DNA Ancestry Testing

[Bad Hussar]

I think this is the sort of thing that concerns people a bit:

Neil Schwartzman, a 52-year-old 23andMe customer who lives in Corte Madera, Calif., took his DNA test in 2010 to learn more about his medical background and as a last-ditch effort in a decades-long search for his birth family. An adoptee, Mr. Schwartzman received a message last spring from another 23andMe customer that said, “I think you’re my brother.”

The writer, Jolie Pearl, indeed shared the same mother and father as Mr. Schwartzman, though she hadn’t known her mother had given up a baby for adoption.

Ms. Pearl confronted her elderly mother, who confirmed the adoption, and the three eventually met in person.

In the matter of genes there are some things people just don't want to know. Both with respect to health, and with respect to family background. Still, I would get this done. Could be interesting. Wonder if you can ship spit internationally?

 

[Sonsowey]

^^I'm sure lots of cheating moms will be found out totally innocently through this service.

Also always good to get some confirmation of Pygmy DNA in your family tree. I had some too, and I didn't even know I had ANY Sub Saharan African ancestry before this test!

 

[Sonsowey]

I got really interesting information from testing. For example, I got an Amerindian y-DNA (majority of Mexicans get either European, North African, or ME y-DNA), I got Italian ancestry (didn't even know I had Italian ancestry), I got 4% black DNA, and I got French ancestry. Really good info right there. I'll put in my results on the thread later on to show you guys how detailed the reports are.

Your results are pretty interesting all around.

Why do you have South Asian and East Asian ancestry?

I know that early in Mexican history, there were actually many Chinese people living in Mexico. The whole point of "New Spain" was really just for the Spanish to mine Silver and Gold to sell to the Chinese, so many Chinese ended up living in Mexico in the 1500s.

The South Asian, I have no idea.

You get some Middle Eastern, perhaps a remnant of the Moorish occupation of Spain, or perhaps an ancestor who was directly middle-eastern who came to Mexico a couple hundred years ago.

A little bit of Jew for good measure.

And of course just about every Mexican has something like 2-4% African ancestry, the Spanish originally brought slaves but basically they were absorbed into the general population and now of course people don't know or don't want to know.

 

[Hencredible Casanova]

I got really interesting information from testing. For example, I got an Amerindian y-DNA (majority of Mexicans get either European, North African, or ME y-DNA), I got Italian ancestry (didn't even know I had Italian ancestry), I got 4% black DNA, and I got French ancestry. Really good info right there. I'll put in my results on the thread later on to show you guys how detailed the reports are.

Your results are pretty interesting all around.

Why do you have South Asian and East Asian ancestry?

I know that early in Mexican history, there were actually many Chinese people living in Mexico. The whole point of "New Spain" was really just for the Spanish to mine Silver and Gold to sell to the Chinese, so many Chinese ended up living in Mexico in the 1500s.

The South Asian, I have no idea.

You get some Middle Eastern, perhaps a remnant of the Moorish occupation of Spain, or perhaps an ancestor who was directly middle-eastern who came to Mexico a couple hundred years ago.

A little bit of Jew for good measure.

And of course just about every Mexican has something like 2-4% African ancestry, the Spanish originally brought slaves but basically they were absorbed into the general population and now of course people don't know or don't want to know.

Anyone given thought to running "DNA game?"

 

[Soma]

FDA Shuts Down 23andMe (via)

I guess 23andMe wasn't playing ball with the Feds and handing over everyone's DNA info.

 

[DjembaDjemba]

FDA Shuts Down 23andMe (via)

I guess 23andMe wasn't playing ball with the Feds and handing over everyone's DNA info.

Red Tape. Good ole' USA.

Would 23andme be able to move it's HQ abroad and operate outside the jurisdiction of the US federal government?

 

[Frost]

I had 23 and Me done a little while ago, I recommend it.

They give you a ton of info on diseases that you might be prone to, and lifestyle adjustments you can make to prevent them. Nothing too major came up in my profile but if you have an elevated risk of X and can take precautionary measures to decrease the risk... well, seems like an easy call to me.

However if you're like Roosh and don't want to know, they offer you the choice of hiding sensitive info, so you can choose to learn about your ancestry and "fun" genetic proclivities (ie, should you be better at distance running or sprinting?)

The ancestry and Neanderthal ancestry is cool, and I imagine it would be even more interesting for guys who are mixed or unsure of parts of their ancestry.

If you're the worrying type, note that the company is owned by the ex-wife of Sergey Brin, so you're basically handing over your genetic info to Skynet.

 

[Teutatis]

I'm also interested in doing this but I mostly worry about how accurate it is, I've read a few reviews that were pretty bad, and from my understanding they test your father's father's father's line (and so on) and your mother's mother's mother's line (and so on). Wouldn't that leave out a HUGE portion of your ancestry out?

 

[Lyokoz]

I'm also interested in doing this but I mostly worry about how accurate it is, I've read a few reviews that were pretty bad, and from my understanding they test your father's father's father's line (and so on) and your mother's mother's mother's line (and so on). Wouldn't that leave out a HUGE portion of your ancestry out?

Yes it would, but you could also have your autosomal DNA tested. That would cover all your ancestry. I don't know if 23andme does that though.

 

[Samseau]

Got my results from 23andme.

What's interesting is that I'm slightly more European than East Asian. I suspect that European genes tend to be more recessive, which means they will slowly breed out non-recessive genes over time even if they are not displayed in the phenotype.

Also, being "Middle Eastern" isn't too much of a help, since that is the most war-torn part of the world and has been invaded multiple times by every type of race.

That said, when the average person looks at me thinks I'm just another white dude. So I'm guessing my middle eastern ancestry has a lot of Roman/Crusader DNA in it somewhere. I have the Roman nose.

 

[Tytalus]

The way these tests work... if possible use your dad or his brother to yest your male history and your Mohr or her sister or brother for the female line.

My uncle already had his male and female line tested, and I used my father to test his male and female line. So I got cool results without using my own DNA.

 

[ElBorrachoInfamoso]

Due to the FDA's meddling, 23andme can no longer give you disease probabilities. They just give you ancestry breakdown. Of course you can always download your raw data and go figure out your disease probabilities if you wanted to. You can even figure out your ancestry with better resolution than 23andme gives you.

 

[groovin206]

I had this done a couple years ago. Im an American black guy so I'm mostly African with significant western european and a little bit of Native American. What was most interesting to me was my haplogroups both being non-African. To be honest, I was pissed because I wanted to have a rough estimate of what region most of my ancestors probably came from. Overall, 23andme is fun to do if u wanna see a rough estimate of what your most recent ancestry is. I dont take it too seriously though.

 

[Samseau]

I had this done a couple years ago. Im an American black guy so I'm mostly African with significant western european and a little bit of Native American. What was most interesting to me was my haplogroups both being non-African. To be honest, I was pissed because I wanted to have a rough estimate of what region most of my ancestors probably came from. Overall, 23andme is fun to do if u wanna see a rough estimate of what your most recent ancestry is. I dont take it too seriously though.

The accuracy will improve as more people give DNA samples. If more men and women from Africa gave samples to 23andme, then you'd know if you had any ancestors there.

Due to the FDA's meddling, 23andme can no longer give you disease probabilities. They just give you ancestry breakdown. Of course you can always download your raw data and go figure out your disease probabilities if you wanted to. You can even figure out your ancestry with better resolution than 23andme gives you.

How do you get better resolution than what 23andme gives?

 

[Pacesetter20]

Got my results from 23andme.

What's interesting is that I'm slightly more European than East Asian. I suspect that European genes tend to be more recessive, which means they will slowly breed out non-recessive genes over time even if they are not displayed in the phenotype.

Also, being "Middle Eastern" isn't too much of a help, since that is the most war-torn part of the world and has been invaded multiple times by every type of race.

That said, when the average person looks at me thinks I'm just another white dude. So I'm guessing my middle eastern ancestry has a lot of Roman/Crusader DNA in it somewhere. I have the Roman nose.

What the hell is the 0.6% Unassigned? Alien DNA?

 

[Samseau]

Dunno. But I do have 3.3% Neanderthal DNA. I guess that explains why the men in my family are strong for their size. My Dad benched 350 with no training at 21. I'm 160, can bench 200 (190 safely, used to be able to do 210 before I got injured), deadlift 255 (more with straps, my grip sux), and squat 315.

 

[ElBorrachoInfamoso]

How do you get better resolution than what 23andme gives?

Gedmatch has several calculators that can give you better resolution than 23andme. It uses 23andme raw data (or raw data from another DNA testing service) but then you choose a particular calculator and each calculator has different basis populations - usually better chosen than 23andme's populations. Several of the calculators have links back to the people who created them and many of those have spreadsheets with ancestry breakdowns for hundreds of different ethnic groups.

Gedmatch can also predict your eye color - pretty accurate for Caucasians - tell you what rare genes you have, and tell you whether your parents were related and approximately how far back your parents' common relative was.

 

[Screwston]

Is gedmatch the best place to get more specific once you get your 23andme results? Has anyone tried ancestry.com?