Me and Marek... continued..

[Cheriehoop]

 

[721Comstock]

They can tell you your DNA origins but if they moved, it gets complicated. I know that 6 out of my 8 great grandparents were from Ireland. When I did the DNA test though I was just 60% Irish, 22% Great Britain and the big surprise - 17% Scandinavian. Well some of my Irish great grandparents had Viking and British blood (all Irish conquerors) despite their belief they were all Irish.

There's really almost no such thing a "pure-blooded" anything.
Humans have been 'cross-pollinating' for millennia - whether it be due to nomadic or conquering/vanquished or whatever reasons.

The Irish in particular (I am 3/4 Irish myself, in theory, as 3 of my 4 grandparents were "off the boat"), are a prime example of this; Ireland has been overrun and invaded from every direction probably for as long as it has been populated.

We're all mutts.

 

[MaxwellCuse]

I've learned that I'm a direct descendant of Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, and Charlemagne. I thought that was special until I learned that millions of people have come from that same lineage. Sadly, the hard working peasants died of dysentery while our grandpas ate roast venison.

Cousin Stuckin! Cousin Al! Descendants of Conquerors and Great Ones and Orange fans to boot. What are the odds? 2 to 1? 3 to 1?

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

I have blue eyes, am part Irish, part English, and parts of many other things, but the English line has been tracked back to Alfred the Great, King of England (871-901).

I've noticed that no one is ever tracked back to William, the stable hand.

 

[Capt. Tuttle]

There's really almost no such thing a "pure-blooded" anything.

Except wizards

 

[IthacaMatt]

I have blue eyes, am part Irish, part English, and parts of many other things, but the English line has been tracked back to Alfred the Great, King of England (871-901).

That's pretty cool. He was the first true king of England.

My family did one of those DNA tests over the holidays.

The coolest things that I found in mine were than I had a West African ancester in the late 1600s or early 1700s (so, I'm 1% black, which I think is very cool). Probably a female slave, I'm guessing, gave birth to one of my ancestors.

The other cool surprise, which I'm kind of skeptical about, is that they said I shared a common ancester with Luke, the author of one of the Gospels. I guess it's a relatively rare marker (1 in 32,000, or something like that). But I wonder how they got a DNA sample for Luke.

Seems hard to believe, but I suppose it's possible. Various abbeys and monateries of the church have bones and other religious relics for lots of ancient historical figures going back at least to the time of Emperor Constantine. I guess you never know...

 

[stuckinbig11]

That's pretty cool. He was the first true king of England.

My family did one of those DNA tests over the holidays.

The coolest things that I found in mine were than I had a West African ancester in the late 1600s or early 1700s (so, I'm 1% black, which I think is very cool). Probably a female slave, I'm guessing, gave birth to one of my ancestors.

The other cool surprise, which I'm kind of skeptical about, is that they said I shared a common ancester with Luke, the author of one of the Gospels. I guess it's a relatively rare marker (1 in 32,000, or something like that). But I wonder how they got a DNA sample for Luke.

Seems hard to believe, but I suppose it's possible. Various abbeys and monateries of the church have bones and other religious relics for lots of ancient historical figures going back at least to the time of Emperor Constantine. I guess you never know...

My info was not from DNA. One of my aunts did the search the old way and has generation-by-generation info going all the way back beyond Alfred the Great to Alcmored, King of Kent.

 

[SWC75]

My info was not from DNA. One of my aunts did the search the old way and has generation-by-generation info going all the way back beyond Alfred the Great to Alcmored, King of Kent.

I hear G-Rob was descended from Ethelred the Unready.
Ethelred the Unready - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Cheriehoop]

Only famous people I’ve been traced to is James Dunn, the American- Irish actor who used to be in movies with Shirley Temple, (and a tree grows in Brooklyn movie) William Lundigan another Irish American actor who actually graduated from SU , was from Syracuse and also Admiral Byrd who had a Flood (my grandfather’s family) on his mother’s side and almost forgot - my great uncle, son of Irish Tipperary immigrants from my grandmother’s family was mayor of Syracuse.

 

[bozophobe]

Those tests tend to be very inaccurate. Try one with another company. Guarantee the results will be very different. Also, read the fine print (do you own...you?).

 

[Cheriehoop]

Those tests tend to be very inaccurate. Try one with another company. Guarantee the results will be very different. Also, read the fine print (do you own...you?).

My cousin and I did a fun test with the ancestry company we used. We shared great grandparents, our grandmothers were sisters. He currently lives in a different state, different last names and he called asking if I would take the test to see if the entire thing was bs since he had just done his test. Well he got his results about 2 months before mine (about 3 years ago) and when my test came through they linked us as 1st to 2nd cousins immediately. They also connected us to shared relatives who we didn’t realize took the test while also having unique ‘matches’ outside our shared relations from our different father’s sides. I’m a believer.

 

[Townie72]

I have done a lot of work searching back into my family tree. I pretty much know who was who and what they were back to the early 1700's.

So when I got the 23AndMe kit results, it was really more of a confirmation of what I already knew. I'm pretty sure I know where these "odd and ends" got into the mix (1% Finnish??)

Without this Family Tree, I think I would just be staring at the results wondering.

When I started searching 20 years ago, I spent many nights at the Mormon Church Family History Center squinting at microfilms I had ordered from Salt Lake City. Now most things are online on line.

I visited relatives in Germany, France and Ireland and it was a blast. My experience is that Europeans are much more aware of their family history than Americans are, possibly because they aren't so complicated as ours are.

I took one of my sons to have dinner with one of my second cousins in Bayreuth, Germany, where he is a professor at the University. We share a great grandfather and my grandfather left Germany in 1872.

Afterwards my son told me, "Do you have any idea how freaky an experience that was? First the physical similarity between you and your cousin is shocking. But to connect and share across almost 150 years is mind-blowing".

You should start with your Family oral history. But keep in mind at lot of it will be wrong based on mis-communication, mis-interpretation or lies.

Then with Ancestry of FamilySearch, you can start peeling the onion.

 

[Bornorange]

Wonderful things can happen also. A year ago I only knew my fathers name. I now have family knowledge back 5 generations.
Better yet, A younger man reached out to me through the 23andme website. I was the closest match to him. He is my second cousin. He grew up orphaned and had nobody in this world to call family until now.

 

[FRANKIEFAN]

What has to be said about Marek is what happened to JJJ and Bridges *2 lottery picks* when they ran into Marek pretty much on their home court?

Thats worse than us losing to a 11 seed in Albany.

 

[Shark58]