Does anyone have any idea where the last name Rischak originates from? An ancestor of mine who lived in Germany had it but I’m pretty sure it’s of Eastern European origin. Does anyone know where in Eastern Europe it could be from?

I was super active on Ancestry for a few years a few years ago. Paid membership. Newspaper.com, Find a grave. Everything. Then I reached the end of the internet (aka my family tree in greece 1 generation...) and took a pause.

And now you won't let me do ANYTHING without buying a monthly subscription again? And shame on me for not doing PDFs because I cannot see anything that I linked (not uploaded) from partners or their own archives.

They expect people to pay monthly FOREVER to look at their stuff? And for $300 a year?!?!?

Rant Over. Tell me what I am missing as a workaround...

many years ago, I got a DNA test from Heritage and it went through quite a few updates but it gave me a range of 30 to 45% Irish DNA. My paternal link was adopted with no info on DNA so that was my only way of knowing a portion of that DNA I have is from that paternal side since my maternal doesn’t have any Irish that shows up.

This past year, I decided to try ancestry as they have such a large database and are so respected. I was shocked to see that they assigned only 4% Irish both north and south Ireland for me. And with this latest update, they’ve removed the Irish entirely and replaced it with Scottish. It just seems too big of a difference. I don’t understand.

Unfortunately, there’s such a big discrepancy and distance with DNA matches on there that I can’t find a close enough link that would verify the Irish lineage. I’ve only found a somewhat distant Irish ancestor on my maternal side that doesn’t show up in my DNA.

any thoughts on this?

I know I have both Norwegian and Swedish ancestors and for the last few months I’ve been doing some research into finding out who they are. Because I’m from the US and most of the documents and databases are in their home language, I am finding it difficult to know exactly what I should be searching for and where. Does anyone know how to find Norwegian and Swedish data online? Or if there’s an easy way to find translated info?

Hi everyone. I did the DNA test back when I lived in Australia. Now I live in France.

When I try to connect to the ancestry.com.au website, the browser redirects me immediately to the ancestry.fr website.

When I connect through the French website, I can't access my DNA result map anymore. I guess it's because DNA tests are forbidden in France (except legal cases).

Is there a solution to access my results again ? Do I need a VPN-thingy ?

Browsing DNA results on Reddit, I've noticed a surprising number of people with Cajun roots scoring 90% or higher in French ancestry. Given Louisiana's multi-ethnic history, what best explains such high genetic retention; the Acadian founder effect, centuries of community endogamy, or reference panel bias?

Before this update I had DNA from : Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Scotland, Germanic Europe, Wales, Finland, and Iceland.

But with this update, I've received more precise African locations, and France has been replaced by French Canada (16% Acadia and 4% Quebec).

It's like it's from a completely different person.

So to start off I know there's really nothing I can do about other peoples data on Ancestry. This is an unfortunate part of the app imo as I really think there should be a way to flag false information. But the TLDR is that an account with a tree of 60k people has a TON of false information, to the point it's bordering offensive. Because their tree is massive I see tons of other trees copying their information.

When I first started on ancestry I would constantly get pushed hints from this particular person's tree, and ofcourse given the size of it I thought this person must know what they're doing. It didn't take me long though to realize almost everything in their tree was incorrect. Their tree has 60k people in it, but only 55k pieces of documentation. That in itself is a red flag, but I didn't know that at the time.

I noticed one of my lines kept getting hints from her tree with pictures of characterized indigenous people (think feathers, head dresses, Mohawks et). She also puts "HURON" and "ALGONQUIN" in the names. It took me less than 5 minutes to find multiple documents showing the founders of the lines came from France.

I messaged her politely asking why she thought they were indigenous. I never I heard back so I just moved on, but I still constantly get pushed hints from her tree which I ignore.

Lately I've been seeing way more trees get pushed to me in my hints with giant capital descriptions like HURON and the same indigenous pictures. So a lot of trees have been trusting this person. I went back to her account and it says she's on every day, so she definitely saw my message. And she lives in the US, so maybe she just doesn't take it seriously that she's trying to take indigenous identity? I really don't know. At this point now not only are there records showing they are from Europe, DNA has proven they were from Europe.

But I went back to one of the ancestors she has labeled with HURON. I checked the picture and it says she's the one who uploaded it, and 110 people have copied it from her. 110.

I sent her another message with links to DNA tests, Wikitree profiles, et and again she just ignored me. She has dozens of Europeans labeled as indigenous.

So anyway, I was about to message all 110 profiles that downloaded her racist Indian pictures to tell them this information isn't correct, but then I think I might be overreacting and acting crazy.

What do you think? Would you message the owners of the trees who have copied this information?

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/sep/22/nearly-4m-records-of-enslaved-people-in-20-former-british-colonies-now-searchable-online

One of my paternal ggfs is a brick wall, so imagine my surprise when, after the latest ThruLines update, Ancestry had hints for both his mother and his father. My 3ggf John was born in Mississippi around 1856, so enslaved but not for very long, and the first solid census doc I have for him lists his race as Mulatto, so he was possibly mixed race. The hints have two white parents, however.

What's weird about this is that this is a hint Ancestry seems to have completely made up on its own. I know we usually get ThruLines hints because of what other people, especially DNA matches, have in their trees, but that is not the case here. This couple have a son also named John, so it's clearly two different people, they did live in Mississippi as well but not the same county nor in any neighboring counties near where my ggf lived, and although it says they have DNA connections, the number of connections listed on the ThruLines tree is zero (best I can tell the "connection" comes from the shared journeys "Inland Mississippi African Americans" and "Early Southern U.S. African Americans", which, huh?). None of the trees that have this couple have conflated their John with my ggf. I do not share DNA with any of the people who have created trees with these people listed. There is no reason that I can see that Ancestry would suggest this couple as my ggf's parents. I have no idea how this has happened and I will deny that these are his parents, but it's just weird. Am I alone in this?

https://skanoteka.genealodzy.pl/index.php?op=pg&id=4875&se=&sy=3500&kt=1&plik=009.jpg&zoom=3.02

I was helping clear out some drawers at home and found a box of old family documents. In the box were some pieces of handwritten notes with a few names and dates from the late 1800s and some information about births and deaths. It made me wonder about my ancestors who lived long before I was born because I know very little about them.

I've already looked up some of the names online and can only guess whether they were all family members or just connected to the family somehow. Where should I begin to search through this with so little info to go from? Are there any other details to look for besides names and their birth and death records?

did ancestry.com and it listed somebody as my half-brother on my dads side and that we share 23% dna. both of my parents were adopted by their respective parents, so i really have no idea who my biological family is, and i was expecting to see some cousins. but a half-sibling !? could it be that this person is a cousin and not a half-sibling? or was my dad screwing around….

my dad is also dead so i can’t ask him lol