My wife is thinking about doing this. Her family likely came to the US as slaves, but like most, she doesn't know much more. My family can be traced to a salt smuggler who fled from France to Canada during the French Revolution.
My family is Italian and Polish, but the Polish name is very atypical. Some in my family assumed that it had been shortened at some point. But, having been to Poland, to the area that we are from, I can testify that it wasn't. My unofficial research shows that it goes back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. I took one of the better-known DNA tests and the results were as expected (ie: Italian and Polish), but no Austro-Hungarian representation. And, a 20% representation of UK-Irish... this was a big surprise. My theory is one or more Romans got overly friendly with the locals way back when and then returned to Italy. It's the only thing that makes sense at this point. My sister took the same test and got slightly different results (as expected), but UK-Irish was still there.
Well, I put away my foil hat long ago. The government isn't using our satellites to read our minds. You cannot live life paranoid about everything. They(government) already record every keystroke we make, and conversations we have on the cell phones and landlines. So what, I have come to grips with that, and I cannot change it. If they wanted our DNA, they could just get it from any envelope or stamp you've ever licked, or even the very IRS forms you mailed in. DNA from fingerprints. So, I choose not to be scared and paranoid about a little thing as a DNA test for Ancestry. Do some of you really thing yourselves so important that they would really want it?? What might they do, clone you for a replacement?? To all you "Conspiracy Theorists": Geeeezzzz, relax, have a drink, meditate, smoke a whatever, or do whatever it takes to take your paranoia away.
Herm, have you considered joining The 30 Day Crew? Prime requisite captured in your post. Both my parents submitted their samples and are awaiting results. With a bit of statistical stirring I'll be able to assume what my results would show. Welsh & German on dads side, Dutch & French, with a slice of Delaware Indian from mom.
I know two people that did it and were both underwhelmed. It really wasn't specific beyond Northern European. I worry about voluntarily supplying the government with my DNA. It feels a bit totalitarian to me.
Yeah, I'm sure that I'm already in more databases than I care to be in. Once it's out there, you can never take it back, and you have no control over how it's used.
I've done both ancestry.com and 23andMe and the results were wildly different. Based on what I know about my family ancestry.com was the accurate one. Also from what I've read there is no validity to dieting based on your genetics which is one of the things 23andMe pushes. In retrospect I am also concerned about what they're going to do with my genetic profile.
Well I kinda thought about doing that. But according to family on both sides, they can go back at least twenty generations each. All in the same country, so I'm satisfied with that.
I've read conflicting opinions on what effect the data, if identifiably shared, could have. Some say it would make an interesting case if, on the one hand, a service tells you their data cannot be used for a medical diagnosis (they represent only genetic possibilities, not certainties), but then a life insurance company turns you down or hikes your rates because they somehow see those results and indeed make a medical diagnosis about you that the company said can't verifiably be made. It would be interesting to see how that kind of case shook out....insurance rolling the dice on your genes when you're warned not to.
Rich your ancestry shouldn't really be all that complicated..maybe you just need to talk with some relatives..
Big brother is already in our lives enough, why give them a "gift" when if they want my spit they'll need a search warrant. I'm part of the human race, that's close enough for me.
@Herm2502 you must be related to the Rockefeller's. It was said they had some horse thieves in their past. Now if you said bootlegger's I would have said Kennedy's.
I've never looked into it any further Beyond throwing out the results from 23andMe since the ancestry.com results were consistent between myself and my sister. The only thing I can figure is that 23andMe either makes it up or they contaminated the sample on their end somehow. The results were wildly different as I mentioned. To the point of including significant ethnic representation that there was just no way could be in my ancestry. And on the other hand significant known representations were underreported. They would probably claim that they test different genetic regions and therefore the results are different.
My wife and I gave the Ancestry test to each other as an anniversary gift a few years ago. There were no real surprises to me, and only a couple of small surprises for my wife. I know a lot of people don't like it because it may uncover some family secrets that someone wanted to keep secret--so be prepared. For me, it's interesting how they provide a margin of error (for example, it will say you're 4% Irish, with a possible range between 0% and 7%). As more and more people have taken the test, the margin of errors on mine have slowly adjusted and gotten smaller. One thing to be aware of is that some ethnicities aren't well represented in the databases, so results can be poor. For example, some people just get "East Asian" instead of a breakdown of the various countries. Make sure you check how good each test is for your ethnicity.
