Unravelling Your Unique Family Story Through DNA

The arrival of your DNA results opens a portal to new and possibly previously unknown family history, a real Aladdin’s cave or Pandora’s box, depending on the evidence revealed and your point of view! Exciting times are ahead as you discover the new relational connections and unravel the history behind them.

We are an island nation and over the centuries many of our ancestors emigrated to other areas of the globe, so we are not surprised to find that we have relations dotted around the world, especially Australia and USA. However, the surprises can come from our notion that think our family very British and instead our DNA matches start to outline new possibilities and we might find that we are descended from European families.

All adventures are best started with a plan, a list of objectives with a rationalisation of expectations. Most people receive hundreds, if not thousands, of DNA matches and the majority of these are very distant relations, i.e. 4^th cousins.  These relations link through a shared Great Great Great Grandparent and by that point your family tree has 32 Great Great Great Grandparents!

So, at first it is best to target your deployment of resources and expectations to closer relations and then work back. From here on a lot of your decisions will be based on your search successes and where you get results as, unfortunately, not everyone is as interested in their results and so this can lead you to dead ends. Even so, determination and persistence will usually deliver enough data and provide alternative routes to obtain answers.

Your family’s story is as unique as your DNA results and offers an exciting opportunity to have fun and make new and fascinating family discoveries, possibly even debunk a family myth or rattle a skeleton or two in those dusty family cupboards.  Whatever, you now have the amazing opportunity to delve deeper and explore parts of your history that have previously been unknown. The journey has only just begun.