DNA Testing: A Pandora’s Box

I received an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas this year. I mailed it back to Ancestry on 12/29/17, and the results are expected to take 6-8 weeks or longer due to the high volume this time of year. Both of my parents have also taken the Ancestry DNA tests, as well as two of my father’s siblings. I’ll post my results when I receive them, but for now, I’ll share each of my parents’ DNA results from Ancestry.

My Mother (C.M.)

I was eager to see the results of my mother’s Ancestry DNA test because we thought she may have some Native American heritage. She is also an only child, so there are no siblings of hers we can test. As it turned out, she didn’t, and the results were pretty much as we expected:

My mother’s paternal grandmother was born in Wales, and her paternal great-grandmother was born in Ireland.  On my mother’s maternal side, her great-great grandfather was born in Canada.

My Father (T.B.)

My father was the first in our family to take the Ancestry test back in 2014, and his ethnicity results were what we expected be based on the paper genealogy trail we had at the time:

Here’s the thing with DNA tests: They are very much a Pandora’s box. They can be very helpful in confirming all of the paper trail research you’ve done and help find new relatives you didn’t know you had, but they can also reveal secrets and surprises.

And this is where things get complicated on my father’s side…

The Beginning

My passion for genealogy began at a very early age, well before the internet revolution. As a young child, I would often sit at the table and watch my father write and mail letters to the vital records departments of various cities such as New York, Hartford, CT, and Bristol, RI. He was meticulous, organized, and took the time to answer every question I asked. If he didn’t know the answer he would tell me so, and then ask me how we should go about finding the answer to the question I asked.

By my teens, I was accompanying my father on genealogical field trips. Many were to out of state big city libraries, and to the state of Vermont’s vital records center. We even drove down to Tarrytown, NY, and went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in search of tombstones for relatives. The trip to Tarrytown, NY is one I’ll never forget.