Am I Missing the Point?

I am baffled by people who have tens of thousands of people in their family trees.  How far removed are the individuals at the very outer branches and twigs?  Why are they there?

Is there any value in having the 3^rd great grandmother of the wife of my mother’s cousin 2X removed?

Should I be including these distant in-laws?

Genealogy Blog Party: DNA Discoveries

My contribution to Elizabeth O'Neal's July Genealogy Blog Party.

DNA testing has led me down a wonderful path of discovery.  Not about me and my family but about European history. 

My DNA was tested by 23andMe back in 2013. I had breast cancer and, for my daughter’s sake, was concerned about BRCA gene mutations. I turned to 23andMe because a $4,000.00 full genetic assay just wasn’t in the budget. I was relieved to find that I don’t have that mutation.

My ethnic mix showed no big surprises, but a couple of small ones.  My favorite surprise is the 3% Neanderthal component.  I love it!  That’s been the subject of a couple of previous blog posts:

Celebrating my Neanderthal Heritage

More Insight Into our Neanderthal DNA

And just today came across another article: 

New DNA From a Neanderthal Bone Holds Evidence of a Lost Tribe of Humans

I’ve traced my ancestry back to the late 18^th century in Poland. Ethnicity estimates from 23andMe, FTDNA, My Heritage, and Gedmatch all agree that is where my ancestry is centered. But they also show Southern European and Northern European roots, and that got me wondering if those are real or are false positives.

Poring over history books, historical atlases, and Wikipedia gave me quite an education.  The Northern European component may have come from the late 1600’s when Sweden invaded Poland. There are still ruins of Swedish fortifications in Poland.  Possibly this is the source of my Northern European connection.

My mother’s maiden name is Ganas, a name more common among Greeks than among Poles. It seems that in the 12^th and 13^th centuries merchants from Greece and Turkey plied their trade in Central Europe. My guess is that at least one of them, with the name of Ganas, stayed in Poland.  I have yet to convince any of my male cousins from that line to do a DNA test; but I’d love to see what their Y chromosome could tell us.

The knowledge and insights into history that I’ve gained are priceless.

Here are links to previous posts European history.

The Tribes of Europe (Some of them at least)

Tribes of Great Britain and their DNA

As for family discoveries, DNA has helped me find only two previously unknown 2^nd cousins – none more remote that that.  I keep hoping to find more. I know they’re out there somewhere.