Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, I am not sure how to post in the BTS on the new design, and this does have a small amount of Conspiracy topic in
it.
I am considering spending $400 on a
DNA ancestry test. My father was just diagnosed with a degenerative hand
disease known as "Viking's Disease." It is officially called
Dupuytren's
Disease. It is not a life-threatening disease, more of an annoyance, but it got me to pondering my ancestry.
My father once went into great depth researching our origins and we were linked to some Scottish and Irish descent through his mother, and even
connected to Sir Walter Raleigh. His grand-father was full-blooded Apache Indian, and there is no record of him anywhere except a name, Roscoe
Flowers. He supposedly lived on an Indian Reservation to a very old age, and in fact may still be alive! (He would be my Great-Grandfather, and he
would be at least 90 years old now.) Anyhow, the lineage on his paternal side is probably impossible to trace past his Grandfather.
Here is the reason for the thread. I know a lot about my ancestry for a few generations, and I know the family names are good, old, well-established
families beyond those generations. I also know that I have a very strong Apache bloodline directly from my father. What I don't know is how the
European lineages got to America, or got to the Midwest.
So here are my main questions, and I'm hoping ATS can coach me up before taking this leap.
Are the DNA tests worth the money?
Has anybody done one of these and gotten credible results that matched your other research?
Are there scams out there?
Is Ancestry.com a credible provider?
Is there a privacy risk by participating in those sites?
Of course the recent "Viking" heredity has me intrigued, but $400 is a decent chunk, and I may not want to know that on my father's side I have
Viking blood and Apache blood both! No wonder I'm so angry, LOL!
What are the implications of connecting the whole world through DNA? What are the personal pros and cons for a guy like me?