There are n’t too many masses who can claim a unadulterated category tree going back five generations . Sure , there are those who have accomplished the feat ( through a compounding of blood , effort , tears , eternal program library hours andgenealogical tests ) , but it ’s secure to say that most of us still have drop leaves and branches — unidentified kinfolk members we ’d like to identify . You might have a few combat of evidence about an empty blot on the tree — peradventure a name or birthplace — but no concrete info or check . You might not even be sure the person is still alive . So how do you go about encounter these obscure relatives ?
These days the first footstep in any genealogy Holman Hunt , specially if you know your unknown congenator is still alert and kick , should be to take a direct - to - consumer transmissible test . Genome - wide transmitted examination — which analyzes 500,000 DNA view — became available to consumers in 2007 , and it ’s been a plot - changer for recreational genealogist [ source : Mountain ] . If you get the basic package from one of the magnanimous online testing companies , they ’ll liken your genic data to that of everyone in their database — and some of them have hundreds of M . If you bend out to be a relation of any of the other customers , you ’ll be capable to touch them , share information and yoke family Tree on the land site . So you could be fit up immediately with that long - lost third first cousin or even satiate in all your family - Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree holes in one savage slide .
If you have an inkling of who this unknown congenator might be , you could hit pay dirt with an even newer testing method , introduced in 2009 [ reservoir : Mountain ] . This kind of exam equate the deoxyribonucleic acid of two people and can determine their accurate genetic relationship ( or lack thence ) . Say you think your maternal nifty - large - great - grandfather might have been Al Smith , and you know that a guy rope appoint Ed Jones is a descendant of Al Smith . If you could persuade Ed totake a DNA testand the results show that you ’re come to , this could evidence your intuition — and you could add Al and Ed to your family Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
The openhanded arrest to this kind of test , of course , is that you ’re out of hazard if you do n’t have a verified relative with whom to compare yourself . If you assume out with genealogical examination , have no musical theme who you ’re looking for or you ’re going back generation to encounter someone who ’s long beat , you ’ll have to go back to good old - fashioned research . Do n’t get us incorrect — you ’ll still be on the cyberspace , not inevitably digging through the physical archives in far - flung libraries , but it wo n’t be as loose as being automatically linked with relative after post in acheek swab . The DNA - mental testing data you do have is a smashing starting point , though . So get going — join Facebook genealogy radical , ask questions in on-line forums and research , research , enquiry . There ’s no telling who you ’ll line up .
