It’s perhaps incredible that Who Do You Think You Are? Is one of the biggest shows on TV yet discovering our own ancestry hasn’t followed suit and become a hugely popular service.
While there has been an uplift, we’re perhaps all a little scared that our great-great Aunts or Grandparents have a dark hidden past, but there are tons of benefits from tracing your family history.
Source: consumerist.comIt’s easier to do than ever before with some of the best genetic ancestry testing able to do at home, with you simply having to post your swap and wait a few weeks for the results. And as technology has improved and become even more readily available, it’s a lot cheaper than you’d think too.
But why do it? We take a look at some of the biggest reasons you should take the next step of uncovering your family’s ancestry…
Discovering More About Your Family
Firstly, and most commonly, the vast majority of people wish to take a DNA ancestry test to find out more about their family’s history.
As people we only get to experience a tiny percentage of what our family experiences, never meeting to vast majority of people we share lineage with. Many of us never even get to meet our grandparents, never mind any generations further back. An ancestry test will help you get to know this part of your family better.
Of course, you may have an idea of what they did but official records and papers will give you a much clearer idea and help piece together various parts of their life.
Source: Instagram
You can go incredibly far back these days, although of course that doesn’t come without its risks, as you could come across a number of unpleasantries depending on a family’s history.
The slave trade is a big part of that in many people’s case. Beyoncé’s great-great-great grandmother for example was a slave who married a wealthy white merchant, while former UK prime minister David Cameron was revealed to be part of a family who once owned slaves.
That’s not to say you won’t find plenty of positives either. There could well be a hero in your timeline. Actor Ben Miller found for example he had distant relation to Abraham Lincoln no less, albeit if it was ninth cousin three times removed!
Source: somersetcountygazette.co.uk
Finding Out About Any Hereditary Illnesses
Within finding out about your family history, one of the major things you’ll uncover is ultimately how they died.
This can naturally be upsetting but also provide huge insight and be incredibly helpful.
You’ll be able to uncover things that could well help your own life, for example you may uncover a history of addiction in your family or a certain type of cancer.
This will help you be more proactive in getting checked out and in the long run potentially save your life.
Finding your ancestry is worth doing for this reason alone as they really do help unearth any health risks to yourself. It can protect yourself and your children.
