My brother and my wife spent some time

[multigraincracker]

yesterday researching their genealogy. Ours and hers. I’m not all that interested in it, but listened to them.
I can see how folks can like to do it, just on my back burner. The big surprise to me is a possible link to the Duke of Earl. I always liked that song. Other than that, I’d bet I have very few if any genes that match. They get drowned out pretty fast over the generations. How do feel about yours?

[Skittles]

1. I couldn't believe I was only 5% British

my mum was born and raised English to the core

my cousin found out his "half-brother" was actually a full brother......

[multigraincracker]

2. Lots of surprises for some in DNA results.

Family secrets that were never told.

[Skittles]

3. I know the Vikings got around but jeez, THAT much?

I remember hearing about a great-grandfather who was left on a doorstep, I'm guessing he had Viking horns (I am 80% Norwegian and 15% Swedish)

my mum has passed, it would have broken her heart to find this out

[Ocelot II]

5. They did. I learned from a DNA test that my Norwegian mother had a tiny smidgen of Irish ancestry

and there's no other explanation, no record of any Irish relatives on that side of the family, which kept very good family records. The Vikings founded Dublin, after all.

[Skittles]

7. I was inspired to do the test by a coworker

her results were fascinating, Africa, Asia, Europe, Jewish, etc

mine was just......pasty white

[Ocelot II]

8. Me, too. I was hoping for something a bit more exotic than Norwegian and Scottish.

Oh, well, at least I probably won't be kicked out of the country by Stephen Miller.

[Skittles]

9. OMG you actually used the same word I did

I wanted to see at least a TRACE of something exotic!

[Ocelot II]

4. It's kind of interesting. If you go back far enough, everybody is probably related to everybody else -

For each generation your number of ancestors doubles, (4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, etc.), and one generation is 30 years, so you'll be able to account for dozens of ancestors by the time you get to the American Revolution - with the result that you'll have zillions of shirttail cousins now. My dad got into genealogy years ago and found some relatives in Northern Ireland, one of whom looked uncannily like my great-aunt even though the common ancestor was alive almost 200 years ago. On my mother's side a Norwegian cousin in Bergen I didn't know I had started assembling a family tree on Geni, which now goes back to the 16th century and features some 700 names. It seems like a lot of work but fun if you like digging in old records.

[Diamond_Dog]

6. My sister did some research

And found pretty much nothing we didn’t expect, with one exception that we have some Romanian ancestors
in addition to the Polish and German. It is interesting.

[MLAA]

10. My mom's family was big in genealogy. President Obama and I have the same 13th great grand grandfather. So I proudly

claim him as a cousin though I’m not yet on his Christmas card list. Maybe this year. 🙂