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  1. #1
    Famous for offering help & advice
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Norfolk
    Posts
    1,359

    Default DNA disproving paper trails?

    Not always due to climbing the wrong tree but the possibility of a naughty ancestor playing away/informal adoption, and DNA ripping apart a chunk of a tree that you have spent years and years researching, ie finding out a 2xgreat grandfather was not the biological father of your great grandparent, thus means they are not a real ancestor? Ignorance is bliss as they say, which is why I wonder if DNA is more harmful than good? And can you bank on DNA, or it is just a guideline?

    I hope to know what are the chances out of 100% that a ancestor listed on the birth cert etc was not the biological father? Was infidelity as common back then as today? Was it more common or less common?

    Some lines I have got back to the 1500s and much before as I found a gateway ancestor recently.

  2. #2
    Knowledgeable and helpful
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Wakefield, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    626

    Default

    What people do not understand about DNA is not all descendants carry some of their ancestors DNA or rather more correctly not all descendants carry DNA that can be identified as the Ancestor's DNA.

    We inherit roughly 50% of our DNA from our father and roughly 50% from our mother, our siblings also inherit roughly 50% of their DNA from each parent but their DNA profile will not be the same as our DNA profile.
    Due to this selection some of our parents DNA is lost with each generation.
    It is possible over time for an ancestor to drop out of the present day profile of a particular line but may still be present in a different line, for instance if John had three children Jack, Jill & Dave we might find present day descendants of Jill & Dave carry his DNA but descendants of Jack do not it all depends on what sections of John's DNA are passed on in each generation and what sections of his wife's DNA are passed on. Each generation loses certain sections of their parents DNA (i.e. the roughly 50% not passed on to their child) that are then not available to future generations.

    Cheers
    Guy
    As we have gained from the past, we owe the future a debt, which we pay by sharing today.

  3. #3
    Loves to help with queries
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Cheshire
    Posts
    180

    Default

    I bought my husband a DNA test on Ancestry and rapidly realized his maternal grandmother Florence had many matches via her mother but not via her supposed father except for two descendants of Florence's brother, half brother, as it turned out. I am now following a whole new family, thanks to DNA matches.

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