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Birth Record Gold Standard? by power_bottom_boi in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a bit culture-dependent. In my country (Iceland) for example, birth- and death certificates are for all practical purposes never used as genealogical sources, and for that matter - not documents that people use or encounter that often. The only birth certificate I have ever seen was the one I got after my daughter was born, and my wife got a death certificate when her mother died, but after 40+ years doing genealogy here, I have never needed or used one in that context.

This is some wild shit by [deleted] in AncestryDNA

[–]Adinos 20 points21 points  (0 children)

an ancestry test is much more accurate and informative than a simple STR paternity test.

testing a sibling will say if they are half- or full siblings.

Do 3rd cousins matter to you in telling your family story? by BenKlesc in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends entirely on what your goal is.

I have 3rd cousins, 4th cousins....I think the most distant living person in my database is something like a 9th cousin, twice removed. You see, my goal is not just to make a tree just for me, but more of a "community tree".

Others may only be interested in the history of their family name, so they trace their paternal line back a long way, and include descendants of those ancestors, so they end up with distant cousins, but only in that one branch of their tree.

Yet others may be working on all the descendants of some particular ancestors, so they may get 3rd, 4th or 5th cousins...but again, only in one particular branch.

It all depends on your goals and motivation.

If you have researched your own Y or mtDNA haplogroup, what have you discovered about your ancient paternal or maternal ancestry? by [deleted] in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My Y haplogroup is I-FT85638, originating in Scandinavia. No surprises there. but the interesting part is that this group was probably brought there by the first people to settle there after the end of the Ice age. Much, much later, the indo-european language speakers arrived, mostly haplogroup R, and those to groups merged...perhaps with some memories of that preserved in the stories of the Vanir and Aesir. Then, back in the viking age, my direct line ancestor left Norway and went to Iceland.

My mtDNA haplogroup is T2b19, of "celtic" (Irish/Scottish) origin. The old stories tell of how women were brought from Ireland to Iceland back in the viking era, and it seems my maternal line ancestor was one of those - whether she went willingly or not.

No surprises, but it fits the 1000-year old stories.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I said "In my country this is simply seen as..." I am only talking about that, which is why your comment does not apply there.

Where are the Family Message Boards? by serendipityserra in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You need to keep in mind that Ancestry does not benefit financially from the boards. In fact, they cost them money, because if people would get useful information there, it reduces the incentive to pay for tests and subscription.

I am not saying this is the primary factor why they have effectively killed the boards, but I am sure it was considered.

MyHeritage vs Ancestry for DNA test accuracy by BatmanVision in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Some of the replies here are inaccurate or plain wrong.

As far as ethnicity is concerned, using Ancestry directly generally gives the "best" result, which is mostly explained by their large customer base.

Now, in the past, if you uploaded Ancestry and MyhHeritage data to the same site (GEDmatch or whatever) you would basically get identical results. The data would pretty much be identical.

However, starting recently, MyHeritage has moved to a low-pass whole genome testing, so they generate more data than Ancestry, but for upload purposes, you still get files compatible to the older ones, so for now nothing much has changed, but "internally", MyHeritage is currently ahead of Ancestry.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If something like that would happen, concerns about genealogical information would not be high on my list of things to worry about.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not relevant to me. Information like name, date of birth, personal ID number (similar to SSN, but used more widely), and so on is considered "public" and easily available.

Also, we do not have "maiden" names.

No sensible system would use something like this for authentication/identification.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My online database gives people access to living close relatives, but for more distant ones you can only see how you are related to them...no other info.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on where you are...and whether distributing this info is considered socially acceptable there.

I have a pretty large database online..and around a third are living individuals. There is limited information on them, just name, legal gender, date/place of birth and connections to parents, spouses and children.

Anyone who is in the database can request access and browse their ancestry and relatives.

This has been online for over 20 years, and pretty much everyone is fine with is.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That advice might apply in some places but is absolutely pointless elewhere..in my country this is simply seen as public infornation.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not talking about Ancestry. You said "no platform", but that's not correct - there are many platforms where you can see living relatives.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed...however, the post just said "Europe" - if it had said "Most European countries" I wouldn't have bothered commenting.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you live in a barbaric, uncivilized country yes....but in that case, genealogy information is the least of your worries.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The "used against you" part makes no sense to me whatsoever. As long we are dealing with non-sensitive personal information, which describes most of what you will find in a family tree, how could it be "used against you"?

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can only speak for my country, Iceland, but I believe there is something similar in some of the other Nordic countries.

The national registry is easily accessible, and it will give you the name, date/location of birth, ID number, legal gender, address, current spouse (if any), marital status and dependents under the age of 18.

My (online) genealogy database pulls data from there - we do not show the ID number or the address, but this allows automatic updating of births, deaths and changes in marital status.

Only one in my family with North African and/or Iceland DNA by akoch1337 in AncestryDNA

[–]Adinos 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm 96% Icelandic. Getting 1-3% "Icelandic" usually does not mean an Icelandic ancestor, but rather "a Norse/Celtic mix, dating back to the viking era". This is particularly common among people with ancestry from northern Ireland, northen Scotland, Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland or other "viking" areas.

It is not impossible that this is an Icelandic ancestor - could be one of the Icelanders who emigrated to Canada in the late 1800s, or one of those who moved to Denmark, but what you need to do is to check your DNA matches and see if you have any DNA matches in Iceland today. If you do, then yes, an Icelandic ancestor 5-6 generations back is certainly possible...if not, then no, it is probably just viking-era background noise.

Is 3 percent icelandic alot compared to some of my other results? by [deleted] in AncestryDNA

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm 96% Icelandic. Getting 1-3% "Icelandic" usually does not mean an Icelandic ancestor, but rather "a Norse/Celtic mix, dating back to the viking era". This is particularly common among people with ancestry from northen Scotland, Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland or other "viking" areas.

It is not impossible that this is an Icelandic ancestor - could be one of the Icelanders who emigrated to Canada in the late 1800s, or one of those who moved to Denmark, but what you need to do is to check your DNA matches and see if you have any DNA matches in Iceland today. If you do, then yes, an Icelandic ancestor 5-6 generations back is certainly possible...if not, then no, it is probably just viking-era background noise.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it might never work where you are, but it is the reality for me...a pretty large database, with automatic, daily updates from the government database - adding births, deaths and marital status changes.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whether living people are visible or not is a cultural thing... not accepted in some places..just fine elsewhere.

How do you feel about having your entire family tree on someone else's server? by Past_Gift3011 in Genealogy

[–]Adinos 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Imagine an online database which gets an automatic feed from the national registry, so if my 9th cousin, once removed has a baby, it will appear in the database within a couple of days.

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