Less than #52Ancestors-My DNA Matches #46

I sent off my DNA test to AncestryDNA about a month ago, and have been awaiting the results. They came back yesterday. I was EXCITED (to say the least).

My Ethnicity was no surprise.

My dad's side is Irish-Italian, my mom's is English-German-Irish. I would have thought the Italian would have been more than 16% though.

What I'm really looking for is some link to my roots that I don't have. Scrolling on down the page I found my DNA Circles. This shows the link between me and other AncestryDNA participants through a common ancestor.

Hmmm, one set of grandparents to start, and the rest are singles. I wonder where their spouses are? And all are from my mom's side of the family.

I have one second cousin that I've been in contact with for years. There are 93 others that are fourth to sixth cousins. Of those 94 people, 63 have a tree that I can view..if I pay $49 for the Ancestry Insights subscription. It does let me send a message to those contacts for free. I've tried a few, hopefully I'll hear back soon.

Actually the most interesting leads seem to be in the matches I have that are NOT in the DNA circles. In sifting through those, I see some very interesting links to some brick wall ancestors.

There are at least other things to try. Family Tree DNA lets you import your Ancestry results to their database free. The catch is that I need 2 more people need to transfer with the above link before all my matches are unlocked for free, or I can pay $39. It appears I have about 20 second to fourth cousin matches there. There is pretty much nothing I can do with them until one of those two things happen.

But wait...there's more!
GED Match will also let you upload your Ancestry results free...really free. The website is not as slick looking as the others, but it appears really powerful. I had no problem uploading my DNA or my tree. It took a few days for my DNA is to process, but in viewing matches to other trees, it looks promising. I can use DNA in combination with my family tree to find matches...and contact them free!

My GEDMatch ID is A065731.

I've also joined Wikitree, which is free. They let you link your Ancestry and GEDmatch results. Hopefully I'll get some hits there.

My WikiTree ID is McGowan-470

If you can think of anything else I can do with these results, let me know.

Wish me luck!