Ancestry Adventures

[keith.rogers]

Ok, only a little related, but this morning I saw this in a comic strip I follow, and it made me laugh, and think of some comments here

https://candorville.com/2023/03/21/l...ancestry-site/

[A Scot in Otley]

Originally Posted by dirkronk

Thanks, Cypress Knee.
My cousin Tom Reedy's research from years ago uncovered our common ancestor Richard Ready, from Waterford, Ireland, who came to Maryland in 1677 on the ship St. George of London. No earlier research into his precursors in the family line, so I'm forced to rely on the interweb (always iffy, I know) for hints and odd facts. However, this pops up:

"The Reidy family surname (also Reedy, Riedy, Reid, and O’Reidy*) is an Anglicized version of the Gaelic name Ó Riada. The family was part of the Dalcassian sept and in early Gaelic times lived in the southwest of Ireland, in the Munster counties of Clare and Kerry. The Ó Riadas can claim lineage to the legendary King Oiloill Olum, who was Monarch of Munster in the third century."

* Not to mention Ready, Reeder, Reader and other variants I'd already mentioned in my own family's history once they began appearing in written records over here (an obvious lesson in the confusion caused by personal illiteracy).

Looks like my forebears were shameless namedroppers! Claiming lineage to kings, eh? A likely story.

The Catholic link rings true, though. Shadrach Reedy's father Cornelius was listed on 1747 Cameron Parish tithable records as a "Papist - comes to church sometimes"--plus, as a Catholic, he was not allowed to fight in the French & Indian War.

Cheers,
Dirk

Not to mention that the old gaelic / viking? pre-pictish kingdom of Dal Riada might be your birthright

Dal Riada (or Riata - spellings are loose - t/d, p/b, b/v are interchangeable in European languages (linguists will know why) was the kingdom with a geographical spread from (broadly) Argyll in Scotland to Antrim in Ireland. My ancestors in the male surname (Connell) line come from farm workers in Argyll, so probably there for hundreds of years. I could be a descendant of one of your serfs ... or maybe a rival for the throne

[Andyrondack]

The People of Britain was a genetic study carried out using the dna of a few thousand Brits who had family roots in the same geographical area pre dating the modern waves of immigration.
Probably the most interesting finding was that though there is plenty of evidence of tribal/ regional groups remaining stable over 100s of years there is no evidence of a Celtic population group. In some cases the populations of 'Celtic' countries are closer genetically to English population groups than they are to people from other 'Celtic' countries.
https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2015-03-19...-british-isles
Not sure if it was connected with this project or not but I remember a number of men with a surname associated with Yorkshire and beginning with R were found to possess a rare Y chromosome only otherwise found in men originating from West Africa . They think this rare chromosome arrived in Britain during the Roman occupation when many soldiers came from Africa and I guess did what soldiers do when far from home.

[keith.rogers]

DNA is interesting, but I'm a bit suspicious of the data, given the relatively small number of folks that really have contributed DNA to the pool, and then the problem of really knowing where their DNA "ancestry" is from. As mentioned, records are somewhat scarce going back even a couple hundred years, save in a few countries (like parts of Scandinavia) where the church managed to keep fairly good records. But that really still leaves out much of the real "origins" stuff that is being sold.

I have fairly good information back a couple hundred years, and even before that on ancestors of some grandparents. But the DNA can get flushed out pretty quickly. The statement in the article about grandparents contributing 1/4 of the DNA is kind of a misconception, and certainly in the area of "ancestral" DNA - nobody is looking at 100% of the DNA.

Oddly, my ancestors are "English-Irish" on my dad's side, while my mom's side is mostly German, with let's call it 1/4 English. The DNA testing says I'm about 40% Scandinavian! Since there are zero of those to be found in my trees, I have to assume the Vikings played a larger role, at least in the parts of the British Isles and perhaps some forays up rivers like the Rhine, before anyone knew anything. (I pointed this result out to my 100% Swedish wife - she is skeptical, to say the least ) And, then there's that 5% Asia-Minor bit. Roman invaders, Crusades capture, just bad data? Who knows, and, honestly, that much is kind of silliness.

Why did I even care about this? Well, I'm an old guy and I grew up in a time when family was nearly all that mattered, because my parents came from rural areas where everyone knew everyone, and much of the discussions I heard were about relatives. ("How could they keep all those names straight?" was the question I always pondered.) But, there were family bibles and these things were really important to my grandparents, and to a lesser degree to my parents, since they'd escaped "living in the holler" and got to the big city. But, still, I just felt like, in the absence of a family bible these days, a digital record (of things those before me had felt worth saving) is not the biggest waste of my time.

[dirkronk]

Originally Posted by A Scot in Otley

Not to mention that the old gaelic / viking? pre-pictish kingdom of Dal Riada might be your birthright
<SNIP>
I could be a descendant of one of your serfs ... or maybe a rival for the throne

!!!!
Interesting, of course. But I tell you what: if we should ever chance to meet, let's play a little guitar together and buy each other a pint...and call it square!

No sense promoting rivalry at this late date.

Cheers to you and all who've posted.

Dirk

[A Scot in Otley]

Originally Posted by dirkronk

!!!!
Interesting, of course. But I tell you what: if we should ever chance to meet, let's play a little guitar together and buy each other a pint...and call it square!

No sense promoting rivalry at this late date.

Cheers to you and all who've posted.

Dirk

Aye, a wee bit of supping, twanging and warbling always makes the world a better place.

[TRose]

I enjoyed reading through this thread. I found the stories interesting.
I noted the opinions of some responders who found Ancestry to be of little interest and use. Thus when I came across this piece of writing I thought of this thread.
I know many of our esteemed forum members are past parenting age but this information is still relevant. Knowing the DNA profile is one thing but knowing the family history or “story” is something more- and apparently quite important and useful.

-Tom

https://brucefeiler.substack.com/p/t...ind-us-my-most