Common ancestors with random people using FamilySearch.com

Keith Jackson

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Aug 12, 2016
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I have been using FamilySearch.com for a while as has a friend at work. Using our deceased grandparents, we decided to see if we have any common ancestors. Turns out that we do have a couple common ancestors about 11 or 12 generations back. Thought it was really neat. Anyone willing to post up a Family Search ID to use to see if there is a common ancestor?
 

DeepseekerADS

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Decades ago, Mom is 94 now, she did a search on us. We came from Scotland in the very early times, pre-1700's. I never took a lot of interest into it myself = so I guess her search will be forgotten.... Why should I care as long as I am here?
 

piegrande

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May 16, 2010
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some people are interested in their ancestors. Some aren't. On a genealogy thread you would expect to find more of the first group.

11 or 12 generations can be a very long time. My great-grandfather was born in Ireland, around 1830 which would be 4 generations ago, from my birth date, which would be nearly 30 years per generation. So, 12 generations could be as much as 330 years, 1690 A.D. My Irish ancestors were still smashing each others head with big clubs back then.
 

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Keith Jackson

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I happened to run a check using information from a member here who has posted a lot of his family information. Turns out that one of his 12th great-grandmothers is the sister of one of my 12th great-grandmothers. Both of them died in 1593.
 

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Keith Jackson

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Just for grins I ran checks to see if I had a common ancestor with any of our presidents. Out of the 44 different people who have been president of the USA, I share a common ancestor with 30 of them. I share a common ancestor with the wife of 13 of the 14 remaining presidents, leaving just one president with whom I share no common ancestor to either him or his wife. That president is the one that you would probably think that I did have a chance of being related to. Believe it or not, the one that I am closest to is Barack Obama. Our common ancestor is 8 generations back.

(Disclaimer: This search only goes back to the limit of 16 or so generations, whatever the limit on FamilySearch is.)
 

Jason in Enid

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Oct 10, 2009
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Going back 16 generations, you can show relationship to just about everybody. Even though I'm curious about what these types of services could tell me, I'm not giving up my DNA. Its not private, they sell your info, and you cant force them to remove your sample / genetic sequence / personal data. Some claim they will remove you name from the sample, some claim they will destroy the orginal sample, NONE of them will delete your DNA data. Likely, none of them will delete anything.
 

Noah_D

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Going back 16 generations, you can show relationship to just about everybody. Even though I'm curious about what these types of services could tell me, I'm not giving up my DNA. Its not private, they sell your info, and you cant force them to remove your sample / genetic sequence / personal data. Some claim they will remove you name from the sample, some claim they will destroy the orginal sample, NONE of them will delete your DNA data. Likely, none of them will delete anything.

They aren't talking about using DNA here. On the familysearch website every person has a unique ID and anyone can connect to other people using records like censuses, wills, and the like. No DNA involved.
 

piegrande

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May 16, 2010
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I have no problem with DNA. If one of my kinfolk is a serial murderer or rapist, or even a one-off thug, and they can use my DNA to find him, more power to them. I am unable to understand why people bring up privacy issues when a very cold crime is solved by DNA family matching.

Back in the 80's when my daughter was a young girl, a local high school girl was murdered at a local shopping mall. Yes, there was plenty of blood. Just last year they found him using family matching techniques; he lived 60 miles away, and it simply did not make sense based on all those years of his life. But, he will still die in prison, I guess.
 

Noah_D

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I guess I am not sure I understand what you are saying then. I know that you are concerned with the DNA privacy stuff, and I was just wondering how that related to familysearch thing they were talking about. I thought that maybe you thought the familysearch thing used DNA and I was just trying to clarify and explain that what they were actually doing, which, to the best of my knowledge doesn't use any DNA.
 

Noah_D

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Also, you guys should check out wikitree.com, you can do relationship finder sort of things just like on familysearch and in my personal opinion it is easier to see the sourcing behind it.
 

piegrande

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May 16, 2010
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Family Search is a LDS (Mormon) URL, based on actual documents, not DNA. They are building a large family tree data base which they obviously hope some day could be almost universal. You look up your oldest known ancestor, and find his/her parents, etc.

The problem is, not all people are whom they think they are. In other words, for a variety of reasons a person's father may not be the father, but someone else. This needs no explanation in most cases. But, there are rapes during wars centuries ago. And, when unwed pregnancy destroyed the entire family, not just the unwed mother, if a girl got pregnant, her mother would also hide away and when the baby was born present it as her child. And, foundlings were raised as family members, that digressed from any usable DNA record.

A LSD told me that the actual blood record did not matter to them. If you were raised as a family member, that was your family, period. Blood did not matter. If you learn wht LSD folk do with their ancestry, you would understand why they take this viewpoint.
 

flyadive

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My wife and I are about to partake in a saliva DNA test from a popular Genealogy Company.
A Xmas gift from our Daughter.
Soooo why is giving up your dna so undesirable to some ? Are you saying someone can steel my identity??
Anyone can get your DNA if they want it!
 

piegrande

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May 16, 2010
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My wife and I are about to partake in a saliva DNA test from a popular Genealogy Company.
A Xmas gift from our Daughter.
Soooo why is giving up your dna so undesirable to some ? Are you saying someone can steel my identity??
Anyone can get your DNA if they want it!

Exactly, and why I do not understand those who fuss about privacy violations when they nail a murderer or rapist, using other DNA results without permission.

There is some concern that if your DNA becomes open information, health insurance companies might charge you extra if you have bad genes in some area. Or, even refuse health insurance. Other than that, I have no idea. Here in Mexico, by eating right I do not need health insurance, anyway.

I do not think it is possible to steal your identity by accessing your saliva. so far they are not linked in any financial data base.
 

GoldieLocks

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Geni is doing this now as well. It notified me that I am related to Elanor Roosevelt(sp?). My g-ggrandmother was her aunt, a Lukens.
 

piegrande

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May 16, 2010
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I was going to sign up for 23andme, but looking through the Terms of Service it says I am prohibited from using their services except in the nation where I registered. I have a question in to them now asking if that means I cannot use their URL for finding kinfolks while I am in Mexico. If so, that is a deal killer for me. I go back and forth, though I am usually in Mexico. Not sure why this rule but when I get an answer will probably know why.
 

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