When Researching Your Ancestry, DNA Testing Can Have Surprising Results

When trying to determine your ancestry, DNA testing can help you at least to determine a starting point. For instance you may have been adopted as a young child and don’t have any recollection of your natural parents or relatives. Thus, you also can’t be certain of your ethnic or racial origin. Appearances aren’t everything and one young woman was shocked to find out that after 24 years of believing her ancestors were African she was really more than twenty five percent Indigenous American. When you are unsure of your ancestry, DNA testing can give you enough of a glimpse into the past to put you on the right path of discovery.

While researching your ancestry, DNA testing cannot provide you with your entire family history but it can help you prove or disprove research you’ve already conducted and give clues regarding your ethnic origin. It can additionally tell you if 2 individuals are related or descended from the same ancestor and if you are related to others who share the same surname.

The knowledge that you’ll gain from DNA research into your family history typically falls into one of three historical categories and each offers totally different insights into your genetic makeup and historical origins. The first is the modern era that falls from the present time back to around 1500 AD. Throughout this time span documented records where kept as fathers passed surnames down to their children. This will be the easiest time frame for you to research simply because people were starting to keep accurate records.

You can conduct your research for your family tree online and at libraries, city halls, churches, archives, etc. However your best supply of information might simply be in your own home. Check attics and basements and old desks that may have documents tucked into the drawers. Ask your relatives to do the same. Look for things like marriage, birth and death certificates, service records, insurance papers, even stacks of old personal and love letters will contain valuable information concerning your lineage.

Once you’ve determined that you may share a common ancestry, DNA testing can be used to either prove or disprove your research findings. However be warned. Many people have had DNA testing performed and been surprised at the results they’ve received. Most DNA testing suppliers will warn you beforehand that the information you receive might be life altering. The second time-frame that your research will take you to is the time back from the fifteen century, the time of the classical writers and the Roman occupation of Britain. Your DNA test results could reveal that you are of Scandinavian descent or that your tribe followed Ghengis Khan across Europe. It will be much more difficult to find data from this era merely because there was no organized record keeping but wouldn’t it be fun to know that your ancestors once roamed the Mongolian Steppes.

And of course the third timeframe you’ll come to in your research lies even earlier still, well beyond the scope of either your research into your ancestry, DNA results and even family stories. But with the results you’ll be better able to imagine your ancestors sailing down the Nile with Cleopatra.

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