DNA test question

Absalom said:
The fun part is not the geographic origin, but those tests where people suddenly discover a dozen half-siblings they knew nothing about because Dad was a sperm donor 40 years back.
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Had the same thing happen to a guy I have known almost 50 years. I knew both his parents, we knew his dad (a musician) got around. Apparently mom did too while dad was away. He stopped over on his way back to Texas after meeting up with his "new" family over in St Pete. Conversation was awkward at times. I ain't doing it. All 4 of my grandparents came from the same little town in Italy. Good enough for me. Joe
 
On one of our news channels, the news team decided to do a story on the various DNA ancestry testing companies. The four members of the news team each submitted samples to three different DNA ancestry testing companies. The results were...uh...should we say interesting.

Each news team member received three completely different results from the three companies to which they sent their samples.

Hmmm. Go figger.
 
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Mule Packer said:
On one of our news channels, the news team decided to do a story on the various DNA ancestry testing companies. The four members of the news team each submitted samples to three different DNA ancestry testing companies. The results were...uh...should we say interesting.

Each news team member received three completely different results from the three companies to which they sent their samples.

Hmmm. Go figger.
Click to expand...
Not really. I paid for one and uploaded to two other companies for free (Americans and Europeans gravitate towards different services) while I've found some variation between the 3,they all have their own definitions of what a particular region or country encompasses.One companies Western Europe is another companies France and England while another's might include Germany and parts of Poland and Belgium,but not include England.
As more and more people do this,it becomes a little more accurate.My daughters 25% French has suddenly changed to 40% German.It's regional. Trying to tie someone to a particular country is just marketing or else your ancestors stayed in the same village for centuries and only bred with the other villagers,which is another can of worms.
(And probably explains aunt Hilda lol)
 
I would put no faith in discerning geographic areas of family origin from a DNA test. At least over the past two or three centuries, people have moved around too much to make it reliable.

My only familiarity with DNA testing involves my mother-in-law who died nearly three years ago at age 108. She came from a very long-established (pre-Revolutionary War) family in the deep South (Alabama), and apparently her family's lore was that there was black (her family on her mother's side had slaves) and American Indian (I guess Cherokee) blood mixed into her. Before she died, she wanted to take a DNA test to find out. What it showed was she had all European origin blood (I think Scots-Irish), not a trace of black or Indian origin. She didn't believe it.

Neither I nor my wife has any interest in taking a DNA test. Incidentally, the Mormon Church maintains a genealogy website which is 100% free, and is probably as good as, if not better than, the sites that charge for access. I have found a huge amount of information about our families from it. I did find that my wife is eligible to be admitted to membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of her father's distant but direct ancestors was a Revolutionary War vet, and I found the paperwork proving it. But he didn't seem to have been a hero. He was in some Pennsylvania militia unit for only about two months total. He later moved to Northeast Ohio, where nearly all of my wife's father's family came from. Did find that she is also a distant relative of Harvey Firestone, the tire guy.
 
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The generations in my dad's family were rather compressed so I actually knew one pair of great grandparents. Family resemblances were pretty strong.

When comparing pictures of us at similar ages, Pop and I looked almost exactly alike. Pretty good proof of paternity to me.
 
Family lore can be a mixed bag. There are an incredible number of part cherokees in this country when in reality it's nowhere near that number and was sometimes used to explain a relative with a little more melanin than the rest of the clan.In addition,by the 5th or 6th generation one particular ancestors dna is likely to have disappeared from your genome altogether
 
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Golddollar said:
The generations in my dad's family were rather compressed so I actually knew one pair of great grandparents. Family resemblances were pretty strong.

When comparing pictures of us at similar ages, Pop and I looked almost exactly alike. Pretty good proof of paternity to me.
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I have a sister we used to tease about being the milkman's daughter. She doesn't look like our parents nor our grandparents. I came across a pic of a Scottish great aunt while playing with this and bingo! There she is (the resemblance is spooky)
 
In both sides of my Tribe we are all from the British Isles.
Except for that one bunch on my Mother's side who came from the French - German often disputed zone.
No sure if they identified as French or German.
And those are the Presslers who morphed into Presley.
Some of my folks have claimed that we are kin to Da King.
My research does not support that.
 
Another interesting bit I came across was my mothers surname. Growing up in Scotland she knew hardly anyone with that name,it was very uncommon. What I found researching her dad's family and trying to find info on his time in France during WWI and his cousins grave there and bingo! The memorials in Europe to the dead with no known graves are covered with that name by the hundreds or maybe 1000s.Such a waste..
 
Our family did the genealogy thing several years ago and traced our roots back to the mid-1700s. I don't care about the DNA stuff, and am satisfied with the work we did. I also wouldn't want to find out that the old family woodpile wasn't as pure as we imagined. Now if you win the lottery, you won't need DNA to locate all those loving relatives.
 
My whole family is all eat up with the DNA genealogy thing except for me. I could not possibly care less. If my siblings want the DNA from me they will have to do it after I am dead and before the cremation.
I am a registered Arkansas hillbilly and that suits me just fine.
 
I never miss the PBS show "Finding Your Roots", where a celeb or public figure gets a geneology rundown. Henry Gates' team uses interviews and public records, and tops it off with DNA.

Lots of surprises on that show, and not a few real tears. People who swear they have Native American blood (almost always Cherokee) invariably don't.

Two of my six siblings had the DNA thing done and the results were pretty similar - Euromutts.
 
I think we are all related.

Depending on which camp you're in, we either date back to postdeluvian man or primal mudskippers.

Either way we are all in for a lengthy meet & greet up yonder.
 
sigp220.45 said:
I never miss the PBS show "Finding Your Roots", where a celeb or public figure gets a geneology rundown. Henry Gates' team uses interviews and public records, and tops it off with DNA.

Lots of surprises on that show, and not a few real tears. People who swear they have Native American blood (almost always Cherokee) invariably don't.

Two of my six siblings had the DNA thing done and the results were pretty similar - Euromutts.
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Yeah, I dunno what they think they'll benefit from it either. Being of American Indian descent always gave me a hard way to go. Lotsa fights growing up. But I did earn some respect.
Anyway, I was thinking of doing one of those DNA tests but figured that it'd be cheaper, quicker and easier just to look in the mirror and take the word of my Dad and Uncle Roy.
They both told me that I'm Blackfoot and I believe them.
 
...idjut, we are all of the same heritage, some of us just happen to be better than you. :cool:
 
snubbyfan said:
Yeah, I dunno what they think they'll benefit from it either. Being of American Indian descent always gave me a hard way to go. Lotsa fights growing up. But I did earn some respect.
Anyway, I was thinking of doing one of those DNA tests but figured that it'd be cheaper, quicker and easier just to look in the mirror and take the word of my Dad and Uncle Roy.
They both told me that I'm Blackfoot and I believe them.
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I worked the Blackfeet rez in Montana for several years. I was at some Bureau training somewhere and a female agent told me she was 1/4 Blackfeet. Hell, that's enough to enroll! I said - one of your grandparents was a full-blooded Blackfeet? She started hemming and hawing and mumbled something about maybe not a fourth and then changed the subject.

Blackfeet Nation
 
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