Has anybody here used that Ancestry.com kit?

[CTyankee]

I got one for Christmas. I'm really curious. I think I am Welsh and Scottish but maybe I'm more exotic than that.

If you used that kit, did you get a surprise ancestry?

[edhopper]

1. I find the science behind this very questionable

Have they sampled the entire population of the Earth to compare your DNA?

https://www.livescience.com/2084-dna-kits-secrets-scientific-scam.html

Also, though it's "free" if they ask for your credit card, you could have problems later.

https://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/ancestrycom-c97288.html

[Towlie]

21. I agree, but I don't think it's quite as egregiously fraudulent and unethical as Prevagen.

Prevagen preys upon older people who want to avert loss of their cognitive faculties, but rather than mitigate that loss, Prevagen exploits it.

It's disturbing that MSNBC hosts these ads.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I used it, and for the most part there were no real surprises,

except that the proportions weren't quite what I expected. I turned out to be more than half Norwegian even though my mother was only 3/4 Norwegian and my dad was mostly Scottish. I suspect that more than half
result had something to do with the Vikings invading Britain. There was also a little smattering of Italian and European Jewish I didn't expect, but people got around... The results aren't completely exact but more like estimates. Also, they don't tell you which side of the family these results came from. I think you can get that info with more extensive testing. It's interesting, though.

[demosincebirth]

40. how long did it take?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

43. IIRC it was about 4 weeks. They tell you it could be 6-8 weeks

after they get your sample but my results actually were available in about 4 weeks (this was Ancestry).

[demosincebirth]

48. Thanks, I sent mine two weeks ago...got an email saying the received it. that was weeks ago

[rainy]

52. They dont send anything back

I waited and waited then my daughter said I had to go online to get the report. Keep the info and number off kit box.

[demosincebirth]

58. thanks

[BigMin28]

3. Did one for my grandson.

I was surprised that if your ancestors came from North or South America, it simply classifies one as native american. They can pinpoint the Iberian peninsula, but not 2 continents.

[jberryhill]

4. .

[saidsimplesimon]

5. Lucky me,

I have cousins who have been DNA tested. Semitic origins was not what my southern relatives expected. I am very proud of my family of survivors. I have always self identified as a "Heinz 57" DAR.

[fleur-de-lisa]

6. Yes. No surprises.

23andMe is a much better tool. I found that they provided much more in depth information than Ancestry. I have used them both.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

7. Yes! Confirmed most of what I knew with a couple of surprises. It prompted me to research my

family history. To date I’ve traced my father’s maternal side back to 1825.

[samnsara]

8. U mean the dna kit? yep we all used them in my family and we got a BIG surprise!

...all our lives we were told of our Native American heritage on my mothers side of the family...after all they all came from the Oklahoma territory. My grandfather was a regular Roy Rogers. My mom even spent years studying her proud Choctaw and Cherokee heritage. Then my sis got herself the kit (followed by all the rest of us) and guess what? ZERO Native American! Nada..zilch..zero. It was hard for my 85 yr old mom to understand just how this happened. It deflated her. The rest of the heritage was what we already knew..mostly British and Irish and French Canadian. They gave some ppl. we may be related to but I had no interest in looking them up. My sisters hubby was adopted and he found some blood relatives so that was exciting for him.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. Your family could have had Native American ancestors but

you didn't inherit that DNA. The way it works is that each parent has 23 pairs of chromosomes and each child gets half of theirs from each parent, but they won't necessarily be the same ones because the chromosomes in each pair swap some DNA during cell division. But the swap isn't even and each kid won't get exactly the same genes unless they are identical twins. It's even possible that none of your siblings got the NA genes because your mother didn't get them - even if her parents had them. Here's an explanation: http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/same-parents-different-ancestry

[Ilsa]

28. IOW, it tells you about your DNA, but not necessarily your ancestry.

You can't get the complete story of where you come from and who your ancestors were.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

31. It tells you about your ethnic ancestry based on your DNA,

but to find out who your ancestors were you need to get other types of tests. Y-DNA testing can help you trace direct male ancestors, but only if you are male because females don't have the Y chromosome.

A Y chromosome DNA test (Y-DNA test) is a genealogical DNA test which is used to explore a man's patrilineal or direct father's-line ancestry. The Y chromosome, like the patrilineal surname, passes down virtually unchanged from father to son. Every now and then occasional mistakes in the copying process occur, and these mutations can be used to estimate the time frame in which the two individuals share a most recent common ancestor or MRCA. If their test results are a perfect or nearly perfect match, they are related within a genealogical time frame. Each person can then look at the other's father-line information, typically the names of each patrilineal ancestor and his spouse, together with the dates and places of their marriage and of both spouses' births and deaths. The two matched persons may find a common ancestor or MRCA, as well as whatever information the other already has about their joint patriline or father's line prior to the MRCA. Y-DNA tests are typically co-ordinated in a surname DNA project. And each receives the other's contact information if the other chose to allow this.

Women who wish to determine their direct paternal DNA ancestry can ask their father, brother, paternal uncle, paternal grandfather, or a cousin who shares the same surname lineage (the same Y-DNA) to take a test for them.

https://isogg.org/wiki/Y_chromosome_DNA_tests

Both men and women can get a mitochondrial (mtDNA) test, which looks at the maternal line.

https://isogg.org/wiki/Mitochondrial_DNA_tests

So you'd have to get that kind of testing done to find out more specific information about who your ancestors were, not just their ethnicity.

[samnsara]

53. i have no brothers and my one male uncle passed.. i have one male cousin

..on that side of the family somewhere in CT I think. I should contact him.

[samnsara]

51. thats true..my nieces came out diff ..but sis and i did

[Irish_Dem]

9. Yes, I got a surprise. nt

[MFM008]

10. I got a 23 and me genealogical / health kit

For my son for Xmas .
Can't wait to see what comes back.

[California_Republic]

11. Watch the legal issues!

You basically sign away your DNA Forever

[CTyankee]

13. Um, not sure how that would affect me...

[SCantiGOP]

20. legal issues: now, no problem

But once the test is completed, laws in the future could make it possible to for insurance companies to get the results and use them for purposes that might not be in your best interest.

[Corvo Bianco]

26. Or a mad scientist is collecting swaths of

Folk's DNA and getting paid to do it!

[global1]

12. How Many Companies Are Offering This DNA Testing And....

has anyone submitted their DNA to all these companies to see how consistent the results are between them?

From a privacy standpoint - is it safe to provide your DNA to these companies - as once you do this they have your DNA on file?

Can anything sinister happen with samples of your DNA on file? This seems invasive to me and I'd be worried what one could do if they had my DNA sample.

[hlthe2b]

14. Yes. my Mom was adopted, gone for many years and my sister and I knew NOTHING about her past

Her part filled in the remaining 30% and was all Scandinavian. So, being a big VIKINGS fan on History channel, I like to picture her as a Viking warrior...LOL

My cousin from my father's side just left after a week-long visit, so we spent some time trying to track my Great Grandmother (our Irish link) on Ancestry and the LDS site, familysearch.org. While we hit a dead end (her parents --whose names we don't know--died before she was relocated to the state of my Great Grandfather), some of the available census data on the LDS site gave some clues.

The DNA profile identified quite a few 2nd, 3rd and 4-6th cousins that fit many of the names we knew on my fathers side).

Interesting project and I would definitely do ancestry over the other ones, since the health findings on the others are largely NOT validated and could scare the bejeebus out of you, quite unnecessarily.

[appleannie1943]

15. I have found a couple cousins I did not know I had. We share the same great grandparents.

As far as lineage, it verified what I thought was a myth as being fact and I found out that I qualify to join the Daughter's of the Revolution if I ever so desired. I never even joined the PTA so I doubt I would join but my grandkids could apply for scholarships if they wanted to.

[CTyankee]

18. I think my grandkids would love to know more about their ancestry.

Their dad is Jewish and their mom (my daughter) has very WASPy looks...turned out to be a good combination as they're gorgeous girls...

[GeorgeGist]

17. Only surprise was that I'm ...

even more white bred than I thought. Rumor was we had Cherokee in the family... not a trace.

[CTyankee]

19. I often wonder if there are African Americans in my family, given my southern

roots.

[shanny]

22. I kinda assume I do...

my mom is from AL, long family background there (mostly unknown) but, given the givens...

remember that racist PoS who wanted to take over an entire town in ND (I think) as a whites-only place? He got his DNA done, and received the results on teevee: 14% sub-Saharan African. I laughed my ass off ("statistical noise" he said)

[Codeine]

23. 23andMe is what I used

and it confirmed a lot of what I had learned via use of some online genealogical sites; that our supposed “family history” was mostly bogus and that we have zero Native American ancestry.

Evidently my mom’s family was ashamed that we had some Portuguese blood, and made up some stupid mythology about being Scottish and Cherokee. Goofy.

[lindysalsagal]

24. My sister found out our paternal grandfather was a polygamist: and they don't know!

Meaning , the second family doesn't know about us, his first family....

Oh, yeah: I wanna go say, 'Howdy, sis! "

[Awsi Dooger]

25. I got the results a week ago

No surprises. I was 43% Irish and 30% Eastern European and 15% Great Britain.

That falls in line with what we've known about the family.

My sister got 48% Irish and 24% Eastern European and 15% Great Britain. My father's side was Irish and my mom's from Poland. I told my sister after her results that I always thought I leaned more toward mom's side, so I expected to have less Irish than her and more Eastern Europe. That's the way it turned out.

The results seem to be legitimate because the people they pegged as my closest relatives are indeed other members of the immediate family who have submitted their DNA. Then there are more than 1000 cousins of varying levels.

[Rhiannon12866]

49. Ah! I was very interested and my brother gave me 23 and Me for my birthday

I haven't sent it in yet, but I'm not expecting too many surprises. My mother's parents emigrated from Poland and my paternal grandfather's parents from Ireland. My maternal grandmother's paternal side traces back to a Dutch ancestor, but her mother is the one blank spot since she died when my grandmother was still a child.

I'm hoping that my brother will do it as well since they said a close male relative is necessary for complete results because of the Y chromosome. He's not particularly interested, but I'm hoping he'll do it to humor me.

[Siwsan]

27. Considering the direction our government is taking, I've no desire to end up in a DNA databank

Call me paranoid, but my concerns highly outweigh any curiosity.

[Rowdyag]

35. Call me paranoid too 😺

I know very little about my heritage and am curious but not enough to end up in a genetic database.

[JDC]

39. I will not either. I don't think it's paranoid

To suggest these companies will not sell your information - at a biological level - is fool hardy. To think it can't be hacked (and/or) Insurance Co. or corporations won't pay handsomely for this info, is turning a blind eye to how this world is turning right now.

[secondwind]

29. I did this, and was not impressed. They rely on a lot of

information from you beforehand. It cost me 90 bucks. I’m 51% from Iberian peninsula, 8% from Africa (probably the Moorish influence in Spain, etc)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

34. I didn't have to give them any information at all about myself beforehand.

All I gave them, besides the fee, was a little vial of spit.

[SharonClark]

30. I"m historically 60% Scottish, 3The5% English, and 5% German.

Ancestry said I am 19% Scandinavian, 3% British, 7% western european, and the rest Irish. I question the validity of these tests as well. What are they comparing my DNA against? My Scottish half can be traced back 300 years in Scotland so I can only assume Ancestry dumps Scots within the Irish grouping.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

33. Ancestry seems to group Irish and Scottish together (Celtic),

and your 19% Scandinavian is probably attributable to Viking invasion and occupation of northern Britain during the early Middle Ages.

[csziggy]

47. Yeah, Ancestry clumps Irish, Scot, and Welsh together

It's interesting because I know for certain which family lines of mine that go back to Ireland and Wales before they came to the Americas. What surprised me was the percentage of German genes my test showed.

That could make sense - some German Protestants (as well as Scots and other Protestants from other places) were allowed to settle in Northern Ireland so long as they were willing to help the English hold the territory. There is a very good chance one of my strongest lines was German rather than from the British Isles originally even though we know from documents that the immigrant ancestor was living in Northern Ireland when he purchased land from William Penn's representatives. There is another branch with a name that could be German who also probably came through Pennsylvania.

In addition, when some of the Quakers and other non-conformist religious were harassed out of England, many went to Northern Germany and the Netherlands and some intermarried with Protestants from those countries before embarking for the New World.

[brewens]

32. I only gave up my DNA for the bone marrow donors list. Be The Match. That I thought was worth it.

I don't plan on letting anyone else have it.

[pansypoo53219]

36. well, knew from a diff one, no assumed native blood. 1% asian? iberian penninsula?

maybe the crusades. UNDER 50% GERMAN?!? need to see the map. my uncle's wife's family assumed irish had little. my mom had 1% jewish. i am not 1/2%?

[TomSlick]

37. My son did.

The results identified people as possible second and third cousins by initials and location. I was able to identify who they are. That's an easier genetic test but it does suggest that they are actually testing something.

There was one surprise. By family history, there are Native-Americans three or so generations back. The son's results came back as 0% Native-American.

I have a test on the desk from another supplier. I will be curious to see if the results are similar.

Not worried about the government having my DNA. Being retired Army, the government has had my DNA for years.

[Cicada]

38. I learned my maternal great grandfather probably was not full blooded Choctaw

And that despite my Swedish last name I am barely related to Vikings. I did it based on a suggestion from a friend who is president of a local German club. Who found out she has no German heritage. I found it all interesting.

[seaglass]

41. Yes. I was very excited to do it as I have been doing genealogical research for a few years

and wanted to see if there were any new discoveries.

Turns out 50% Irish/Scottish which I already knew another 23% Italian/Greek and then 10% Caucasus - the Caucasus was a surprise but I think it probably has to do with the history of Sicily where my mom's family is from.

You should do it, it's fun!

Once you get the results through Ancestry you have access to the raw data file which you can then download and then upload to other sites to see if you get different results. Some also provide health predisposition data. Some sites are free and some have a minimal cost.

[csziggy]

46. Of course to trace family connections, you need to put a tree on Ancestry

I get frustrated by close family relations determined by DNA who have not put any genealogical info on Ancestry or Family Tree DNA.

If they are a cousin trying to get started with their research, I would be happy to help. But if they put up no info at all and do not answer inquiries, then what was the point in getting their DNA done through Ancestry in the first place?

[seaglass]

50. Yes, the majority of matches I have do not have trees on Ancestry. I am guessing that at least

some of them are family members of someone who has a tree but they just did not link their DNA results to a tree.

I intend to contact all of them through Ancestry anyways. I have contacted one person who had a private tree and she has opened it up for my viewing. It looks like the connection is along an unsourced line.

I have an extra DNA kit that I am planning to give to my brother and I will likely not link him to my tree until after I get results back.

[TuxedoKat]

42. Yes

I got three or four surprise ethnicities. My sister got about 2 more with 23andMe, so I'm going to retest with them.

[moriah]

44. I used it but not for that purpose -- to run the raw data through Promethase.

Not recommended for people who immediately jump to the worst possible explanation for their symptoms on WebMD Symptom Checker, but to look at unique alleles and as a way to see if my carrier status for Alpha-1 came from my mom or dad (dad, surprisingly, since my grandfather died with emphysema we thought it might have come from him).

But it's also interesting to see just which versions of alleles are responsible for hair and eye color, if you think DNA itself is just neat.

[csziggy]

45. Both my husband and I have done it

No surprises really, though my husband tested as Irish/Welsh/Scottish, French, Scandinavian - and no English!

I'm English, Irish/Welsh/Scottish, and German with a few traces of other groups.

One of my sisters tested with the National Geographic Genome Project and hers was the same with some Native American thrown in?! Another sister tested with 23 & Me and showed the same groups I did with some Scandinavian?!

The Scandinavian makes sense - we can trace back to the Bergen family that settled New Amsterdam - they were named Bergen because they came from that city in Norway.

We aren't sure where the Native American might come in though we have plenty of family lines that we can't trace so far.

[marble falls]

54. Yes, my wife and I got that for each other for last Christmas.....

We both got surprised. I did not have a drop of either German or native American blood as rumored, but did have Jewish blood as 'rumored' and a 1% middle eastern/Jewish. My family is 70% British isles that entered the US through Baltimore in the 1740's, 20% Dutch/Belgium.

My wife is the same sans the Jewish/Middle Eastern, Dutch/Belgian, no Native America as rumored, had 20% Irish and 1% East African Bantu.

We both had 1% Finnish, northern Russian.

Its been worth it and the cause of a lot of discussion in our families. I'd recommend it. I admit filling the tube with spit was gross for me.

[GreenPartyVoter]

55. I got one for Xmas too!

[Fla Dem]

56. Did Ancestry AND 23 & Me. Results pretty much matched.

Did Ancestry 1st and then did 23 & Me to verify Ancestry. Pretty close match. No real surprises, thought I was more Irish than it turned out, but pretty much confirmed my known heritage; Great Britain, Italian and Irish. Next was Caucasus and big surprise Finnish and Scandinavian. Small percentages for those 3, but fun to find out.

[Orangepeel]

57. For both my husband and I, it was very consistent with expectations

I was hoping for a surprise or two for myself, but didn’t get any