Just recently I received my AncestryDNA kit results and I can honestly say I was pretty shocked by them. For the most part, on my father’s side, my family has been in this country since the Mayflower - or came on ships that followed soon after.  Others came down through Canada from Nova Scotia. Everything I knew about my Dad’s side of the family brought me back to England and Scotland. My mother’s side is a bit different since the majority of her family only goes back in the United States a few generations. Most of her family came over from Ireland in the 1800s, with the exception of her grandfather who came over from Italy with his family in 1909.

Knowing all of this I asked myself, “How much can the test really tell me?” Through all that I have found on my own, I figured my ethnicity would mainly originate on the British Isles with a small percentage of Italian. That was not the case.

What were my results?

According to my DNA, I am 53% Scandinavian, 37% Southern European, 8% British Isles and there was a small 2% that was marked “Uncertain.” I was confused.

Scandinavian? Where the hell did that come from? What I thought would be my largest ethnic percentage ended up ranking third?

The results made me question what else I could learn about my family through my results and AncestryDNA. To get a better understanding, I took a look at how the test worked.

AncestryDNA uses a new DNA technology called autosomal testing. The main differences between this new technology and previous tests used are that autosomal testing examines a much larger portion of your DNA and it covers both the maternal and paternal sides of your family. Previous tests only cover one or the other and a significantly smaller portion of your DNA. So, with the help of expert population geneticists and molecular biologists, autosomal testing gives us genealogy nuts a bigger and more complete picture of our family in one DNA test.

Not only was I surprised by how convenient and easy it was to take this test, I am now excited by the other features AncestryDNA offers to make further use of my results. With my results, I got a list of matches that show me other AncestryDNA users who I may be related to based on our DNA.

With a subscription to Ancestry.com, you are able to reach out to that match and work together to figure out your common link. To make the search easier, the site even provides you and your match with a list of shared surnames from your trees. I have already reached out to one of my matches and I’m excited to start working with him to learn more about my family! Another feature I love is their interactive map, which pinpoints places of birth for everyone you have entered on your tree. It is pretty fascinating when you can see where all of your known ancestors had to travel from for you to be here. It has also made me more curious to find out the reasons behind their moves.

Now that I have my results, and have gone through all the features and have a better understanding of how the test works, I’ve learned to look at the bigger picture. All this time I had viewed my ethnicity as based strictly off of the countries my family came to the United States from, without putting much thought into where their ancestors originated. Being marked 53% Scandinavian by my DNA, I realize that my family tree will eventually lead me back to Norway, Sweden or Denmark.

Taking the history of those locations into account, this possibly brings my family back to Viking times. Vikings were known as merchants, explorers and feared as violent pillagers by coastal towns. Being well-traveled explorers, their adventures took them to nearby England, Ireland and Scotland as well as several other far off lands to establish villages. Knowing this, I am now able to see how Scandinavian descent may have dominated my results.

I can honestly say I am very happy with my decision to try AncestryDNA and am excited to see where this new information takes me! Not only has it given me some insight to my family’s past it is giving me the ability to reach out to others who may share it. The best part is that over time, my list of matches will only continue to grow as more people take the test. Who knows, after taking the AncestryDNA test you could find yourself trading family notes with a long lost cousin and ghost hunter.

Contributed by Kris Williams, Genealogist & star of SyFy’s Ghost Hunters International 

Twitter: @KrisWilliams81

Ancestry.com is not just for tracing family roots. It can also be a medium to connect with missing family. For 30 years, we were aware of the existence of my husband’s biological brother and sister but had no place to look.

My mother did all the genealogy work for me before she passed away so I joined Ancestry.com to put it all into one place. It has been several years now and I have lots of information. On the off-chance that my husband’s biological family might be on Ancestry.com too, I recently changed his information to the biological family name.

Four weeks ago we got an email from a lady who was looking for her cousin’s mother. As soon as I saw the email, I knew that the cousins were the missing brother and sister. This has been a remarkable process and we are meeting them for the first time in July.

There are other Gaulthier children out there and we may never find them, but I wouldn’t bet on it. Thanks to Ancestry.com, one of life little mysteries has been solved.

My sister’s and I inherited several boxes when my mother past away full of family goodies from the mid 1800 to 2001.  But one funeral card we found in one of the boxes had an unfamiliar name.  We searched looking for a connection, thinking and brain storming who could it be.  Finally looking through the 1940 census, the man on the funeral card was my grandfather’s next door neighbor.  He passed away one week after the 1940 census was taken.  One mystery solved many, many more to conquer.

I remember my mother and friend gossiping about “the line” which referred to the supplemental questions that appeared twice on each 1940 census page. “Did you know that so-and-so was ‘on the line’ when the enumerator arrived?”  To my surprise, it was my mother who was “on the line.”  The info at the bottom of the page didn’t add much to what I knew, but if one of your family members is “on the line” be sure to check the bottom of the page.

WAJoyce

I was able to work on the 1940 census with my Mom.  She turns 80 this coming Jan.  We not only found Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins.  We found the doctor that delivered my and the doctor that delivered my father 81 years ago.  My father was the first C-section done in Murphysboro, Ill.  One doctor read the instructions from a book while the other preformed the operation.

Just going through the 1940 Census jogged my parents memories and the stories just kept coming.  What a great way to spend some quality time with my parents.