DNA Testing | Pad Patter 3.12 *little update*

[IntenseMagic]

I've been wanting to do a 23&Me or Ancestry DNA test for a long time but never pulled the trigger on getting a kit and doing it. Ancestry has a pretty good sale going on right now so I'm seriously considering pulling the trigger this time.

I'm curious if anyone has done one?? Any surprises? Do you have any insight into which is better? I have some friends who have some pretty wild stories after getting their results back

 

[umyesh]

I've never had it done but it's definitely intriguing! You'll have to come back and report if you pull the trigger!

 

[janedee]

My mom used both CRI Genetics and Ancestry. She found the DNA info from CGI to be much more detailed and interesting than that from Ancestry. I think if you are just interested in finding other family members, Ancestry is great but doesn't give the depth of DNA info that CGI does (i.e mitochondrial DNA, allergies, potential disease tendencies, % of different races back to 10,000 years). I've been thinking of getting mine done too and may try both tests.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Yeah, I did Ancestry just to prove to my cousin that my ancestry didn't include the Italian that hers did. I kept telling her it was on her mother's side of the family and she said I was wrong. She had over 30% Italian. Mine showed 2%.

The thing about Ancestry is that as more and more people do the tests, their algorithms can pinpoint more directly the ancestry. Back in 2017 when I did mine it was more of a generic and almost all of Europe with a small percentage shown as West Asia (Middle East). Recently when I looked at it again, it has been changed to more specific areas. For example in 2017 Great Britain was listed as 56% and Ireland as 26%. In 2022 Great Britain is now shown as Scotland as 32% and Ireland is now 16%. A new category of England & Northwestern Europe is shown as 28%. In 2017 Europe West (think Germany) was 2%. In 2022 Germanic Europe is now 20% which is more in line since I have direct ancestors that came from Germany. I also have a great-great-grandparent that came from County Kerry Ireland so I knew that should be higher as should the German. Oh yeah, that 2% Italian in 2017 is not even on my 2022 report! West Asia is no longer on my report nor is southern Europe.

The other thing is... if you don't want any surprises as to family members that were unknown to you, don't do it. I have a friend that found out the man she thought was her father for over 50 years... wasn't. (He is deceased). She has half-siblings that want to have a relationship with her and she doesn't want to have one with them. They won't leave her alone.

 

[dawnmarch]

I've done Ancestry and 23&me. I don't know what Ancestry is offering these days but when I did it, I did it for the genealogy info and I've connected with some cousins here and there as a result. It is interesting and can definitely help you figure out family links if you are into that. Similar to @HavaDrPepper, I have a good friend who found out that her father was not her biological father and another friend that found out that she has a half-sister that she didn't know about (which turned out to have a pretty ugly back-story).

I did 23&me more for the medical info. My grandparents had dementia and I was always afraid to get the testing done but then my son did it and came back negative for any of the alzheimers variants so I decided to give it a try. Yes, I'm a chicken and didn't want to know unless the answer was good. I have another friend who came back positive for one of the gene variants that makes you more likely to develop alzheimers and she has used that info to plan for care (i.e., long term care insurance). You can find out some pretty terrible things -- like markers for Parkinsons -- so you have to be prepared for that and try to think about whether you would be able to deal with that info - would you rather know in advance to plan or would you just spend all your time worrying and therefore ruining the good years that you do have? The markers for high risk of breast cancer can be very useful to be aware of because there are concrete steps you can take to lower your risk. Of course, most people don't have terrible results and just find out interesting stuff like whether you have the genetic variant that makes it so that your pee smells like asparagus after you eat asparagus.

 

[michelepixels]

After my dad did Ancestry, he asked me to do it, and paid. It was mildly interesting. I had already known I have northern European ancestry, and there were no surprises. The most fun probably was two people contacting me after finding me on there. One was someone who actually met me when I was a baby, son of one of my dad's siblings, or something like that, so it was neat that he could tell me something about myself as a baby. But we haven't continued corresponding. The other was a grandchild of my Dad's father, who left my Dad's family when he was 5, so he's completely unaware of that branch of the family.

 

[mary kate]

I've done both Ancestry and 23andMe. No surprises. But as @HavaDrPepper and @dawnmarch point out, you do have to be prepared for potential surprises before doing the test. My suspicion is that big surprises (hidden adoptions, secret half-siblings, and so on) aren't quite as common as people think, it's just that those dramatic cases are the stories that make the news, that circulate online, and etc. But still. It does happen, and has to be considered as a possibility before doing the test.

I recommend Ancestry, simply because it's the most popular, has the largest user database -- which means their ethnicity estimates keep improving over time.

 

[tanteva]

I've made mine at FamilyTreeDNA, since that's the place most Swedish genealogists use. Might be good to know if you have Swedish ancestry, you're most likely to get matches there. I've allso uploaded my information to MyHeritage when they let FTDNA customers upload their data for free a couple of years ago. Also, I've uploaded to GedMatch.

No surprises, but one great break-through for my genealogy research. My father's father's father was unknown. Grandpa was born out of wedlock, and never knew who his father was. He had one he suspected to be his father, a man who emigrated to America just before grandpa was born, but he was wrong. My dad was thinking it was a man who lived here in our home town, based on the fact that he looked very much like my grandpa. With the help of DNA, I now know it's this local man who is the father. I've matched with several relatives to him.

Sad really to think, they lived so close, but he never acknowledge that he was the father. The man lived til 1969, I could have met him, even though I was only 2 years old when he passed. My uncle, who helped me by providing his DNA to narrow the search, was really annoyed. His best friend when he was a little boy, now turned out to be his cousin. He was in his teens when his grand father died, he could really have had a meaningful relationship with him. They shared the love of music, both being very accomplished musicians. But, it's easy to sit here today, and judge him. Maybe it wasn't that easy. According to my dad, his grandmother was an evil woman, maybe she didn't let the father have any contact with his son? Anyway, now we know. Fun thing - thanks to this, I know that one of my closest friends are a distant cousin.

 

[Memaw2Wm]

I have the Ancestry kit, but have yet to spit in the tube and send it in. My father and 2 of my sisters have done it. No surprises so far.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

My suspicion is that big surprises (hidden adoptions, secret half-siblings, and so on) aren't quite as common as people think, it's just that those dramatic cases are the stories that make the news, that circulate online, and etc. But still. It does happen, and has to be considered as a possibility before doing the test.

I think they are more common than you think. Many people don't let others know that it happened to them. In another scrapping group of friends I've got, there are at least 5 to 10 that have had surprises when they've done the test. And, the percentage that has done the testing is probably below 40% of about 450 members of the group. Many don't want to because of the possibility of surprises.

 

[IntenseMagic]

I've never had it done but it's definitely intriguing! You'll have to come back and report if you pull the trigger!

I will for sure!!

My mom used both CGI Genetics and Ancestry. She found the DNA info from CGI to be much more detailed and interesting than that from Ancestry. I think if you are just interested in finding other family members, Ancestry is great but doesn't give the depth of DNA info that CGI does (i.e mitochondrial DNA, allergies, potential disease tendencies, % of different races back to 10,000 years). I've been thinking of getting mine done too and may try both tests.

I'm really interested in a lot of things. I am adopted and really have limited information as far as medical history, etc. CGI Genetics is one I haven't heard of, I'll have to check it out!

Yeah, I did Ancestry just to prove to my cousin that my ancestry didn't include the Italian that hers did. I kept telling her it was on her mother's side of the family and she said I was wrong. She had over 30% Italian. Mine showed 2%.

The thing about Ancestry is that as more and more people do the tests, their algorithms can pinpoint more directly the ancestry. Back in 2017 when I did mine it was more of a generic and almost all of Europe with a small percentage shown as West Asia (Middle East). Recently when I looked at it again, it has been changed to more specific areas. For example in 2017 Great Britain was listed as 56% and Ireland as 26%. In 2022 Great Britain is now shown as Scotland as 32% and Ireland is now 16%. A new category of England & Northwestern Europe is shown as 28%. In 2017 Europe West (think Germany) was 2%. In 2022 Germanic Europe is now 20% which is more in line since I have direct ancestors that came from Germany. I also have a great-great-grandparent that came from County Kerry Ireland so I knew that should be higher as should the German. Oh yeah, that 2% Italian in 2017 is not even on my 2022 report! West Asia is no longer on my report nor is southern Europe.

The other thing is... if you don't want any surprises as to family members that were unknown to you, don't do it. I have a friend that found out the man she thought was her father for over 50 years... wasn't. (He is deceased). She has half-siblings that want to have a relationship with her and she doesn't want to have one with them. They won't leave her alone.

I am adopted, so I have lots of family that is unknown to me lol. That's maybe why I haven't pulled the trigger. I have super mixed emotions about it. I've never really had any desire/need to find any biological family members, but I am interested in the ethnicity and maybe medical information. I also have a friend who found out the same information. Several family members had done it and decided to open their results at Thanksgiving dinner. It was quite the story.

 

[tjscraps]

I did it with Ancestry, and they narrowed down my DNA to the exact town that I know my ancestors on my mom's side to come from, and to the very specific area of France that my mom's dad came from. Weird how a little bit of spit can be that accurate!

I also exported the data from Ancestry and imported it into another program to get the medical stuff out - I do not have the BRCA gene (woot), that sort of thing. It was about $10 for that - so much better than doing it through another site.

The one thing that I read after I did mine that would make me pause to do it now is that they have your data forever. Unlike say, a Scrapbooking site, where you can delete your account and it's like you never existed or you can change everything about your account, you cannot change your DNA, and having it on a server somewhere seems innocent but there could be unintended things that happen later. I can't think of anything specifically but an article I read was warning people off it.

 

[IntenseMagic]

I've done Ancestry and 23&me. I don't know what Ancestry is offering these days but when I did it, I did it for the genealogy info and I've connected with some cousins here and there as a result. It is interesting and can definitely help you figure out family links if you are into that. Similar to @HavaDrPepper, I have a good friend who found out that her father was not her biological father and another friend that found out that she has a half-sister that she didn't know about (which turned out to have a pretty ugly back-story).

I did 23&me more for the medical info. My grandparents had dementia and I was always afraid to get the testing done but then my son did it and came back negative for any of the alzheimers variants so I decided to give it a try. Yes, I'm a chicken and didn't want to know unless the answer was good. I have another friend who came back positive for one of the gene variants that makes you more likely to develop alzheimers and she has used that info to plan for care (i.e., long term care insurance). You can find out some pretty terrible things -- like markers for Parkinsons -- so you have to be prepared for that and try to think about whether you would be able to deal with that info - would you rather know in advance to plan or would you just spend all your time worrying and therefore ruining the good years that you do have? The markers for high risk of breast cancer can be very useful to be aware of because there are concrete steps you can take to lower your risk. Of course, most people don't have terrible results and just find out interesting stuff like whether you have the genetic variant that makes it so that your pee smells like asparagus after you eat asparagus.

I have super mixed emotions about the whole thing. I am adopted, so I really have very limited medical info right now. I do know that I most certainly have the genetic variant that makes my pee smell when I eat asparagus lol I love asparagus!

After my dad did Ancestry, he asked me to do it, and paid. It was mildly interesting. I had already known I have northern European ancestry, and there were no surprises. The most fun probably was two people contacting me after finding me on there. One was someone who actually met me when I was a baby, son of one of my dad's siblings, or something like that, so it was neat that he could tell me something about myself as a baby. But we haven't continued corresponding. The other was a grandchild of my Dad's father, who left my Dad's family when he was 5, so he's completely unaware of that branch of the family.

Like I told some of the others, the family members thing makes me a bit nervous because I am adopted and not sure how I feel about finding people I'm biologically related to. It's a little overwhelming to think about. I'm more interested in getting more medical info and ethnicity info.

I've done both Ancestry and 23andMe. No surprises. But as @HavaDrPepper and @dawnmarch point out, you do have to be prepared for potential surprises before doing the test. My suspicion is that big surprises (hidden adoptions, secret half-siblings, and so on) aren't quite as common as people think, it's just that those dramatic cases are the stories that make the news, that circulate online, and etc. But still. It does happen, and has to be considered as a possibility before doing the test.

I recommend Ancestry, simply because it's the most popular, has the largest user database -- which means their ethnicity estimates keep improving over time.

Since I'm adopted and know nothing of my biological family, the whole thing would be one big surprise lol That's where I'm a little overwhelmed by it! Thanks for the info on Ancestry, I was kind of leaning toward that one.

I've made mine at FamilyTreeDNA, since that's the place most Swedish genealogists use. Might be good to know if you have Swedish ancestry, you're most likely to get matches there. I've allso uploaded my information to MyHeritage when they let FTDNA customers upload their data for free a couple of years ago. Also, I've uploaded to GedMatch.

No surprises, but one great break-through for my genealogy research. My father's father's father was unknown. Grandpa was born out of wedlock, and never knew who his father was. He had one he suspected to be his father, a man who emigrated to America just before grandpa was born, but he was wrong. My dad was thinking it was a man who lived here in our home town, based on the fact that he looked very much like my grandpa. With the help of DNA, I now know it's this local man who is the father. I've matched with several relatives to him.

Sad really to think, they lived so close, but he never acknowledge that he was the father. The man lived til 1969, I could have met him, even though I was only 2 years old when he passed. My uncle, who helped me by providing his DNA to narrow the search, was really annoyed. His best friend when he was a little boy, now turned out to be his cousin. He was in his teens when his grand father died, he could really have had a meaningful relationship with him. They shared the love of music, both being very accomplished musicians. But, it's easy to sit here today, and judge him. Maybe it wasn't that easy. According to my dad, his grandmother was an evil woman, maybe she didn't let the father have any contact with his son? Anyway, now we know. Fun thing - thanks to this, I know that one of my closest friends are a distant cousin.

What a sad story. It's wild to think about some of the things that families keep hidden. DNA testing is blowing all kinds of things out of the water. I have heard a couple of wild ones from friends, mostly finding out fathers were not fathers.

I have the Ancestry kit, but have yet to spit in the tube and send it in. My father and 2 of my sisters have done it. No surprises so far.

I had a kit from MyHeritage several years ago, spit in the tube and never sent it in. I got too overwhelmed and nervous.

 

[IntenseMagic]

I did it with Ancestry, and they narrowed down my DNA to the exact town that I know my ancestors on my mom's side to come from, and to the very specific area of France that my mom's dad came from. Weird how a little bit of spit can be that accurate!

I also exported the data from Ancestry and imported it into another program to get the medical stuff out - I do not have the BRCA gene (woot), that sort of thing. It was about $10 for that - so much better than doing it through another site.

The one thing that I read after I did mine that would make me pause to do it now is that they have your data forever. Unlike say, a Scrapbooking site, where you can delete your account and it's like you never existed or you can change everything about your account, you cannot change your DNA, and having it on a server somewhere seems innocent but there could be unintended things that happen later. I can't think of anything specifically but an article I read was warning people off it.

It is a little unnerving knowing that they have your data forever. You have to wonder how all that information could impact future generations, good and bad. I'm most interested in the medical stuff, mainly because I'm adopted and have very little family medical history information. Finding relatives is completely overwhelming to me.

 

[tjscraps]

It is a little unnerving knowing that they have your data forever. You have to wonder how all that information could impact future generations, good and bad. I'm most interested in the medical stuff, mainly because I'm adopted and have very little family medical history information. Finding relatives is completely overwhelming to me.

I wonder if there's one that you can get the medical info without the possible family connections? The medical data part was super overwhelming. Like I have the genes that could mean I'm 'an olympic runner' (not likely) but also '75% chance of being morbidly obese' (for most of my adult life that has been true). But knowing if you're genetically pre-disposed to something wouldn't be a bad thing!!

 

[IntenseMagic]

I wonder if there's one that you can get the medical info without the possible family connections? The medical data part was super overwhelming. Like I have the genes that could mean I'm 'an olympic runner' (not likely) but also '75% chance of being morbidly obese' (for most of my adult life that has been true). But knowing if you're genetically pre-disposed to something wouldn't be a bad thing!!

I might have to check in to that. It gets kind of awkward at the dr. office when they start asking about family history stuff and I'm always like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I'm totally not against it, but so many people do not realize that your DNA is there forever or how it can be used. But having worked on genealogy 30 years ago, that part of it is very interesting to me.

A lot of adoptees do use it to possibly find that connection that can give them answers about their medical history. My cousin's son-in-law is adopted but he had already found his adoptive family before doing the DNA testing. That just cemented the connection with the family and gave him a little more of the medical history. He does have a relationship with them but Mom & Dad are the parents that raised him and their other adopted son.

And, these days, it is amazing to see what can be done about solving cold cases from many years ago. Just read about one yesterday that through DNA genealogy matching of a case more than 40 years old, they found the killer. Can't put him on trial because is dead as well but the DA stated if he was still alive, he would be tried. DNA also played a role in the Idaho murders. The DNA had a familial match to the father of the suspect. They had their eye on him already but that DNA match was a big thing, enough for them to get more search warrants.

 

[LynnG]

Oh boy! Lots to say on this ;-)

As others have said, it's definitely a 'go into it with your eyes open' situation.

I did it initially many years ago to help my mother's first cousin find out who their grandfather really was. My great-grandfather went by different names at different times in his life, and it was a mystery that my cousin could not solve via paper records and it was infuriating him.

Initially we did 23andme, and later did Ancestry. If you are mostly interested in family history, I would do Ancestry. You are guaranteed lots of matches.

I opted out of 23andme health stuff. My life expectancy at that point was pretty short anyway and I didn't need any more bad news LOL.

I am glad I did it, although I have reservations about handing over DNA. And it turned out that much of what our family 'knew' about our family tree was very wrong. In every family there will be secrets and children that are actually the result of affairs. Fortunately for me, it was far enough back to be fascinating rather than devastating. Suffice to say, my great grandfather was NOT my great-grandfather!

Anyway, I actually wrote about it for a website I used to work for as photographer etc) ... google 'grieveson cousins DNA' if you are interested

 

[Janisn]

I have done both. Through Ancestry I found my nephew. The DNA gave me a match to him stating that he was a first cousin, so I contacted him. We figured out that he was actually my nephew - my half sister had a child out of wedlock (wow that's an old fashioned term) when I was 11. I had no further interaction with her so had no idea what happened to her or her child. Well he was adopted and last year his wife decided to find out about his birth background. I have had a lot of success finding ancestors on my mother's side way back to the 1700's. Nothing on my father's side with Ancestry, but I get notifications all the time about relations on my father's side on 23 & me, but nothing closer than 4th cousin. I think it's so interesting to find out about your heritage. I say go for it! BTW, my grandson hopes I find a pirate in my background - so far no luck, just a convict who was sent to Australia from England in the 1800's.

 

[littlekiwi]

I think my grandmother (who was heavily involved in doing our family history) did the Ancestry one but I can't remember much from when she got the results