Okay, so I had my DNA tested through ancestry.com at the beginning of this year. I was thrilled to get my results back while I was in Ireland and discovered that my backgound at least from a DNA perspective is about 1/3 Celtic (Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.)
I knew I had Irish in me because Rice is an Irish name but it's been difficult researching the lines because most of the information I do have for branches identified as Irish are female lines and I don't yet know their surnames. The Rice name itself has also been a difficult line to document too so it doesn't go back as far as I'd like either. Clearly I have puzzles to work on still!
But here is the cool thing about doing the testing through Ancestry. When they provide the results you don't just learn there are people in the world that you're distantly related to (a no brainier) but they provide information called DNA circles. These are fascinating and I think the thing I find most valuable from a DNA perspective.
DNA circles take people with matching segments of DNA and look at their family trees (you have to have more than 2 generations for this to work) and they identify your common ancestor. What makes this so helpful is that it is a great way to validate the research that's already been done. And this is especially helpful because a lot of my initial generations we're researched and documented (birth, death, marriage, etc) in the pre-internet days. Its hard to understand nowadays but my friend and I used to spend all day in a library looking through microfiche for data and documentation. I would then apply for a copy of whatever certificate I needed through the appropriate courthouse. For the last several years Ancestry has been scanning actuals documents for us to use so my days off applying for documents now are few and far between.
Researching just gets easier and easier.
