Where is the best place to find out where you come from?

Question

Like your family tree.

Answer 1

USA Answer.   Y & Mitochondrial DNA tests will not give you a complete view of your background. They are used in genealogy to match family trees as they go back in a straight line virtually unchanged.

Most of your DNA is autosomal and any so called ethnicity testing is not complete unless autosomal is used.  What they come up with is not a specific ethnicity or national origin but something like Northern European etc.  

Y DNA is passed from father to son only.

Mitochondrial DNA is passed from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters pass it on to their children.

You get autosomal 50-50 from both parents.  It is the only DNA that relates a female to her father or anybody to the spouses and their families of their direct Y & Mitochondrial lines.

For instance if you go back to your 6xgreat grandparents, barring any duplicates, you are directly descended from 510 individuals.

It pyramids.  Of those 510, you only get your mitchondrial from 8 and if you are male, you get your Y from 8 but you get your autosomal from all 510.

Your physical characteristics, pigmentation, height, bone structure anomallies come from your autosomal.

The best way is to trace your family tree and don't expect to find it all on line. Also don't expect to find living family in family trees on genealogy websites.  That is considered an invasion of privcacy and can lead to identity theft.

Get as much info from living family, particularly your senior members.  Tape them if they will let you. They will probably be confused on some things but what might seem to be insignificant story telling might be very significant.  Find out if any has any old family bibles. Ask to see and make copies of birth, marriage and death certificates. Depending on the religious faith, baptismal, first communion, confirmation and marriage certificates can also yield parent information.

I believe Ancestry.Com is the best for its records online.  They have all the U.S. censuses through 1930. The 1940 and later are not available to the public yet.  They also have U. K. censuses.  They have military and immigration records and indexes to vital records of many states. If you find it too pricey, your public library might have a subscription to it you can use.

Just don't take as absolute fact everything you see in their family trees or the family trees of ANY website, free or not free. The information is not submitted by experts working for the websites but by folks like you and me.  There are errors.  They are poorly documented if they are documented at all.  You might see different info on the same people from different subscribers. Then you will see repeatedly the same info from different subscribers on the same people, but that is no guarantee at all it is correct. A lot of people copy without verifying.  The information can be useful as CLUES as where to get the documentation.

Documentation is what is important in genealogy not guesswork or speculation.

Cyndi'sList.com is a website that list a large multitude of websites helpful to people involved in family research.  You might find some extremely helpful.

A Family History Center at a Latter Day Saints(Mormon) Church has records on people all over the world, not just Mormons.

In Salt Lake City, they have the world's largest genealogical collection. Their Family History Centers can order microfilm for you to view at a nominal fee.  Just call them or visit their free website, FamilySearch.org, to find out their hours for the general public.

I have never had them to try and convert me or send their missionaries by to ring my doorbell.  I haven't heard of them doing that to anyone else that has used their resources.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

Women , can get mtdna ancestry tests, and it will tell all about themselves, mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, etc...

If you want to find out about the male ancestry in your family, have your father or brother, or any related male, get a dna ancestry test.

Answer 3

talk to your relatives. That is the best place to start.

Answer 4

oh ugh!! i know this!!!

it''s the mormon geneology place on line.. it used to be free but i think u have to pay now..

did u ask parents, grand-parents.. aunts uncles.. who ever for some clues?