So, I did the 23andMe thing.
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I get It and wasn’t speaking to you about infatuation with distant connections. I am as removed from mine as you are from yours.
As for your journey, I think the health stuff may ultimately be the least interesting and if yo hare ready to dive in to discovery I think that’s great. I know enough to know that you have no idea what you will find. It’s super personal and loved ones around you could be ambivalent.
It’s hard to make up for lack of shared experience. May be easier with a long lost sibling or half sibling. For some reason it’s easier to get the bond.
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@Loki said in So, I did the 23andMe thing.:
I get It and wasn’t speaking to you about infatuation with distant connections. I am as removed from mine as you are from yours.
As for your journey, I think the health stuff may ultimately be the least interesting and if yo hare ready to dive in to discovery I think that’s great. I know enough to know that you have no idea what you will find. It’s super personal and loved ones around you could be ambivalent.
It’s hard to make up for lack of shared experience. May be easier with a long lost sibling or half sibling. For some reason it’s easier to get the bond.
Yeah, it's really just the personal information I'm after. How they would feel about it on their end is entirely up to them; like I said, not shopping for new family members.
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My family's history was recently better understood after a 23andMe exploration. The things we thought we knew were not true.
My father was born out of wedlock in Canada in 1913. My sister spent the better part of 20 years researching the names listed as his parents on the birth certificate. She visited the research center in Salt Lake City several times along with a trip to Toronto to dig through files there. She did identify a person whose name matched the mother on the birth certificate and even a grave for that person.
What we did know is that my father's mother brought her newborn son down to Chicago where she placed him with a family to care for him while she returned to Canada to do clerical work and send funds for his care. She struggled to keep up payments, and we have letters from her to the caretaker family talking of her life in Canada. But the expense became too great, and the caretaker family offered to raise my father as their own. The last of the letters from his biological mother ceased with my father at about age 3. Sadly, my father grew up with no awareness he was adopted until at age 18 reading the obituary for the man who had raised him. My father's name was not listed with his brother and sister in the obituary. When he asked why the omission, he was finally told that the truth that the parents he had always thought were his own, were not. My father attempted to find his birth mother with no success.
BUT then the plot thickens when last year my brother did 23andMe and some investigation followed. It now appears that little on the birth certificate was true except for the place and date of birth. There are two living individuals whose last name allowed for us to track back to 1913 and discover who my father's mother really was - and with a little bit of investigation, who the father was - a married man having an affair.
It's a shame that both my father and sister who did so much research passed away without learning this information. They both would have appreciated having some closure on this mystery.
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You should be able to get some family medical information at the very least...
Me/rry/Christmas
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@LuFins-Dad said in So, I did the 23andMe thing.:
You should be able to get some family medical information at the very least...
From 23andMe, yes. From the state, not a chance in Hell. The system is set up to protect the anonymity of the biological parents, full stop.
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@kluurs said in So, I did the 23andMe thing.:
It's a shame that both my father and sister who did so much research passed away without learning this information. They both would have appreciated having some closure on this mystery.
That's a hell of a story, Ken. Yes, that's very much a shame.
My folks always told me I was adopted. People sometimes ask me "how old were you when your parents told you?" It wasn't like that. They started telling me when I was born, so I always knew.
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I have learned a few things myself. One relative spent her whole life doing the genealogy of her family. She contacted me on a dna match. I talked to my dad who said his father’s brother was married and then his ex wife gave up their child for a while (side story-she was a maid for Bloomingdale) and then got him back when this nice man married her and the son took his name without knowing he was adopted. The daughter of that man contacted me.
I also found from her that I was related to a relatively famous person, which she discovered from the other DNA company.
A lot will come out from DNA. There are many secrets being exposed for sure.
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“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@Mik said in So, I did the 23andMe thing.:
I know my family tree back to the early 1700’s on my father’s side and the 1800’s on my mom’s. I am hesitant to put my info in this data base and I have a pretty good idea of our genetic background already.
I'd say that:
- You can choose whatever you'd like to share. (Yeah yeah I know, then you've got to trust the company, etc.) You don't have to make anything accessible to others that you don't want.
- Guaranteed you'd learn something interesting. People swear up and down their family ancestry is completely known and accurate. Interestingly, most are proven wrong about that after they see the data.
I get the hesitation, though. You're not missing out if it's not something of huge interest.
