Have you tried Soundex with the names? That would be my first suggestion.

Another is the back story of Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak. She was born Megan Smolenyak, and then met and married a man with the last name of Smolenyak. She was able to trace their lineage to a small town in Slovakia, and there were four distinct Smolenyak families. Through DNA, they were able to isolate one of the families from the other three, and so it happened that she & her husband were not even remotely blood related.

Navane & 1964, I immediately thought of Megan when I read your posts. So often, the very "tribe" to which we think we belong is not indeed ours. I know that, at best, I'm only half-related to all but seven people with my maiden name. One of my ancestors seems to have had an illegitimate child, and while pregnant with #2, was sent to the United States (to avoid the stigma?). She met & married a man who never adopted her children, but they did use his name. In tracing their mother, it seems that she may not have been German/Swiss after all. This is one of the puzzles I'd like to solve, since there's not proper records otherwise.

I used Family Tree DNA because my MIL, who is very into genealogy, asked me to do it and paid for the test.

So far it's told me exactly two things.

1. I have Irish ancestry. (Not a peep about my English, Scottish, Indian, or Polish ancestry. My father's whole family is Polish. :confused: )

2. The closest relatives it's shown me are possible fourth cousins. (Which means I am not closely related to my husband.)

I tried to get my dad to do the Y-DNA test, but he refused, and I don't have a blood-relative uncle or other male relative I can ask.

Guess I'm just a mystery wrapped in an enigma. :)

And that is certainly possible. That is why I asked my honorary cousin to take the DNA test. I told him via Facebook the other day, "Even if the test shows were are not blood family, I will always still call you cousin." His response to me was, "heheheh [family surname] is blood family. we are conected but we dont know where and how. we are conectet even with that part they say no we are not conected. yes we are just must find how"

(Specific note to honeychile: The last name you know me by on Facebook is my last name....however, it was not our original surname. Our family name was shortened when my dad was in the first grade. ;) Our original surname is slightly less common.)


I believe that some companies have tests which are only based off of either the Y chromosome or on the mitochondrial DNA. Those would search the paternal and maternal sides, respectively. If you did an mtDNA test, then you would be looking at your mother's lineage and, therefore, your father's Polish side would not have shown up.

I did their standard kit and mtDNA. I would have thought that the standard kit would have turned up something about my Polish ancestry based on the X chromosome I got from my father. And it doesn't explain why my English and Indian ancestry don't show up.

I do wish I could have gotten a Y-DNA test. But my father flat out refused, and now it's too late.

I did 23andme over a year ago. Here in Canada you get health info as well, which factored into the choice. Recently I decided to do AncestryDNA as well because I built my family tree there and would like more family matches.

It was really worth it to me. I went in for the ancestry info, but found running the raw data through Promethease gave me so much health info that actually helped me choose medications (turns out I'm an ultrarapid metabolizer of some which explained a lot).

Ancestry wise 23andme gave me some snippets of ancestry I didn't expect, like little bits of Iberian and Southern European I'd love to trace. I'm curious how Ancestry will break down the UK/Irish because 23andme lists it as "British and Irish" while Ancestry.com breaks down Celtic ancestry separately.

Overall it's been totally worth it. If you're interested in health info, try out Promethease - https://promethease.com/

You just download the zip file of your raw data from whichever site you used and upload it. For 5 bucks you get a TON of health info. Ancestry actually tests more SNPs than 23andme right now so I'll be running the Ancestry DNA test as well.

I got my mom and 23andme test for Xmas, so I'm excited to see how that affects my results (and I'll be able to break down which side some DNA came from). I find 23andme is better for comparing results to family members which is why I got her that one.

Update! The kit went out to Europe, my "honorary cousin" spit into the tube and I just received the kit back today! I immediately put it right back into the mail to be sent to the lab. So, provided the sample was good and the solution was able to stay fresh enough during the long trip in the mail, we should have some kind of answer in a few weeks!

How exciting for you Navane! I look forward to hearing the results.

The DNA test results for my "honorary cousin" in Poland came in today and, sadly, he did not turn up on the match list for me or for my father.

There are two other women on ancestry.com who have ancestors with the same last name from the same general area as my family. Those two women are distant DNA cousins to each other; but, they did not match with me.

"Honorary cousin" in Poland has known family from both of the two exact towns where these ladies' ancestors came from. I was certain that, if he didn't match to me, he would match to one or the both of them. If so, then I could put them all in touch with each other and they could "meet" each other.

Unfortunately, neither one of the two women came up as a match for him either! So, either we have a lot of unrelated people with our uncommon last name running around or the DNA test isn't able to go far enough back to pick-up the connection.

I do understand the complexities of DNA and how these things can get muddied up based on the various combinations and scenarios. Though, I was a bit surprised that the other two women didn't match either. I don't know about the two ladies; but, me and "honorary cousin" did both separately come up as having DNA from the same specific region in Poland.

Oh well...we'll keep plugging away at the family tree the old fashioned way!


This may very well be a similar situation here. One village has a current population of 650 and the other 13,060. So, kinda small...but, yeah, maybe they are unrelated, but decided to use the same last names.

My aunt and uncle were tested. My uncle (my mom's brother) and mom thought they were 100% German, but it turns out they're only 78% German and 22% English and Irish. My mom said that made sense, because some of the ancestors lived along the coast of the Baltic/North Sea.

My aunt from Minnesota thought she was 100% Norwegian. It turns out she's 50% Norwegian and 50% Swedish and she's really ticked off about it! LOL -- in my mind, this is hardly a dramatic revelation, but it matters to her. I think if you have the testing done, you need to be prepared for surprises.

On the other side of the family, my cousin was tested. We had a great grandfather who was maybe German and maybe Dutch, and from her results, it turns out he must have been Dutch.

So, I'm less German than I thought, and more English and Dutch than I thought, but it's only the percentage of the predetermined mix that changed.

We do DNA tests all the time.. but it's more about confirming the identity of a father than anything else.

A half-sister found me through AncestryDNA.

I used it to honestly get an idea of my European ancestry. I knew I'd obviously have West African ancestry.

<---- 21% British
<---- 36% Nigerian

It's absolutely none of my business, but I'm intrigued: what is the other 43%?

Nigeria 36%
Ivory Coast/Ghana 14%
Africa South-Central Hunter-Gatherers 4%
Mali 5%
Senegal 4%
Cameroon/Congo 4%
Africa Southeastern Bantu <1%

Great Britain 21%
Europe West 4%
Iberian Peninsula 2%
Italy/Greece 1%
Scandinavia 1%
Finland/Northwest Russia <1%

The remaining one percent is Asian and Pacific Islander.

We did it...23andme. Mr. Ellebud was 47% Ashkenazic Jew. 3% yahkot...an Mongol tribe who, in the 1400s, married into the Jewish population. Then on his mother's side...French Canadian, Italian, English, Alsace, Irish and I don't remember.

Me: 3% Yahut...and97% Ashkenazic Jew. I am boring.

I just did 23andMe me and am also part Yakut, as is DH! Never knew about this before!