DNA testing
- Thread starter Yoga Face
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I had it done last year. Here is the link to the organization and website -
https://www.23andme.com/en-ca/
https://www.23andme.com/en-ca/
National Geographic did this Genographic project a few years ago. For $100 bucks or so, you sent in swabs of your saliva and they analyzed it and told you all about your ancestry. Sounded interesting but never did it. Would like to do it.
Ethnic background testing is a fricking joke. All it does is compare the DNA markers of (at most) two of your ancestors to a statistical representation taken from current populations. Even if they can absolutely trace a specific marker to a particular area you still have no idea about where the thousands of other ancestors came from and the further back you expect to go, the more of a joke it is.
As for medical uses, they are looking at some neat things like determining which medications will have the most benefit and tailoring cancer treatment.
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-dimension-dna-personalized-medicine-future.html
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/1015/p1179.html
As for medical uses, they are looking at some neat things like determining which medications will have the most benefit and tailoring cancer treatment.
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-dimension-dna-personalized-medicine-future.html
http://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/1015/p1179.html
Yes.
However, it doesn't work quite the way you probably think it does at least as far as ethnic background. Further, how much use you get out of it probably depends upon how much genealogical research has been done on your family.
Let's say you can go back ten generations or more in most of your lines and you know you are 48 percent English (of which 30 percent were from the Danelaw), 10 percent Welsh, 10 percent french, 20 percent German and 5 percent Scots and the rest you don't know. Your results may come back 30 percent Scandinavian, 40 percent Western European (French, German, Swiss) 10 percent English and 20 percent Irish (Irish, Welsh, Scots i.e. celtic) because that is what you inherited from your parents based upon what they inherited. In other words it isn't a percentage calculator of ancestry at all. Indeed it is best looked at as a negative finder in other words what aren't you: do you have any East Asian, South Pacific, First Nations/Native American, African, European ancestry or do you not.
So I suppose if you know nothing about your ancestors beyond your Great-Great Grandparents it may be very useful if on the other hand you can routinely go back 10 -12 generations for most of your lines, I'd save my money.
By the way I'm discussing autosomal DNA testing rather than Y-DNA or Mt-DNA testing
However, it doesn't work quite the way you probably think it does at least as far as ethnic background. Further, how much use you get out of it probably depends upon how much genealogical research has been done on your family.
Let's say you can go back ten generations or more in most of your lines and you know you are 48 percent English (of which 30 percent were from the Danelaw), 10 percent Welsh, 10 percent french, 20 percent German and 5 percent Scots and the rest you don't know. Your results may come back 30 percent Scandinavian, 40 percent Western European (French, German, Swiss) 10 percent English and 20 percent Irish (Irish, Welsh, Scots i.e. celtic) because that is what you inherited from your parents based upon what they inherited. In other words it isn't a percentage calculator of ancestry at all. Indeed it is best looked at as a negative finder in other words what aren't you: do you have any East Asian, South Pacific, First Nations/Native American, African, European ancestry or do you not.
So I suppose if you know nothing about your ancestors beyond your Great-Great Grandparents it may be very useful if on the other hand you can routinely go back 10 -12 generations for most of your lines, I'd save my money.
By the way I'm discussing autosomal DNA testing rather than Y-DNA or Mt-DNA testing
From a couple of people I've talked to who have done this, it seems to have listed hundreds of possible very distant cousins they've never heard of, and not much else of any interest.
There was one news story last year about a guy who caused his parents to get divorced by finding out he had a half brother he had not previously known about.
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653...i-gave-my-parents-the-gift-of-divorce-23andme
The U.S. has just recently returned to allowing the health results, although it only costs $99 there instead of the $199 from Canada.
http://www.brandonsun.com/business/...s-for-rare-inheritable-disease-292782961.html
http://metronews.ca/news/canada/122...-beg-the-question-do-you-really-want-to-know/
For some reason, the ones for dogs are cheaper.
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/dog-dna-testing
There was one news story last year about a guy who caused his parents to get divorced by finding out he had a half brother he had not previously known about.
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/9/5975653...i-gave-my-parents-the-gift-of-divorce-23andme
The U.S. has just recently returned to allowing the health results, although it only costs $99 there instead of the $199 from Canada.
http://www.brandonsun.com/business/...s-for-rare-inheritable-disease-292782961.html
http://metronews.ca/news/canada/122...-beg-the-question-do-you-really-want-to-know/
For some reason, the ones for dogs are cheaper.
http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/dog-dna-testing
Interesting, I know my background but would be nice to see what health risk I have.
LOL at the others about ancestry. All this can do is give you a general idea of your background.
It's not like they keep records of every human being's DNA on file with their addresses.
I mean coincidentally maybe they have a certain important historical figure (they have done the test on) on file and they can let you know if somehow you're a match.
So basically, all ancestry tests are test to match you with whatever they know or have on file.
LOL at the others about ancestry. All this can do is give you a general idea of your background.
It's not like they keep records of every human being's DNA on file with their addresses.
I mean coincidentally maybe they have a certain important historical figure (they have done the test on) on file and they can let you know if somehow you're a match.
So basically, all ancestry tests are test to match you with whatever they know or have on file.
This is a VERY cautionary tale.
As the author wrote: "At first, I was thinking this is the coolest genetics story, my own personal genetics story. I wasn't particularly upset about it initially, until the rest of the family found out. Their reaction was different. Years of repressed memories and emotions uncorked and resulted in tumultuous times that have torn my nuclear family apart. My parents divorced. No one is talking to my dad. We're not anywhere close to being healed yet and I don't know how long it will take to put the pieces back together.
I went back to 23andMe and talked to them. I said, "I'm not sure all your customers realize that when they participate in your family finder program, they're participating in what are essentially really advanced paternity tests." People find out that their parents aren't who they think they are. . .The person I spoke to didn't really have a response. I don't want to say she was aloof. She just said "that's interesting."
I don't want to say if I knew that I wouldn't have participated. But I'm really devastated at the outcome. I wrestle with these emotions. I love my family. This is nothing I ever would have wished. . .
When you check that [close relatives] box it should have a bunch of stars and bells and whistles around it. . . .I would want a warning saying, "Check this box and FYI: people discover their parents aren't their parents, they have siblings they didn't know about. If you check this box, these are the things you'll find." And I'm the one with a PhD. I understand how this works. But I didn't think through all of the practical implications, in part because I thought, "This wouldn't happen to me."
I think it's a little disingenuous of him to put any blame on the company that sells the tests. The guy has a PhD in biology, and he didn't understand that giving the tests to his parents was a paternity test (like something from the Jerry Springer show [correction -- okay, maybe it's Maury Povich who does that, but I never watched either one of them])? He acknowledges they warn you and give you a box to check or not check, but complains that people will not read it and click it like they would for an iTunes agreement. What good would it do to make the warning more explicit if some were ignoring it?
He didn't have to do the test himself, and he certainly didn't have to get his parents to do it, or tell his sister what he found out. He asked the company for information which they gave him, and it's not their fault if the information he requested caused problems for him.
He didn't have to do the test himself, and he certainly didn't have to get his parents to do it, or tell his sister what he found out. He asked the company for information which they gave him, and it's not their fault if the information he requested caused problems for him.
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Due to being adopted and knowing very little about my background as my biological mother went through foster care, etc., I gave it a try a few years back. They told me straight up that it won't tell me I'm this % this and this % that. Aardvark154 is correct in that it more so told me what I'm not, than what I am, which is European and more heavily weighted to the North than South if I'm interpreting the results correctly. I might do it with my mom if she's willing, but just for fun, like going to a medium, than for any real light it may shed on my background or hers. I think the data is being used on a grander scale to track migratory patterns of humans.
I believe that's what the genographic project was doing. It gave people info about their background but I think that's what they're really trying to figure out.
I have had it done with 23andme. Not a terribly useful health tool ... yet. The research is improving its knowledge base at an incredible rate. In 5-10 years I think it will become a mainstream tool.
Right now the best thing they can do for you is to check if you have a genetic disease (or not). They check for 53 diseases (currently).
Right now the best thing they can do for you is to check if you have a genetic disease (or not). They check for 53 diseases (currently).
Hehehe You ARE the father!
Going back a few hundred years my family tree shows some relation to the royal family. Good thing or bad thing I don't know since they later got screwed up with all the inbreeding.
The ethnicity results of tests offered by these sites -- 23andMe and Ancestry(.ca or .com) -- do not claim to show where your recent ancestors lived. That would make no sense, since people have been moving around the world in recent centuries.
"The results reflect where your ancestors lived before the widespread migrations of the past few hundred years" is how one of them describes it.
The hundreds of "DNA relatives" they list are almost all described as "4th or more distant cousins" or some such phrase, but are of very little use in attempting to determine how far back a common ancestor may have been. It could be 150 years or 850 years. For relatives more distant than third cousins (3rd cousins have the same great-great-grandparents), the amount of DNA that may match to show you are related is very small and random. Their own estimate is that there is only about a 45% chance that the results would show any match between two people who definitely are fourth cousins.
https://customercare.23andme.com/hc...ility-of-detecting-different-types-of-cousins
https://customercare.23andme.com/hc...-Average-percent-DNA-shared-between-relatives
Both of the sites I mentioned above claim to have surpassed one million customers earlier this year, but that's obviously only a small fraction of the planet's 7+ billion people. Most of the million are from the British Isles, USA, Canada, and Australia, and apparently most are lucky if they find any more than one or two previously unknown third cousins or closer relatives. And most choose to remain anonymous to others, identified only as male or female. It would be extremely unlikely that a person who was adopted would be able to easily find their biological parents from these tests (unless of course they already had an idea of who they were and could get them or related people to also take the test).
I think those friends who had it done and were told who they might be related to should be reminded that the Pope — whose organization is founded on mystical, magical beliefs — insists on a Devil's Advocate presenting the negatives when he considers the glorious possibility someone who lived among us might be an actual saint. Science does too (they call it peer review) whenever they consider possibles, but the stuff people sell you to make a profit isn't science.
