Lawrence Family History

The search for my ancestors has begun. Along the way, we’ll seek out Shared DNA relatives as well.

There are many websites out there that now do DNA testing, but only two really stand out for finding relatives, and of those two, one stands above the other – Ancestry.com over 23andMe. Ancestry.com has the tree building aspects as well, and makes it easier to figure out how you are related to someone rather than just showing you are simply related to them.

Some of the Shared DNA is pretty out there, from 5th-8th cousin levels. For Native Americans, that actually presents a problem. Not from the DNA aspects, but from records existing.

I have Shared DNA with some people, and have reverse built trees to see where they fit into my tree. Native records don’t go back far enough to determine that though. Rather, sometimes enough Shared DNA between a few folks will develop a pattern, and show that there could be a sibling paring that just isn’t on record. Of course, you cannot be positive of that, given it could be either Paternal or Maternal. But it is nice to at least know the general lineage of your ancestors to give a good idea of how you’re related.

On some of those mystery connections like that, I’ll post some articles and share where my findings go.

Darrell