Introducing myself

Question

Hi All

I am very new here and also new to the business of genealogy.  I describe myself as 'once adopted'.  What does that mean.  Well I was adopted as a baby and did not find my birth mother until I was in my 30's.  I know that once adopted is always adopted! but my family is now my real maternal family and sadly my adoptive family is no longer part of my life.  Michael Wrixon is my birth name (I have another which is my adopted name but I am here for my real history so I will use my birth name).

I started the process of family hunting late last year when I decided once and for all to try and find  out about my birth father.  That is an ongoing process and I hope to have some success.  However right now I joined WikiTree to learn more about my maternal roots.  I have created a family tree for them and I am the first to admit that my work will not meet the standards of proper family historians and genealogists.  However I hope to put that right as I go along.

I tested DNA on all three main testing sites.  Most of the matches seem to be on my paternal side but one or two on my maternal.  I found myself trying to help a match that seems to be on my maternal side to find her grandfather who looks like he is part of my family tree.  It has gotten me interested in family history and though we are not able to find any good prospective candidates yet I am hopeful.

I have uploaded my GEDCOM and find a few possible matches.  It seems that not many of the profiles associated with my ancestors have managers.  I am still trying to figure out how to do the GEDCompare but if I can do that then I will import my tree and hopefully folks here will be gentle with my as I thrash around.  I will try not to create chaos

OK- I think that is more than enough from me

 

Michael

Comments

Nice to meet you Michael.  I hope we are able to find all the ancestors you wish :)

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Hello Michael. Welcome

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Welcome, Michael

Any questions you have, this is the place to come!

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Hi Michael. Welcome to Wikitree. You will find the members here very helpful in your research.

Answer 1

Hi Michael,

I am delighted to meet you!  I started here less than a year ago with far less knowledge of genealogy than you now have - I just thought you write what you know about your ancestors - more like anecdotes about your interactions with them and then for the ones who were too many generations back for you to have known them, its anecdotes about their interactions with each other.  The word "gedcom" sent me off on my first learning curve and you already know aobut that, as well as the fact that there are sourcing standards - seems to me you're way ahead of where I started out!

All I can say is that you have come to the most right place there is - I have found all the help I needed here, from people who are as supportive as they are knowledgeable about genealogy.  They have not only tolerated me, but also educated me (and still are) and there are at least a couple of dozen who I now think of as not only mentors but friends.

Welcome to WikiTree - feel free to ask anything here - you'll get an answer very quickly because there are so many people who know so much and love to help others!  Everything you see written here about collaboration is for real - the main thing we do here is to work together!!!

Comments

Thanks Gaile :)

Answer 2

Welcome Michael,

You should order a Y-DNA67 (or Y-DNA37) test from Family Tree DNA to learn which paternal line is yours.  

In WikiTree I see you have GEDmatch IDs for 23andMe and AncestryDNA.  It will be easier to work with your matches and triangulate groups if you only have one test uploaded to GEDmatch.

Sincerely, Peter

Comments

Hi Peter

To be accurate on the DNA I tested with Ancestry and 23andMe and then transferred my Ancestry raw data to FTDNA for use with Family Finder.  I have indeed done the Y-DNA37 test back in April but the results are not yet available.  FTDNA seem to be having some issues both with their backend software and also with getting batches through the lab.  At the moment my results are due in the first half of July and I have my fingers crossed.  I hope that the Y-DNA will give a clue to my father's surname.  I am becoming increasingly dubious about the name given me by my mother since traditional research has failed to find any trace of him by name, location, age or ethnicity.

Thanks for the tip on two tests on GEDMatch.  I will remove one - is one better than the other to leave or does it not matter?

Michael