Paper vs. DNA: The Challenge Begins

While I am waiting for the results of the DNA test I sent into MyHeritage, I thought I would speculate a little about the possible results. I have mentioned a few times that I have extensive and complete source citations for, at least, seven generations on each of my family lines. So, I am not really expecting any surprises. Back that many generations, I have ancestors from the following countries:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Ireland
• Northern Ireland
• Denmark

I have one family line where most of the evidence so far points to the fact that one of my Great-great-grandfathers was Jewish. My Tanner line come from New England and some of the lines go back to the early 1600s in America and then England. My ancestors in the Parkinson line are all English by way of Australia. The two Danish lines are the Christensens and the Ovesens. The last of the lines include the DeFriez family who are most likely Jewish and from England and perhaps remotely from Holland or The Netherlands but I have yet to find any concrete documentation. The last line is the Jarvis line from England.

I have also mentioned that MyHeritage.com has found over 100,000 Smart Matches indicating that I share at least one ancestor with another person's family tree. Adding even more relatives would not be of much advantage since I cannot possibly handle what is already there in the program. But, I would note that there are a lot of people who probably would either be surprised by the results of a DNA test or could connect with unknown relatives.

At this point, any DNA evidence that contradicts or expands this presumed heritage would be a real surprise. The main areas where DNA could show a difference is if there were some "adopted" children who were not the children of the recorded parents. If there are any "surprises" in the first six generations, then they will genuine surprises.

Stay tuned, it should be interesting to find out the results but it will be a few weeks before that happens.