SSStitches

I did search my great grandmother. We had no info on her prior to her coming into Canada. I was very excited to find her and family info in France. Translating the French has stopped me. One day I will continue. I want to learn more. It is a facinating puzzle!

Sue Nelson

Yes, I have been a member of Ancestry for a number of years. I so much enjoy finding my roots. I have done several differant branches of my family and found so very interesting things. And on some have went back to the 1300's. I also just done my DNA and I can't wait for the results.

c joyce

Our three children are adopted and are not blood related. Our youngest daughter's MIL gave her a DNA kit for Christmas. She threw it in the garbage and told her, "My family is not in my mouth." I feel the same way. I am who I am and don't need to take a test that gives dubious results at best. Her husband, an identical twin, did the test as did his twin and they received different results. Be proud for who you are regardless of famous or infamous forefathers/mothers. It may be a fun project, but in the end it does not really matter who was your relative hundreds of years ago. Just fun and sometimes interesting facts to pass along to other family members.

pchp

My husband and I have done some research, both in the past and more recently. He has connected with "lost" relatives who have shared photos of ancestors they had which my husband did not. It can be very interesting to solve "mysteries," too. Like others who have commented, it is a good hobby for some, but not for everyone.

HettyB

I worked in IT for years and lean towards the cautious side (have the tin hat to prove it) before giving out any info and especially DNA.

This is suggested reading
https://gizmodo.com/what-dna-testing...ies-1819158337

According to the article, for those who allow their DNA for research purposes...
Essentially, you are buying a test from genetic testing firms so that they can then make more money by selling your DNA for research purposes. The hope is that important discoveries—say, a gene responsible for Alzheimers—come from all this information. But if your DNA is the golden ticket, all of the companies have terms that say you get zip.

My worry is that eventually these companies will link up with insurance companies.

Also, remember that Irish, French etc are nationalities not ethnicity. And the tests are not as accurate as they claim to be.

sewn3w

I entered info on Ancestry.com. Went back some time later to update info and found someone had changed my father's name. So corrected it. Found my mother's birth info had been changed. I corrected that. Went back to update after another family change. Oh yeah you guessed it. I found my parents info was changed to incorrect names for both of them the 2nd time. Mother's birth I fo wrong again. So I left it and Ancestry.com completely.

Cautionary tale. If you use that site may I suggest you confirm info with outside sources.

grannie cheechee

My family on my mom's side was traced back to 1600's, and they were medical people. Some were mid wives, and in later yrs were trained (educated in schools) and my generation of course didn't know about the old medical family. My brother was a Hosp. Administrator, our cousin was a clinical specialist on neurosurgery, and I did labor and delivery. I can't keep up with the later generations, but we have a lot more nurses now. I wonder if its all in the bloodline. LOL I don't care about the DNA test because they seemed to be mostly eastern European with a little bit of something thrown in to balance the percentage.

LenaBeena

Yes, we had our DNA tested and found many relatives. It has been wonderful! "If you don't know where you've been, you can't know where you're going" to paraphrase a well known quote. It was so interesting to learn our biological roots. You can have a familyline going back generations to France, and not be French; or any other country. Borders are lines drawn from battles, take overs by royalty, disease, wars, migrations, etc. We call ourselves Americans but we all came here from other countries. Unless you are Native American. Have connected with many of our cousins and greatly increased our big family tree. I highly encourage all to try it. Find info on what factors are present, this is scientific, maybe not what your family history thinks, or maybe adds to it. We especially were interested in my husbands line as his father was adopted, and we had not knowledge of his actual parents. Seems accurate records were not kept back there. Now we have some knowledge.

NanaCsews2

Similar story here. Received legit info from a relative that has been doing family history for many years. I found her only because of Ancestry. She gave me immediate family info only, not generations of lineage. I understood as she took the time to do all the work, guess I was should do the same. Went on the site after some time, and found out a niece had copied info from an entry by someone who 'believed' our relatives were his, so she entered all his info into our family tree. Made quite a mess. You have to dig deep to get the real facts. Many merely click a link and if some of the info is correct, enter it into their family tree. I would never rely solely on Ancestry.com. Find dates, locations, names, and check libraries, churches, cemeteries etc. closest to that info and if info matches up, you are probably on the right track. It takes many many hours of digging and searching and recording. I put my searching on hold until I can find several hours straight in a day for months to get more info that I know will be enlightening and beneficial for generations to come.

Teen

This is pretty cool to discover a history of helping profession/medical careers. My family descended from scoundrels....some are still scoundrels. Lol... Oh well....