Here is a little known fact about me – I know NOTHING about my biological mother, her family or even her background.
I was raised by my paternal grandparents after my biological mother intentionally up and disappeared. She was only seen in court when she signed divorce papers my biological father served her and to sign over 100% custody to my father. She didn’t even want visitation rights.
As a mother I cannot understand why any mother would abandon a child AND give up all custody rights.
I had a wonderful life regardless. I was raised by my paternal grandparents. My biological father was very young and serving in the military. I have a great relationship with my father too and we seen him often. In fact he’s my husband’s best friend.
My biological mother and father were teens when they met and got married very young (with parental permission). My mother was 16 when I was born and my father was 19. They were too young and not equipped to have a baby.
Nothing is known about my biological mother, aside from her name. My father vaguely remembers a few family members names and where they worked and lived, but that is about it. He doesn’t now her nationality, where her ancestors came from… nothing.
During my adult life I have always wondered about my maternal background. I have a lot of similarities to my father, but what about my mother? I have a reddish tint to my hair (naturally… not when I dye it). There is no one on my father’s side with my hair color.
I have tried to find my biological mother. I don’t really care to get to know her, but I would like to to know medical history to make sure there is nothing genetic that I should concern myself with for myself or my children.
My biological mother’s name is Linda Sue Smith. Do you know how many Linda Sue Smiths there are? It’s impossible to find her.
These are the only photos I have of her.
I also have a form of anemia called Thalassemia. It is found in people of Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Southern Asian, and African descent.If you have ever seen me you know that I do not look Italian, Greek, Middle Eastern, Asian or African. I am very pale skinned.
My great-grandparents were from Norway and Wales. My grandmother was from England. Clearly I get my fair skin from them. So where could that anemia have come from?
My grandmother said she thinks my biological mother was of Irish decent, but she wasn’t sure. That would make sense with the reddish highlights in my hair and fair skin.
I have always wanted to have a DNA test to find out exactly where my ancestors come from. I FINALLY had the opportunity to fin out thanks to Family Tree DNA.
Family Tree DNA sent me a kit so that I could do a review. It took a few weeks to get back the results. I was anxious to find out what the results had to say.
Getting a sample for them to test was super easy. I just had to swipe a swab on the inside of my cheek twice and mail it back to them with the pre-paid envelope that came with the kit.
When the results are available you can easily access them online.
The results revealed some very interesting information. Some of the results are not easy to understand. They are more so for geneticists then average people. None the less there is still a lot of information available that is easy enough to understand. For me, personally, it yielded some interesting surprises.
According to my DNA I belong to the H6a1B Haplogroup. A Haplogroup is a group of people that share a common ancestry (genetically speaking). According to my DNA the Haplogroup that I belong to is one of the oldest ones.
According to FamilyDNA…
H6 is one of the oldest branches of haplogroup H. Its age is estimated at around 26,000 years. It is one of the most frequent branches of H found among Arabian lineages, and is the most frequent branch among those found in Central Asia. It likely originated in the Middle East or Central Asia. H6 is also found at very low frequencies in Europe.
Interesting…
Even though H6 is found in low frequencies in Europe, according to my test results, my ancestors did migrate to Europe.
I always assumed my relatives (on my father’s side) were only from Wales and Norway. According to my DNA my ancestors were predominately in the European Coast Plain (Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium…) followed closely by the European Coastal Islands (England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland). I even have some ancestors in the Trans-Ural Peneplain area (Poland, Hungry, former USSR…).
These ancestors go back thousands of years. I was curious as to why Norway didn’t show up since my great-grandmother and all her family were from Norway. The very helpful customer service agent at Family Tree DNA explained to me that my ancestors could have migrated there a few hundred years ago. These results go back thousands of years ago.
In another part of my results it showed me that I have genetic connections (going back as far as 28 generations) with six people in Ireland and to my surprise, 1 person in Italy.
Family Tree DNA tests for many thing and provides you with as much information as possible.
In another section I found exact matches for a special part of my DNA – one person here in the United States and one person in Ireland.
Another cool section of Family Tree DNA shows you the names of people who closely match you and what generation distance they are from you. Many of my matches are a 3rd generation distance from me. There is even a special feature on the map that shows you were some of the closest matches are. There are some in Norway and a few in surprising places like France, Germany, Italy and Austria plus A LOT of close matches in the United States (most down south).
In addition Family Tree DNA provides you with the names and e-mail addresses of your matches. That way you can reach out to them if you wish to see if you can find some common ancestors.
There are also sections where you can see family trees that others have created (people who you are related to genetically).
There is A LOT of information that Family Tree DNA provides you. It can be a bit overwhelming. Thankfully there are customer service agents who are knowledgeable in the results and are always happy to explain things to you. The agent I spoke to took his time to go over all the results and explain them to me in a clear way. He was also happy to answer questions for me. Trust me, I had a lot of questions. 🙂
I have been checking back with my results frequently – going over the information more carefully – several times. Each time I learn a little more and I am surprised by my results.
I haven’t reached out to any “long lost relatives” yet, but I am planning on doing so. I was going to reach out to my closest matches and a match I have in Norway because I want to see what the connection is with my great-grandmother who was from Norway.
As for that anemia I have, I guess some where along the way the genes made their way to me. After all, I have a distance relative in Italy that I never knew about.
It’s really fascinating to find out where you come from. This was an eye opening experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity.
For more information please visit www.FamilyTreeDNA.com. They have different tests available depending on the information you want to acquire. There is even a community forum where you can go to learn more about your results and connect with others.
Family Tree DNA is found on all the social media sites too (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest…). All of the links are found on the bottom of their home page.
Are you curious about where your ancestors came from? Have you ever had your DNA tested? Feel free to share your thoughts. I always love to hear from my readers.
Kimberly
*I received a free test in order to do this review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
Robin Wilson says
Wow! That is really fascinating! It is amazing the info they can find out from your DNA. To narrow it down to 2 people in the entire world and be able to give you info about family members that not long ago didn’t exist to you. I wish you all of the luck in the world with your search. Please go into it without expectations, I would not want you to get your feelings hurt. But I sure hope it is successful!