topic Re: Genetic test question in Community Chat

Genetic test question

happycat — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:38:57 GMT

I don't want to hijack @Laura14's thread, but I'd like to ask something.

My grandfather didn't know how his dad was. His mother would never say.

If I were to do one of these tests, how much could I possibly find out?

TIA

Re: Genetic test question

Laura14 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:41:19 GMT

@happycat wrote:
I don't want to hijack @Laura14's thread, but I'd like to ask something.
My grandfather didn't know how his dad was. His mother would never say.
If I were to do one of these tests, how much could I possibly find out?
TIA

@happycat Hijack away! I think the results come back with matches if and only if the father or his relatives are also in the database and have opted in to have themselves "out there" to be matched.

Re: Genetic test question

happycat — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:45:38 GMT

Ok, Thank you @Laura14. Its very interesting. My grandfather has been dead for nearly 25 years, and I'm sure whoever his father was has too.

Say if my grandpa's dad has offspring who had done these tests, would that show up?

Re: Genetic test question

Laura14 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:48:45 GMT

@happycat I believe so. I am going off of a Dr Oz episode I just saw where a girl did not know she was a donor baby and when she got the results she said it came back with about 2000 distant matches but one half brother match.

Since she was an only child, she knew she had no brothers and her parents said no other children so when she investigated she found out she was not biologically related to her parents and she had multiple siblings who were all related because of the sperm donation. They all shared the same paternal line.

Re: Genetic test question

ALRATIBA — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:48:56 GMT

@happycat

It should show up.

My matches both go back to a great grandfather or great great grandfather level.

Re: Genetic test question

happycat — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 17:29:33 GMT

OK, thank you both, @Laura14 and @ALRATIBA, good to know. Now that I think about it I think I'm too chicken to proceed. Will have to think on this a bit.

Thanks again, ladies.

Re: Genetic test question

Drythe — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 17:31:08 GMT

@happycat wrote:
I don't want to hijack @Laura14's thread, but I'd like to ask something.
My grandfather didn't know how his dad was. His mother would never say.
If I were to do one of these tests, how much could I possibly find out?
TIA

@happycat

You might try getting a copy of his birthcertificate, or looking in the public birth records.

Re: Genetic test question

Laura14 — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 17:39:34 GMT

@happycat Only do or not do what you're comfortable with.

Whatever comes up in my results, I don't care. I have two brothers I don't know that I know about. If there are more out there, it doesn't change me or my life in anyway. It goes on and without any relationship with them. I'm me no matter what any piece of paper says.

And I've always been fantastic with boundaries with strangers. Until you are comfortable with doing that, hang in there.

Re: Genetic test question

Dominosmom — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 17:58:25 GMT

DH did 23&Me and his results initially showed only the nation of origin in a pie chart. He thought he was Danish and a little bit Irish but he wasn't Danish at all but was definitely Irish, Italian and Portugese. The second and third country was a surprise. A few weeks later there was a match for a very distant cousin who he has never met. None oh his 4 siblings have used this service so their names did not pop up. Maybe later if they decide to submit a saliva sample.

All in all his experience with 23& Me was pretty disappointing.

Re: Genetic test question

Financialgrl — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 19:36:44 GMT

@happycat wrote:
Ok, Thank you @Laura14. Its very interesting. My grandfather has been dead for nearly 25 years, and I'm sure whoever his father was has too.
Say if my grandpa's dad has offspring who had done these tests, would that show up?

@happycat Laura14's answer was how it happened in our family. I posted our story on her thread - a relative had a child in her teens and kept the baby. Couple broke up before the baby was born and he had moved. This child (now in mid 40's) had always been told the truth about her birth and given the father's name but decades later had spelled it incorrectly. Fast forward to 2 months ago and this now grown daughter had sent in her DNA to Ancestry.com.

Came back with a match with a half-sibling and an uncle. They met, took another DNA test verifying that the results were indeed correct. Her father had died 9 years ago so that was sad but she connected with her found family bc prior to finding this out she was an only child.

I did this in 2016 and my matches included two of my cousins' children. Those we know are true too bc we all know each other.

Re: Genetic test question

151949 — Sun, 10 Jun 2018 20:46:22 GMT

My first cousin & i both did the ancestry one - we did not come back even near a match, despite that our fathers were identical twins. So I'm highly doubting these tests.

Re: Genetic test question

happycat — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 01:08:28 GMT

@151949 wrote:
My first cousin & i both did the ancestry one - we did not come back even near a match, despite that our fathers were identical twins. So I'm highly doubting these tests.

That is very odd.

Re: Genetic test question

shoesnbags — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 02:56:28 GMT

@151949 wrote:
My first cousin & i both did the ancestry one - we did not come back even near a match, despite that our fathers were identical twins. So I'm highly doubting these tests.

Wow, that's strange. My son just did the test with Ancestry, and three of my first cousins popped up as close matches. These are children of three different aunts of mine. I was impressed, and was motivated to order my own test from Ancestry.

Re: Genetic test question

ginirn — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 14:56:18 GMT

sometimes these tests reveal family secrets that are shocking. My daughter found out she had a half sister she never knew about. Her biological father had a child put up for adoption when he was about 14. In your cousins case only her/his mother knows the truth.

Re: Genetic test question

Roni18 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 15:58:32 GMT

@happycat wrote:
I don't want to hijack @Laura14's thread, but I'd like to ask something.
My grandfather didn't know how his dad was. His mother would never say.
If I were to do one of these tests, how much could I possibly find out?
TIA

@happycat I have done the Ancestry test. They have DNA matches that you can look at. One lady contacted me saying she had done the test and she was pretty high up on my match list. Her mother had been adopted as a child and she didn't know the parents. From looking at our shared matches I was able to tell her what family we had in common and we think we narrowed down who her grandmother may have been. This related back to one of my great-grandmother's siblings kids.

You would need to know as much about the rest of your family tree as you could so you could rule out those matches.

Re: Genetic test question

Roni18 — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 16:05:54 GMT

@shoesnbags wrote:
@151949 wrote:
My first cousin & i both did the ancestry one - we did not come back even near a match, despite that our fathers were identical twins. So I'm highly doubting these tests.
Wow, that's strange. My son just did the test with Ancestry, and three of my first cousins popped up as close matches. These are children of three different aunts of mine. I was impressed, and was motivated to order my own test from Ancestry.

@151949

I have found the Ancestry test to be very accurate. When I did it, my uncle was the first one to pop up on my matches and I didn't even know he had taken the test. Also, coming up immediately was a large number of relatives that I had talked to over the years in doing genealogy on Ancestry.com (people I already knew to be my relatives.) I have since had other close relatives to do the test and they come up immediately.

Re: Genetic test question

Financialgrl — Mon, 11 Jun 2018 17:08:49 GMT

@ginirn wrote:

sometimes these tests reveal family secrets that are shocking. My daughter found out she had a half sister she never knew about. Her biological father had a child put up for adoption when he was about 14. In your cousins case only her/his mother knows the truth.

@ginirnand @151949 I was just going to post the same. ALready posted that myself, and two of my cousin's children and I were a match and we all know each other so that was no surprise.

However, there is a woman showing VERY HIGH probability of being related to all of us as our cousin. We know it has to be based on our maternal grandmother bc that's who we all have in common. We believe our grandmother had a child either given up for adoption or back 100+ years ago may have gotten pregnant and "disappeared for a year" and her child was raised by someone outside the adoption agencies. All very possible.