DNA tests

Floxxie

It is all about working out what DNA 'parts' you have inherited from each parent. There are plenty of 'how to' on the various sites, however if you can find someone who understands the results and how it works, then it makes it easier and quicker.

The origins thing - well it is a great marketing tool but don't consider it as an indication for your parentage, or their parents, or their parents etc.

And as for knowing about ancestors, the great (or not so great) thing about DNA is that it backs up or disproves the paper sources.

Good luck!

onwards&upwards

kuepper wrote: »

My mother's family I've traced back several generations and are all England based so much to my surprise the DNA test revealed my ethnic origins are ~50% mainland Europe with Ancestry suggesting an area including parts of Lithuania /Poland/Czechia/ Slovakia/ Germany and Myheritage suggesting it could even extend into the Balkans. So I'm guessing my father was from there or a direct descendant of parents from there.

Not necessarily. These tests are not really that useful in that respect. Have a read of this:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/12/ant-and-dec-dna-test-all-inbred-historical-connections

Basically all Europeans are pretty closely related, genetically speaking.

[Deleted User]

I found my dads niece on here https://www.gedmatch.com/login1.php

Grumpelstiltskin

The % ethnicity s OK but with Ancestry tests it can change.

They have ' updated ' ethnicity results this year and my European has moved countries, so be wary.

Oh it is strange there isn't some small % of European in your mother's relatives.

I have traced back to the 1780's and my family are all in middle England but I still show 2 areas of European ethnicity.

TonyMMM

kuepper wrote: »

I was adopted a few weeks after birth and never met my mother, she died almost 30 years ago.

Have you obtained a copy of your adoption case papers ?

They sometimes, but not always, name the "putative" father in the notes.

kuepper

TonyMMM wrote: »

Have you obtained a copy of your adoption case papers ?

They sometimes, but not always, name the "putative" father in the notes.

yes but frustratingly nothing in them except a vague description of him being "fair" "5'11" and 21 and a farmer's son which I can't really rely on anyway as my mother will have been a very stressed and frightened teenager talking to what seem like very judgemental people in 1940s post-war Britain

kuepper

Grumpelstiltskin wrote: »

They have ' updated ' ethnicity results this year and my European has moved countries, so be wary.

Oh it is strange there isn't some small % of European in your mother's relatives.

.

My geographic ethnic origin has stayed the same with the updates: the region historically known as Pomerania being the main area


Yes there are occasional v small %ages of other countries in maternal cousins but definitely no 'Eastern Europe and Russia', 'Germanic Europe' and 'Baltics' like 51% of me.

thorsoak

Depending upon how old you are - you mention post-war 1940s - it could well be that your father was held as a PoW and working on farms prior to repatriation to his own country. Do you know where your mother lived/grew up? You could then find whether there were any PoW camps in the vicinity, which could lead to further areas for you to investigate.

kuepper

thorsoak wrote: »

Depending upon how old you are - you mention post-war 1940s - it could well be that your father was held as a PoW and working on farms prior to repatriation to his own country. Do you know where your mother lived/grew up? You could then find whether there were any PoW camps in the vicinity, which could lead to further areas for you to investigate.

I'm 71. Yes that was one of my considered possibilities as my mother's family were farmers and Eden Camp was quite near https://www.edencamp.co.uk/about/history/ but they haven't got any records.

thorsoak

kuepper wrote: »

I'm 71. Yes that was one of my considered possibilities as my mother's family were farmers and Eden Camp was quite near https://www.edencamp.co.uk/about/history/ but they haven't got any records.

Look here :- Prisoners of war in British hands - The National Archives
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk ›