Could DNA testing help discover father of my illegitimate Grandmother?

[avm228]

Do you have an offline tree in GEDCOM format? If so, the simplest (and best) option is to upload that, rather than starting from scratch.  Then the Ancestry software can interrogate your whole tree and find connections through the trees of your DNA matches.

[brigidmac]

Look forward to hearing your results
Look at your highest connection s first and eliminate all the branches you know about ..you can colour code anyone who descends from the other 7 great grandparents ...and for birth regions

Do you have any relatives who have done the DNA test too
It's very useful to see the links to people you know .
If you can get people of  the oldest generation to test the links will show more

My links to russian great grandfather don't all show.but my mums DNA connects to 2nd half cousins going down the line and relatives of her great aunts and uncles on the Russian side

We both connect to her cousin and half cousins  and can match to trees and documents on   father's side. But sometimes the more distant relative s don't show on mine .  There are a few tricks you can use to find a couple of names and photos from trees which are closed or unlinked to DNA.  But it will take a while .come back to this thread with specific questions when you have some potential family names  .
I'm happy to help if you want to pm me because you can't put any living names on here

[Spelk]

Myself I did not want to upload the 5,000 people in my tree and most of it to be viewable to all and sundry. Once you put it out there people will treat it as public property and shamelessly copy it; and any errors you may have in it. I have seen numerous copies attached to stranger's trees of documents which I know originate from me.

So for the purpose of matching to my DNA results I loaded up a bare bones tree showing just my ancestors back to my G3 Gparents. No siblings or cousins. Giving dates and places so the people are identifiable. So that covers back to 4th cousins which is as far as I am interested.

To answer your question - yes you can start a tree with just yourself and add other people bit by bit as time permits.

Though living people will generally be "private", and so no details will be shown, one can usually easily find out their details. So to make it a bit harder I did not load up any details of me (called that person "me") and my parents and grandparents "P1" "P2" "GP1" etc. And to further confuse "nosy parkers" I shuffled my parents and Gparents.

Not that anyone with some research will have any difficulty determining who I am but I do not wish to hand out that info "on a plate".

PS - you can load several trees to Ancestry so you could have a simple tree made public for the DNA matching and have another tree which you make private so only visible to you and anyone you give permission to see it. I know of one distant relative who only has a tree on Ancestry. I sent him a Gedcom of the mutual branch of of our family and he had no idea what to do with it. Has no suitable software and thus if he ever stops subscribing to Ancestry he will no longer be able to view his tree let alone modify it. Not a good plan.

PPS - to be clear my Great Grandparents and the earlier generations are shown with names dates and places so any cousin up to 4th cousin can easily see how we are connected.

[Craclyn]

A bare bones tree will get you started, but if you want the full benefits from the automated functionality then it makes more sense to use a full tree with collateral lines included.
The suggestion of cutting out full names and details for closer generations and just using P1, P2 etc will probably prevent you from receiving Common Ancestors and ThruLines as the system cannot work out who you are. I had a couple of friends who tried this type of technique and they got no Common Ancestors until they replaced the information with correctly identifiable names and dates. Ancestry makes living people in your tree anonymous so their privacy is protected. Shuffling lines just creates confusion for your matches and for your own result analysis. It is probably better to have no tree at all than a tree that is deliberately erroneous and intended to mislead people.

[avm228]

If you are concerned about opening your tree to all and sundry, you can just make it private. It is still searchable by the software so that you are getting the best out of Ancestry’s tools.  If your linked tree is “bare bones” then you are not harnessing that power. You will get DNA matches, of course, but you won’t get the same number or quality of pointers to where the link is, because Ancestry does not know enough about your, er, ancestry.

If you just wanted DNA matches without tree links then in my view 23&me or MyHeritage are better options because they give you your segment data so that you can collate matches on DNAPainter.

X-posted with Craclyn but I agree that shuffling generations and removing names is a really bad idea. This is explained in Ancestry’s video tutorials.  You’re just sabotaging your own information and thus the usefulness of the DNA test on which you have spent £££.

[River Tyne Lass]

I will just have to start with a bare bones tree and get all the bmd's up as soon as possible when work permits.  I am not a very technical person and know nothing of things like gedcom.  Heard of it, that is all.

It is starting to sound complicated already and I hope this will be suitable for someone like me, who is not entirely computer savvy/technical/DNA literate.

Oh well, it is too late now as I have already started the process.  I will just have to do what I can and make the best of what may or may not come. As far as I know, no known living relative has carried out a DNA test.  I will post about my results when these eventually come.

Thanks for advice and offers of help with understanding things further down the line.  It is sounding already that I might need this.  I am already starting to feel like the country hick come to town.  Oh, dear!

[Craclyn]

Don’t worry about it being complicated RTL. Just take things one step at a time and it will make sense.
When you get your match list you will amazed at how many of your living biological relatives have actually tested. You may even find that you already know some of them.
If you have your tree on a computer then the gedcom process is fairly straightforward. Gedcom is just a file format that can be used to transport a tree between two different systems. You export a file from the tree you have already built then import it to Ancestry. Saves a lot of time rebuilding a tree. We can guide you through that if you tell us what software you use for your tree.
We may even find that we match each other. You and I have several common surnames in our research.

[River Tyne Lass]

Hi Cracklyn,

No I don't have a tree on a computer.  I just have a tree on FamilySearch which I look at and can add to using my Kindle.  I can use a computer at the library. 

I have had an email from Ancestry about starting my tree and in these few moments have added full birth and death dates for my parents and Grandparents.  However, I have made an inadvertent spelling blip with Grandmother's first name - there is an edit button but nothing happens when I press it. I might have to wait until I can get to a library later this week. 

Also, I can't seem to get anyone up beyond Grandparents.  I have plenty of dates to add so this is a shame.  Perhaps I am doing something incorrectly or perhaps it might be something to do with the Kindle I am using.

Also I don't seem to have been asked to make a user name for my tree - I hope what I have started will exist and not just be a try out.

Yes, I have been wondering too if we might be related as I have also noticed we have several of the same names.

[Craclyn]

If I remember correctly the initial screen to create a new tree only goes as far as grandparents. Once you have added your parents you should be able to view the tree normally just by going onto your Ancestry account. It will have been automatically given a name which you can change by going into tree settings. You should be able to edit your mistake and add more people by going into the tree from your account rather than the initial set up screen. Good luck.