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I think their point with "Ancestry by descent" is that tracing your ancestry through birth/death records is pretty reliable (relative to your noted imprecision
by InitialLastName 2y ago
I think their point with "Ancestry by descent" is that tracing your ancestry through birth/death records is pretty reliable (relative to your noted imprecision with genetic testing).
- trogdor 2y agoNot always. For example, my birth certificate has my father’s name on it. I am in my 30’s, and it was only a few months ago that I learned that I was conceived via IVF, and that my biological father was a sperm donor. In my case, my mother told me. But I could have also learned that from a DNA test. (Which I have since taken. As a result, I now know the identity of my biological father.) It is not uncommon for DNA tests to reveal misattributed parentage — something you could almost-never learn from records-based genealogical research.
- InitialLastName 2y agoWhich bit of ancestry means more to who you are?
- trogdor 2y agoThe family that raised me surely had more of an impact on my identity, but both parts of my ancestry are independently significant to me. My point, though, was that using birth and death records to trace your ancestry is not always reliable.