Y test
My 4x gt grandfather was illegitimate, no record of any baptism in 1770, circumstantial evidence pointed at a couple that married just after his birth and had several more children in the same area, but after 20 years of looking I’d found no hard evidence for the link.
My Y test confirmed a common ancestor match 4 to 7 generations back with a person living now in the US, who was adopted so they only had details of a few generations.
But from his information I was able to link them via the records beyond doubt as a descendant of the brother of my illegitimate ancestor, our common ancestor being the father.
This enabled us both get back three more generations to the late 1600’s, not sure which one of us had the bigger brick wall, I know for me having researched for over thirty years looking for the answer it was massive.
Autosomal test
This has indicated from myfamilyDNA “myorigins” I have no German ancestry, even though family stories said I had.
It now seems my ancestor must have been an immigrant to Germany from France, Belgum or the Netherlands and I have been looking in the wrong country all this time.
Maybe not breaking down a brick wall, but now pointing me at a different wall that I have a chance at finding the answer.
Just waiting for my Mtdna results to come back.
So can’t say much on this one but will be hopeful of getting a conformation match for my furthest back ancestor on this line, one Mary Bird 1695 in Nothamptonshire.
If I can get conformation I’m happy to spend time / money looking at the Northamptonshire records to try and push back this line as well.
Also now contemplation getting test done on other family members so I have access to other Y and Mt lines in my tree for the future.
Thinking if we look at how DNA testing has moved on in the last 10 years, we just don’t know what we may be able to find in the next 10 or 20 years.
I love DNA testing, for people that have done the paper research it can prove your research is correct or blow big holes in it.
Hope this helps and encourages others to jump in, the more people that get tested the more matches we all get.