Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2015

DNA - learning to expect the unexpected

This is the first part in a multi-part blog series about DNA testing and genealogy. After 20+ years of genealogical research, I like to think I know my family history pretty well. As an Aussie, I am a big of a genealogical mongrel, or as my nan used to refer to her dog, Cindy, a “bitsa” as in “bits of this and bits of that”. It’s pretty simple, really: Lots of Scots Lots of Irish Lots of English A smattering of Swedes Four convicts So I was relatively certain of the results of any genealogical DNA test I would do. I imagined it would look something like this: Source: Ancestry.com When I decided to try the Ancestry DNA test, I was a bit put off by the fact that I’d need to gob into a test tube. Someone as classy and sophisticated as me simply does not spit, regardless of the scientific results. But for the sake of science, history, genealogy and my own bloody curiosity I built a bridge and got over this particular wave of discomfort. (This is proof that I am a