ancestry, DNA and Genealogical Society of Salem County

Have you had your DNA analyzed?  A few years ago, I went to the genealogical convention in Philadelphia and purchased a dna kit from ancestry.com because it was discounted for the convention.  I think I paid $69, when, at the time, the kit was going for $100 a were most of the other dan analysis companies such as 23 and me.

It was fun.  I had wished I could have done 23 and me earlier when they were permitted to give you medical information, before the AMA stepped in with federal support and stopped them being able to give you that information on the basis that it should only be disclosed by doctors!

Anyhow, I was surprised at my results when I read them on the ancestry site.  The 52% English, didn't surprise me as my father's line is English.  But the 17% Scandinavian was a total shock as I had, as far as I knew, from my family tree research to date, NO Scandinavian ancestors.  The tip that resolved that little mystery came from two sources.  First, a book I had read about dealt with geographic understandings of DNA.  Naturally, as we well know, borders change, and countries change, and even more importantly, having lived for a couple of thousand years in an institutionalized patriarchy, we rarely think of the female side of our family lines.  

I was well aware of my mother's line, and had done a good bit of research on her Irish ancestry, but nowhere in the DNA analysis did it mention Irish!  Well, a female ancestor from Scotland had married a northern Irish man and together they had come to America.

The Scandinavian, I later supposed must have come from a Danish female ancestor from the Jutland peninsula who married a German. Two strong lines of German ancestry (also not disclosed on the DNA) had come through female ancestors.  My paternal grandmother was from German extraction.  Her mother and father were both descendants of German immigrants.  As it turned out, Jutland had been Danish then German, then Danish, then German.  
And my mysterious "Eastern European" ancestry according to DNA, must have been from the wavering borders on the eastern side of Germany.

Later, ancestry sent e-mail that their DNA analysis had been refined thanks to a greatly increased data base.  So I checked it out and the Eastern European became German and so did a good bit of the Scandinavian.

Anyhow, if you are interested in learning more about any of this here is your chance:

Greetings--

The Genealogical Society of Salem County will host a program on "Navigating AncestryDNA ThruLines" presented by Bonny Beth Elwell on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 at 7:00 pm in the Friends Village Auditorium at One Friends Drive, Woodstown, NJ.

AncestryDNA is currently one of the most popular DNA tests available. The recently introduced ThruLines tool has the potential to assist researchers in determining their connection to their DNA matches. It also has the possibility of misleading researchers to draw false conclusions. Experienced genealogist Bonny Beth Elwell* will explain how to use this new tool and what pitfalls to avoid. She will also demonstrate a few additional new tools available on Ancestry.com.
This program is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.gsscnj.org, call 609-670-0407 or email genealogicalsocietysalemcounty@gmail.com.

By the way, I had also hired * Bonny Beth Elwell to help me complete a large form family history chart.  She is enormously helpful and very inexpensive in her fee for genealogical assistance.  She would be a good one to hire to help you get started and then later to help when you hit snags or dead ends.  She also resolved a couple of sticky family history questions I had run into and was unable to figure out.  

Happy Trails,

Jo Ann

wrightj45@yahoo.com