While I was in the borg, the only relatives I knew and we mainly kept in contact with were JW's. On one side of my family, back to my grandparents, they cut ties with all the non jw family when they converted. I've found some through facebook, but only those I knew about. I thought all my relatives would be forever lost until....
I recently did a DNA thing. I was shocked in addition to learning more about my ancestry, it matched me up with others who did it who were cousins of mine. I was a little suspicious of these were really legit or not. One of which our ties or split went back to the 1800's, the tree merged and they already had details going back to the late 1600's of our common grandparent of the 1800's. When I was a kid, my grandparents told me of a book that had that history going to the 1600's that they burned thinking it was possessed, so I thought it was forever lost. So happy to have found a relative who shares that history and had all the information. Will probably meet them and they connected with relatives in overseas and visit each year.
I first did it on the myheritage site, but since ancestry is bigger, I'm doing it on that site too. The ancestry results should be practically identical but DNA matching to relatives only happens if others did it for the same company, that's why I'm doing it on more than just 1. I suppose when I was a JW I didn't care to find out too much, assuming I would in the 'new world'. But this dna stuff is cool to really discover your ancestry and find long lost relatives.
If you've been wanting to do it, but waiting for a deal vs their general $99 cost, until 4/25 you can get $30 off so it's only $69, and after 4/25 it's $15 off if use referral code http://refer.dna.ancestry.com/s/jason0423 I'll get a whooping $10 amazon card if you do it. I don't promote stuff to make pocket change. I know many who became JW's have lost their relatives, and this is a way to find lost relatives and your history if it interests you.
Has anyone else done these and any interesting stories or finding relatives from it?