Agreed! That's why I said it always sparks a lively debate! I'm not chasing dead people...I'm researching my past and my family history and stories. I have no plans to contact my third cousin twice removed. I want to know my family branches on my side, and DH wants to know his tree as well. Both our sons are very interested also. One son presented a research project (as part of his graduation thesis)on his ancestors that tied into landownership, geology, and geography all based on my findings! I enjoy the journey.

My sister did it; shows a lot of Irish and European in our background but nothing relative related. She also did a lot on genealogy with our mom; related to Miles Standish on our mom's side and have some french royalty on my dads side but she never did much research on my dad's side unfortunately. Most all my dads side have passed away. But no lost relatives but not sure she was looking for any. Although my mom did find 4 half siblings she never knew about; that she did get to meet and stayed in close touch with one of them. She'd always thought she was an only child. I was happy for her.

I, too,am adopted. I am also an orphan now; no family members left. My daughter would like to know, but no way to confirm anything now. I'm not worried and she does not have any major health problems, so I think she should let it go.

I am a bit leery about all of these www's. My uncle, who is LDS, posted a lot of erroneous information on the LDS site. My father did extensive research of public records and verified the "stories" passed down. When my dad would tell my uncle that his information (from his memory) was incorrect, the argument began.............

The erroneous information is still posted on the LDS site.

I have not done it yet, have been thinking about it for a while. Not sure what if anything I would find out. I know very, very little about either side of my family history. I know a tiny bit of my mother's side and NOTHING of my father's. The only reason I haven't yet is I'm not sure what the actual consequences could / would / might be for giving up such intimate privacy.

Maybe this is a stupid question, but I have wondered if the results would be the same if you sent your DNA to two different labs. Has anyone done that? I've have my DNA done by My Heritage. If I sent my DNA to Ancestry.com would it be exactly the same?

I read an article about that and one lady sent her dna to 4 companies, if I remember her article right she did get slightly different results. She was also highlighting how the different companies give different data. Not ness. different as in one wrong, but different as in concentrating on different tests or results.

Kassaundra is correct--each company basically targets certain features. I've most familiar with Ancestry DNA and it does not check health markers like 23 & Me, etc. Basically, it gives you information on what percentage of your markers are from different areas of the world. That can and does change a little overtime as more people enter their DNA and the pool to draw comparisons from enlarges. It does give you possible 1st, 2nd,3rd & 4th cousin matches (sibs too) IF they have also had their DNA tested--otherwise you do not get that info. It also lets you link to public record family trees on their site IF you pay their fee. Ancestry allows anyone to build their family tree in the site if a member, but most importantly, they have digitalized many, many records--ship manifests, census, military records, land titles, some newspapers, birth & death, marriage records. Anyone working on a genealogy should be verifying all information with records--technically if you don't have a verification you can not include it other than an aside.

BTW---Homo Sapiens all came from Zimbabwe AFrica (current name) and migrated to Middle East, Asia, Europe and eventually North America. Neanderthals started in Europe--4 yrs of Anthropology classes!

I have an extensive family tree on my mother's side as the records were kept in the Mennonite church. The only issue I have with DNA is WHO gets it and WHAT will they do with it? I can see both good and bad from having it out in the public domain. Especially concerning medical for folks who have specific types of disease that runs in a family. I don't even like to put stuff like that on a dr's questionnaire to be honest.

I am curious how far back this information can go. I have a published history of my father's family back to late 1600/early 1700's in Germany. My mother's family, only to her grandparents. Would this be beneficial to me?