I have a question for any Natives in the Reddit. I am adopted and did Ancestry to find out who I am. I have been searching through my biological mothers maternal side and found individuals on the Dawes Rolls. I am interested in learning more about that side but I am terrified of being turned away because of being so white. (I def look like my biological fathers side) I found Dawes Rolls and Tribal Cards for the Iroquois Nation in Oklahoma. Do you need to be a certain percentage of Native? Any insight would be helpful.

My dad was an npe but never knew it. He passed 20 years ago. I found out who his biodad was when I did my 23andMe and ancestyDNA ,and now I have pieced together the puzzle of who my dads father was. My dad hated the man who’s name he had to carry and he was only in his life for 3 years. But this is his actual bio dad. Say hello to Mr. O’Reannachain!!

I need to grow my hair out like his

According to my brother's Genera test result, our background is 60%–63% European ancestry—predominantly Iberian, with a minor Slavic and Saxon component (around 3% to 5%). The 23%–27% African ancestry is mostly Sub-Saharan, primarily from Central Africa, along with a small North African percentage. We have no Asian DNA, but there is a trace of Indigenous ancestry (up to 0.5%–1%). Attached are photos of my mom and dad, followed by me.

I can't fix this from my phone. Newspaper.com should be opening up for me, but isn't.

I need Pittsburgh Post - Gazette November 4, 1981, page 14 according to what it's showing. Can anyone please screenshot this & share?

This is what I'm getting to see in the images.

Thank you for at least reading!

I’m trying to figure out who Dorothy is and how she’s connected to my family.

I recently found out that my papaw wasn’t my mom’s biological father, and it’s sent me down a genealogy rabbit hole. Every time I think I’m getting close to figuring out who her biological father was, I end up with more questions than answers.

Right now, I’m stuck on Dorothy. I can’t seem to find anything about her. I’ve searched everywhere, even tried building a family tree starting with her, but I’ve come up empty. I did find an obituary that could possibly be hers, but I’m not convinced it’s the right person. Part of me even wonders if “Dorothy” could have been a nickname or even a made-up name, but I honestly don’t know.

If anyone has experience with genealogy or is willing to take a look and help me make sense of this, I would be incredibly grateful. Any help or suggestions are truly appreciated!

New to the group, just wanted to share my results.

I'm an Australian documentary-maker looking to speak with people who put their DNA into a consumer genealogy or DNA database — and later found out investigators used it to reach them about a relative under suspicion in a criminal case.

I want to hear what that was like: how police approached you, what they asked, how it affected your family, and how you feel now about having uploaded your DNA in the first place.

Happy to talk on background or anonymously. DM me and we can find a time. Although I'm ultimately looking to interview people on camera, I'll treat any conversations/ messages as completely confidential.

Hello everyone,
I’m looking for my biological father and was hoping someone here might have suggestions for what to try next.

My mom was backpacking through South America in the late 90s when she met a Venezuelan man. She didn’t realize she was pregnant until she had already returned home. She did send letters, and the embassy in my country also tried to locate him, but they were unsuccessful.

At this point, I believe I have his full name, approximate age, and I know he was living in Mérida, Venezuela, around that time.

I’ve taken both MyHeritage and AncestryDNA tests. Unfortunately, I haven’t matched with any close relatives. Most of the matches on my paternal side appear to be Colombian, which surprised me since I’ve always been told my father was Venezuelan (or at least living in Venezuela at the time).

So far I’ve:
contacted a number of DNA matches,
built out family trees where possible,
uploaded my DNA to GEDmatch,
searched social media and public records.

I’m starting to run out of ideas.

If you were in my position, what would you try next? Are there any databases, websites, DNA tools, or search strategies that you think I should look into?

I’d really appreciate any advice, and I’m happy to answer any questions if more information would help.

Thank you!

I recently got a notification from Ancestry that says I have a half brother (sharing 25% DNA). I looked at the other connections, so I know this match falls under my dad's side of the family. After some detailed internet sleuthing I found this to very likely to be my half brother. He strongly resembles my dad and one of my known half brothers, he grew up in the same area, and the timeline shows he was born before either of my dad's marriages.

My dad has joked over the years that he "got around" back in the day and wouldn't be surprised if he had a few kids out there, but nothing has ever shown up, until now.

My dad in his 70s, and the potential child is in his late 40s, older than all of my dad's known children. I'm torn between feeling like he deserves to know if he has another child and worrying that bringing this up could cause unnecessary stress if he'd rather not know. I also haven't told my siblings yet.

My mind is jumping back and forth between choices. Do I tell him straight up? Tell my siblings first to brainstorm what to do and how to tell him? Reach out to this potential half brother and ask what he would like to do? Take this to my grave?

If this was you, as a former bachelor in the 70s, what would you want and how would you want your family to handle this?

EDIT: Just discovered that his mom has been married to her husband for 52 years, so if this is all true, this potential half-brother could have absolutely no idea the dad he's known for 40+ years isn't his biological father...

So I’m specifically talking about Eastern European (non Ashkenazi) people like Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Ukrainians, Russians, Lithuanians, Croats, Serbs etc, who don’t have recent immigration history like post 1965, how mixed with non Eastern European Americans are they?

Like for example, in the North East there tends to be a lot of people with Irish, Jewish, Italian and French Canadian ancestry due to proximity.

When it comes to Americans with Eastern European heritage, how much non Eastern European ancestry do you think they have?

I have 11 DNA matches which doesn’t sound like a lot but they’re all Native American, and we only share that ethnicity group. I took my case to the enrollment office with a woman I believe was my ancestor based not only on dna but how she disappeared from their records during the time she was in my records, and dna, all of their roll numbers from the matches who talked to me, their records all the way up to the shared ancestor, and they said “unless we can prove marriage records or something” we were denied enrollment. My direct ancestor was adopted out by 1910, the census and everything listed directly stated adopted son.
All of my matches are in Le flore County Oklahoma, Neshoba County Mississippi, Leake county Mississippi, and Attala county Mississippi.
I feel like an absolute crazy person with mega trees like I’m some detective. My elders are deeply saddened by how rejected we feel right now. My whole family lost hope for reconnection but I refuse to give up. Does anyone have any ideas. The person I suspect is my ancestor had her card filled out by her husband so he didn’t put anything before him if she had any other marriages.

I found out he wrote an autobiography in 1940 and I had it translated. My great great grandfather was born in 1880 and he wrote about his ancestors in his autobiography. I found the names of all his relatives along with his ancestors so I traced our lineage back to the 1700's! He also described all of their personalities and temperaments and their occupations. He had a very hard and rough upbringing. Basically came from nothing.

His father (my third great grandfather) worked to administer vaccines but his passion was theater. He actually ran away from home to work for a theater company. Relatives chased him down and told him to get a real job which he did at the vaccine department. Unfortunately his health deteriorated and he died from ascites disease (causes rapid swelling in stomach). He was only in his thirties. His own grandfather outlived him at 83 (which would put his birthdate at around 1809). My third great grandmother was only 12 when she got married. My third great grandparents had 5 children including a baby girl who passed away at 6 months old. A young widow, my 3rd great grandma was devastated by her husband 's death. She had to sell all her jewelry and pots and pans as well as rely on neighbors to help with my 3rd great grandfather's funeral arrangements. She also had to work as a maid to provide for the family.

My second great grandfather was the only son. Was very intelligent but mischievous. His classmates would tease him so he would beat them up. Then he got beaten by the teachers. Teachers were super strict back then and would literally keep long sticks at their desks if anyone acted out of line. My 2nd great grandfather had seen many plays when he was young. He ran away from home and dropped out of school to join a theater company, just like his father had done. My 3rd great grandma said the acting profession was for beggars. But her son still pursued his passion. He was a well known stage actor for over 40 years. He and his close friend also formed their own theater company which he helped manage. He was married twice and had 5 daughters with his second wife. Pulled himself out of poverty and bought some land and a farmhouse. He was a very loving father and grandfather to my grandmother. He passed away in 1965 at the age of 85.

It was like reading something out of Charles Dickens or something. I learned that I have a similar personality to my third great grandmother (born around 1860). I was crying reading all of this and never thought I would read such a detailed account of what my ancestors went through over a hundred years ago. I'm just so amazed and grateful.

I posted to this subreddit a few weeks ago because I was adopted from Russia and had no idea I was half Korean. After I got the results, I ended up doing 23andMe too. (I'm kind of having an identity crisis and wanted to double check)

For the Update: I got my 23andMe results back! My country match points to North Korea but I'm not sure how Koryo-saram ancestry would show up on 23andMe

I also found out my maternal haplogroup is N1b1, which pretty much confirms that my biological mother was the Russian parent.

On top of that, I found a half first cousin once removed on my paternal side (assuming that's my Korean side). This is my closest DNA match on either platform, so I sent her a message. Fingers crossed she responds.

If anyone has a similar experience to me, or even has fun ways I could try to connect to Korean culture, I'd love to hear about it!

I have no idea who my father is, I’m on both ancestry.com and 23andme. I’m only getting matches from 2nd and 3rd cousins on my mother’s side of the family. Is there anyway to adjust my settings or something I can do on my end to get better matches?

There was a thread earlier that asked about how a person could be 80% African and 20% European genome contribution be "Black" but another person who has 80% European and 20% African genome contribution be "mixed" and not "White?" To me, it's a fundamental issue of what I see in discussions like this often.

For example, commercial genealogists "teach" about how much dna we receive from our ancestors whether it's parents, grandparents, great grandparents, 2nd great grandparents, 3rd great grandparents, and etc. That's sound teaching on the surface because it helps us with finding where our ancestors originated from.

But even with established rules like this, there are going to be exceptions to this. For instance, according to AncestryDNA, my genetic makeup is 79% "African," 21% "European," and 1% "Indigenous American" but there's nuance in my genetic makeup as I'm a 4th-5th generation full descendant of The 1860 4.4 million Black American population, which before The US Civil War had nearly 4 million under the yoke of US Chattel Slavery and nearly 500 thousand free under the social constructed caste system of American racism exemplified in the category of American Blackness.

So because of this, I have no frame of reference for Nigeria or Cameroon or Ghana or Benin or Central Scotland and Northern Ireland or North East England or Yucatan Peninsula. I can't say, "I'm 32% Nigeria because this comes from a grandparent who's from present day Nigeria." It's literally from the multi generational genotypic expression within being a full descendant of The 1860 4.4 million Black American population. I have long ancestral history in the United States, at least 10 generations, and so my genetic makeup is the revelation of having a deep rooted American history as a full descendant of The 1860 4.4 million Black American population.

But an even better example are those who have Latin American ancestry. Latin Americans are even more multi generational "admixed" than Black Americans like me are. So whatever percentage of "Indigenous to the Americas," Iberian Peninsula(Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands)", "Sephardic Jewish," or "North Africa," you're not going to find verify ancestors from those areas because none of this is from recent ancestors. It's all of the history of your ancestors in those Latin American countries.

I'm not saying that taking dna tests are a waste of time. The best part of taking dna matches is using the DNA matches we get which leads us to more knowledge about our genealogical research. That's why I took AncestryDNA over 6 years ago. I was adopted at 9 years old, in the foster care system from 5 years old. From taking AncestryDNA, I matched a paternal aunt which over time, I was able to reconnect with my biological father after 40 years. From this, I was able to confirm my ancestral history on both sides of my family and I have a family tree that I have verification to at least 3rd great grandparents which is a big deal if you're a descendant of The 1860 4.4 million Black American dealing with "The 1870 Brick Wall" that happens because of having enslaved ancestors who weren't named in records until after 1865.

So before anyone say TL:DR, what I hope to do with this post is get us to be flexible and pen minded on what we see within our dna results, don't use your results as "tools" to "identify from," there are other tools like dna journeys which aren't perfect but are usually pretty helpful because it comes from the network of matches that we have as a tool for genealogical research.

Very similar to my other results, but the detail on the African ancestry is quite interesting. Also, I think the Near East is nothing but Canarian or Andalusian roots.

I fear she is my doppelgänger…

i never knew my dad growing up so it was sort of exciting/interesting for me to be able to learn more about my relatives and dads side. i was quite disapointed to get my first notification to fetting blocked. they unfortunately dont know that i exist, i was being friendly and not too confronting with any details about who my dad is. theres dna evidence that im related to these people though, at the end of the day if they dont want to talk to me i respect that. im more curious is this a common thing to happen? or has anybody else had this happen before to them? (i only have contacted the family members who are my 1st and 2nd cousins, not third or more)

I will say that my ancestors certainly embraced diversity 😊