Community Chat

[ALRATIBA]

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@golding76 wrote:

If I am remembering correctly, I once read that both sexes from the same family must be tested to gain a full, correct picture of the ancestry.   There is a patrilineal line and a matrilineal line.  Anyone else know about this?  Is this so? 

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@golding76

Yes - females don't have Y-DNA which is passed from father to son.   

Males have both the Y-DNA and the mitochondrial  DNA (mtDNA) from their mother.  The males do not pass along the mtDNA to their children.  That always comes from the mother. and passed along the maternal line.

The genealogical society I belong to had a DNA seminar back around 2005 - presented by FamilyTree DNA and testing was available (for sale).  I had mine done and picked up a kit so my brother could be tested for the Y-DNA.

I've had my kits upgraded periodically as new tests become available through FamilyTree DNA.  I'm glad we did it.  Worth the expense.

[Tinkrbl44]

So you get the DNA test .....  and then what?    

I've seen the commercials and don't see the subsequent use ......  what can you do with this information?    Is there some way you will live your life differently as a result of this test?  

[chrystaltree]

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

So you get the DNA test .....  and then what?    

I've seen the commercials and don't see the subsequent use ......  what can you do with this information?    Is there some way you will live your life differently as a result of this test?  

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       Apparently there's something in it, I don't know what, for some people.  Knowing that my distant ancestors came for here or there or somewhere else doesn't mean anything to me other than in a party game sort of way.  I'm me...knowing that some long dead ancestory came from geographic region can't change who I am.  However, that might be because I can trace my roots back to the 1700's on both sides of my family.  I don't think of myself as a hyphenated America.  I'm American....  Since before there was a USA and that's all I need.  That's where my identity comes from. 

[Zita]

I had my DNA done by FT (Family Tree) while my son and daughter used 23&Me. Basically similar but i found FT much more comprehensive and their explanations are extensive. Briefly, to get a full picture you need the matrilineal DNA (passed down from mother to daughter) and a male member of your family needs to do the Y chromosome test for male genes so as a female you'll get a better picture of your heritage.

The idea they are making it up is naive and ridiculous! There will always be differences, even between identical twins and close siblings. It's the luck of the gene pool where your own string of DNA falls. My brother and I are extraordinarily similar in all aspects, but that's rare.

I was astonished to discover that besides Irish/Scots and basically western European, I am 13% Turkish and Sephardic Jew (this from my father's side; he was Italian through and through we thought, but it's obvious his father had broader strains to pass down).

All in all, it's fascinating and alluring to learn all you can about yourself and where you come from.

[Vivian]

Ancestry.com revealed that I am 10% British, i.e., from England, Scotland, Wales, or Ireland. I would love to know how that individual entered my genetic make-up but I suspect it will always remain a mystery.

[Moonchilde]

Do people really not know that the boundaries of countries as they exist today have not always been there, set in stone? That large areas of France and Germany and many Baltic and Eastern European countries swapped borders, territories and DNA all over the place? That someone who "came from France" is not necessarily "French" or has "French" DNA?

Do people not know that if you are a woman having your DNA tested, you can't get DNA info on your father's side of the family except the "half" that shows up in you? Unless you have a close male relative able to test also - father, brother, uncle - you won't get DNA on multiple past generations of your father's family.

DNA testing does not give the precise, exact, all-inclusive of everything you want to know, and information about your total ancestry on both sides unless you test both sides.

Just because you (and/or your family) have come to believe stories passed down in the family doesn't mean all the stories are true.  Just because some of the ancestry comes back different to what you "know" doesn't mean it's not accurate.

I've had testing from all three major companies. They all match up very closely. There wasn't a huge surprise, how-could-that-be-right result at all.  And mine totally matched what I know of my genealogy dating back to the 1500s.  But if there had been something unexpected I wouldn't have assumed it was "wrong", just something no one in the living family was aware of.

[Lovingq]

My results from Ancestry were revised via email from them with different results.  For example, initially I was told I was part Scandinavian and European Jewish.  The revised dna results told me I was part Brit, Irish, Pacific Islander and from Asia Central and 2% Near East as well as European Jewish..  No mention of Scandinavia this time.  I recently sent in a dna sample to 23andme and am looking forward to the results.

Ancestry had been in business for a number of years before I submitted a sample to them hence the reason I was surprised at their revised results at such a late date.  

[noodleann]

I knew someone who had theirs tested through some program being run by the National Geographic or Smithsonian or something like that.

It turned out he was 6% Neanderthal.  That 6% accounted for him telling everybody about it, too.

I wouldn't do it. I'd probably come out as 45% cat.

[golding76]

I was out most of today, but I want to thank each of you for your response.  For those who  have not delved seriously into their ancestry, there was quite a bit of valuable information shared in the responses.  Will I go forward with testing?  Yes, because I am curious about those strands that constitute my being (and my children are, too).  My understanding is that the process should begin with the eldest relative since that individual is closer to your roots than you are.  I am now that "eldest" close relative.  

[Moonchilde]

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@Moretofollow wrote:

My results from Ancestry were revised via email from them with different results.  For example, initially I was told I was part Scandinavian and European Jewish.  The revised dna results told me I was part Brit, Irish, Pacific Islander and from Asia Central and 2% Near East as well as European Jewish..  No mention of Scandinavia this time.  I recently sent in a dna sample to 23andme and am looking forward to the results.

Ancestry had been in business for a number of years before I submitted a sample to them hence the reason I was surprised at their revised results at such a late date.  

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Both 23andme and FTDNA have gently tweaked my profiles in a couple of spots - not as far as ethnicity but other things. IMO this is a good thing. Medical science, and DNA companies, are continuously coming up with tests that will allow them to narrow things down and test for things they haven't been able to characterize before. 23and me will continue to update what info they're able to provide - not so much about ethnicity, but traits and hereditary conditions.

ALL of the ethnic DNA testing is based on databases. The more people in the database, the more accurate results will be. If your report comes back "23% Scandinavian" - well, Finland and Norway don't have large populations as an example. It may be that not enough statistics are available to differentiate between the DNA of someone from Finland vs someone from Denmark (again for example). And people were moving, back and forth across those borders that were very different 200 years ago than now.

One of my results came back as a small amount French, one came back small amount German (but not French) and one said "Western European." It's the old "border" thing. I know that I had a relative (or two) who emigrated from a region that has been either French or German depending on who won what in the 18th and 19th C, and that area and others like it will have an interesting DNA mix. What "country/nationality" that is on today's maps might not be relevant.