Have any of you had your DNA tested for ancestry/genealogy? I'm considering having it done but haven't decided which company to go with. The reviews I've read seem to rank the top four as: (1) MyHeritage, (2) Ancestry, (3) LivingDNA, and (4) 23andMe. I am not interested in any of the medical results, only the ancestry/genealogy aspects. Any comments or suggestions?
OT: DNA Testing for Ancestry
- Thread starter OrrDawg
- Start date
I've been wondering the same thing lately. My grandfather always swore we were related to Pocahontas. I did a lot of digging on ancestry 3-4 years ago and I could deduce that my maternal family was in that area around that time but got no further proof. I was also about to find out that I had a great x3-4 grandfather captured by Robert E Lee twice. First at Fort Donaldson in 1862 then again at Vicksburg in '63. I was able to trace some of mom's family to about 1660, but it looks as though my dad's family crawled out from under a rock 130 years or so ago. But yea not that interested in the health stuff but would just like to get a better idea where they all came from. I know I do have fair amount of Native American heritage but when digging you get a bunch of converted Christian names. Just like to have a better idea. I saw where CVS has the 23 and me on sale through mid may.
Just wanted to point out
Lee was not at Donaldson or Vicksburg. Also Lee fought for the confederate. You mean Grant?
On to the point. Read the fine print. A lot of these places also have you sign away your rights to your genetic code. So for instance if some drug company finds out you are naturally resistant to some weird disease, you don't get a cut.
Lee was not at Donaldson or Vicksburg. Also Lee fought for the confederate. You mean Grant?
On to the point. Read the fine print. A lot of these places also have you sign away your rights to your genetic code. So for instance if some drug company finds out you are naturally resistant to some weird disease, you don't get a cut.
^^^This is the key point... it may not seem like much, but who knows what your data could be used for.
Correct, I meant Grant as he(my ancestor) was a southerner. Lee was at at Gettysburg that weekend.
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I read a story a while back about 3 triplets that used 23andMe and even though it showed them as kin, there was a slight difference in their heritage when they should have been identical. My sister did the 23andMe and I'm not to sure about the heritage results either. On the other hand, I've researched on my own and have traced my father's family back to Scotland in the 1500's and my mother's family to England in the 1100's. The person who I am from on my father's side came to the new world in 1622 and settled in what is now Lancaster County, Va.
It could also show that some could have been nomads who roamed Russia, traveled the Bearing land bridge and filtered down through the Americas. Because people were so isolated for millennial the DNA markers could show that some decedents were likely Vikings, Egyptians, Eastern European that were oppressed for centuries or boundless other possibilities. We are all nothing more than thousands of connections that had to happen or the family trees forks different ways. That's how some dubmasses became Ole Miss fans. For most of human history one of the most intriguing questions is where did we come from. Now we can somewhat have part of that question answered. And if somehow they do discover a gene that lessens suffering for a population out there, then great. And as far as not profiting, if you never had the test done then you'd never have known anyway.
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If they were identical triplets then they should have had the same heritage but if they were not identical triplets then this is likely. But the "identical" triplets could have been implied in your post as I didn't see the original story.
Watch yourself. The gubment is going to have that **** for everyone forever. 4th amendment out the door.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/golden-state-killer-suspect-dna-genetics-genealogy
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/golden-state-killer-suspect-dna-genetics-genealogy
The Pocahontas thing is pretty straightforward to prove or disprove regardless of your DNA testing choices. There were only single children for a few generations, which makes it easier. Here's a link to an article in the Washington Post explaining the "gateway" : https://goo.gl/KLHcjR
I'm curious why you wouldn't be interested in the medical diagnosis? I've been thinking about doing this as well and the medical screening is the biggest draw for me. Why wouldn't you want to know what potential medical problems you're susceptible to?
Thanks, that is interesting and should be helpful. I'll hafta drag the ancestry tree back out. They left Scotland and settled in Virginia in mid 1600s for a couple generations before moving down to NC. There I obtained a great 3-4x grandmother that was full blooded Cherokee. So as I said I've always known I had a good bit of Native American but would like to know just how much. Thanks again for the link
Odds are high that either Genghis Kahn or Charlemagne or both are all our ancestors.
If both your parents are alive, give it to them and make them take it. That way you see what each of them bring to your genes and you are out of the database.
Unless I've been lied to my whole life...
the ship manifest from 1911 is all I need to see about my ancestry.
the ship manifest from 1911 is all I need to see about my ancestry.
I saw a Law & Order episode about that once, or twice. Except the signing away the rights part. It was just stolen. In the end, they got their cut.
How far back they go? I've been looking for documentation that backs up my "i didn't come from no monkey" stance?*
I was hoping no one would pick up on that. But as stated Ive yet to prove or disprove that, just going by the claim my grandfather and his siblings have always made.
I've never done the DNA testing, but I've thought it would be a neat thing to do. After reading some of the ressponses here though, it certainly would pay to read the fine print. I know from regular genealogy research done by someone else in my family that I have a grandfather in Indiana in the mid-1600s who was married 6 or 7 times. Not sure if the old boy "got around" a lot, or if his wives died off.
I did the Ancestry one, last year. I got an email back, saying that I was 70% this, 10% that, 10% something else, and a bunch of <1% others. I got a link to a map, that has big ovals around those places. None of this... "You're related to [blank famous person]." I get emails, from time to time, that say my 4th cousin, thrice removed may have paid for the same bunk I did.
Moral of the story: If you want a really good educated guess of your origin, go ahead.
Atypical case: a former coworker did the same thing, and found a daughter he never knew he had. She was given up for adoption, by the birth mother, and he never knew she was pregnant. #1Nighter
Moral of the story: If you want a really good educated guess of your origin, go ahead.
Atypical case: a former coworker did the same thing, and found a daughter he never knew he had. She was given up for adoption, by the birth mother, and he never knew she was pregnant. #1Nighter
I used FamilyTree DNA. Half of it I already knew what the result was going to be, the other half was surprising. I had figured standard Western Europe, e.g., French, German, English, but it turned out to be mostly Scots and Scandinavian with some Latvian tossed in for good measure. I wasn't concerned about the gubermint having my DNA, since they already got it when I was in the military. Turns out a significant segment of my ancestors were Mormon, so once I got a little figured genealogically I was able to use the LDS records to go way back, mostly to Scotland.
Side anecdote: while I was doing this research I talked to the husband of a cousin who was doing the same thing. He had run into something that didn't make sense genetically and wound up hiring a professional genealogist. Turns out about five generations back the paternal DNA came from a next door neighbor.
ETA: Most of the test raw data can be loaded into other databases that allow you to cross-match with people who used other tests. The big three for this are FamilyTree, 23andMe, and Ancestry, so as long as you use one of those you can reference against a larger pool of people.
Side anecdote: while I was doing this research I talked to the husband of a cousin who was doing the same thing. He had run into something that didn't make sense genetically and wound up hiring a professional genealogist. Turns out about five generations back the paternal DNA came from a next door neighbor.
ETA: Most of the test raw data can be loaded into other databases that allow you to cross-match with people who used other tests. The big three for this are FamilyTree, 23andMe, and Ancestry, so as long as you use one of those you can reference against a larger pool of people.
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This....would be my fear. But heck, I only had 40 to 100 one nighters back in the 70’s. So I am probably safe.
My ancestors were part of the Scotland cleanse. They were pulled out of jail and put on a one way boat to America. Dumped them off in Virginia. One of the first things my ancestors did was steal corn from a field. They then proceeded to make and run moonshine.
If you're talking about an ancestor who was alive at the time of Pocahontas, you absolutely had about 4000 specific individuals who were your *direct* ancestors at that generation level (essentially at that time). Now a lot were the same person many times over - in other words, you descend from a number of people many different ways (since they often were staying in the same towns for a number of generations). You get less than a half of a half of one percent of your DNA from a single person (let's say, for schits and giggles, Pocahontas herself, or some king, or whomever). It's basically pointless to care about a single ancestor at that distance. Hell, the most recent common ancestor for all humans who have *any* European ancestry at all (even one ancestor in those 4000) lived about 1000 years ago - so stretch 1600 back to 1000 and there is not anyone who has a drop of European ancestry that doesn't descend from the same tree. Anytime people go on about one little part of a very distant heritage, just realize they are talking at best about one little drop of their genetic makeup or ancestry. Most of their lines (if their Southern families are from antebellum times at least) go in so many directions that they can't fathom or describe them accurately. My NE MS ancestry comes from tories, Irish refugees, Moravians, "Scots-Irish", poor farmers, con-men, a tiny blip of Native American, German, French, British, Welsh, tons of generic "White", "Foster", "Williams", "Williams", "Williams", "Evans", "MacDonald", "Smith", etc. My wife's families are much more recent, but not southern, and have very specific recent immigration lines, but she's not claiming to be from "Cherokee chiefs" two hundred years ago, or Mayflower families, or whatever.
Well since we live in the US the CIA has no authority to do anything, perhaps you mean the FBI******
I had just as soon not know what medical conditions I may be susceptible to in the future. If I knew, then that would only be a cause for worry and there would most likely not be anything I could do about it at this time anyway. Besides, a jealous husband with a shotgun would trump anything the medical test might indicate.
More importantly, if you're a serial killer, be sure to convince your relatives of how the DNA tests are just a scam and/or a front for the FBI/CIA.
That's what they want you to think. CIA, FBI, NSA, .... it's all part of the intelligence collective who' s job it is to collect information from and disseminate information to the masses. We're all just little cogs in the machine's quest for world domination. " Come on Mini Me, to the time machine"
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