Opinions on DNA Testing

[zghorner]

My girlfriend has shown some interest in having this done in the past and thought it might make a cool and unique Christmas present. I have been doing a little research and it seems 23andme is a little more detailed than ancestry.

Curious if anyone has had it done or has any info on the accuracy of these tests

 

[Jon3830]

I use familytreedna.com and I have found over 1000 family members in the last 4 years I have thought about trying 23andme just because everyone doesn't use the same service and I feel it could yield more matches.

 

[tRidiot]

Opinion - doesn't interest me.

But if she has sounded like she would like it, it would make a neat and unusual Christmas gift. If family tree stuff is her kinda thing, then she'd probably like it. My mom got into the ancestry.com stuff a couple years ago and got on a kick about it for a month or two then lost interest (like she does with every project ever). She kept telling me about all these long-lost people who were related to us around the country and such - I was pretty meh about the whole thing.

 

[otis147]

not interested... but maybe i'm paranoid
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/

 

[KOPBET]

I'd rather not be found by 1000 family members I don't know, so I would probably pass.

 

[jmtgsx]

My wife and I both did 23and me, but we weren't really looking for relatives. Just curious. You get quite a bit of info.
You can decide what you want to disclose to others.

 

[deerwhacker444]

Booo,...misleading thread title.

Thought for sure you had a round trip ticket for a taping of the Maury Povich show.

 

[71buickfreak]

We did it. It is very interesting. I certainly learned some things that I did not realize, like did you know that your DNA ancestry will be different from that of your siblings? Not all the same percentages or even regional info? I figured my ancestry would be the same as my siblings, but it isn't. Not all of the same coding is passed on to each child. They can trace it through the paternal or maternal side, but unless your parents are 100% from the same region, it could be all over the place. Let's say your parents are a mix of European, native American, and African, you could get 5% American Native, 40% European, and 60% African, while your sibling could be 70 euro, 30% native and 0 African. It is really eye opening.

 

[Dave70968]

not interested... but maybe i'm paranoid
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/

This.

Y'all want to be part of a government (or government-searchable) database, that's your problem. Me, I'll stay the hell away.

 

[Eagle Eye]

We did it. It is very interesting. I certainly learned some things that I did not realize, like did you know that your DNA ancestry will be different from that of your siblings? Not all the same percentages or even regional info? I figured my ancestry would be the same as my siblings, but it isn't. Not all of the same coding is passed on to each child. They can trace it through the paternal or maternal side, but unless your parents are 100% from the same region, it could be all over the place. Let's say your parents are a mix of European, native American, and African, you could get 5% American Native, 40% European, and 60% African, while your sibling could be 70 euro, 30% native and 0 African. It is really eye opening.

Thanks to genetic recombination

Had they used mitochondrial DNA instead of nuclear DNA the outcome would be the same for all siblings, as long as siblings have the same mother.