A Plunge Into DNA

Well, I've done it. Ancestry.com sent me an offer for their new DNA test and I decided to do it. It came in the mail on Tuesday. The requirements were to fill a vial to the line with spit (something I can't recall ever being asked to do before), register the kit online, and send it back. So Wednesday it was back in the mail. Now I wait.

What are my expectations? I'm not really sure. However, the question I would like an answer to is about any Native American ancestry. This is a story that has been floated around in the family and its various branches for some time. These various branches (some of us have never met or only vaguely know of each other's existence) all connect back to my four times great grandmother, Delila Caroline Kirby.

Delila's parents died around 1847 in Arkansas. Before that, they were in Alabama where Delila was born. Then it gets a little... strange. A few of the children before her were born in Illinois, but the oldest claims to have been born in Alabama. Delila's father was from Tennessee. What was going on with these people?

I've barely begun my research into this line. It will require digging through records of many family members through multiple states. For now that will have to wait as the next couple of months are just too busy. Meanwhile, I'll wait for one clue and see what the DNA results say.