Happy National DNA Day!

Yes, there is really a National DNA Day!! It is promoted by National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH aka National Institutes of Health. Their focus is genetics and genomics (branch of molecular biology) but genealogists love it too!

I have had my DNA tested through Ancestry and Family Tree DNA. But to be honest, I have not had much success with connecting with any potential cousins out there. I have sent a few emails out with no responses. Those were cases where they did not have a lot posted but I was able to figure out how we are connected. I was proud of myself finding the connection with only a few people listed!! For Family Tree DNA the closest matches I have we have no idea how we are connected!! 😕

But one of the reasons I wanted to take the DNA tests were to see the ethnic breakdown. The results were more or less what I thought. I did have a larger British Isles make up than I thought. That comes from the Coughlin-Hall line for sure!

Here's the Ancestry results:

And here's Family Tree DNA:

Ancestry has me at 11% Scandinavian while Family Tree DNA has me at 3%. Yet on Family Tree DNA most of the close matches have Scandinavian names!! And 66% British Isles on Ancestry compared to 44% on Family Tree DNA.

As a close friend commented "no matter how you slice it Coughlin, you are still white toast"!!!  🍞😊