Looking for grand dad

[rover]

Hello guys, I am new to this forum. I have done a test of family tree dna and awaiting results because I beleive I dont know my grand father. I am from Sri Lanka and my step grand dad did not disclose facts to my dad whos real father we believe was British. I have lived a frustrated life sine I am carrying the step grand dad's name and now I have developed new hope of finding my real ancestry through DNA. How succesfull do you think I will be. Is it possible that I eventually get connected with ancestral names.

[cacio]

It will be really hard to find the exact family - if you test many markers, you may have a stroke of luck and find a match, which would tell you the family - not the exact ancestor, but broadly speaking the family. But you shouldn't count on it.

However, the test will likely tell you whether it is a European (ie British) or if it is from Sri Lanka, so that would be informative. For instance, if the lineage turns out to be R1b or I, then it is likely british. If it's H or L, it is Indian/Sri Lanka. If it's R1a, it could be both, though most likely Indian/Sri Lanka.

cacio

[rover]

Thanks cacio, hopefully when my test results become awailable you guys could tell more. I am anxious.

[spruithean]

Thanks cacio, hopefully when my test results become awailable you guys could tell more. I am anxious.

How many markers did you test Rover?

Good luck in your searches.

Maybe you will get your results sooner then expected.

Are there any traits or European features in your family?

[rover]

Yes, I need all the luck with this, Thanks.
I have tested for 67 markers and as I mentioned........, waiting.
European features? yes I think so. We look different from typical Nationals.

[rainbow]

Since you're probably male and it is your direct male line then your ydna result could tell you if your male line is British/European. Otherwise I'd suggest an admixture/autosmal test. That is what I did. I wonder if my paternal grandmother is actually Native American & European, or if my Slavic paternal grandfather had a lot of Central Asian markers, or if the Slavic paternal grandfather was my fathers biological father.

[rover]

Rainbow, Thanks.
Yes I am mail. I am not very knowlegable about the subject so I am definitely counting on your tips. Guys, lets see how it goes with my initial results and we'l take it from there. This is exiting for me.

[rover]

Sorry rainbow, I mean to say male. Not mail.

[rainbow]

I knew what you meant. I make typos too. I usually try to correct them within the 15 minutes allowed, if I catch them. I tend to type first, think later.

[rover]

Ok Rainbow, let me hear your story now or have I missed it.

[rainbow]

Ok Rainbow, let me hear your story now or have I missed it.

Hi Rover.

It's a long story. I don't think I can condense my over 1,000 posts to here. Most people probably didn't want to hear me repeat myself about my story.
Thank you for asking. My story is simple. My first dna test was many years ago when I had a court -ordered paternity test proving that my father is my biological father (he, my mom, & I all had blood drawn for that).
In 2006 I tested with the Genographic Project to find out my mtdna. My mothers mothers mothers mothers mothers etc line went back to Virginia from North Carolina. I knew that back then in colonial America that many men would marry and have children with Native American women. I wanted to know if my direct maternal line was English or Native American. My mtdna result is European.
For as long as I can remember (almost all my life), my mom would tell me (& she'd tell others in the park, at the bus stop, at school, etc) that she thought I had some Mongolian ancestry on my fathers side. Mainly because of my eye shape (and temper. stereotyped as Mongolian).
My father is half Slavic (Czechoslovakian) on his fathers side, and half generic colonial New Jersey American (English, Scottish, German, French, & Dutch) on his mothers side. I had an admixture test done by DNA Print to see if I had any detectable amount of Mongolian. I thought my result would be 100% European, and maybe if enough Mongolian to show up on the test, at the most 3% East Asian and 97% European. My result came back 83% European and 17% Native American. Well, then I thought it must be on my mothers side because my mothers mother was from North Carolina (that area is famous for having a lot of people claiming Cherokee admixture). It was shocking to me because my mothers mothers side was all European and well-documented. (Except for one great great grandfather who was born before the Civil War, in South Carolina, and the courthouse that contained birth records etc burned during the war.) My mom then had the admixture test and she doesn't have Native American (but since that test my mom found that we are descended from Pocahontas, according to distant cousins online).
That means my 17% comes from my father and that he must be about 34%. Ruling out his father, who was Czechoslovakian, that brings me to the conclusion that my fathers mother must be at least half Native American (17x2=34%. 34x2=68%). Either many colonial families of New Jersey are heavily mixed with Native American, or she was adopted, or at least one of her parents isn't her parent, or her husband wasn't the father of her child (my father).
I have tried to contact her (we are estranged) and asked her to take an admixture test, but she hasn't responded, and neither have any of my other relatives.
I grew up without grandparents, etc. I met my fathers mother when I was 21 (she was at the hospital when I was born and also saw me when I was 2, but I don't remember her) and I asked her then if there was any Indian in the family. She never answered me. I had asked many times, even by letter, but she never answered that question. She was much darker than I had expected. I think she is part Native American. But the paper trail is 100% European. And I had hounded her for years for a photo of my grandfather (he died when my father was a toddler) because I never saw what he looked like. Instead she sent me a bunch of recent family photos, one of them included a pastor of her church and he looks Native American. But I kept hounding again for a photo of my grandfather, her first husband, which she eventually sent to me and that was the last time she wrote to me. That was in 1998.
I'm open to the option that I may be 1/4 Native American instead of 1/4 Czechoslovakian. Or that 1/4 (or 17%) displaces a large part of my English/Dutch/Scottish/German/French(also Belgian) from my paternal grandmothers side.

I think that sums up most of my posts, except for all of my wild DNATribes matches.

[PDHOTLEN]

RE Czech being Slavic...

What is now the Czech Republic was once part of the Austrian Empire, and was heavily Germanized by German-speaking peoples from both Germany and Austria. Although most of those Sudetenland Germans were expelled after WWII, many others blended in with the dominant West Slavs. So autosomalwise, Czech could be a blend of Slav and German/Austrian. I saw on Google that there were a couple of different men with the same surname as my maternal grandfather (also seen in Germany, Austria and even Hungary).

[rover]

Well it is a long story as you said. I think I eventually grasped your main point in it. Looks like every family has scandles and the children are kept in the dark which is not fair. I defenitely do not want to do that to my children and I think they should know exactly who they are. Thats why I have taken to this. So........, looks like we have a little in common.
I realy dont understand why my father (died when I was young) did not take the initiative to trace his biologycal father or atleast educate us children about it.
My main concern is why am I carrying a surname of an out sider (my step grand father) for which I am very angry. But I have made sure not to pass it on to my chidren.
May be in a week or two I should have the initial results and lets see whats in store for me.

[vinnie]

Hi Rainbow,

I find your story very interesting, although somewhat sad. It's not only sad for you personally, but because it speaks, in my opinion, to the prejudices that are still found in our society, both in regards to ethnicity/race, but also to birth situations that are considered less than ideal. In addition, people just don't get how short life is, until it's too late, and then sometimes, if you're lucky, you get a deathbed reconciliation among family members.

I've experienced a little of this myself in regards to one of my great grandmothers. We know she was adopted, and I think there's at least one relative who knows a lot more than s/he will admit. Likewise, I met someone whose maternal grandmother is from the same town where I know my ggrandmother was born; he was quite interested in testing - until he talked to his family about it. Then he just put me off every time I asked him about it; they're probably afraid that they may be related, and don't want any part of the "scandal". So if I meet someone else with maternal ties to the same place, I'm not going to mention the adoption in hopes that I can get them to test. In the mean time, guess we've both got to be happy with what we have accomplished, and let go of the rest.

Vinnie

[rainbow]

What is now the Czech Republic was once part of the Austrian Empire, and was heavily Germanized by German-speaking peoples from both Germany and Austria. Although most of those Sudetenland Germans were expelled after WWII, many others blended in with the dominant West Slavs. So autosomalwise, Czech could be a blend of Slav and German/Austrian. I saw on Google that there were a couple of different men with the same surname as my maternal grandfather (also seen in Germany, Austria and even Hungary).

My father considers himself Czech. I found out that the birth towns on his paternal side are actually in present day Slovakia. But is possible that there is some German too because several of his paternal uncles had first names that I think were more German-sounding than Slavic (John, William, Emil, Ludwig, George). Ludwig & George & William died in childhood though, so my father never met them.