Patience is a Virtue

When I first started playing with DNA for genetic genealogy purposes, it was extremely overwhelming. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and was totally lost. As a newbie I did a lot of things wrong but I also did a lot of things right. I asked questions, read blogs and kept learning until I thought I had everything figured out.

I remember getting my results and looking at my ethnicity report. Then looking at the my DNA matches. I vaguely remember thinking, ‘Okay, now what??’

That’s when I realized I had barely started to scratch the surface. The learning curve can be exhaustive. Just keeping up with what’s going on can be a stressful.

Things seem to change everyday, sometimes every hour. You send messages to matches and never hear from them. Then one day you get a message from someone out of the blue. If at all possible I try to at least acknowledge their message if I don’t have time to answer their questions.

I’ve been on this journey for a while now and I’m still learning new things. If there is one lesson that you will learn over and over again on this journey.

Patience is a Virtue

I’ve been doing genealogy for 40+ years. I haven’t been a beginner in a long time. Feeling like I was back at the starting line was very frustrating. Part of the reason that I wanted write this blog. But as life always reminds us, you never know what is going to come your way. Sometimes good, sometimes not.

Its been a while since I last posted on the site.  Life has thrown  a lot of challenges my way since my last post.  Genealogy is about family and understanding who we are and how we got to this place and time. Its not forgetting the roles our ancestors played in getting us to this place and time.

COVID-19 is a reminder that life can be heartbreakingly short. That patience can get us through the tough times. It also reminds us to take some time with those we love. Be patient while we wait in our cars for appointments. Take some time to connect with others in our family that we don’t see often enough.

Take advantage of any free time you have to make those connections. Plan to get together when you can. Be patient and take the time to reconnect. Its worth the time and effort.

Success Equals More Work

I previously posted about helping a couple of adoptees find their birth parents. At this point, I am in the process of tying up some loose ends for one of those cases. I’m now at final report writing stage and pulling documentation together with explanations as need. I have summary information written already for different parts of the process. Now its just pulling everything together as a cohesive whole while tying all the pieces together into a narrative that doesn’t get to technical.

The writing process can sometimes be the most difficult. Especially, when we are talking about the uses of DNA in adoptee research cases. Not everyone understands DNA and while you don’t need to have a Ph.D in Genetics to help adoptees, have a basic scientific understanding of how DNA helps. Conveying those concepts to those without a basic understanding can be difficult and frustrating.  Even those who are teaching can struggle with these concepts from time to time especially if you are only getting part of information as happened at a recent talk I attended.

In the meantime, between working on the research summary, helping the other adoptee I was working with and adding a research review/assistance to another, a busy holiday season, and writing a short guide/review of about getting started in Genetic Genealogy it can be difficult and overwhelming with the steep learning curve.

I am also getting referrals from people I’ve helped now.  It’s great to be able to do something you love and help others at the same time.

Just a quick note. Holidays are a great time to catch deals on DNA kits, gift memberships and on some of the specialized tests at places like Family Tree DNA. Discounts on the higher priced speciality testing can bring the costs within an affordable range.  Keep your eyes open!

Quick Update!

Just wanted to drop a quick note! I hope to be able to get posts up more frequently but I don’t want to make a promise that I’m not sure I can keep.

I’m currently helping two Adoptees find their birth families. One of which just recently met some of their paternal family members and scheduled to met more this weekend. I also have some new found cousins, and several more people I’m working with to help them answer questions about their genetic family trees. Things are more than a little crazy right now in a very good way!

One of the things that came up recently was a question about how you can go from having a possible second cousin to identifying someone’s great grandparents. Then differentiate between siblings (aka grandparents), their children (aka birth parent) and grandchildren to identify your birth parent and half siblings. Then conveying all of that to someone who hasn’t a clue about genetic genealogy. So I am drafting something to help answer those questions that I can share with those that need help understanding.

I have a couple more posts in draft status for the blog. I will be posting once I finish with edits and rewrites.

 

 

 

DNA, a Double-edged Sword

When I decided to take a DNA test, I did it for several reasons. One was to see what my ethnicity would look like. It was after all a search for that ethnic background that started me on my epic journey to find out where my family was from. But that isn’t the only thing that DNA tells us. Sometimes it uncovers hidden stories, family ‘scandals’ and family skeletons.

The big surprise for me was the high percentage of Irish I had in my DNA results. 38%. How is nearly half my ancestry Irish without me knowing it? I can’t say that an Irish component was a big surprise. After all my family came from Virginia along the same paths that the Scots-Irish followed as they left the famines and political unrest of their homelands. There just wasn’t any thing showing up in any of the records that I was looking at that clearly stated “Hey! I’m Irish!”

That was my big surprise in my DNA results. There were other similar results in my parent’s results. Nothing that I was not expecting  or that I was surprised to see since I already had my own surprises. Other than the Irish element, other things were confirmed or at least hinted at in our DNA.

For others, the results aren’t always so benign.

In the course of researching someone’s genetic family tree,  I found myself in the position of introducing two people who would have never known they were related if it wasn’t for a DNA test.

One of them was adopted as a child. They were on a quest to find their birth parents and learn something about their history. For the other, their love of family history led them to take a DNA test along with another family member who shared their passion. Their results uncovered an affair that nobody knew about. Their Genealogical Family Tree and their Genetic Family Trees didn’t match. This person was the result of a NPE, or Non Parental Event. Finding out this information had a profound effect on their life. They were devastated.

For both of them, there is uncertainty. Questions that they may never get the answers to and if they do get answers, there is no guarantee that they will like the answers. I think that we may one day get the answers for both of them.  But for each of them, they are going have to face some difficult discussions and heartbreak if those with the answers are unwilling face the consequence of other peoples actions.

If you haven’t yet tested, take a moment and ask yourself what you would do if you were to find an unexpected results. Not all family secrets stay buried. Think about how you would handle it. If you still want to test after considering the potential consequences,  go ahead and test.

If you have tested and gotten your results, what kind of surprises did you find?

DNA Kits on Sale!

Just wanted to give you a heads up. Pretty much all the major players in the DNA testing kits are having a sale. Ancestry.com and My Heritage have kits on sale currently for $69. Familytreedna.com also has their kit on sale plus they are offering 20% off their other testing. Been thinking about the Big Y-DNA test? or the Mitochondrial DNA test? Now is a great time to take advantage of the lower prices. Now is a good time to stock up.

Not sure which to buy? Ancestry.com and 23 & Me only accept their own kits. You can however transfer their DNA results to other sites for free. Though there may be some additional fees to access some features.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Adventures in DNA!

A look at DNA from view point of connecting family and the journeys it takes us on to make those connections.

Adventures in DNA is where I can talk about my experiences in using DNA for Genealogical purposes and some of the things I’ve learned and experienced because of it. A place where I can share my adventures in using DNA to expand my genealogy research, find family, answer questions, confirm family stories, and all the interesting adventures I have been on and will go on because of it.

I hope that by sharing my experiences I can inspire you to take off on your own Adventures in DNA. I will be exploring techniques, classes, training, research and yes even the science behind it all.

Sharon