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At the age of 59, I discovered I was adopted. By then both A-parents were dead.
I did that ancestry tube and started getting strange emails saying they knew my bio parents.
Turned out to be true. The bio parents, at least mom, was a psycho, and dad is just a go with the flow, so long as it is a hard right.
Just wondering how many here are also late discovery adoptees and how has it been since the discovery?
At the age of 59, I discovered I was adopted. By then both A-parents were dead.
I did that ancestry tube and started getting strange emails saying they knew my bio parents.
Turned out to be true. The bio parents, at least mom, was a psycho, and dad is just a go with the flow, so long as it is a hard right.
Just wondering how many here are also late discovery adoptees and how has it been since the discovery?
I belong to a few Facebook groups like Ancestry, my heritage, 23 and me, DNA detectives where people are regularly posting that they recently did DNA to find they were not related to the father that raised them or that they were adopted. It's pretty common with people of all ages that are posting.
You're very lucky that you did find your bio parents even though they may not be good people. Some people that are older than you, do not get a definite answer because the adult children who would fit to be their parent, died, some never had other kids, some may be an only child where the person can't confirm it for some other reason. Someone in their 90's posted in one of the groups the other day after finding she didn't match with her family that raised her.
Ancestry is the best DNA test to buy to find biological family because they have the largest DNA database plus they're a genealogy site with family trees. The next one to do is My Heritage which is a free upload. My Heritage is also a genealogy site that is world wide with a very large European DNA database, so if you have any immigrants in your bio family you may just get matches that still live in the home country. I have more European matches there then I do in the US. My parents were immigrants, my mothers parents had siblings who came here, they did Ancestry and 23 and me, my father's fathers side had one person come here with his kids. I have one match at ancestry, the rest of my grandparents matches are all in Europe on my heritage.
As I said my heritage is free to upload, it will show you matches and on the main page is matches in other countries where it shows how many matches you have in each country, it's very cool. If you want "advanced DNA tools" including ethnicity, seeing matches of matches, family trees and surnames of matches along with chromosome browser, theory of family relativity (like thru lines) and autoclusters it is a one time fee of $29 and very worth it if you have matches in other countries. My Heritage also allows us to label, group and color code matches.
The only features they don't have yet is to be able to link the DNA match to someone in your tree and being able to set the custom relationship like ancestry allows us to do.
If you're not on my heritage I suggest you save your Ancestry DNA RAW file to upload there. Directions for everything are below.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
How to access and download your autosomal DNA results from AncestryDNA once you're ready to upload to other sites.
1. Navigate to the Ancestry.com website homepage.
2. In the upper-right corner, click Sign In to display the sign in window.
3. In the Username or email field, enter your username or email.
4. In the Password field, enter your password.
5. Click Sign In. Your Ancestry home page is displayed.
6. On the menu bar, click DNA > Your DNA Results Summary. The AncestryDNA home page is displayed.
7. On the right side of the page, click Settings. Your Test Settings page is displayed.
8. Scroll to the bottom of the page to Actions.
9. Under Actions you'll see Download DNA Data. Download a .zip file of your DNA data. Click Download. The Download your raw DNA data window is displayed.
10. Enter your password in the password field and click I understand that after my DNA data is downloaded, the downloaded copy will not be protected by AncestryDNA's security measures. When I download my DNA, I assume all risk of storing, securing, and protecting my downloaded data (they're trying to discourage you from downloading YOUR OWN DNA
11. Click Confirm. A window saying Almost there. Check your email is displayed.
12. Check your email for an email from AncestryDNA with the subject line Your request to download AncestryDNA raw data.
13. In the email, click Confirm Data Download. You will be redirected to the Ancestry.com website.
14. Enter your username or email and password in the appropriate fields, and click Sign In. The Download DNA Raw Data page is displayed.
15. Click Download DNA Raw Data to download your raw data file. Note where you save the file on your computer
.
---------------- Saving your Ancestry tree to save to your computer as a backup and to upload to other sites.
On Ancestry's main page, click Trees, you'll see Create and manage trees at the bottom. Click create and manage trees which brings you to your page where all of your trees are. Find the tree you want to back up, on the very right of the page it says Tree Settings, click tree settings. There's a box on the right, you'll see home person, who you are,, hint press and manage your tree, export your family tree data, as a GEDCOM file, to your computer. Click export tree. It will take a few seconds but it will turn to a green button with download your GEDCOM file. Navigate to your family tree folder in your documents. I normally make a folder Ancestry, another for Tree Backups, then will make a folder that has the name of the tree, I have 10 trees here lol.. The file will save with Last name Family Tree, I add the date to the file name.
If you want to see trees that someone else owns that you've been 8nvited to, you can see those listed where you found the tree settings to get the GEFCOM file.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Roselvr
My Heritage - Go to your profile, At the top it says home, family tree, discoveries, DNA, photos, research; mouse over family tree you'll see import GEDcom and manage trees, click manage trees, on the far right under actions you'll see export to GEDcom. My Heritage is limited with free family tree accounts. I have 203 people in my tree, it's telling me I have reached the maximum and will have to pay to add more people.
Now to the DNA
My Heritage DNA is normally $79 but it goes on sale for $49. Note, you can upload your DNA from another company for free family matching, exporting DNA matches, contacting matches and shared surnames of matches. For a fee of $29, you can unlock other features like ethnicity, family trees of matches, chromosome browser, shared DNA matches, shared ethnicities, shared ancestral places. They also offer theory of family relativity that tells how you match some people. There is also a AutoClusters for DNA Matches which is a pay feature.
MyHeritage subscribers who already have a Premium, PremiumPlus or Complete Subscription do NOT have to pay anything to unlock the extra features for uploaded DNA kits. They can upload as many kits as they want and enjoy all the premium features for all uploads.
Join My Heritage, upload your family tree GEDcom file. To upload your DNA from another company, go to your profile, you will see the DNA tab where you can upload your raw data. They're saying they will eventually be charging to upload raw data. To upload DNA to another person in your tree, find them on the tree then click their name, it will open a box on the left that has the link to upload.
My Heritage has also gotten into health testing for $199‎. I've seen it on sale for as low as $99. I have not done it so can not offer experience. When you click the health testing link you can read what they test for. Here is a blog post I found Navigating Your MyHeritage DNA Health Reports
If you're going to upload to My Heritage but you don't recognize any of your matches, consider messaging your Ancestry DNA matches to ask them to upload for free too. I have 2 cousins that helped me out, It's really helped me see how many are related thru my maternal grandmother. I'm able to click a common match and follow them to see if one of my cousins comes up. They offer so much more to find matches then Ancestry.
Can I ask how you found out in the first place you were adopted? Strange fact, but my mother has alluded, but whose also an extremely dysfunctional person, that she believes she may be adopted since many things from her birth and childhood don't add up. My grandma is dead, but my grandpa is still alive although I actually asked them directly in my 20s if my mom was and they both denied it. I've researched black market adoptions as well, which would mean no family could ever be traced which is also a possibility as she was born in the 50s..
Can I ask how you found out in the first place you were adopted? Strange fact, but my mother has alluded, but whose also an extremely dysfunctional person, that she believes she may be adopted since many things from her birth and childhood don't add up. My grandma is dead, but my grandpa is still alive although I actually asked them directly in my 20s if my mom was and they both denied it. I've researched black market adoptions as well, which would mean no family could ever be traced which is also a possibility as she was born in the 50s..
Easy, see my post above, get her an ancestry DNA test when it's on sale for $59 (every holiday) then upload to the free sites. You then look at her DNA matches to see if anyone from her parents families are DNA matches, if not, she's adopted.
Best suggestion I have is for you to manage the test at ancestry. Do you have gmail? If so, make an account at ancestry (it's free) in your name, start your family tree. You may want to make sure your tree is private for now.
We're only allowed one adult DNA test per ancestry account, if you have gmail, there is an "alias" trick where you could use your gmail account, say it's HeyYa80s@gmail.com, you would make it HeyYa80s+MomsDNA@gmail.com, adding a plus + sign then words such as MomsDNA which ancestry would see as a new email addy but gmail ignores the plus + sign and everything after it.
Once you get mom's matches, you look at her highest match, then look at the common matches. You would then group and color code them as match 1. You go to the next highest match that does not have the color code dot, give it a new color with match 2, do the same for common matches. Go back to the main match page, make sure you refresh it each time if you open matches in a new tab, then do it again for the next highest match with no dot. That would get match 3 with a new color. Do it once more, you should have 4 groups of colors. It is called the Dana Leeds method. My Heritage also has color and grouping tools, so it can be done there too. Do not contact any matches.
There is a Facebook group called DNA Detectives with a sister group called DD Social. I suggest you join both to read.
If you have any questions, feel free to message me.
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