, and I found out at Christmas that my aunt's first husband was gay (she had 2 kids with him) and her second husband died of a heart attack while with a Mexican hooker!!

We need to start writing this stuff down ;)

My last name was brought over on the mayflower, and my moms name was one of the largest slave holders in the world. She remembers having a salve. And she was born in the 20's. the girl was not a slave, but she was the granddaughter of. But still lived with the family and took care of the house. she was not paid for her work. She was fed.

Last night while telling my mother this she was talking about the recent funeral of her uncle (by marriage...my great aunt's husband). She just drops in 'oh, aunt Doris was there..you know the one that had an affair in the 50's until your grandpa beat him up'. Firstly, I never knew anybody in our family had an affair in any decade and secondly I never really imagined my grandpa being part of the Pennsylvania Dutch Mafia.

Yep, I´m the great-great-great-grandchild of a european king who died without leaving an heir, because my great-great-great-grandmother was not part of the nobility, so they picked some inbred fucker from germany instead.... some day I will return to reclaim my thrown, and restore the bloodline :pimp

This testing is very interesting... I would love to get this done

My favorite one (and one of the reasons I'm not very close to my mother......):

My aunt who married the gay guy then the hooker-lover died when I was 16. She left everything (millions) to me and my mother. My mother never liked her and since she was in the entertainment industry in LA said it was "dirty money" and she didn't want it. My cousin, my aunt's only living child at the time, was written out of the will except for 2 houses worth about $750K at the time. She contested the will. My mother agreed with the contesting and then said she was my guardian (which she was not - I had moved in with my father 8 months prior) and was serving as such by not fighting my cousin on my part.

I knew NOTHING about this until about 15 years after it happened. Needless to say no one has heard hide nor hair of my cousin since she got the $$$$.

So....I could have been a multimillionaire if not for my wonderful mother. Yeah, I'm bitter ;)

thats pretty cool

This is interesting. I went there and put in my last name and got this:

So they don't want females to participate? I'm confused....:helpme

OK, so I figure, I'll put in my mother's maiden name:

I'm feeling so emasculated :(

The reason is probably because for some reason when they test women they can only test the maternal line and even then it is only all the females. So, when I checked mine it checked down my mom's line but only the female line..so her mother, her mother's mother, etc. It has to do with men having both X and Y and women only having the one. Since surnames/last names are usually attached to the paternal line that is probably the reason as they would be following you maternal line. Men can be tested for their entire DNA history..I know, it sucks.

I am trying to get one of my mother's brothers to do it so we can fill in with my grandpa's line.

I was told that our family owned a castle in Scotland ..and it was taken away due to back taxes ..Then after starting up facebook group with the family name and searching out members .. I find out from others of the same last name who I have never met before that they have the same story .. about the same castle .. well damned if I shouldn't spring for the taxes and get my damn castle back .. !!

You may not have known but... are you seriously surprised by it? Come now, that's a bit naive, no? An affair!? In *my* lineage?? How SCANnnndalous!! :D



I'm a descendant of at least one member of British royalty. My great uncle, now deceased, was Sir Stanley Rouse. He was the head of FIFA for many decades and was knighted by the queen back in the 50's.

<-- Direct descendant of William Penn, and he only leased PA to the USA for 99 years. Lease is up.

We also have a castle in England.

Well, I'm feeling slightly ancestral-inferior right now .. kings, generals, physicians .. all I had were possibly some gypsies, a Frenchmen doing who-knows-what in Guyana and wife-beating drunks...

:upsidedow

Not really shocked but just thought it was funny that my mom thought I would have known about something like that that happened in the 50's. Though, my mom's family is from such a small town that everybody knows everything about everybody and we are all probably related anyway.

So basically I need to get a swab from little brother. This would be the same person who thought it would be really funny to tell the genetics counselor (he couldn't figure out why they needed one when his wife was already pregnant....) that he was pretty sure his mother and his wife's mother were one in the same, he had a crazy brother tied up in his attic and had an uncle with a tail. Then again, maybe all that stuff is true just no one's thought to bring it up yet.......

Have or had? There really aren't many castles left in England and most of them are National Trust run historical sites.

lol..it could be an interesting test result. If I had a brother I would have him do it for me too. You have to do three swabs in your mouth. I did them three mornings in a row since they want it before you have eaten anything. Pretty easy stuff.

Well, a couple of my cousins visited it, but that had to be 20 years ago I would guess.

It is amazing how many people do think they own castles and stuff so it always amazes me they never make a claim on them.

most castles are state owned, the ones that are still private are sold outside families, if you claim one and it really is yours, youre up for a project thats gonna cost millions

say you "have" a castle somewhere in Europe, first try to proof it, then ok youre the grandson of, if the castle is sold or state owned its nearly impossible to get it back, unless youre willing to pay

Im sure you know grade listings, theyre hell, if you have a house thats like that every nail you wanna put into a wall has to be approved

Its an expensive and time consuming process.

edit: just saw your reply to baddog, thats exactly what I meant

where can I get this test done?

got a website?

Guess you know but the Pennsylvania Dutch were mostly Germans btw

Every time im in the US someone says hey were dutch too cause...

So theyre germans not people from Holland

National Geographic I believe it is has a worldwide DNA bank project they're doing. My father in law is a geneology expert, he helps people figure out their family tree in order to get Metis status, and he did my family tree for me.. went back a few thousand years and I got a few surprises, but it did confirm that I'm a gypsy! lol

Yep, it's National Geographic :)

https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/

The 'Dutch' in Pennsylvania Dutch is actually 'Deutsch' so it is primarily German ancestry but you are correct that it isn't entirely.

i am a direct descendent of guy fawkes :) coolest guy in the family tree

Yes, the company I used is the company that is doing that testing for the national geographic. Once you test with them you can also get the Genographic results for an extra $15.

Read much?


My paternal grandfather passed away around 91 or 92. My gmother lived with her parents after that. About 5 years ago my great-gmother (her mom) died and while we were at the house looking through some stuff, completely out of the blue, my grandmother says (to my dad and his sister), "Well, you know you have another brother."

My aunt flips out and starts following my grandmother around the house yelling, "What are you talking about?!!" There are four siblings (2 boys, 2 girls), so she calls my other uncle and aunt and starts screaming for them to come over right now because she thinks my grandmother has lost her mind.

Apparently, my grandfather had been married (we think?) to another woman before he married my grandmother and they had a son. He is two years older than my uncle, and even weirder, the name my grandparents gave my uncle is only one letter different and rhymes with the mystery uncle's name.

Year before last, we found out my dad had a brain tumor and had about 6 months to live. My grandmother claimed mystery uncle lived about an hour or two from us and I really wanted to try and contact him, but nobody thought it was a good idea, lol.