Watering Your Ancestral Roots

Tollymore Forest Park, Newcastle, Northern Ireland 

Over the years I've become quite fascinated with tracing my ancestral roots. I get a renewed passion for this around St. Patrick's Day each year. I've had quite a bit of luck tracing a few of my roots to Ireland using old family records, ancestry.com, and a little Irish luck. You can read a little bit about that HERE in a past blog post chronicling my journey to an ancestral castle. My favorite way to learn about my ancestry is, of course, to travel to lands from which my ancestors hail. There are other ways, however, for those of us who can't hop the pond. 

A few years ago I purchased an Ancestry.com Genealogy DNA Test. My DNA breaks down to : 63% Great Britain, 25% from Western Europe, 7% Ireland and several others places that were given less the 2%. Right now, Ancestry.com DNA* tests happen to be on sale for $69 (usually $100). It's a great chance to snatch one up for yourself or for a gift (especially great St. Patrick's Day gift). (The test uses a saliva sample, in case you're wondering).

Another way to indulge your interest in ancestry and genealogy is watching one of the many shows that help trace family history, stories, and family trees. I love Who Do You Think You Are? on TLC, as well as Genealogy Roadshow & Finding Your Roots on PBS. "Brooklyn" is a great film about Irish Immigrants in NYC.

How do you water your family tree? Let me know below.

*This review of Ancestry DNA is purely as a consumer, it is unbiased, and unsponsored by Ancestry.com