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What do you think about DNA/ancestry test kits?
- Thread starter hbarcat
- Start date
After reading the replies here, I've decided that I'm not going to take the test.
I think I have zero interest in that information for the reasons @SoonerBill and @BBQisgood have already listed.
-Mike
-Mike
I've watched several Detective shows and they've often reported how they use these Ancestry services to track down wanted but unknown criminals who's DNA is in the State Apparatus data base but have no name to put to that info..
Reminds me of the 1930s German White Pages phone book.
Reminds me of the 1930s German White Pages phone book.
I remember when that was popular with retirees. I had a group of 80 something great aunts who traced the family tree in the early 80's, including help from overseas relatives. I am also more interested in the story than the dataset, lol
The major potential pitfall there is human or system error. They can both have an effect on the data accuracy. That has a much better chance of having a negative effect on your life than it does of you winning a lottery or finding out you are the heir to rich aunt's fortune.
Yeah, my sis in law traced family tree. How can you prove you are a descendent of “waking tree”? No real name, no address, no city lived in, just word of mouth 100+years ago. Not saying “walking tree didn’t exist, but great great grandma didn’t want to admit she was “spending time” with the yard help. So she said it’s “walking tree “ baby. Plus people said they were N.A. For benefits. While the 23&me shows relatives from Africa. Which this was the case of my sis in law.
Keep in mind that even two generations removed you are looking at four dna contributors, three generations eight contributors, etc., etc. By the time you get to the mid 1800's you are looking at 16 or 32 depending on your age.
I wouldn't be surprised in the least by a mid - late 1800's - early 1900's African/North American Native combination in the south, the southern prairies or western USA. Pretty much anywhere you had 1800's Africans/cowboys and natives intermingling. 'Walking Tree' would also be a real name, albeit the English translation and one wouldn't expect a city address or city of residence name in the 1800's or even the early 1900's in most cases. There are sometimes photos with names added at the time, as well as these for references to specific individuals...
American Indians in Census Records
American Indians in Census Records American Indians in Bureau of the Census Records American Indians in the Federal Decennial Census, 1790-1930 Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940, microfilm rolls list Eastern Cherokee Enumeration: Selected Microfilmed Records Chippewa Enumeration: Selected Records...
www.archives.gov
Yes, but some % should have shown up on male & female tests from same family. Not 0?Keep in mind that even two generations removed you are looking at four dna contributors, three generations eight contributors, etc., etc. By the time you get to the mid 1800's you are looking at 16 or 32 depending on your age.
I wouldn't be surprised in the least by a mid - late 1800's - early 1900's African/North American Native combination in the south, the southern prairies or western USA. Pretty much anywhere you had 1800's Africans/cowboys and natives intermingling. 'Walking Tree' would also be a real name, albeit the English translation and one wouldn't expect a city address or city of residence name in the 1800's or even the early 1900's in most cases. There are sometimes photos with names added at the time, as well as these for references to specific individuals...
American Indians in Census Records
American Indians in Census Records American Indians in Bureau of the Census Records American Indians in the Federal Decennial Census, 1790-1930 Indian Census Rolls, 1885-1940, microfilm rolls list Eastern Cherokee Enumeration: Selected Microfilmed Records Chippewa Enumeration: Selected Records...
Depends on type of DNA tracked and the ultimate “percentage “ we are talking about.
There are LOTS of dads out there who are not the genetic fathers of their children.
Whatever ya'll decide is cool but either Billy Corgan or Bill Burr need take a DNA test.
www.musicradar.com
The people demand to know!
"I’m not making this up": Billy Corgan thinks that comedian Bill Burr might be his half-brother
But an unearthed video suggests that Burr was no great fan of The Smashing Pumpkins
The people demand to know!
My father's side of the family are all from the Azores Islands in the middle of the Pacific and are all Portuguese. I haven't had mine done yet but my brother's came back with only a smattering of Portuguese, around 20%, even though our grandparents and great grandparents all came from there. Of course the saying goes that the Vikings would crash their ships on the reefs on the north side of the islands and Norwegian show ups as a small percentage of his DNA. Also had the slave ships crash on the south side of the Islands and he has some small percentage of African DNA show up too although it showed up as North African, which I believe would be unusual for slave ships.
I found out last year that because my Grandparents immigrated to the US from the Azores Islands that are Portuguese Islands, I could get a dual citizenship and have both US and Portuguese passports. HOWEVER the kicker is that I have to learn to speak Portuguese as a condition of citizenship. I'm having a hard time with that and honestly not dedicating enough time. Would sure be nice to get that dual citizenship though because that would make travel throughout Europe a breeze. And, since my son lives in England, that would make a good place to travel from.
To get a bit philosophical, I think the main reason why ancestry is so interesting for many people, is because humans like to belong. More specifically, we like to belong to groups. Our own identity is for the most part an amalgamation of our different group identities. People are often interested in cultural groups, and ancestry is a big part of that. Your ancestors were parts of groups, and by blood you are biologically part of one group too. Though in my opinion that's a bit of a reach, because of course besides a small amount of DNA, I don't really have anything else in common with my more or less distant ancestors.
Belonging to groups is very much a status thing too. For example, I'm german. Whenever I tell someone that, they have certain thoughts and make connections in their head. The fact that I'm part of a rather vague and big group, still has a huge influence on how someone can view me as a person. And a lot of people like to be in groups like that, especially when they're somewhat exclusive.
At the end of the day, I only see this as one of those neat to know things. It's not gonna change anyones life really, and most people will forget about it a week after having learned about their ancestry. I'm sure there's some amazing exceptions, but I wouldn't bet on it. If it were free, I might do it. But not if I have to pay any significant amount of money.
Belonging to groups is very much a status thing too. For example, I'm german. Whenever I tell someone that, they have certain thoughts and make connections in their head. The fact that I'm part of a rather vague and big group, still has a huge influence on how someone can view me as a person. And a lot of people like to be in groups like that, especially when they're somewhat exclusive.
At the end of the day, I only see this as one of those neat to know things. It's not gonna change anyones life really, and most people will forget about it a week after having learned about their ancestry. I'm sure there's some amazing exceptions, but I wouldn't bet on it. If it were free, I might do it. But not if I have to pay any significant amount of money.
Important to remember that DNA doesn’t have a nationality. These tests look at, among other things, SNPs. These are features of DNA that are shared amongst people(s) who spent enough time having kids together as to have SNPs that occur more randomly than chance. If there is a paucity of data from a particular group of people, then the test will not be as accurate. If there are large bits of data, the tests get better. As people groups move around, nationalities can shift relative to the SNPs, meaning that either your ancestors’ group of people possibly were not adequately sampled, or are from an ethnographic group which was inslular in Portugal, or possibly other things.
At least from as recently as 6 years ago, 23 and me looked at an astounding number of SNPs. Something like 690,000 of them. This is still a small sample of an individual’s total genome. By small, I mean around .01%.
I’m as American as you can get, but looking at my DNA, you wouldn’t be able to tell me apart from a person with a mixed background from Europe. Without context, you probably couldn’t tell when and how my particular genetic mix happened. The time data is critical to understanding what my ancestors’ nationalities may have been.
Dan, the historical ethnographic data of the Iberian Peninsula suggest that one should expect this genomic result!
This analysis:
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Is pretty neat to look at.
The same could be said for other parts of Europe, even Britain, which were contacted by the Roman Empire, but to a lesser extent.
Very true and very insightful. Also, recombination happens with each generation. However, if those generations we are referring to come from the same group of people, then the data would simply point more strongly in that direction.
A final word: most of these SNPs are in “junk DNA” (a term I dislike, but is OK for this discussion) and have little bearing on health or anything else. We are one big family, and all children of the Creator. Eugenics, racism, and other evils perpetrated on people just because they seem different were just that: Evils. I hope that our new technologies and advancements in this area don’t ever contribute to more division.
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I'm not too bothered about the side-spin of the tests (like ethnicity and genetic disease-resistance, or the latest one: "which ancient royal family are you related to"!) but the actual people finding is very cool. Myself, I now have a daughter and a half-sister whom I only learned of thanks to Ancestry testing about five years ago... and the Ancestry thing was a big eye opener for my wife, who for her whole life was led to believe she was partly-aboriginal Canadian, when all along her background was purely European (French and English, to be exact!) Her family were original settlers of early Canada, whereas my DNA only arrived on this continent a generation before my parents did. I'm sporting a mix of Scottish and Ukrainian, for which Ancestry has juggled the percentages over the years as their databanks have gotten larger. I also have a bonus one percent of central Philippines, one percent of Ashkenazi Jews, and just this week I scored a brand new one percent helping of ICELANDIC. ( just in time for Christmas!!)
I had a test done a few years ago and found a probable half sister. I say "probable" because we are very closely related but because of my dad's work/family/ church schedule and living two hours from my "sister's" mother, I doubt that he was her father. I am not saying he wouldn't father another child, but I think it would have been with someone closer to home. I did have an uncle that lived in the same town my "sister" is from. I have no doubt that we are related because she has a strong family resemblance to a couple of my aunts.
