Which DNA Test is Right For You?

I’ve always been curious to find out more about my family’s ancestry and its roots. My late brother had spent time working on our family tree, contacting relatives, and putting pieces of the puzzle in place. I took an autosomal DNA test with AncestryDNA to see what it came up with. An autosomal test will locate cousins from all parts of a family tree based on results.

Ancestry.com

I like Ancestry.com because they have a huge database for family tree records and you can use your DNA tests to get hints to add relatives to your tree.

AncestryDNA® gives you the numbers. It determines the percentage of ethnicity using microarray-based autosomal DNA testing. which surveys a person’s entire genome at over 700,000 locations, all with a simple saliva sample. Ancestry DNA’s online interface integrates state-of-the-art tools for you to utilize your DNA results for family history research. What I like about it is that you can connect it to your family trees, which is Ancestry.com ‘s purpose.

Saliva testing (sampled by AncestryDNA and 23andme) may not be the best method for someone very young or elderly. It requires the subject to fill up a vial of saliva, which isn’t always easy. I had to take the second test because I did not fill the vial properly.

My DNA test results

I knew I was Eastern European with one-half of my ancestry Jewish and the other not. Finding distant relatives in that part of the world is difficult because of the Holocaust. Jews wandered the continent and hid to escape oppression.

AncestryDNA is updated frequently as the technology advances. It says I’m 50% Ashkenazi Jew, 46% Eastern European, (non-Jewish) 3% Baltic, and 1 Sardinian, which could go back thousands of years.

My Ashkenazi (Eastern Europe) Jewish roots may come from Southwest Latvia, Lithuania, and Northwest Belarus.

My Eastern Europe and Russian roots (non-Jewish) originate from Slovakia and Hungary, more specifically Western Presov, South Poland, Slovakia, and North Hungary. (Presov & Kosice)

The Baltics may include the Vikings but are primarily located in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. It may also include Belarus, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine.

AncestryDNA also provides a historical overview of the history of regions as they relate to your results.

Earliest relatives found

We found an ancestor on my father’s maternal side named Zvi Schonzeit who was born in 1818 in Augustow, Poland.

My Father’s earliest known relative (European Jewish) is listed as Fostot, born in 1835 in Bialystok, Podlaskie, Poland. My maiden name is Forstadt, which may have been changed a bit over time. Forstadt is a German word meaning near to the city. (or Suburb) In an 1880 census in New York City, my great-grandfather was listed as Furstadt.

My mother’s father, Alexei Melinsky was born in 1885 in Buda, Russia. He left for America to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in 1906. (before the Russian Revolution) In 1936, after relocating to another mine in Superior, Colorado he was lured back to U.S.S.R. He had been reading Soviet propaganda that made Russia sound like Utopia. Sadly, he was never heard from again. It’s presumed he was killed during Stalin’s purge. We haven’t found any other records of his family history yet.

My mother’s paternal grandfather was born in 1868 and her grandmother in 1873. They were both from the Saris region of Slovakia.  Saris is a historic land in the northern part of Eastern Slovakia and was named after Saris Castle. It is made up of the districts of Presov, Bardejov, Svidnik, and Stropkov, the first of these being the regional cultural and economic center. Among Saris’s popular leisure resorts are the Domasa Dam, and the winter centers of Drienica-Lysa and Buce.

Several of those relatives are buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Calhan, Colorado in El Paso County. They must be from the same lineage because they all lived in the tiny town of Ramah on farms. If you go to a site called Find a Grave, on their search page, you can see photos of graves. They have a huge database.

Famous relatives

I have 2 well-known cousins. One is Ernest Kinoy, who was the first cousin of my father. He was an Emmy award-winning television and film screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for the TV series “Roots.” His brother, Arthur Kinoy, was an attorney and progressive civil rights attorney who helped defend the Chicago Seven, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and worked with civil rights leaders in the South during the turbulent 60s. 

Arthur served as a professor of law at the Rutgers School of Law–Newark from 1964 to 1999. Ruth Bader Ginsburg called him “an inspiration.” Their mother, Aunt Sadie, must have been proud.

Do your dog’s DNA

I got so excited about my DNA test that I had my two doggie’s DNA done too. Wisdom Panel only requires a simple cheek swab and you can find out what your mutt is descended from. I wrote more about my doggie DNA test here.

If anyone out there is a relative of mine, please let me know.

Another DNA test you may want to try that gives you health information is 23 and Me.

Have you had a DNA test or worked on your family tree? Please leave a comment below and let us know what you found.