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DNA Test

Interesting. Just on dna testing, it did highlight the limitations of them and how your results are actually generated. I'd guess that most people who take a test don't realise this and that they are skewed by where other people who take the test come from. It was surprising somewhat that theoretically after not many generations the dna from some ancestors may no longer be present in your own.

I would have liked to hear a bit more about the different types of dna test. Rightly or wrongly I think to many people their paternal line is the most important, which can be traced through the y-chromosone, passed down from father to son. So that test would seem to be a bit more accurate in determining where that line originated, if enough people took it of course.
 
My dna genealogy is fascinating. I have spoken to many cousins that I never knew of. My great Grandfathers elder brother went to America, I'm in touch with his 4 x granddaughter. Hearing what happened to him after he left is amazing. I've also helped trace and reunite a long time friend with her estranged parents from Ireland who last saw them when she was 4 ,all in time for her 60th birthday. There is so much online information to help you build a really good family tree. DNA can't lie, or as my sister likes to say, there are no lifeguards in the gene pool..
 
I strongly advise that anyone taking a DNA test though one of the ancestry type web sites read the small print and conditions very carefully before making their decision.
 
Having said that, Eric, I discovered a third cousin on my mother's side living in New Zealand and working as a lawyer over 15 years ago. We still correspond by email every two or three days and he phones me at Christmas and on my birthday. He's sent me pictures of ancestors' graves and family momentoes and we have quite a lot in common. Although now retired, he's still doing voluntary legal work for the poor and is a lay preacher at his local church, but as we're both knocking on a bit, I doubt if we will ever meet face to face.

In return I've done free genealogical research for one of his friends out there whose ancestors had a shop in the West End of London, and his grandfather served in both the British Army and died while in service with the Australian Army in 1945. Such friendships can be mutually satisfying sometimes.

Maurice :cool:
 
Eric Gibson said:
My daughter bought me a test a couple of years ago with this lot https://www.23andme.com/?slideout=true&vip=true
The results were interesting but pretty well as was already known.
They send me regular emails informing me of possible relatives who have joined the ranks of users but they're never, so far, any closer than 3rd to 6th cousins.
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Don't forget that this is big business. And one particular place in North America has amassed an awful lot of information. And folk worry about Google and such.
 
tresario said:
I'm confused..over interpretation?? How can you over interpret DNA.
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People can take their results as gospel. For geographical matching dna test rely on other people who take the test. If you were half British and half Greek for example and no one from Greece was on record then your results would be skewed to the half from which there were matches. An extreme example but they might say you were 100% British or at least North European.

I do think some companies continue to refine your results as more tests are taken.

Not forgetting that an ancestor's dna could disappear after not many generations. So that wouldn't show up.
 
MWS said:
People can take their results as gospel. For geographical matching dna test rely on other people who take the test. If you were half British and half Greek for example and no one from Greece was on record then your results would be skewed to the half from which there were matches. An extreme example but they might say you were 100% British or at least North European.

I do think some companies continue to refine your results as more tests are taken.

Not forgetting that an ancestor's dna could disappear after not many generations. So that wouldn't show up.
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I find myself in that position mentioned. I took the Ancestry DNA test and to cut a complicated story short, I am half Italian from my biological Father's side yet there were no matches whatsoever other than U.K, Ireland & USA.
 
Banjo said:
I find myself in that position mentioned. I took the Ancestry DNA test and to cut a complicated story short, I am half Italian from my biological Father's side yet there were no matches whatsoever other than U.K, Ireland & USA.
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Adam Rutherford made the point that the pool is largely confined to western developed countries.
 
What we have to bear in mind is that England & Wales have some of the best records and with very little intrusive data privacy rules apart from the 100 year rule on the census. This makes it the easiest in the world to do genealogy research. That means that the DNA tests are more likely to be centred in the west on grounds of cost and access to records.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
What we have to bear in mind is that England & Wales have some of the best records and with very little intrusive data privacy rules apart from the 100 year rule on the census. This makes it the easiest in the world to do genealogy research. That means that the DNA tests are more likely to be centred in the west on grounds of cost and access to records.

Maurice :cool:
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True Maurice, though the programme was referring to affluence and the ability to pay for a DNA test.
 
Eric Gibson said:
My daughter bought me a test a couple of years ago with this lot https://www.23andme.com/?slideout=true&vip=true
The results were interesting but pretty well as was already known.
They send me regular emails informing me of possible relatives who have joined the ranks of users but they're never, so far, any closer than 3rd to 6th cousins.
Click to expand...
Eric

Guardian 17.2.2020.jpg
You might find this interesting. It mentions 23and Me. for some reason it does not seem to be online. but here is a scan of it
 
No way would i voluntary give my DNA.i think it is asking for trouble. you might find out something you don't want to know.
I would hate to know I was related to jack the ripper.
 
mw0njm. said:
No way would i voluntary give my DNA.i think it is asking for trouble. you might find out something you don't want to know.
I would hate to know I was related to jack the ripper.
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As nobody know who Jack the Ripper was I can't see that happening, you could though find that Hitler or Mussolini is in your genes. :)
 
Your previous Ancestry v 23&Me post makes little sense Pete Scottish and Irish are surely British in the genetic scheme of things, how they various companies split them I don't know and I suspect neither do they.

I know from my own family research that I have Scottish on my father's side and Irish on my mother's side and that has shown up in my genetic profile from 23&Me together with some other, lesser European traces.

It doesn't matter to me if it's all that accurate, to me it's just a bit of fun.
 
mikejee said:
Eric

View attachment 141760
You might find this interesting. It mentions 23and Me. for some reason it does not seem to be online. but here is a scan of it
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Thanks for posting this article which I found very interesting. However, one of the main concerns for Laura Spinney seems to be that the DNA samples can be used against criminals. Call me Orwellian if you like, but I am an advocate of the entire nation having a sample taken. This would be one of the most cost effective methods of reducing crime, particularly violent or sexual crimes against women.
 
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