Ever done a DNA test, Ancestry sort of thing?

[wired]

Bought my wife a Ancestry DNA test for our anniversary. Got myself one too. Nothing much popped up on her side She's a lot more Finnish and Baltic than she is Russian but its all the same area so nothing weird and not enough Russians take the test to pin down any direct relatives. Kind of a let down for her.

Mine on the other hand. I have to stop talking smack about the Irish and absolutely the Scottish. English, Swedish Norwegian etc. Typical white as the driven snow eurotrash. Anyway Ive known about my Grandma for a few years since my younger brother had a test done . Yeah. I have a whole bunch of 1st cousins I didn't know about. I talked to one of them a few times over the last week and she happens to be a researcher who works uniting adoptees with their birth parents and she knows more about DNA than seems reasonable and we pieced together who grandpa really is. My mom has a slew of 1/2 brothers and sisters she didn't know about and I can't tell her about.

In any case don't get a DNA test if you aren't ready for whatever might come up. Sometimes its not what you think. My newfound cousin told me the same thing. Its seldom a good experience if you thought your family was all Pollyanna I didn't.

Read More

 

[monkeybutler]

That's cool.

I have a different attitude. I am loathe to voluntarily give a DNA sample. Due to the efforts of two grandmothers, I already know where my fore-peeps are from... and I don't really care anyway. Just a plain old 'Merkin here.

 

[wired]

That's cool.

I have a different attitude. I am loathe to voluntarily give a DNA sample. Due to the efforts of two grandmothers, I already know where my fore-peeps are from... and I don't really care anyway. Just a plain old 'Merkin here.

You dont have to give up DNA. If anyone in your family has done it they did it for you. Military etc. My Grandmas book sized family tree ended up being half BS

400 years in the Colonies/US this year. Ive gone back in England to just after the Norman Conquest and France to soon after although they were all Normans/Vikings.

 

[monkeybutler]

I sure hope they (family) have not!

 

[wired]

I sure hope they (family) have not!

Military? Cousins etc. People you dont know can trace it right back to you. That guy they just popped who stabbed those four really photogenic college students in Idaho. That how they nailed him

 

[monkeybutler]

Right, it can only hurt me.

 

[arakboss]

Turns out that I was 75% White and 25% AR15.

 

[Jason999]

I wouldn't have done it but my lil brother doesn't mind having his genetic info on some giant database...

But I'm almost exactly what I thought I was. About 70% Irish, 25% Siksika native American and the surprise was that I'm about 5% Dutch.

 

[wired]

I wouldn't have done it but my lil brother doesn't mind having his genetic info on some giant database...

But I'm almost exactly what I thought I was. About 70% Irish, 25% Siksika native American and the surprise was that I'm about 5% Dutch.

The funny thing about DNA tests is you wont have the same mix of DNA your brother has even though you are full brothers. You get 1/2 f your dads DNA and half of your moms but its never the same half of each every time the mingle DNA and pop a kid out.. You and your brother share around 50% of your DNA.Identical twins can show different origins. Brothers can be way off for origins.

If your brother has his info on a database ...so do you. I wasn't going to do mine, but my half brother did ( before we knew he was my half brother ) and my son did when he went in the Air force.They had me already.

Only reason I have 15% Scandinavian is because of the Norman conquest of England. 41% Scotish because of the Scotts Irish ( ulster Scotts ) immigrants into the South. 7 % Irish and the rest English and Welsh. I knew there was a little Scottish but nowhere near that much.

 

[ODG_Chad]

Nope.

My family can do what they want, but I'm not adding my DNA to a database to help the government achieve anything.

This country is only a few steps away from what's going on in China and I'm not doing anything to actively support that tyranny.

 

[monkeybutler]

Identical twins can show different origins.

But they still have the same ancestry. So that is caused by analytical noise around division errors?

 

[wired]

But they still have the same ancestry. So that is caused by analytical noise around division errors?

The Dahm Triplets. Dr. Mengele would have had a field day with those three. I know I would.

https://yourdna.com/dahm-triplets-test

Turns out twins and triplets can have more DNA differences than was believed AND the tests aren't 100% accurate for origins. In family relationships though? Theyre pretty good..

 

[slimmer13]

You dont have to give up DNA. If anyone in your family has done it they did it for you.

Just ask the guy/murderer in Moscow.

 

[wired]

Just ask the guy/murderer in Moscow.

Yep. Theres been a couple of these serial killer cases solved by finding a distant cousin or direct family member . Night Stalker , BTK etc. If they have a 3% match all they have to do is look at 2nd cousins. Boom.

 

[mrblond]

My sister did one, it was mostly as expected, English, Danish and native.. there was one big curveball, and that was some from Peru and from my dads side.. no idea where that came from and it was pretty far back.

 

[DivCurlGrad72]

Turns out that I was 75% White and 25% AR15.

0% AK? Time to update your user name to arboss.

 

[Cavedweller]

I've never done one, and don't want to. But thanks to some distant cousins who did, I was located by someone previously unknown to me who notified me, "Hey, we're family."

In my case, it turned out OK, but as I've talked to others about the experience, I've heard that this sort of thing can be quite disruptive to some families. So much so that there are support groups for people who get traumatic results, and companies like Ancestry.com have had to hire special representatives to counsel people who call customer service and say things like, "You must have made a mistake. He's not my Dad, he's my uncle Bob."

DNA Resources: Dealing with Surprises in Your Family History

We've compiled a list of DNA resources that may be helpful when encountering unexpected or traumatic results from DNA testing.

www.legacytree.com

 

[Alexx1401]

I've never done one, and don't want to. But thanks to some distant cousins who did, I was located by someone previously unknown to me who notified me, "Hey, we're family."

In my case, it turned out OK, but as I've talked to others about the experience, I've heard that this sort of thing can be quite disruptive to some families. So much so that there are support groups for people who get traumatic results, and companies like Ancestry.com have had to hire special representatives to counsel people who call customer service and say things like, "You must have made a mistake. He's not my Dad, he's my uncle Bob."

DNA Resources: Dealing with Surprises in Your Family History

We've compiled a list of DNA resources that may be helpful when encountering unexpected or traumatic results from DNA testing.

www.legacytree.com

When this thing got going good I wondered about that. How many people would find out the person they thought was "Dad" was really not. That many times even the Mother may not have known for sure that the kid was not "fathered" by the one she told everyone it was. Not to mention the people who find out they have half siblings they had no idea they were related too.

 

[Cavedweller]

Not to mention the people who find out they have half siblings they had no idea they were related too.

Precisely. I have very mixed feelings about it. In one sense, some new relationships were a positive addition to my life. But, on the other hand, my relations who took the test for whatever reason gave up an awful lot of information not only on themselves but also on me without my knowledge or consent.

I think people who take these tests for amusement or out of curiosity are being extremely naive. There's no way to tell how many distant relatives for who knows how many generations will have to deal with the unforeseen consequences. It's not all fun and games. But, as has been pointed out above, if anyone in your family has done it, the genie is already out of the bottle.

 

[gryghin]

The Dahm Triplets. Dr. Mengele would have had a field day with those three. I know I would.

https://yourdna.com/dahm-triplets-test

Turns out twins and triplets can have more DNA differences than was believed AND the tests aren't 100% accurate for origins. In family relationships though? Theyre pretty good..




View attachment 1339559

I don't know which Dahm triplet I'm looking at.

As for the DNA test. My SIL in GA is a ancestry researcher and pestered us to get tested. Her argument was that if the three siblings all got tested, then we should be able to recreate our father's DNA, he had passed in 2001.

I told them, are you sure you want us to do that? You do realize that we are a family of sailors... and not just sailors, but our Dad and I are Submariners.

I told them there was a high chance that we have half-siblings somewhere.

My kids said I should, so I told them... don't be surprised if you have an older sibling that comes knocking on the door or day.

Anyway, this was years before I had genetic testing for BRCA2+ gene mutation. My Mom fought Ovarian cancer that was caused by BRCA2+ Gene Mutation. So, I pushed my insurance to get genetic sequence testing.

Funny thing is that when I found out that I carried the BRCA2+ mutation, these two idiots didn't get tested. One brother finally got tested after I already fought prostate cancer, the other one is a RN manager and a far as I know hasn't tested.

Doesn't make sense to me.