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When the Wall Street Journal does an article about DNA testing in the
context of genealogy and family history research, Finding
a Few Hundred Cousins,
by Anne Tergesen, it feels like our hobby/profession has really hit a
milestone!
In recent decades, DNA tests were mainly used to prove paternity. But
since 2000, a handful of companies have commercialized tests that connect a
wider array of relatives, sometimes going back centuries to find common
ancestors.
As recently as 2007, such tests cost as much as $1,000. Today, they
generally run between $100 and $300 and offer users more information ....
I
will fess up that I have NOT done DNA testing. The main reason is that I’m too busy doing
research for others. Another reason is
that many years ago, I chose to focus more on the details of each “found”
ancestor’s life than on identifying who I didn’t know anything about and
pursuing those individuals. As always
with researching ancestors, we each determine what goals work best for us.
Given the decrease in price and the
expanded results one can expect, have you or someone in your family recently
undergone DNA testing? Did you get the
answer you hoped for? Or, did you end up
with more questions than ever?
For those new to DNA testing, what
one bit of advice would you give them?
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An Upfront with NGS reader shared ...
ReplyDeleteI asked my brother for a DNA specimen a number of years ago to try to break down the brick wall of my Taylor ancestry. The result was to find two other women who had done the same thing, each of us with, as yet, brick walls in the same geographic area and same chronological time (mid 18th century), but all pointing to a Taylor genealogy that goes back to a 17th century ancestor. However, no connections to this genealogy as yet for any of us. It is not clear to me that autosomal DNA will help any of us.
Another reader shared ...
ReplyDeleteMy answer is to keep one's expectations in check. I've had several people contact me, sure that there must be some obvious connection between us.
Sadly, this has never been the case, and I know quite a lot about my "roots."
I think the reason for this is that the science is still young and the estimated distance to the common ancestor is optimistic, when in fact what's really being described is a probable "window" of generations.
Still, having one's genetic markers on file can't hurt, and as more people do this the odds grow that a match within recorded history can be made.