Lilian's Tree

Way back in October 2013, I took my first DNA test, with FamilyTree DNA and wasn't surprised by the results. In fact I was disappointed, until friends explained that it confirmed my paper trail. Ethnicity Estimate, British Isles    87% Scandinavia    10% Trace                 3% Nothing happened until RootsTech 2017 and a new testing company, LivingDNA, came on the scene. So in May 2017, I again scraped my cheek and sent it of for testing.  Again I wasn't really that surprised with the results. Ethnicity Estimate, Europe             98.8% Central Asia       1.2% February 2018, saw me take a test with MyHeritage, only to find that both FamilyTree DNA and MyHeritage use the same testing company. Something I wish I had known before I tested. My results weren't that different. Ethnicity Estimate, Europe      100%    Thi...

Now the title of this post might have you scratching your head and wondering, 'what is she going on about?'  But if you belong to the Society of Australian Genealogists,  https://www.sag.org.au/   you will know what I'm talking about. Twice a year the Society has 'Lost In' weekends, covering a wide range of topics, some are face-to-face and some are webinars. Both are great. This past weekend was held at the Portside Conference Centre, Sydney, on Saturday and Sunday. Some of the group, early on Saturday morning. The room was filled, both days. The topic for the weekend was DNA and whilst we aren't NCIS Agents, looking for a killer, we are still trying to find that elusive ancestor, who is just out of our reach. Or so they thought! Saturday was a warm, humid day in Sydney, just the sort of day you want, when digging for ancestors. The Society had put together a varied program, so that novices and experts were covered. Martyn Killion was our chair and sta...

                                            Next month I’m attending a two day seminar on DNA and as I know next to nothing about mine, I’m spending some time looking at my three DNA test results. This test was done through My Heritage and it didn’t give me any surprises. My paper trail shows English, Irish, Scottish and German heritage, so this is pretty close. (Not a full breakdown shown.) Europe                            100% North and West Europe           82.6% Irish, Scottish, and Welsh       60.4% Scandinavian           ...

Please note that those names marked with * have been changed, as they are still living. My name, well I wrote the post. May/June 1922, cold days and colder nights, when a 22 year old woman leaves her baby son at a train station, in Sydney. Given the name Peter*, it will take until nearly his 96th birthday for that man to finally have a name for his birth mother. Over the past couple of years I've tested my DNA with FamilyTreeDNA and late last year made contact with Wendy*, as a DNA match, being my 3rd - 5th cousin. Her Dad, Peter came in as a 2nd - 4th cousin. We compared shared centimorgans, looked at it from every angle and tried to work out how we matched. We had also looked at all the other matches we shared, with no luck. Wendy and I have had coffee and discussed this, looking at the family tree I had, of my paternal side. Now my great-grandparents had 15 children, 13 grew up, 11 married and had children, so somewhere in that mix was a match. Well we hoped so. Applying...

Feeling very sleepy but the day is young, so well... The second session was preceded by a Rootstech Rewind, featuring Tan Lee from 2015,  a Vietnamese-Australian telecommunications entrepreneur, is a co-Founder of  Emotiv . She was named the 1998  Young Australian of the Year . Her talk was about her life journey,  it was very moving. Beautiful. I then settled down to watch Understanding DNA Testing for Genealogy, with Jim Brewster, from Family Tree DNA.  While it was good and I learnt new things about my FamilyTreeDNA results, which might be helpful, it did get technical . Sorry to see that the room wasn't full again. Jim Brewster My third session of the day is with Amy Johnson Crow and Curt B. Witcher on 'How not to leave your genealogy behind.'  They both spoke about how we leave our genealogy, for future generations.  Amy asked, 'Who knows your password?' For genealogy, photos, etc. She mentioned Legacy Contacts. Where you set-up ...

Back in 2013 I decided to have my DNA done, to see where I came from. I used Family Tree DNA and waited for the results and I was disappointed. My origins were exactly where I had worked out my ancestors came from, 100% European. I have now joined an Irish Facebook page and think that I may have made contact with a very distant cousin. She has had her DNA done and has it uploaded to Gedmatch. I am now trying to figure out how I can get my results on the same site, to compare. Will keep you posted as to how I go. This is going to be very interesting. Bye for now, Lilian.