Expand Your Family Tree with Ancestry DNA
Ancestry is something I got into a few years back thanks to my Grandfather. He enlisted me to find out more about his family tree. I headed straight to ancestry.com since I had already heard good things about them. Fast forward to a few months ago, and I had the opportunity to work with them. I received an Ancestry DNA test at no cost. All opinions are my own.
Learn More About Your Family Tree with Ancestry DNA
My intention had been to have my Grandfather take the DNA test. Then I thought maybe it would be more beneficial to have my Gram take it since we know that her mother was a “doorstep baby”. (Those are their words as she was literally left on someone’s doorstep.) Since I couldn’t decide, I just took it myself. That way we gain insight into both their backgrounds via my results. And, also because I couldn’t handle the suspense and wanted it for myself. :/
Since I was raised by my grandparents, my Grampa had always told me I was Dutch, Italian, Hungarian, and English. He would never really factor in my mom’s side and basically only considered his nationalities. As I got older I learned more about the whole mixture of nationalities that I really am and it was too many to remember. You know that project you have where you have to create all the flags? Well, it was a project and a half for this girl.
Taking the Ancestry DNA test is as simple as can be. You receive a kit in the mail with easy instructions. You just collect your saliva in a little tube and ship it off for the most part. You have to have a current ancestry.com membership and it will link up to it. It will also show you more possible tree matches based on your results.
My test results took around 3 weeks. They had predicted that it would take longer, so that was a pleasant surprise. Most of my results seemed consistent from what I had known, but I had a few interesting twists.
The science that goes into this testing is beyond me, but I know they compare the DNA of others within different areas of the world. They circle the general areas in which your DNA matches closest to. From there, I was able to pinpoint a bit closer based on what I knew. Like, I know that we are very much Dutch. That’s the chunk of “Europe West”. For Great Britain, we knew that my Gram and my Mom were quite a bit English. Oh, and my Grampa’s whole story of telling me I was so Italian? I am a whopping 2%. There’s goes me excuse for loving pasta so much. 😉
The one that was a surprise was the Caucasus region. No one in my family had ever mentioned any ancestry within that area. It’s so interesting to see. You can also zoom into these maps to get even more detailed info like cities and even roads.
Exploring ancestry has been an extremely interesting project. I was even able to go back as far to connect us with Mary Queen of Scotland! A few people have emailed me through the site to introduce themselves as relatives and to help collaborate to find out more info.
Genealogy and learning about your family tree is a lot easier than you would think when using Ancestry.com. It’s fun, informative, and even gave me a much-needed geography lesson! The DNA kit would make for a fabulous gift for any person interested in ancestry.
Does your family keep up on your ancestry? Have you tried the DNA test yet? I would to hear your thoughts.
My great grandparents were all the first generation in this country and I would LOVE to learn more about where I came from!
This is very cool! Ancestry is doing some amazing stuff now.
I’ve been on Ancestry.com but only during their free times. I would love to put more effort into finding my ancestors and keeping a log for my kids and grandchild. When my grandmother died from breast cancer back in 1988 I inherited her beloved bible and thankfully she listed a lot of family members names and dates of births/deaths which helps a lot.
This is such a cool new service. Now I have a new tool in my family tree research kit.
Looking up past relatives is something I’ve always been interested in. I need to look into doing this!
Now that is a cool DNA feature! My family does a lot of Family History research, so I know a lot of our origins. Which has been fun. But I think it would be really fun to see how the DNA plays into it all.
I have ALWAYS wanted to track the lineage of my family, especially since I have roots all over the world from the Caribbean to Europe.
This would be a great gift for my dad. He has been doing our family’s ancestry for a few years now. I think he would love to see his DNA ancestry . It is amazing what you can learn.
This is so cool! I think I’ll give this a try. I think it’s totally cool that you can see the entire origin of your genetic makeup. Awesome.
This would be interesting considering I don’t know my biological father. A little insight is better than none!
This sounds very interesting. I’d love to see my entire genetic lineage. Very cool.
Family history is such a important thing! Such a cool tool to help find out a little bit about where you came from! Awesome!
This is so interesting! My husband knows nothing about his father or that side of the family. I would love to do this with him to give him some answers.
This is so cool!! I love learning more about my family history, I am looking into this!
I’d have to check this ancestry test. Family history is a wreck.
Okay, that sounds like the coolest thing ever. I didn’t know Ancestry did this. Very cool
It has always been a hope of mine that I could learn more about my family!! I have very little to go off of but it sounds wonderful!
I’ve always wanted to try a program like this. That ethnicity estimate is very cool.
I’ve been spending time on that site adding relatives to my family tree also. It’s completely fascinating!
I’ve been DYING to try this! I don’t know anything about my father’s side of the family. He was born in Spain but he never knew his father and his mother passed away. I’m just a cheapskate and I’m waiting for either an Ancestry DNA giveaway or discount. So if you’re reading, ANCESTRY.COM powers that be, please consider a holiday special! I’ve seen it come down to $79, but I’d love to see it come down to $69 or $59 for a limited time.
I spent months on Ancestry.com building my family tree with the paid version. I think the DNA test would be really neat to do.
This is so interesting! My father in law was adopted and has always wanted to know his heritage, and this would be an easy way to find out more.
I think that doing something like this would be so cool to find out so much about family history. I would love to receive something like this as a gift to do. I have so many unanswered questions about my family heritage.