My daughter gave most of the family DNA kits for Christmas. Lots of spit going into test tubes. It’s a little weird looking at results. My dad walked out when I was a newborn so that side isn’t really interesting to me. But to see that genetically the regional references where way more on his side. I always assumed I was mostly German, turns out it’s  almost all English, Irish, and Scottish. Also we mostly immigrated through the south, so I can more rightfully claim being a southerner lol. 

It’s also interesting how much info is available. Yearbook photos of my mom. Records of rental homes. 

My mom did that and she could go onto the site and see people who maybe related to her. It was a trip

I thought about DNA testing, but reading about the government getting a hold of testing data has given me pause.

My sister did it and it pretty much was no surprise. I am half Swede, half Pole, and the ancestry was pretty much in line. I think there was 1% Portuguese. My sister's friend's result had her part Neanderthal. 

My wife's sister had her and the siblings do one of these DNA tests as a gift for her Mom to show where they came from.  The genealogy was as expected, but there was a 50 year old man who shared their DNA and was related, yet nobody had any idea who this guy was.  After some asking around, it turned out my MIL's sister gave birth to a child during college 50+ years ago and immediately gave it up for adoption. It was never talked about again and forgotten about until voila, 23 and ME brought it back.   

15 minutes ago, LittleHurt05 said:

My wife's sister had her and the siblings do one of these DNA tests as a gift for her Mom to show where they came from.  The genealogy was as expected, but there was a 50 year old man who shared their DNA and was related, yet nobody had any idea who this guy was.  After some asking around, it turned out my MIL's sister gave birth to a child during college 50+ years ago and immediately gave it up for adoption. It was never talked about again and forgotten about until voila, 23 and ME brought it back.   

I read an article once that this is one of those unexpected consequences that comes up during these tests. Suddenly unknown pregnancies and/or infidelities come to light that were previous unknown or unspoken.

14 hours ago, Iwritecode said:

I read an article once that this is one of those unexpected consequences that comes up during these tests. Suddenly unknown pregnancies and/or infidelities come to light that were previous unknown or unspoken.

A guy I work with told me that his grandpa just recently did one and found out that he had a long lost brother. His grandpa never knew that his dad had a family prior to meeting his mom. So recently everyone still living all met up together at a local pizza joint owned by his long lost brother. He said it was pretty wild to see his dad meet all these new aunts and uncles and cousins who have all lived in the same area, but never knew that they had a link.

My wife and I did the Ancestry DNA thing a while back.  The results for me weren't a huge surprise.  I knew I was Irish, German, Welsh, and Polish.  The results pretty much showed that, except the percentage of Irish was higher than I thought.

I used the 30-day free trial to build as much of a family tree as possible.  I did so for my wife's family and mine.  It was really fascinating to dig way back and see when our ancestors immigrated from Europe.  I was able to go back as far as the late 1600s on my dad's side of the family and as far back as the mid 1700s for my mom's.  I've been tempted to pay for another month and do more digging, but I'd have to dedicate a lot of time to it to make it worth the cost.

Your library may have Ancestry available. I know mine does. But you do need to be on one of their computers.