My Ancestry.com DNA Results: Not Really Surprised, and A Little Surprised!

Not Really Surprised

I got my DNA results from the test that I did through Ancestry.com. I wasn’t really surprised on my genetic results.  My father was born in Ireland, and his side was basically 100% Irish as far back as we can tell. My mother's maternal side is also 100% Irish, as all four of her maternal great-grandparents were born in Ireland. On her paternal side, all but one set of her great-grandparents were born in Ireland. Her paternal grandmother was Lucy Rachel Henderson, and we have traced her family back pretty far. Some of her ancestors were in the US in the late 1600's, and some came from England and the Alsace-Lorraine Region (Germany or France, depending on the time period). If you look at the percentages, they are pretty accurate from what I have found of my family history!

- The genetic breakdown they say for Ireland are primarily Ireland, Wales and Scotland, with some England and France. 

- The Europe West breakdown is primarily Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein, but also found in England, Denmark, Italy, Slovenia, Czech Republic. 

- Great Britain's breakdown is primarily England, Scotland, and Wales, but also in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy.

No Native American

Sorry, kids! No Native American on my side. We will have to test your father to see if there is any Native American from his side.

  

A Little Surprised!

The part that I was a little surprised about was that there were so many DNA matches with people who either had a private tree on Ancestry.com, or had no tree at all associated to their account! That makes it so you can't find the match, and isn't very useful to you.

The only way you can see a private tree is by emailing them and asking them to grant you access to their tree. I have emailed people to get access to their trees because we have a strong DNA match. Most people are fine letting you see their tree, and are very nice about it. I was surprised though by two people who flat out refused access, and said they looked at my tree and don't see where we are a match, so they wouldn't let me see their tree. Maybe if I see their tree, I would see something that might lead me to where one of my ancestors or one of their ancestors came from, or I may be able to figure out something that would lead me or them in the right direction. Very frustrating where they can see my tree, but I can't see theirs. :( 

Still Worth It

All in all, I found my results very interesting, and I am digging into them. There were many public trees I could look at. I am corresponding with, and even talking to some nice people who are related in some way, however distantly. It's interesting, and hopefully I can give them some insight, as well as getting some insight myself! I have made some definite connections. More later.

Wedding Day, February 18, 1950

 My parents were married February 18, 1950 at St. Gertrude Church, in Chicago, Illinois. They were married thirty one years before my Dad died. They had a happy marriage, gracing them with three children. They wanted more children, but that did not happen. My Mom had six miscarriages at various stages of pregnancy, the latest at 24 weeks along. Six little angels in Heaven with them.

They had a lot of good times, and many good friends. Happy Anniversary in Heaven, Mom and Dad!

Lois getting ready for her wedding.

Entering the Church on a snowy morning.

Tom Lynch, Helen Manning Flynn and Emmett Costello

Missy Flynn

 

 

 

 

 

Marcia McGoldrick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roy Flynn walking Lois down the aisle

St. Gertrude Church

The happy couple

Kissing the bride

Jim McGoldrick giving a toast to Lois and Chuck

Emmett Costello

Patrick McGoldrick, Mary O'Brien McGoldrick, Sarah Henderson O'Reily, don't know who, Lucy Henderson Flynn, Tom Flynn, Anne Gabriel Flynn, Roy Flynn and Helen Manning Flynn

Jim McGoldrick, Emmett Costello and Chuck McGoldrick singing Irish songs.

Lois and Chuck with Nelle and Roy Flynn

Lois and Chuck with Mary and Patrick McGoldrick

Lois and Chuck with her grandmother, Lucy Flynn

Welcome to my blog

I have been doing Genealogy for about 10 years. My Mom got me started. She was a keeper of the stories, and boy, did she have the stories. She loved to talk…she even talked when no one was listening, or we were only partially listening. Sounds like how my teenagers listen today.  Part of the reason I got so into Genealogy was to have something to talk to my Mom about, and engage her in conversation other than about her aches and pains and how she was loosing her eyesight. It gave us both something else to focus on, and she had some interesting family stories…at least I thought so. People couldn’t believe her age, because she was so spunky!!

                Mom said she started collecting family info when she was little. I did the same in a way, cataloging things in my mind, and on paper. Luckily, she wrote a lot down, and did a lot of research later on. She started putting it all on the computer in the mid 1990’s using Personal Ancestral File, or PAF. She submitted info to One World Tree. When she started losing her eyesight, I took over.

                We lost Mom on October 10^th, 2011. She was 93 years young, and lived a very full life.  At the end, she had a series of strokes that took her ability to communicate away. She could talk, but it wasn’t meaningful conversation, and while they sometimes were complete sentences, they often didn’t make sense. She refused to eat much, because she didn’t want to be the way she was, and didn’t want to be in a nursing home. She got weaker, and lost her ability to walk due to the weakness, and losing muscle strength. A vicious circle.  

Lois Jane Flynn, about 9 years old

                I miss being able to pick up the phone and talk to her, or to answer her phone calls, even if it was to explain how to use the TV remote for the 100^th time! Lately I have been making some discoveries in our Family History, and each time, my immediate thought was I wanted to share it with Mom. I would usually do that, call her and tell her my latest discovery. Now that I can’t do that, I have decided to write about it. It is my way of telling Mom my discoveries. I think she would like that!