I realise I have been tardy in revealing the result of sending off my DNA sample way back in January. It's true I had to wait some time for the results to arrive - it was the post-christmas period when everyone was given a kit as a present and delays were inevitable - but it didn't take six months.
Having now had my results for some time I can say that there are frustrations and confusions in some of the more distant connections that are revealed, which I won't touch on here, but the closer connections have proved to be both accurate and surprising. I have had success in two distinct areas.
On my mother's side I now have three new 3rd to 4th cousins, all descendents of the Pipers of Hertfordshire, and contact has been or is being made with these previously unknown relatives. New photos of ancestors and relatives have been received and exchnaged and I will soon be adding pages to the site about the Piper family, with more information than I would otherwise have had, so that's a result.
On my father's side I immediately saw a strong connection to a second cousin who I already know, on my father's mother's side, so it's reassuring to know that DNA testing does confirm what is already known (or should I say believed). My biggest result however was that for many years I have suspected that my great grandmother (Dad's mother's mother) was illegitimate, and I even had a strong suspicion as to who the father was. The family to which he belonged were caught up in a murder in the latter part of the nineteenth century on which I spent several years research before writing a book about the murder and the aftermath, as yet unpublished. During my research I was in contact with, and subsequently met, a lady who was a descendent of another branch of the family from which the accused in the murder trial, and his brother (whom I suspected might be my great grandmother's father), came. The biggest surprise then was to find that the lady in question was ranked at number 15 in my list of DNA matches, and we both know enough about our respective family trees to be certain that there is no other way we could be connected other than through this man, now therefore proved to be my great great grandfather. That was worth the price of the test on its own!