Sunday, June 24, 2012

DNA and Genealogy

For a long time, maybe since middle school science, I have been fascinated by DNA. It is truly amazing how God created us!  Over the last decade advances have been made in DNA testing for genealogists and now Ancestry has a DNA program.

You can read about AncestryDNA HERE.  We will be participating in it using my husband's DNA and later I would also like to do mine, since they can use both the male and female DNA lines now.  Since we don't know much about Hubby's background, this is an adventure.

So now, we sit and wait...

Have any of you done DNA testing in your family research?

My Wolcott family participated in a DNA study which I was unable to do, being female.  The line I descend from, Silas Wolcott had been incorrectly placed in the descendants of Henry Wolcott.  Through participation of male descendants in the study, we were able to determine genetically where the family fit in.  It's kind of an interesting story, so if you are bored or a history buff or genealogy geek, you can read about it at the bottom of this page, where it talks "The Illusive Wilcotts".

Hopefully our DNA adventure will lead us down exciting new paths!

3 comments:

anitab said...

DNA testing is fun! My family (Brown) has never known anything about my great-grandfather, George Eugene Brown, except for some family stories. (He was adopted by a family named Baker.)
When my brother moved to Virginia, they saw a photograph of a man (last name of Brown) in the Appomattox Courthouse, who looked exactly like my brother! We were sure we were related. I researched his family, and met a descendant of one of his brothers, online at Ancestry. Last fall her brother and my brother had DNA testing done.
We couldn't believe it, but we weren't related!
However, through another site (where I entered the markers from the Ancestry testing) we did learn that we are part of Brown Group 10.
Still trying to track down clues!!
:)

Anonymous said...

My husband took part in a DNA study that linked him to a line that had been traced back to the Revolutionary War. My family has not been interested enough in genealogy to have made any serious inroads on research.

Forget Me Nots Design said...

Very exciting to hear these positive success stories!