Jaiade

I find this DNA angle very interesting. On a crime show on tv they are using DNA to help solve crimes, and they seem to be able to get DNA from all kinds of sources and achieve numerous results. Which causes me to wonder if there are more results to be obtained than these various companies are looking for. I have learned that if you are female they only look at the female line. My search is looking for info on my grandmother's father's side. So if this is so, I won't get any info (through my grandmother) as to the ancestry of my great-grandfather. Is this correct? There are no males in the line of my g-grandfather to have the test. My uncle (grandmother's son) would not work because it would follow his father. So if I understand this right, I can't find out anything about my g-grandfather's side without someone in his sons' line. Bummer! We are a family of predominately females, so that DNA is getting thinner by the day. Another thing I don't understand is how it changes depending on how many people are tested. It is what it is, isn't it?
Peckish.....Your husband knew he had 25% how? By DNA or just knowing members of the family. The female's results might be only from the female line in the DNA. This can really become involved, but oh so fascinating, I think. I have always liked puzzle solving.

Peckish

I have never heard what you're saying about the female line. Where did you get this info? I'm not saying it's incorrect; I'm saying I've never heard it and would like to look into it.

I don't think these types of DNA tests tell you specifics about your ancestors other than giving you info about your genetic makeup. It won't give you info about your great-great grandfather because he never submitted a DNA sample. However, it can tell you that you're part German, part Scandinavian, and part French.

Finding living relatives is possible if both parties submit DNA to the same database and opt in to the possibility. If you'd rather not know, or not be known, just opt out.

The databases change based on the people who are taking the tests. The more information a datebase contains, the more accurate it can be. For instance, as I said previously, another friend always thought she was part Native American, but her DNA test came back with some minuscule number like .02%. However, the Native American databases are nearly non-existent because hardly any Native Americans have submitted DNA samples. So, it's entirely possible that in 5 years, her genetic profile could change simply because the database may gain more data from Native Americans.

My husband knew he was 25% because of family history. His grandmother's birth certificate shows she was black. She married a white man. We assume her children would then be 50% black and 50% white, and her grandchildren 25% black. But DNA doesn't split evenly like that, according to these results. That's what I find fascinating.

Jaiade

Peckish, thank you for the explanation on more people being added. I understand a little better. On the female and male line, I was reading where someone was questioning why she didn't have a particular ethnic profile when her dad was, I think black, so she was looking for African and all she had was European because her mother was white, and she inquired of ancestry and they told her the test was I think the word was mitochodrial(not spelled right) which meant female to female or male to male. Something to do with the females not having Y chromosomes. If you find out differently, please let me know because this is why I mentioned I was looking with my g-grandfather.
I bought this test over two years ago, and just sent it in last week. If it comes back with anything German, I'll know it came from him, which will I guess also change that female to female thing; or maybe not because I believe I heard it on the tv program on PBS about finding your roots also. Seems like my grandmother would have German in her DNA also. But who knows. We shall see.

Barb2018

An update:
I have not gotten my DNA results, but through the family tree feature on Ancestry.com I have gotten some fascinating information about my ancestors. I found that I'm second generation Welsh, and my father's first wife, who died, has family that is searching for information about my father. Also found out that my father had siblings who are looking for him and any family. That would be me. That means I potentially have family alive somewhere living about two hours from me.
Will I reach out to them? No, it would serve no purpose. But it is my heritage and is now backed up by fact, not just by stories diluted by time and memory. I also found more family on my mother's side that's withered away to nothing. I have to wonder if some characteristics in me were carried by past family? My father's people were Welsh miners and were tall and broad shouldered. My mother's side were tailors and accountants. I'm tall, have broad shoulders, sew and love numbers. It just sparks my imagination and frankly gives answers to questions I've had all my life.

MaggieLou

I also have a published history on my father's family but it was published in the early 1950's. From what I have been able to find so far, it is fairly accurate. So far I have gotten back to the 1200's and most of it agrees with the published version. My ancestry is mostly English, Irish and Scottish on my father's side. That may be why records are more accurate and easier to find.

Iceblossom

Mitochondrial DNA is only passed on through the female line of descent and it is passed on unchanged. I guess there is some stuff that has just came out in the last couple of months where very rarely you can get some from the Paternal line, basically you get like 200 bits of maternal information compared to 8 bits of male. But it is only part of the information presented in a DNA test. You will get some information on both sides of the family.

It's not really my concern so I haven't really studied it, but as I understand it full blood siblings can be anywhere from around 25% to 95% of the same genes depending on how they mixed and matched.

As I said previously, I did 23 & Me because I wanted the health screenings, already knew my family background. If you want heritage, I would go with Ancestry.Com, they have the bigger database. My mother's side of the family we have quite extensive information, or at least on some lines, through my maternal grandfather we go back to Penn (as in Pennsylvania). My father's side of the family both of his parents were basically first generation, some of their siblings were born here others not. We had direct cousins that my grandmother was able to speak to for the first time in decades once the cold war was over.

My brother had his testing done through Ancestory. So far he has not been contacted by anyone although he has that option checked. As I said before though, it's possible if I was in the database we might get some more matches. I seem to take after my paternal grandmother (Sophia) more than any other relative. I might go ahead and do a sale version of Ancestry some day just for the fun of it, I'd be open conversations from Sophia's side of things.

But -- what I can say is I am getting updates from 23 & Me as they expand their services they go back and re-evaluate their existing data. Their family history stuff is improving as more people use their services.

I am very concerned about privacy information in general, but there was no other affordable way for me to get the information I wanted. I'm not sure but I think the confirmation test ordered by my doctor to find out about my Hereditary Hemochromatosis gene was around $500, compared to the $100 (on sale) 23 & Me Kit. I don't know how many other tests we would have done to find out about the high ferric levels I had (can be a sign of inflammation) before we stumbled onto genetic testing, but I had an autoimmune panel (not cheap and first test came back with a false positive, second test more expensive but more correct), a colonoscopy, and several other (again, expensive) tests done first.

quiltingshorttimer

I was telling my DH about the wide range of opinions on this thread and the concern that your submitted DNA would be used to jail someone. My DH pointed out that while that has been done, than many,many more jailed innocent people have been released after DNA tests proved their innocence. Interesting.

Kassaundra

I am not afraid of my DNA leading to someone's arrest if they did the crime they should do the time no matter how closely we are related. I am concerned about it's use against me, and not criminally since I haven't committed any crimes.

gramma nancy

I haven't done it -- just because it costs money, not cause I am paranoid.

The paranoia reflected in some of these responses seems extreme. But to each their own.

Jaiade

When I commented on the crime shows using DNA I was thinking more along the lines of there being other ways of getting more information regarding ancestry, other than percentages. I think it's amazing how far technology has come and I'm sure it's still going.
I did not opt for the "finding others" part. I just want to see if I can verify the info on this particular relative and maybe see if I can research him.
I received notice that they received my sample, but they said they were very busy so don't expect anything under 8 weeks.