I know theres a term for it.... but i was wondering is there some website or source that can determine if someone's like 50% german, 20% italian, 12% french...etc? specially like determining the orgins of your ancestors last names?
*specifically
Shirley T
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No, any site making such claims would be a fraud. Names themselves do not always indicate ancestry. You can research your ancestry by starting with yourself and working back one generation at a time. Anytime you wish to do this there are lots of good people on this board that can give you some great tips and advice. Just ask.
There are DNA tests.
I have had both my Mitochondrial and Y DNA done. They will not tell you specifically who your ancestor are or to whom you are related.
There are 3 types of DNA.
Y goes from father to son only.
Mitochondrial goes from mother to both sons and daughters but only the daughters it on to their children.
Autosomal which you get 50-50 from both parents.
Now when you get back to your grandparents, it will not be a 25-25-25-25 breakdown. You get 50% from your paternal grandparents and 50% from your maternal grandparents but it will not be an even breakdown between grandmother and grandfather in both cases and how this lands in you will vary between you and your siblings unless you have an identical twin.
You have 23 chromosomes each from both parents and one each are made up of a person's Y & Mitochondrial. They are the 2 that determines a person's sex.
The other 22 chromosomes each are the ones that really determine your genetic profile and are made up of your Autosomal DNA.
Y & Mitochondrial are used in genealogy as they both go back in a straight line virtually unchanged.
They can be a useful tool in conjunction with research in order for people to match themselves with other family trees. Just to have them tested in isolation of research is really useless.
Now they don't represent your total ancestry. One company that only tests Y & Mitochondrial advertises they will help you discover your "deep ancestral roots." It is true they will show you the origin of your nomadic ancestor going back past 100,000 years. However, it will be your deep ancestral roots in only 2 lines and you come from a vast myriad of family lines. Right off the bat they will exclude your maternal grandfather and paternal grandmother. If you get back to your 6xgreat grandparents, you are directly descended from 510 individuals. If you or a brother could have both the Y & Mitochondrial done, they would exclude 494 of those people.
Now, you might say why bother. If you can successfully match yourself with other family trees, you no doubt will discover some of the left out people.
The company that is the oldest and has the largest database is
http://www.familytreedna.com/Default.aspx?c=1
If you get a "we're sorry" message, just click on "home" up above. Also if you click on "Feedback" there is a way you can email them and ask questions.
It is too complicated at present to use Autosomal for family tree matching. However, there is one company that uses it for regional/ethnic testing.
They won't tell you that you are 1/2 of something, 1/4 of something else and 1/4 of another something else. There are no pure nationalities or pure races or ethnicities. They have over 900 batches of 100-150 samples throughout the world.
They will give you your matches in descending order starting with the top. Now, how accurate? I am no expert. I can see if more than one company did this type of testing there might be some differences as one company might have samples the other didn't.
The only company in the U.S. that is now doing this type of testing is
http://www.DNATribes.Com
FamilyTreeDNA does do Autosomal testing but they no longer will give you a regional/ethnic analysis. They will just provide you with results which will be meaningless to any lay person.
I asked DNATribes if my sister with whom I share both parents had the same Autosomal test would her results be the same as mine and they replied:
"Two siblings will each obtain unique results. Family members do typically share some regional or ethnic genetic affiliations, but in some cases matches can vary substantially between siblings."
Here are a couple of more links explaing DNA
http://www.smgf.org/pages/how_it_works.jspx
http://www.pa.msu.edu/~sciencet/ask_st/060293.html
wendy c
No, a website is not going to tell you this, and it would be fake, if it claims to.
Here's why.. surname etymology (study of where a name originates) is completely different from genealogy (study of identifying your ancestor and facts about that specific person). They "seem" the same.. but are not.
One clear illustration was a young lady who came here, completely frustrated by having claimed to be Dutch for many years. When she actually did the research, she got back a few generations, only to find that the ancestor with the last name.. had been adopted. His birth parents were of a different birth place entirely.
It is a common pitfall. The other thing is that names SOMETIMES "connect" to a single origin, but just as often, you find the same last name in several countries, with none being provable as the single original place.
Good genealogy protects you as a person, by not using info on a living person online. In other words.. no one should be able to define your parents/ grandparents, etc by online records. You, of course, have access to your personal documents or those of your immediate family. Once you determine your exact ancestors back 3-4 generations, you sometimes find that one of those IS online because a distant cousin has researched it, and he/she has found that your 4 gr grandfather was born in France..and has the record to verify this.
The bottom line is that some sites will claim that <such and such> name is from France. The website may/ may not be correct.. and until you KNOW for a fact who YOUR OWN ancestors are.. it won't be reliable.
?
DNA used to answer that question, but it is no longer done at Family Tree DNA because it isn't really possible to get the correct answer, even if some advertise that they can. However, there is similar testing that can help you discover who you are. With DNA testing you can see the progess your Y-DNA (males only) and MT-DNA (male and female) made across the world after being tested and knowing your DNA haplogroup.
Check out Family Tree dna at
http://www.familytreedna.com/
Or National Geographic at
https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/