OT: Ancestry DNA Kit

TKL67

Heisman
Dec 24, 2011
10,307
14,561
50
Just sent mine in. What have your experiences been like?

I'm more interested in my genetic/ethnic makeup then connecting with distant family members.

Anyone find out they had a closely related family member they didn't know about?
 

ClemTiger9

Senior
Oct 23, 2001
1,009
771
76
Just sent mine in. What have your experiences been like?

I'm more interested in my genetic/ethnic makeup then connecting with distant family members.

Anyone find out they had a closely related family member they didn't know about?
My biological father was adopted in a closed adoption, so mine turned up some interesting results. I found several 2nd cousins that I had no idea about. My heritage was interesting as well. I knew I had some German lineage, but everything else was a surprise.
 

clemsonalex

All-Conference
Nov 17, 2010
939
1,511
93
I think you will enjoy your results. One thing I found to be interesting was that we were always told my great-grandmother was 100% Cherokee. When my results came back with 0% native american blood, I was a little surprised. Just goes to show you that you can't believe even your most revered family legends sometimes.
 
May 11, 2005
14,297
15,119
113
I did this and it was fascinating. Just wanted the ethnicity results and did not explore the family tree stuff much, maybe later when I find some time.

40% German, 36% Irish, 14% British. 11% Scandinavian, and some various small %s.

Thought I would be more British. There were these tales of Cherokee Indians on my mother's side. It was BS- no trace of Native American.
 
May 11, 2005
14,297
15,119
113
I think you will enjoy your results. One thing I found to be interesting was that we were always told my great-grandmother was 100% Cherokee. When my results came back with 0% native american blood, I was a little surprised. Just goes to show you that you can't believe even your most revered family legends sometimes.
Same here. Those stories or legends are common.
 
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Charybdis

All-Conference
Apr 17, 2014
3,325
2,152
0
Mine was pretty neat. Surprisingly Mediterranean.

25% of some combination of Iberian/Spanish, Greek, Italian, North African, Middle Eastern. Also heavily Scandinavian.
 
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TKL67

Heisman
Dec 24, 2011
10,307
14,561
50
I did this and it was fascinating. Just wanted the ethnicity results and did not explore the family tree stuff much, maybe later when I find some time.

40% German, 36% Irish, 14% British. 11% Scandinavian, and some various small %s.

Thought I would be more British. There were these tales of Cherokee Indians on my mother's side. It was BS- no trace of Native American.
My father-in-law did it and was expecting almost an entirely British Isles background. He ended up having a significant amount of Scandavian descent.

What I found very interesting was the breakdown that he received about how peoples moved throughout the centuries. More than likely, his people were all from the British Isles, but Scandinavian blood lines were inserted through the Viking conquests.

I'm currently under the assumption that I'm 50% English, 25% Irish, and 25% Polish. Since Poland was the stomping ground of Europe for centuries, I'm very curious to see what shows up there.
 
May 11, 2005
14,297
15,119
113
It’s a scam. Their ability to identify your heritage is limited to Western Europe..
Mmmm... it is worldwide. The entire continent of Africa has very similar DNA among natives and is consider one pool. The entire western hemisphere is a single gene pool in regards to Native Americans. The natives in the Falkland Islands of Argentina and the Eskimo peoples of the Artic and Alaska and all in between have very similar DNA.

Europe and Asia are broken down into many unique gene pools.
 

PainClinic

Heisman
Nov 24, 2007
6,314
13,652
0
Protect your DNA...you can do a name search and find out 80-90% of what these DNA tests will show you.

I searched my last name years ago and found out Western European Celtic/ Scottish/ Irish/ German ancestry. I found our family coat of arms and how the spelling had changed through the years.

There's no way I'd put my DNA in a vial and send it to some nameless, faceless, cough... cough... government database.
 

ChucktownK

All-American
Oct 28, 2010
5,290
9,401
113
I did it, found it interesting. I love all this heraldry/ancestry-type stuff.

They'll give you the breakdown of what country/region. Then you get a webpage showing any cousins you have who took it, and how Ancestry believes they're related to you (2nd/3rd/4th cousin, etc). If you have family tree info then you'll be able to figure out stuff.

If youre not going to go through the family tree info then I'm not sure what you'll get out of it. You will probably notice some cousins you've forgotten when they show you your relatives. They do not tell you that so & so is exactly this (2nd cousin on your moms side, for example), you have to figure that out.

That is where I think they don't do a great job, its not a wonderful tool to find long-lost relatives or connections when youre in your ancestry research. Its not searchable in that way.

if you want to find out how your chances are of getting prostate cancer, they will let you download your DNA data to a text file (which doesnt have your name or anything in it). You then upload that to other sites that will tell you that stuff. For that, the 23andMe test is better as Ancestry doesn't collect some things that they do.
 
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treetiger

Heisman
Jan 17, 2005
22,715
20,177
103
It was the best thing that I could have ever done. I had hit a brick wall with my grandmother's surname of Ross, as well as her mother's father (my 2nd great-grandfather) Joseph Banner Sprague who came from Canada. DNA was able to verify who I thought the next generation of parents were. I got my last surviving aunt to do it, now one of my sisters got a kit. For someone with 100,000 people and growing on their tree, it has opened up a multitude of possibilities. As a genealogist, I encourage everyone to do this, if not for themselves, for their children.
 

Ron Munson

Hall of Famer
Jan 20, 2013
198,340
122,401
113
I think you will enjoy your results. One thing I found to be interesting was that we were always told my great-grandmother was 100% Cherokee. When my results came back with 0% native american blood, I was a little surprised. Just goes to show you that you can't believe even your most revered family legends sometimes.


Same here.
 

Winstonw101

Hall of Famer
May 15, 2016
43,893
187,702
113
I don't use Siri or any voice recognition technology, but curiosity prevailed in this case.
Just be sure and have airtight alibis for the rest of your life in the event of any murders investigationgs in your area run too long unsolved .
 
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ChucktownK

All-American
Oct 28, 2010
5,290
9,401
113
I think you will enjoy your results. One thing I found to be interesting was that we were always told my great-grandmother was 100% Cherokee. When my results came back with 0% native american blood, I was a little surprised. Just goes to show you that you can't believe even your most revered family legends sometimes.

I had the same info and the same discovery. Her surname was even something the Cherokee had used.
 
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TigerStack13

Junior
Jul 17, 2015
98
323
53
I think you will enjoy your results. One thing I found to be interesting was that we were always told my great-grandmother was 100% Cherokee. When my results came back with 0% native american blood, I was a little surprised. Just goes to show you that you can't believe even your most revered family legends sometimes.

Apparently Native Americans have declined to participate in DNA testing, giving ancestry very little to use for reference sampling for North American Native Americans. Unless things have changed, that could be the problem. My Grandpa's Granddad was 100% Cherokee and I did not receive any percentage in my DNA. I could trace my family all the way back to him, but then it goes cold. It could just be a coincidence as well though.
 

dpotter24

Heisman
Jan 5, 2013
8,166
11,786
103
Protect your DNA...you can do a name search and find out 80-90% of what these DNA tests will show you.

I searched my last name years ago and found out Western European Celtic/ Scottish/ Irish/ German ancestry. I found our family coat of arms and how the spelling had changed through the years.

There's no way I'd put my DNA in a vial and send it to some nameless, faceless, cough... cough... government database.
Where do you search for this? I’d be interested in seeing what the results would be.
 

TICrack

All-American
Jul 1, 2013
3,123
7,776
113
I'm no expert on genealogy so yall bear with me if I'm way off base.

I thought, though, that different traits passed along family lines in different patterns. Thus I and my sister may have inherited different portions of the family line. So, I may be 30% Irish and she 20% or something along those lines.

That may be why some of you aren't seeing the native american descent within the results....Your pale *** just didn't get those genes, haha. For any experts out there, am I anywhere close to correct here?
 
May 11, 2005
14,297
15,119
113
Apparently Native Americans have declined to participate in DNA testing, giving ancestry very little to use for reference sampling for North American Native Americans. Unless things have changed, that could be the problem. My Grandpa's Granddad was 100% Cherokee and I did not receive any percentage in my DNA. I could trace my family all the way back to him, but then it goes cold. It could just be a coincidence as well though.
They have plenty of Native American DNA samples. Interestingly, the entirety of North and South American native people are derived from a single gene pool.
 

ChiefTiger_rivals40636

All-Conference
Dec 2, 2006
9,220
3,971
0
The entire western hemisphere is a single gene pool in regards to Native Americans.
True, sort of. It's mainly because Native Americans are VERY resistant to DNA testing (has to do with the chance that they'll lose money they get paid already). So it has to be one group for them. If they had more testing results, it could be narrowed down much further to geographic regions and tribes.

The natives in the Falkland Islands of Argentina and the Eskimo peoples of the Arctic and Alaska and all in between have very similar DNA.
Most South American "natives" are more genetically similar to Polynesians than they are to most North American "natives". This has led to the belief that the "land bridge theory" is probably not correct. They came on boats. Easter Island is a key component to this as well.
 
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ChiefTiger_rivals40636

All-Conference
Dec 2, 2006
9,220
3,971
0
Apparently Native Americans have declined to participate in DNA testing, giving ancestry very little to use for reference sampling for North American Native Americans. Unless things have changed, that could be the problem. My Grandpa's Granddad was 100% Cherokee and I did not receive any percentage in my DNA. I could trace my family all the way back to him, but then it goes cold. It could just be a coincidence as well though.
This is correct. They don't want to stand the chance to lose money that they are currently given. I don't exactly blame them.
 
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PainClinic

Heisman
Nov 24, 2007
6,314
13,652
0
Apparently Native Americans have declined to participate in DNA testing, giving ancestry very little to use for reference sampling for North American Native Americans. Unless things have changed, that could be the problem. My Grandpa's Granddad was 100% Cherokee and I did not receive any percentage in my DNA. I could trace my family all the way back to him, but then it goes cold. It could just be a coincidence as well though.

I found your grandpa's grandad's cousins sister.
 
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ChiefTiger_rivals40636

All-Conference
Dec 2, 2006
9,220
3,971
0
Just sent mine in. What have your experiences been like?

I'm more interested in my genetic/ethnic makeup then connecting with distant family members.

Anyone find out they had a closely related family member they didn't know about?
I did 23andme for myself, and AncestryDNA for my mother, father, wife, mother-in-law, and father-in-law. I also participate in some online DNA and genetics forums. 23andme's ancestry portion is extremely unreliable. In fact, they will erroneously cite Togo/Benin for some DNA that is not even from the continent of Africa. But 23andme is great for medical DNA testing. That's what I used it for. 23andme uses 1 heritage test, and AncestryDNA uses 3. So AncestryDNA is the best thing going, and you chose correctly.

Keep in mind that as more data and information comes in, the results will evolve. Some are already quite refined (mostly Western and Northern Europe, and some parts of Eastern Asia). But even they will get more specific and better.

It's really fascinating stuff. I've now met 2 cousins I had no idea existed. One of them has developed her family tree to the point that it has over 1,000 entries. I also found out significant portions of my heritage that we didn't know existed. It has also filled in a blank on my mother's side of the family with regard to a significant portion of family lineage.
 
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