DNA testing

[ishmael]

The rather rancorous discussion of race on Dale's thread has re-kindled an interest. It seems to me most of us are mutts. There are, perhaps, a few exceptions(Ashkenazi Jews?), but...

I know I have Scot, French and German running around in there, and it would be interesting to find out what else.

Have you done this, and would you suggest one company over another?

[ron ll]

Re: DNA testing

It’s an invasion of privacy for all your relatives. If you have any on the lamb, your testing will flush them out to the police.

[birlinn]

Re: DNA testing

On the lamb?
I don't think I have relatives into 'animal husbandry'

[Dave Hadfield]

Re: DNA testing

Careful. Don't ask what you may not want to know.

A friend of mine just posted on FB his discovery that he is the son of a friend of the family, not his mother's husband.

[Norman Bernstein]

Re: DNA testing

The rather rancorous discussion of race on Dale's thread has re-kindled an interest. It seems to me most of us are mutts. There are, perhaps, a few exceptions(Ashkenazi Jews?), but...

The 'purity' of Ashkenazim Jewery may be disappearing very rapidly. Every Jewish couple my wife and I know socially have children who married non-Jews.... and my older daughter married a guy who was raised Catholic. It doesn't bother me, in the least bit... although 50 years ago, it would have been a family shame.

The results of the popular DNA tests need to be taken with a grain of salt... from what I've read, the genetic map is only barely skimmed by these tests, and the results, expressed as a percentage, may be wildly inaccurate. My younger daughter did it, partially as a result of a family joke, and her test revealed her to be of 99.3% Ashkenazai Jewish heritage, which is what she should have fully expected... but for non-Jews, the percentages may be misleading.

One interesting thing: if you use the '23AndMe' service, they will identify other customers whose profiles indicate a familial relationship to you. In my daughter's case, a cousin we know of was mentioned in her report... but you have to realize that it's only because the cousin used the same 23AndMe service. The report also listed another several dozen people whose DNA profile indicated a possible match... but since I know the heritage quite accurately, I know that those matches are false.

[Flying Orca]

Re: DNA testing

I've done the Ancestry.com test, and so have a few other family members. The results are interesting, and continually being refined as more markers and populations are added to their database. Anyone of western European ancestry will have markers from all over that region, pretty much guaranteed; ancient peoples moved around a lot, and some (e.g. Vikings/Normans) settled or otherwise left their genes all over the place.

One interesting side of the DNA testing is that it's helped us connect with the African-American part of my dad's family, which had previously been difficult due to patchy records. That part of the family tree is much closer to complete now, at least in terms of distant cousins and such.

[TomF]

Re: DNA testing

Would probably make more sense to have one of the kids tested, rather than Herself or me. That way we'd get access to both sides of the family tree for one pricetag, rather than having to pay for each of us. But I haven't really cared too much - I look a whole lot like my Dad, and my kids all look enough like me.

[LeeG]

Re: DNA testing

there’s neanderthal in there somewhere

[TomF]

Re: DNA testing

And a few proto-gerbils. Promiscuous little b@stards.

[Flying Orca]

Re: DNA testing

Would probably make more sense to have one of the kids tested, rather than Herself or me. That way we'd get access to both sides of the family tree for one pricetag, rather than having to pay for each of us.

I think that's looking at it backwards, at least if your priority is detail. Testing parents will, by definition, yield twice as much detail as testing a child.

[sharpiefan]

Re: DNA testing

F Y I

My Aunt Cat is our family’s amateur genealogist, and she has logged hundreds of hours both on Ancestry.com and in my grandmother’s attic, piecing together the story of our family tree. She’s found countless third, fourth, and fifth cousins with ties to Syria, but no one from either Italy or Greece. In her twenties, she even visited my grandfather’s biological mother and aunt. She recalled them passing around a hookah, yelling in Arabic, and expressing repulsion at the American-style cold cut platter served at a community function. Given how segregated the family was, it seemed like a stretch, she told me, to imagine that anyone had ever had so much as a friendly conversation with an Italian.

I suspected the error might lay not in my family narrative, but in the DNA test itself. So I decided to conduct an experiment. I mailed my own spit samples to AncestryDNA, as well as to 23andMe and National Geographic. For each test I got back, the story of my genetic heritage was different—in some cases, wildly so.

(CONT'D AT LINK)

How DNA Testing Botched My Family's Heritage, and Probably Yours, Too (LINK)


#include [ std-disclaimer ]

[TomF]

Re: DNA testing

I think that's looking at it backwards, at least if your priority is detail. Testing parents will, by definition, yield twice as much detail as testing a child.

I suppose. I dunno, might do it sometime.

[skuthorp]

Re: DNA testing

One of my brothers has, and a Brit second cousin.

[Jim Bow]

Re: DNA testing

I read (can't cite) that the three main "ancestry" DNA companies will not reveal their methods or databases. You might pay to all three and get three differing results.

[Peerie Maa]

Re: DNA testing

I am not £70 interested, I'll stick with the paper trail.

Careful. Don't ask what you may not want to know.

A friend of mine just posted on FB his discovery that he is the son of a friend of the family, not his mother's husband.

You don't need to spit in a tube for that to happen. My very uptight mother would have been unhappy to know of the mismatch in dates that I discovered in her side of the family during my reserches.