I have been
interested in genealogy since university in the 80s – back when DNA tests and
online research didn’t even exist. My
main source of family information was the book:
History of the Allison or Alison
Family. It belonged to my great
grandfather Walter, my grandfather Joseph, my mother Joanne, and then was
handed down to me while I was in university.
Of course, old-fashioned
genealogical research is time-consuming and expensive. This book is still secondary research and
clearly has some bias, so while I trust much of the information, I am not sure
I always trust the interpretation. As a
young person, I had neither time nor money to indulge in primary research,
however fascinating.
A couple of
years ago, however, as my mother was unloading family heirlooms and furniture
to move from her home to a much smaller condominium, she brought to me a box of
genealogical treasures. This reignited
my interest. With new methods of
electronic research, confirming ancestors many generations back is so much
easier from your armchair now. Something
important I learned after a couple of months on ancestry.ca is that not
everyone is as interested in accuracy as I.
You must be careful to apply good research discipline even with the
convenience of home-based research. I am
still undoing a lot of the information I loaded from other people’s family
trees in the first couple of months.
Using the
family book and all of the available electronic records, I was able to confirm
the family lineage back to Ireland in the 1600s (on the Allison side
anyway). We were Scotch-Irish, and we
were farmers in Limavady working for an English landlord.
My book said
that a number of branches found their roots at a farm in Lanark, Scotland. Were we one of those branches? We were most certainly of Scotch Irish
descent, but from where did we hail before Ireland?
Going back
from 1652 is difficult if you don’t know where you are going back to. I discovered that there is a group of people
with the surname Allison on Family Tree DNA.
I joined the group, got my uncle’s spit, and sent it in for a YDNA test. I had an uncle, two aunts, my mother, and
many cousins watching over my shoulder as we awaited the results and I
continued my research. I don’t mind
saying that I was hoping we would find we hailed from that farm in Lanark.
It took
time, but when we got the results, we could rule out the Allison family farm,
probably. But I did get a match with
someone whose ancestor was the mother of President McKinley! And I am still trying to understand the
results. The more people that join the
Allison DNA project, the closer I will get to finding more ancestors and our
roots in Scotland.
Now I am
looking at the possibilities of mitochondrial or autosomal DNA to find more about my
ancestors using my own spit. I have had
people contact me through the blog and I am certain I could confirm more
relatives and broaden my tree with this DNA test. I am also looking at doing Family Finder to
see if I can uncover more information behind a family legend that tells that
one of our ancestors was born to a young girl from Hereford and an unknownJew. I am documenting what I know of
this story from online research and family memoires through this blog, but I have found more and
more information as I learn better research methods and keep going back to the
story. DNA would provide another key to
the truth behind this story.
DNA without
a doubt unlocks some of our family mysteries.
Today getting the test is relatively straightforward. And applying it to your genealogical research
is also relatively straightforward. The
more I learn, and the more people who get their DNA tested, the more useful DNA
research becomes. I have found ancestors
and made linkages through DNA, and I know that I will be uncovering more family
stories as I learn more about our connections through DNA.
Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXdzuz5Q-hs
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