DNA Testing - Why Not

[Nick29]

Illegitimate children rarely inherit their father's surname.  DNA doesn't lie, but unfortunately people do.  I remember reading somewhere that as many as 60% of children do not know their biological father.  However, on a subject like this, it's difficult to collect reliable data.

[Redroger]

Illegitimate children rarely inherit their father's surname. 

The Victorian and later practice of giving the biological father's surname as a last baptismal name was an effort to overcome this. If the parents later married then all he had to do was drop his mother's surname.
Strangely there is such a case in my family where the parents married; however, their son was not brought up by his parents, but retained his mother's surname and was brought up by his uncle and aunt, my grandfather and his first wife.

[Billyblue]

Not so strange, Red - my Dad's youngest sister turned out to be my cousin, when I started delving into birth certs etc.   
Her parents married but never 'claimed' her so she was  brought up with her mother's surname and didn't even know who her true mother was until quite late in life.

Dawn M

[Redroger]

I think my relative knew who his parents were. His mother had been a domestic servant at a farm in the 1861 census, in 1863 he was born, and in 1865 his parents married. I suspect there might have been an element of the father "marrying beneath his station" involved too.

[Lookin2]

Nick

I have tested 3 family members but responses are mostly from Americans.  Do you know of any testing company that has a preponderance of Europeans.  :-\Thank you. Lookin2

[polly88]

Just what I want to know Lookin2!

[davidft]

Oxford ancestors probably has more British\European tests done

http://www.oxfordancestors.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/


but is is a lot more expensive that ftDNA or 23andme and does not have any where near as many people testing.

[supermoussi]

For what it is worth I have tested both my Y-DNA and mtDNA. My Y-DNA result proved beyond doubt links to suspected rellies that the papertrail pointed to but didn't prove by itself.

In terms of pre-surname times I am relatively young European on my paternal side (perhaps entering up the Danube to S. Germany a few thousand years ago before wandering over to Britain more recently) and old European on my maternal side (amongst the first people to repopulate Europe after the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago).

In itself my Y-DNA test has repaid itself beyond doubt in terms of confirming surname links, but the pre-surname info adds a bit more colour to my story.

[Nick29]

Nick

I have tested 3 family members but responses are mostly from Americans.  Do you know of any testing company that has a preponderance of Europeans.  :-\Thank you. Lookin2

FamilyTreeDNA has the largest database in the world.  Of course, the majority of the people on it will be American because of the proximity and because they are generally wealthier than we are.  However, there are no 'native Americans' - they all came from other countries, and a very large proportion of them came from Europe, and many of them from the UK.

As the price of testing continues to drop, hopefully there will be more people in the UK on the FTDNA database.