Overcoming Brick Walls in Your Family Tree with a Genealogy DNA Test • • FamilySearch Blog
Overcoming Brick Walls in Your Family Tree with a Genealogy DNA Test • • FamilySearch Blog
Today, many people are turning to DNA testing to overcome brick walls in their family history research. When you are unable to find informat…
Comments
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I have my DNA but don't know how or where to put it. Roland D. Young
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Thank you for your feedback. FamilySearch doesn't have any capability for uploading DNA. Work with the company with whom you took your DNA test for help on analyzing.
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We know who my wife's great grandfather, wife and children were, but we have no idea about his family prior to that. Her grandmother did have a brother but he had no children. How can we use DNA to find her great-great grandparents? Since there are no males on that side, a Y DNA test won't help, and I don't see how a mitochondrial test will help on her great grandfather's side. She has taken an Autosomal test which we have tied to Ancestry, but since there are no common ancestors from her tree (it just doesn't go back that far) I'm not sure how that helps. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks
Dave
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My DNA is with 23 and Me. Do you have access to that?
Thank you
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FamilySearch doesn't have any capability for uploading DNA.
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Is there a way to share my familySearch tree with family on ancestry so they are able to view my tree?
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FamilySearch accounts are free for everyone. Encourage your family to create a FamilySearch account and they will be able to see any deceased person in the community tree.
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How do I get a DNA test done and how much does it cost?
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My Brick Wall story - finding my paternal Grandmother.
She died in 1955 when I was 2 years old and all I knew about her life, was what my mother had passed down to me. Which was: Her name was Annie Maybury; she was from Aberdeen, Scotland; one of her parents died when she was young and she was sent to live with relatives in Ireland, whom she said she 'wanted nothing to do with that lot' after immigrating to New Zealand.
I obtained her marriage certificate, which stated her mother was Annie Caldwell, her father was Daniel Maybury and that his profession was Driver - (but my mother told me he was a Diver). Of course, Annie was the one who had provided that information.
I searched records (mostly microfiche through the LDS genealogy centres) from 1989 and never came up with anything. When the Internet came along, I found a shipping record that stated she come to NZ in 1912.
DNA testing lead me to many matches and I found I had a lot of very close Irish 'cousins', which I knew to be from the paternal side of my family (Grandad was of Scottish blood). The two who were the closest did not have family trees. I contacted them, one has never replied, the other said she just took the test for 'ethnicity'. A dead end. Others that were a bit further removed (all of the surname Boyle) were extremely helpful, but we still couldn't find the connection. I asked my 2 sisters and 1 male cousin to test - and they also had the same strong Irish matches.
Time passed and I decided to try searching for the death of my Great Grandmother, Annie Caldwell, in Scotland. I found an Annie Caldwell Boyle who died in Aberdeen in the right time frame. That lead me to census records, which showed Daniel Boyle was a Diver, with 3 children, married to Annie Caldwell. Wow! After that, I found the marriage and baptism records for the family - they were from Saltcoats in Ayrshire, Scotland. I had already seen the census record of 1901 where 3 children (2 nieces and a nephew born in Scotland) were living with their Uncle, James Boyle in County Donegal - as this was in the tree of one of my Irish matches - I just didn't know that one of those children was my Gran.
It appears she changed her name and started a new life - no looking back.
Without DNA matching I could never have found her. It was very exciting and I have corresponded with quite a few of my 'new' Irish family and hope to meet some of them when I take a trip over in a couple of years. I have also found a relative living in New Zealand who is a descendant of my Granny's Uncle - so my family is expanding at a great rate!
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My brick wall is a 3rd great-grandfather, William McCready (L6HM-773) and his mother Sarah Ann McCready (LT3Z-385). My research suggests William may have been illegitimate. He was indentured to a foster father in 1829, along with his sister or half-sister Roannah, but I have not been able to find more information about the circumstances under which the county took him and his sister away from his mother. The Y-DNA test at Family Search suggested a surname of Quinn or Queen was the most likely match to my paternal line, and there was a family named Queen in the county at the time my ancestor was born. I tried a technique that may not be regarded as legitimate by stricter researchers. I also took the Ancestry DNA test, so I tricked ThruLines into showing me DNA links to the Queen family by inserting one of the men from that era in my family tree as William's father. I was surprised when, after a couple days, over 35 DNA matches suddenly showed up in ThruLines. I experimented with a few more Queen men, but as it turned out, the first one I had tried had the most matches. Whether he is William's father or not, I don't know. The DNA matches could be a false lead, since there could be other Queen men in my family tree that I don't know about, or the DNA link could be much older and extend back to Ireland. As it is, I do not know where the McCready/McCrady name originates from in my family, but most likely explanation is that it was Sarah's maiden name, and she gave it to her two children.
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Contact any of the DNA companies (like Ancestry, 23 and Me, MyHeritage, etc) to find out what kind of tests they offer and their price. FamilySearch does not do DNA testing.
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Following up on, a little spoken of, family secret I have been, for many years, attempting to trace the true identity of my Grandfather. I have concrete evidence of his service in the British Army, his marriage, in a slightly different name, and his death, again a slightly different name. Research around the secret name, which is quite unusual, has placed him in a family in South Africa. I have numerous DNA matches with close connections to this family and my Grandfathers children all have names commonly used in this family. Where can I go from here ? Any ideas would be welcome !
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how do i add a dna result or can i
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FamilySearch has no utility for DNA results.
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How do I add DNA test results?
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FamilySearch has no utility for DNA results.
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