Calliope's advice about the legal ramifications of disclosure is very sound. If insurance companies in your area do not have clauses exempting pit bulls and pb mixes from coverage, then it is not an issue right now. However, an increasing number of insurance companies are adding such exemptions to their home owner policies. Also, in answer to your query, most insurance companies and courts will not accept dna breed identification as proof. Forewarned is forearmed. If you disclose that your dog was represented to you as being part pitbull by the adoption group (who probably did so to avoid liability), and your insurance contains such an exemption clause, and your dog bites someone (even a playful nip) and you are sued as a result, you could be in a world of financial hurt. If you do not disclose this, and you are found out, you might be in worse trouble. Calliope was simply providing you with hard legal and economic facts. Your dog doesn't look much like a pit bull to me. If you had called him a lab/boxer mix or a mutt of unknown heritage from the start, and told everyone that you got him from an ad on Craig's list, you would have a far better chance of erasing the alleged ancestry told you second hand by the rescue people. Unfortunately however you have told people, perhaps insurance agents among them, and posted this information here on the internet. It might seem like "nothing" but if you were facing a lawsuit asking for a 10,000 dollar damage payment, insurance companies will leave no stone unturned to discover whether your dog is an exempted breed to avoid paying. Such a lawsuit could result in your dog being declared dangerous and ordered to be put down. This might seem an extreme circumstance but sadly these type of lawsuits are becoming increasingly common. I would qualify Calliope's statement that if you cannot prove or disprove your dog's ancestry, that you might as well not have insurance at all, would only apply to liability incurred by your dog's actions. Homeowner's insurance is still a necessity for all other eventualities, including non-dog-related liability claims such as a visitor slipping and falling on your steps. I'm sure that's what Calliope meant, in any case. This post was edited by spedigrees on Fri, Nov 8, 13 at 18:21

I am in the middle of my husband's family genealogy, have been since December. I have found out alot of information and made contact with a number of descendants of his GGGGrandfathers siblings through Ancestry.com's family trees and research. We are still at a roadblock for finding where his GGGGGrandfather's family came from. I thought I could link them back to the Eastern Shore of MD/VA but recently found a book on those Boston people and there doesn't seem to be a common ancestor. I gave my husband the ancestry.com website as a gift for Christmas with my doing the research as well. Then for his birthday in Jan. I gave him the DNA kit - well its still sitting on his desk! Not that he doesn't want to do it but as someone said - just forgets. We were also contacted by someone who thinks they may be related back to the GGGGrandfather's generation. They want him to do a more detailed DNA test, one which I found online. Just waiting for them to send it to us - again that was several months ago that we were contacted. For those of you who are into genealogy - check Facebook for groups related to the area you are interested in and/or family member groups. I found one for my mother's family, a group for Southern Maryland Families and one for the Eastern Shore of Virginia. All three have been helpful in finding information and I even met up with a gal who I went to church with when I was a teenager when my brother and I made a sibling trip home to Maryland this summer. She gave me a booklet from the bicentennial celebration of the church we attended. It meant so much to me because my GGGGrandfather had donated the land and lumber for the church, which was 100 years old in 1959 and is still an active Catholic parish. We all attended mass there that Sunday and I will treasure the memories forever.

"For one thing, they have a specific focus on Parkinson's Disease (the founder's husband is at high risk), and are involved in its research. They offer a free test kit to anyone diagnosed with the disease." alisande When I read that I went to their website and requested a free test since I have Parkinson's. Just received it earlier this week. After I went through the whole registration I found out I will only have access to ancestry information and not any health information. I would have liked to have had access to that health information but can't complain, it was free after all. Hope my DNA helps with the Parkinson's study. December 2013 – Pending an FDA decision, 23andMe no longer offers new customers access to health reports. Customers who received their health information prior to November 22, 2013 will still be able to see their health reports, but those who purchased after that time will only receive their ancestry information as well as access to their uninterpreted raw data.

Joanie, this blog post might be right up your alley, then. http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2016/05/15/musings-on-a-dna-sunday/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheLegalGenealogist+%28The+Legal+Genealogist%29 If anyone came over before Ellis Island they might be at Ward's Island/Castle Garden from 1820-1892. http://www.castlegarden.org/ I got good stuff there for great grandparents. Some of mine came over before there was anywhere to be "processed". I still haven't found a passenger list or any evidence of them leaving there and landing here. And of course the Mayflower stuff is so documented you can read about it for days. I don't know how hard you've looked or where but ancestry isn't the only place with good records and lots of places are free. About every 3 years new data bases come on line so don't keep a subscription anywhere year after year. Spread them out. And be sure and use the free ship's lists and Germans to America and google books. There is enough free stuff "out there" to keep you occupied for a long time. I want to know the same things you want to know; more than names and dates. It's Time Consuming. But- so interesting I wouldn't do it any other way. I've written a couple dozen stories about my ancestor couples. It puts their life on paper and shows more about their life than born-died. You can put together a good time line from census and birth of children. One Thing: Census. Read the original census page, not just the transcript. And there are years that have more than one page of answers. Look at the page before and the page after to see if your family is continued. Also, you might find more family near by. Copy everything the census asked. Usually they ask occupation and where an individual and their parents were born. Different questions on different census will add up to the story. Then if you really want the birth certificate or marriage license you can usually get it. One time period I've had the most trouble with is 1800ish. The east coast kept records. The rest........well, it's been a headache. A lot of the midwest states weren't even required to keep records until into 1900. My first piece of advice is to subscribe to some genealogy blogs. They know when new data bases come on line and where to find them. They also know stuff that I don't know I don't know ;-) Even reading someone's Irish blog might give you a clue about where to look or what to look for.