Several years ago, my late sister pushed me to do a DNA test through an online company. I finally did do it via Family Tree DNA.
I initially did a test that traces back on my male line, through my father, his father, and so on.
My impression was that most of the information the test turned up was too distant to be of any interest. I mean, what does it matter if I shared a common ancestor with someone 20 generations ago?
Then I recently added a different test that analyzes DNA inherited through both parents. It has turned up possible links that are somewhere between 2nd cousins and 5th cousins.
I sent off general emails to several, suggesting that I would be interested in figuring out if or how we are related.
It has turned up one Lind family link, and another that seems to tied to one of my mom’s ancestors with the surname Thomas.
And today I heard from a Maori woman in New Zealand.
She writes:
I am in New Zealand and am Maori. My mother was full blooded Maori but my father was of Scottish, English Maori descent. Our Great Great Grandfather William Robinson came from England and is of English/Scottish descent. He came as a soldier with the English Army. When they came to our province of Taranaki, they did not like what was happening with our ancestors, and so they left the Army. He married one of our ancestors, Roka Matarau from here in Manaia, New Zealand in the Hokianga, on 1 February 1862. Our Tribe is Ngaruahine and our (Hapu) Sub-Tribe is Ngati Tu. Their son William Pire Robinson was sent by his mother Roka to Ngati Tu (Manaia), when he was a teenager to find her people and her land. He was 18 when he filed for her land in the court here in Taranaki, but unfortunately this was unsuccessful. Our Great Grandfather William Pire married our Great Grandmother Te Rawanaki from here in Ngatu Tu. From this marriage my Grandfather was their first born. There were two more brothers and a sister. I believe our Great Grandmother passed away and as was the norm in those days William Pire married the Niece Te Araroa. They had 3 sons.
So I know, via family stories, that both my mother and father had relatives who ended up in Australia and New Zealand. But figuring out potential ties is probably above my meager understanding of genealogy and DNA matching.
But my sister discovered a 2nd cousin in Auckland–our grandfathers were brothers–and I’ve visited her several times over the past few years.
Maybe the DNA tests will succeed in finding other relatives that aren’t too much more distant than that connection.
It’s very interesting to see how families have spread as people have migrated throughout the world even in just a few generations.
If you’re reading this and have gotten into tracing DNA ties, I would be interested in suggestions for learning more.
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Ian, if you do get feedback on ways to trace DNA ties that are more specific please share with us!
How fun! Shows how we are all more connected than separate. I did the Nat Geo Human Genome Project about 15 years ago and it was fun to see the haplotype and see the general paths of far off ancestors. Last year I took the Ancestry DNA test, because we ended up finding a half sister (who had been born and adopted out without any of the family knowing.) She and a first cousin once removed both happened to take the test and got a match! I also found out that–according to their results–I’m 19% Italian/Greek. I had NO idea. For Christmas our little family bought the 23 and Me tests. They’re being processed now. It’ll be interesting to see what, if any, differences in ethnicity the tests report.
“Then I recently added a different test that analyzes DNA inherited through both parents. It has turned up possible links that are somewhere between 2nd cousins and 5th cousins.”
Ian, you never named this second test. I’m sure I am not the only one interested. Mahalo.
Ian it sounds like your first test was for y dna that only men can do and your second was an autosomal dna test which was for both mother and father ethnic sides and both men and women can take this test. I did mine through ancestry.com from what I understand they are the best for finding relatives since their database is one of the largest if not the largest. Most ancestry dna tests are going for the autosomal since you get more info. The y and mitochondrial tests are just for your haplogroups. However, 23 and me has a 2 tier price one for health and ethnicity (also haplogroups) about $200.00 where you get to find out if you can smell asparagus in your pee, or just ethnicity $99.00. If you’re interested ancestry.com test has a sale $69.00 for their autosomal test till Feb. 25, 2018. Also with the ancestry test they break down the asian ethnicity to south, central, south east asian, polynesian, and native american some of the other tests just list you as asian/native american. Ian, are you planning to do Gedmatch.com it’s free and you can do things like match up your raw dna results with Kennewick man and other archaic dna also match with others on other dna websites. Also, Prometheuse will take your raw dna and find out if there are medical problems like diabetes etc. I think they charge you about $5.00. I rather like gedmatch because they get into more detail but there isn’t too much information on how to use it, I think it’s geared for egghead genetists.
I did that too and was pleasantly surprised to see additional cousins, some I was already friends on facebook. I know of a person who found out their father had a brother they never knew and another that her father wasn’t related to their grandmother (which explained why she treated her father so horribly). Interesting…and totally worth the hundred bucks to do it.