Has anyone taken one of those ancestry DNA kits?

[Hards Alumni]

The DNA testing can be a bit of a scam.

One reporter sent his dna to multiple services and they came back with something wildly different. 

23 and me says their confidence scale ranges from 50% to 90%.  That's a large range.


"Tests can be a crapshoot. For DNA tests, they use genetic markers, which are little variations in the DNA one or several groups may have, but others do not. The more markers there are, the more accurate the test will be."

Some companies may use 12, 37, or 67, while others claim to use more than 700,000 different markers. Any of those numbers can sound impressive with the right marketing spin behind them, but the simple fact of the matter is that nobody's method is perfect. "The best we can do is give a certain range based on those markers (or show who they are most similar to), and sometimes we'll move up a percentage point of an ethnic group if it doesn't add up to 100 percent."

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html

I usually disagree with you, but on this we can find some common ground.  I never did one because I think the methods used are dubious.

[tower912]

I know what my grandparents told me, that is good enough for me.   Discrimination against the Irish ended 70 years ago, better luck for us. 

[Galway Eagle]

I know what my grandparents told me, that is good enough for me.   Discrimination against the Irish in America ended 70 years ago, better luck for us.

[D'Lo Brown]

So are we unhappy that they caught the Golden State Killer? Or are we just worried that they might nab one of our relatives eventually, too?

Either way, nice benefit to society. Incredible "detective work" in this specific case, don't see it becoming some hysteric trend in the very near future. They (public servants and private citizens) have been putting the puzzle pieces together on this guy for decades.

[brewcity77]

I was just listening to a podcast about this that outlined many of the flaws. First, the people that can afford this and are interested tend to be white, so most of the databases are cross checking to white DNA. That's why many people come up heavily Scandinavian. Also, China doesn't also their data out of the country, so they are one of a few nationalities that show up as "Mongolian" which is a catch all for a number of Asian countries.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Not really sure how the process went as I was too shocked to ask details...I believe his children posted theirs, looking for their father...and his match came up and he had the option to pursue. He said he was totally unaware...he was at the other end of a long table, but I think it was three different moms, but his kids saw they had a common father through the site. When he got tested, he must have paid extra for lineage/family tree and got a surprise.

As I said, if you knew him today, he would be the last person you would think...but it was Berkeley in the 60's and 70's for him and he was/is a musician.

Okay.  Got the chance to get the story from him this weekend after his show. Even wilder than I could imagine. Maybe would make a great sitcom.

Well, like we gave plasma when we were MU lads to get some extra drinking money, he was paid $20 to choke the chicken into a cup to be a sperm donor.  His three adult kids that tracked him down are from all over the country, and he has no idea how many kids he has. To top it off, he is now dating one of the moms (that he never knew until the kid tracked him down via DNA testing).

Holy Eff!

[Bo Ryan's Massage Therapist]

I'm still amazed this caught that serial killer.  Unbelievable.  How did that go down?  ....OK grandpa,  we need to talk.  We got back your ancestry.com results and there were a few surprises.
Turns out you are 30% Polish, 30% German and 40% serial rapist/serial killer

[TSmith34, Inc.]

The DNA testing can be a bit of a scam.

One reporter sent his dna to multiple services and they came back with something wildly different. 

23 and me says their confidence scale ranges from 50% to 90%.  That's a large range.


"Tests can be a crapshoot. For DNA tests, they use genetic markers, which are little variations in the DNA one or several groups may have, but others do not. The more markers there are, the more accurate the test will be."

Some companies may use 12, 37, or 67, while others claim to use more than 700,000 different markers. Any of those numbers can sound impressive with the right marketing spin behind them, but the simple fact of the matter is that nobody's method is perfect. "The best we can do is give a certain range based on those markers (or show who they are most similar to), and sometimes we'll move up a percentage point of an ethnic group if it doesn't add up to 100 percent."

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html

68% Chicos
29% Hoopaloop
3% Banny McBannerson

[GooooMarquette]

The DNA testing can be a bit of a scam.

One reporter sent his dna to multiple services and they came back with something wildly different. 

23 and me says their confidence scale ranges from 50% to 90%.  That's a large range.


"Tests can be a crapshoot. For DNA tests, they use genetic markers, which are little variations in the DNA one or several groups may have, but others do not. The more markers there are, the more accurate the test will be."

Some companies may use 12, 37, or 67, while others claim to use more than 700,000 different markers. Any of those numbers can sound impressive with the right marketing spin behind them, but the simple fact of the matter is that nobody's method is perfect. "The best we can do is give a certain range based on those markers (or show who they are most similar to), and sometimes we'll move up a percentage point of an ethnic group if it doesn't add up to 100 percent."

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2522-inside-shady-world-dna-testing-companies.html

Affirmative. Genetic counselors I know just laugh at the claims these companies make.

And spoiler alert: When you go far enough back, we're all from Mesopotamia anyway.

[real chili 83]

So we're all from Ohio?

[GooooMarquette]

So we're all from Ohio?

OK, now that would be depressing...

[4everwarriors]

I'm a refugee from Mesopotamia myself, hey?

[T-Bone]

80% Shepherd, 15% malamute, 5% corgi.
I may have mixed up the tests.

[Hards Alumni]

Affirmative. Genetic counselors I know just laugh at the claims these companies make.

And spoiler alert: When you go far enough back, we're all from Mesopotamia anyway.

Nope.  Africa.

[StillAWarrior]

I realize I'm resurrecting an old topic, but I thought this was kind of an interesting story about "those ancestry DNA kits."

My father was adopted from an orphanage in Denver, Colorado on his first birthday in 1937. His parents weren't able to have children. He knew very little about his birth mother -- he had a name and that was it. He made the decision to never pursue things further because he wanted to respect her choice to give him up. He knew nothing whatsoever about his biological father.

He was raised in a small town in the northeast corner of Colorado about two hours from Denver.  In about 1964, my parents moved to Durango a small town in the southwest corner of Colorado about 7.5 hours away from where he grew up. Aside from a short stint in the Army during Vietnam, they lived in Durango until 1986. It's a small town where "everybody knows everybody."

Fast forward about 35 years.

Several of my nieces and nephews who had moved to California and Washington did DNA tests. Connections with a family in Durango keep popping up; we'll call them the "Smiths." A number of the Smiths had also done DNA tests and saw my nieces' and nephews' names popping up -- apparently at a close cousin level. One of the Smiths who happens to know my sister contacted her and asked if she knew these people who were popping up. My sister told her that it was her nieces and nephews -- my oldest brother's children. After a little more digging (and some more tests) the connections kept popping up.

Eventually, even though my father had not done one of the DNA tests, it became pretty clear that he was probably a Smith. It was suspected that he was the half-sibling of a family of five Smith children born between 1938 and 1950 in the Durango area, but none on that generation had done a DNA test. My father and a couple of those Smith children took DNA tests and I understand that it's very conclusive that they are my dad's half-siblings sharing the same father.

So, completely by chance, my father ended up in Durango living among his half-siblings nearly thirty years after he was adopted in Denver. I knew the Smiths well and unknowingly went to high school with four kids who were my first cousins -- one of whom was a pretty good friend for years and twin girls in my graduating class (thankfully, we never dated). Even before we knew any of this, I was friends with several on Facebook. While things such as this are always clearer in retrospect, we see now that there is an uncanny resemblance between one of the Smiths and my father. A week ago, my father had a two-hour zoom call with his three surviving half-siblings, the eldest of whom told him, "I've always wanted an older brother."

It's very cool and, in some respects, a little overwhelming. One interesting footnote in all of this is that someone in Smith family prepared a very detailed family history that is available on a webpage for the family ranch outside Durango.  It includes pictures, a five-generation family tree, timelines, and volumes of information -- much focusing on my dad's biological father. In the course of a couple weeks, we went from knowing virtually nothing about my father's history to having a very thorough family history of his biological father's side. We still know next to nothing about his birth mother. All that said, my father's parents who adopted him were absolutely fantastic parents and grandparents, and it feels strangely disloyal learning and being interested in all of this new information.

[warriorchick]

Proceed with caution.

I know of at least one person who found a half-sibling they never knew about. I am pretty sure they wish they had never found out.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Very cool story Still

[Galway Eagle]

Proceed with caution.

I know of at least one person who found a half-sibling they never knew about. I am pretty sure they wish they had never found out.

This, my moms cousin in England found out his dad had a secret second family. Met the half sibling and a few days later he was contacted by the police who were working on a big investigation on this guy for being a pedophile. Sometimes too much family is a thing

[mu_hilltopper]

My dream is to find a half-brother who is an Arby's manager who has access to a vat of Arby's Sauce.

[🏀]

My dream is to find a half-brother who is an Arby's manager who has access to a vat of Arby's Sauce.

For bathing purposes.

[StillAWarrior]

Proceed with caution.

I know of at least one person who found a half-sibling they never knew about. I am pretty sure they wish they had never found out.

Fortunately, my dad is several years older than his half-siblings and was born a couple years before his biological father was married. That makes things less awkward. Perhaps still a bit scandalous for the mid-1930s, but less so than if he was a middle child.

[dgies9156]

Proceed with caution.

I know of at least one person who found a half-sibling they never knew about. I am pretty sure they wish they had never found out.

No kidding.

I have a friend who found an entire family of half-brothers and sisters living in Michigan from one of his parents. He never knew they existed until he had an Ancestry DNA test in his early 50s. And then, Wow!

It worked out well and the families came together nicely. But it posed a whole lot more questions than answers long after both parents died.

[Dr. Blackheart]

A guy I used to work with professionally choked the chicken for college drinking money via a weekly sperm bank deposit. He has been tracked down by at least a dozen kids he didn't know about until they were adults that he fathered, per these kits.

He has had positive relationships with almost all (it was his choice to meet them). Last I talked to him, he was dating one of the mothers. Would make a great movie.

Moral of the story: Don't donate your plasma for drinking money, kiddos.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

A guy I used to work with professionally choked the chicken for college drinking money via a weekly sperm bank deposit. He has tracked down by at least a dozen kids he didn't know about until they were adults that he fathered, per these kits.

He has had positive relationships with almost all (it was his choice to meet them). Last I talked to him, she was dating one of the mothers. Would make a great movie.

Moral of the story: Don't donate your "plasma" for drinking money, kiddos.

FIFY

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

A guy I used to work with professionally choked the chicken for college drinking money via a weekly sperm bank deposit. He has been tracked down by at least a dozen kids he didn't know about until they were adults that he fathered, per these kits.

He has had positive relationships with almost all (it was his choice to meet them). Last I talked to him, he was dating one of the mothers. Would make a great movie.

Moral of the story: Don't donate your plasma for drinking money, kiddos.

Isn't this, that Vince Vaughn movie?