DNA Why I urge caution

[Eric Hatfield]

Excellent! You won't know if you don't try!

When you get your results, you'll find this forum to be a good way to get ideas and get the most out of your test.

[Ruskie]

I have spent 15 years of my life, not to mention the amounts of money I have thrown at my "roots" using all sorts of information available and at times even getting it wrong - just to find out that like the hints in the tree others are using DNA because it's easier.

But then, after reading some of the social media, I take heart from those that have uncovered missing chapters from their life, the adoptees, the estranged, the brick walls - and I hope that I too can uncover one or two of my brick walls -

My fence sitting days are over - come Christmas in my stocking will be a DNA testing kit.

Not easier in my opinion - I find it harder, more confusing and a whole lot more complex.  Traditional trees and DNA results work hand in hand. If you are looking for your roots and don't have a tree, the DNA won't necessarily be of much use to you.

[dobfarm]

I personally would not give my DNA for ancestry, basically because I don't trust the security of the data base from hackers and USA laws on the like of the FBI accessing it. OK !! - -  if your an honest law biding citizen, it could be said you have nothing to worry about, yet ! but say your DNA was a near match to some unworthy character or of an unknown direct cousin living in the USA ( like if your were brought up an adopted child), who was unworthy and brings unwanted headache interest in your DNA enquires or hassle at your front door.

[BushInn1746]

I personally would not give my DNA for ancestry, ... brings unwanted headache interest in your DNA enquires or hassle at your front door.

One has to be so careful, we've had someone spurious make contact earlier saying they are the Engineering Dept., our internet will be off for 24 hours, but if we press certain number/s, we will keep a line during the interruption. IT IS A SCAM !

Identity theft; obtaining information about you to set up a scam and electronic crime is growing, sadly.

Mark

[WolfieSmith]

My personal view is the DNA test is not the be all and end all, but is a great additional tool in your toolbox for Family Tree research.

I did the Ancestry DNA test last year and the DNA Matches is the main useful bit. Really helpful in confirming my own research cross checking against near and distant cousins family trees. The "where you come from in the last 1000 years" bit has been improved and I think will be improved further as more people do the test, but thats not really useful for Family Tree research.

Alan

[RobertCasey]

I personally would not give my DNA for ancestry, basically because I don't trust the security of the data base from hackers and USA laws on the like of the FBI accessing it. OK !! - -  if your an honest law biding citizen, it could be said you have nothing to worry about, yet ! but say your DNA was a near match to some unworthy character or of an unknown direct cousin living in the USA ( like if your were brought up an adopted child), who was unworthy and brings unwanted headache interest in your DNA enquires or hassle at your front door.

There is a definite issue that DNA testing will continually expand the reach of law enforcement to track down criminals. Also, it will eventually be YDNA that really narrows it down as we are now routinely assigning mutations (combination of YSTR and YSNP) to proven ancestors on our pedigree charts. Your lack of participation is really not going to protect you as the testing databases continue to grow at 30 to 40 % per year for YDNA and more than 50 % per year for atDNA testing.

But family histories are also being used by law enforcement as well. DNA by itself does nothing unless you have the person testing made available. Law enforcement has the right to access this kind of data via court order. It is very rare most law abiding citizens to get caught up in this usage but it could happen. But on the plus side, a lot of serial killers are being put away at the same time. So I think the good far outweighs the bad.

Just under my haplogroup R-L226 (very Irish), we now have nineteen surname clusters defined by YSNP and YSTR combinations. So if you belong to these clusters, there is a 60 to 90 % chance of having a particular surname. There are also 84 well defined branches under these surname clusters and another 192 testers with unique YSTR marker values. The descendants of King Brian Boru lead the way with 22 branches defined underneath this surname cluster and another 38 testers with unique YSTR markers. I am now able to chart 90 % of the 700 testers at 67 markers on how they are related to each other with 60 to 95 % accuracy.

We even now know that King Brian Boru was part of DC33. We know that all of Y5610 and DC291 are actual descendants of King Brian Boru and that the large branch DC36 may later be proven to be added to this list. In ten years, we will have four thousand testers and will identify 100 to 200 surname clusters with over 80 % of the testers having unique markers for each tester. In ten years, we will have dozens of YDNA mutations assigned to actual proven ancestors on pedigree charts.

Avoiding testing yourself will not help any as your cousins will test anyways - except the criminal types who are unlikely to test (but their DNA is usually on file already with previous offenses).

[Finley 1]

It has done me no good sending for mine AT ALL

NOT one apart from MY lovely nephew who I loved and knew about previous to DNA test...

NOT ONE connection at all..


xin

King Brian Boru what who

[RobertCasey]

It has done me no good sending for mine AT ALL

NOT one apart from MY lovely nephew who I loved and knew about previous to DNA test...

NOT ONE connection at all..

Are you referring to Family Finder type tests (atDNA) or YDNA tests ? If you are getting no matches via atDNA testing, there are two reasons: 1) your have few cousins to test and you line is not as prolific; 2) your relatives just have not tested to date. I received 100s of matches via Family Finder which is pretty common for Americans (due to free land which allowed descendants to increase at a dramatic rate). If you cousins remain in Ireland where population is flat due to stretches of bad weather, crop failures and limited land to allow population expansion, your number of matches will be many times fewer.

atDNA can yield a lot of matches very quick but YDNA shows the best long term promise. However,  most testers have too high expectations thinking DNA testing will "always" add a lot of new information. YDNA is about connecting the whole world for male connections. I work on a very Irish haplogroup R-L226 which originated in County Clare area around 1,500 years ago (a time frame that is a turn off for many genealogists). However, I can now chart 90 % of the 707 testers at 67 or more markers. The last ten percent have not been YSNP tested to date or do not match somebody that has YSNP tested to date. We are already have fifteen well defined surname clusters averaging around ten testers each - however even these connections are still between 200 and 1000 years ago. Even with the technology available today, given a large enough sample size, we will be able to assign YDNA mutations to people on your pedigree charts - already have a dozen or so of these.

[Sinann]

King Brian Boru what who

High King of Ireland, defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Clontarf 1014 (Dublin) among other things. All round interesting guy.