Ancestry.com: What Next? - Comments

I always wanted to map my family tree somehow and was planning to use Ancestry.com, but it's owned by the LDS church so my dad didn't consent to me using his information to do it (he's paranoid about people collecting data on him). To be honest, that's probably the most interesting part of the process for me - I have a strong Irish background already. I know that I'm not 100% Irish, but that's the culture that is closest to me and that my family have always celebrated. To be honest, finding out that I'm part German or whatever would be boring to me.

The only interest I might have in tracing my ethnicity is to see if I am partly Australian Aboriginal - we have a kind of family 'folklore' around my great great grandmother, who never knew her father and was clearly not white. So saying, I'd probably feel weird trying to claim that if it were true - I have no connection to elders or language and I don't present as aboriginal. Racial tensions in Australia are already so fraught, I don't think I'd really be interested in trying to make any tenuous claim on that identity.

While it would be interesting to know what ethnicity my DNA holds, I would rather use ancestry.com to track down my family tree. It's a bit ridiculous that the commercials are showing people claiming a new ethnicity that they probably won't take the time to learn about.

I'd understand if it was more like "here's a family tree" sort of thing, or in the situation mentioned below where people are adopted and interested in where their roots are, but like you pointed out, what do other people do with that information? I didn't realise it was just a percentage of Irish or Italian or whatever

I'm actually thinking of getting an Ancestry DNA kit for my 20th birthday. In the long run I would like to do one with my mother and aunt since they're adopted and don't know much about their family, or ethnic, background.

I personally wanna do it myself to see what exactly I'm made up of lol. I know on my father's side we are African American and that can be traced back to slavery in South Carolina, but I'm curious to know what part of West Africa we derive from, even if we're from there at all. I also wanna figure out some missing links on my mother's side. We suspect some Asian or European things are in there but we're not sure so I feel through me we can possibly start that process/conversation lol.

Does that make sense? lol idk if this comment even applies. I will probably always check myself as a black/African American woman but at least now I know where all my roots connect and I think it would be an interesting experience for myself.

My mom has been a part of ancestry.com since I was like, 8 and I'm 26 now.
I don't think she's every used the DNA thing it talks about, but it has helped trace our family tree on my mom and dad's side of the family.