One of my sisters is completely obsessed with geneology.com and has been able to trace our family to about 800. Being white and Anglo Saxon definitely helps. I think her favorite part is that we are directly related to the characters represented on the show Vikings. Also randomly coincidental, my mother has called me Lady Godiva, for absolutely no reason my entire life, and it turns out she is my 28th great grandmother. Who knew?

We are cousins, then! I also descend from Lady Godiva. Have always loved horses :). Don't know that I have even ridden nekkid, though.;)

I'm also related to a couple of the more recent presidents, but those aren't direct line. And none that I want to be associated with. I was always kind of horrified that my mom called me Lady Godiva because of the nakedness thing. I was very prim even as a young child. Now I think 1-it's fun that she had (and still has) a special nickname just for me and 2-I have NO problem with nakedness now, so it might be a better fit as an adult than it was as a 4 year old. Not that I'd be riding through any towns naked :)

You're most welcome! I also have the link for Slave Census, if you don't have it.

LOL! In my Brothers' Keeper program I have her occupation as "Social Activist". She made her (in)-famous ride to get her husband to lower the taxes on the people. It worked!!! All the people of the town were instructed to stay inside and cover their windows. The expression "Peeping Tom" came from a young man who dared to peek through a window to see her ride by. :)

After learning of the truly horrendous acts that so many of the Plantagenets and their peers engaged in, I wasn't sure at all I wanted to be descended from them. So I called a client who was the director of Public Health and asked her if their DNA was still in me. Sadly it is, and in abundance as I have so many lines of descent from them. No one is more of a pacifist than I am! Must come from my many female Quaker ancestors. ;)

Yeeeeeeaaaaaah! I just saw the commercial! July 26 new season!

I did it through Ancestry.

I did the Ancestry test and got a fairly large (8%) amount of Scandinavian, which was weird because I have no known ancestors from there. I guess it must be Viking settlers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, so that shows it can go back pretty far.

There was also a small (2%) amount of Iberian, and I have no idea where that came into the picture. Same for 1% North African. Maybe some of my ancestors were Moors.

I sent in a 23andme kit a few weeks back. Haven't gotten the results yet. No medical info available here anymore. :(

I did find it useful.
I knew the majority of my racial background was African based but I was really surprised (kinda sort of) to see all of the other racial/ethnicity's included.

What Ancestry did was to break down by percentages the areas you're from. I'll post my pics when they load.

They give a ton of info about the areas/regions about the people, culture and so forth. I saved my info as a pdf and it's 82 pages long. Yeah.

Now that I'm in the dna database, they also show people (who have also submitted their samples) who I may be related to. 2nd, 3rd, 4th cousins. It's A LOT of people. I really need to hire a pro to help me with all of this.

On my family tree, I managed to go back to the 1790 wall but now I'm at the point of trying to figure out slave owners plus I'm missing info on my dads side. It's a lot but it's been worth it every time I find new information.

The breakdowns
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...b6&oe=56180931

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...f9&oe=56200B33

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...9f&oe=56267968


Edited to add another graphic.
if there is additional information when you click the 'trace regions' link
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...31&oe=56203139

Will do! I'm digging NinjaPoodle's results and I hope 23andme's will be just as cool.

In the meantime, if you type "23andme" into a Google image search, you can get an idea of what some of their health and ancestry reports look like.

Thanks! :)

We're about to do 23andme too explore their different options. I already knew I was Caucasian-AA-NA from previous DNA tests but was surprised that my brother had the same percentages that I did; apparently, it doesn't usually work out that way.

I'm curious about the 23andme health results also. I'll take a look at their site.

Really? I had always thought that they would.

You once mentioned that you used a company that will ensure privacy. Do you remember which one it is? Not that I'm paranoid or anything...!

Just a note for anyone interested in this: 23andme is not allowed to give health interpretations in the US; the FDA gets fussy about it. They will, however, give you your DNA string, which you can punch into a number of other programs to have it interpreted.

Have you read One Drop? It's a book about a man who passed as white (was Louisiana Creole), and his kids didn't find out until they were adults and he was on his deathbed. At the end, there's a discussion of the tests and how they'll skew wildly even among siblings. A blond, blue-eyed man had a higher percentage of African ancestry than his phenotypically "Black" aunt. It's pretty interesting stuff.

Has anyone done both ancestry Dna and 23 and me?

I freely admit that I don't know enough about these kits. I was even given a free kit by ancestry.com, but never used it. I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with people being to access a database and say, "Ha! Honeychile's family has a tendency towards becoming serial killers! We need to keep an eye on her!" or something similar.

That said, I probably will break down and do this eventually. My one lineage on ancestry.com was hijacked by someone, and I'd love to prove her wrong. She has that my ggggg-great-grandfather married a Janet Harvey, and he did not. He married Jeannette Giffin. My mother & I spent about a month's worth of hours proving this marriage, and yet, ancestry.com has bastardized my lineage with Janet Harvey. I'm still fighting the Janet v. Jeannette battle with them and it's terribly frustrating. I'd love to see the DNA results for the Hijacker and for me, to prove who's right on this!

As an aside, when my mother & I decided to get serious about genealogy, we asked ourselves whether we wanted the pedigree societies or our own heritage. We chose our own heritage, wherever that would take us. I'm not about trying to be something I'm not - which is why I'm so frustrated with the Hijacker!!

That is so wild! You just never know what DNA will do. This brother is more phenotypically non-white than I am, yet we had the same results. Our sister is the most phenotypically non-white but I suppose if she got tested, she could end up with either more or less Caucasian DNA. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it!

All of our ancestors who weren't white came from Louisiana. I know that my great great grandmother was NA (the DNA tests only confirmed what we already knew) but all attempts to find out which tribe have come to a dead end. She was probably Coushatta.

I agree. I'm interested in these kits but worried enough about privacy concerns to keep from pulling the trigger.

Might try this:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/09/20/ho...netic-privacy/

Thanks for the heads up.

I have to admit that I missed most of last season's episodes. Tonight's was great, even though a little painful. At least Ginnifer didn't try to cover up her ancestors like Ben Affleck!

How have I never heard of this show? I'm obsessed with genealogy.

Edited to add that I did a two week free trial with Ancestry a couple of years ago. Thanks to my similarly genealogy obsessed dad and a second cousin who gave me info before she passed ( :'( ), I had some good info.

Sorry to hear about your cousins passing but I think she gave you a wonderful gift in giving you family information.

Welcome to the thread. Read through this one because there is a wealth of information you might find useful. I know I did. :)

Ginnifer's episode was heartbreaking but I was glad to see her follow through with her great grand mothers story.

From the previews, I'm really interested in seeing all of the celebs histories but moreso J.K. Rowling and Alfrie Woodard.

My cousin was such a sweetheart. I still tear up when I think about her. :)

I always knew my hubby's genealogy would be way more interesting than mine. He's Swedish on his mom's side and Russian and German on his dad's (apparently, his great grandparents eloped in Paris). Was able to view the immigration records. My fam had been here longer, but loved viewing the census notebooks. Wow! Was also able to see some old pictures. Viewing the Valerie Bertinelli ep now. I know I can't binge watch the whole series, but which eps are especially worth watching?

If you get a chance, Christina Applegate.

Ooh! Will do especially since high school peeps kept on saying I looked like a darker haired version of her. Heck, recently got told that again by a female friend. I always liked "Married With Children" but otherwise never kept tabs on her career.

Did you guys catch J.K Rowling's episode?

JK's episode is on YouTube - it was originally aired on the BBC series of the show, so if you want the narration in a British accent, go for it :)

I need to DVR this show. When does it normally air?

Sunday, 9pm PST

I caught the last half. Alsace-Lorraine is a hard area to research, due to its inability to stay in one country or another.

I really, really want to get back to hardcore research! I'm not sure when that's going to happen, but it best be soon!

Watching Alfre Woodard's episode right now.

Tonight's episode may be a good one for you to watch. It's titled 'Into the Archives' and focuses on highlights from past seasons.

Oh, and I found a person on utoob who has full past episodes
Sherill Angelita
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSd...YhKTk5up0GtlLQ

I DVRed the highlight ep, but haven't watched it yet (the show is now on my regular DVR schedule). Just finished the Bryan Cranston ep. The history of the Cranston men was pretty depressing.

Caught most of it tonight - quite good!

DH keeps wanting to go out after his Sox games, and I keep missing this. I am severely depressed.

THANK YOU!!!! This link could get me out of the serious doldrums!!

:)

When she started singing, I sang with her. Very moving.