Comment on (i feel really stupid asking, but what the hell!) could i be of french descent?
Pronell@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maps cannot answer that question.
Genealogy could, but has its downsides.
Comment on (i feel really stupid asking, but what the hell!) could i be of french descent?
Pronell@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Maps cannot answer that question.
Genealogy could, but has its downsides.
drbollocks@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 weeks ago
this is from ancestry dna
cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
You’d be better off doing actual genealogy, which involves research, reaching out to family members, combing through dusty family heirlooms, following up on leads and stories, gaining access to historical documents and records, and more and more and more research. It’s not so much a conclusion you’ll come to as a process of discovery you’ll go through and a story you’ll piece together, potentially over a lifetime. If you’re lucky the pieces will be very solid and well supported, but more likely they’ll be hazy and questionable and quite possibly completely false. It will lead you in directions you never would’ve suspected. DNA can sometimes play a part in that process, but it’s no substitute for it. Especially it can help connect you with distant or not-so-distant relatives who may be able to fill in huge pieces of the family puzzle, or may be no help at all, but maybe it will not be about the answers you get as much as the friends you meet along the way. Trite but true.
Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 weeks ago
Yea, a sibling did a DNA anaylis and it doesn’t match what we know (our family history is well understood due to people tracking it since the 1700’s.)
Most people in the US with my surname come from a very small set of immigrants (3 or 4) from about 1700-1800.
The thing is, my genetics are heavily influenced by who each generation married. Easy to see just on the US tree how quickly genetics mix, and it’s not like those immigrants were purely anything either.
actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
In that case, you could be from france, you could be the descendant of people who had emigrated away from france, or you could be related to people who have never had anything to do with friends but possess similar genetic markers to people who come from parts of France. Or, none of the above! That’s the fun part about genetics, it by itself is only a small piece of the puzzle.
Pronell@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ah, then I guess I don’t know how to interpret that.