Author Topic: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results  (Read 57050 times)

Offline Ladyhawk

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #126 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 16:51 GMT (UK) »
DNA testing is not something I’ve given much thought to or know much about.

I have given plenty of consideration to being cremated or buried and whether to donate any or all my organs.

I know who I am and where I’ve come from. Maybe if I’d been adopted and had no idea who my parents were it might be something I would have considered but at the moment it’s not
but as the saying goes ‘never say never’……….

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Offline lesleyhannah

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #127 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:01 GMT (UK) »
Hi
I'd be very interested in DNA ethnicity results if they worked, so I look forward to reading the results of the Times research. After years of trying to trace my father's paternal line I'm still no further forward. Other branches of my tree go back many centuries (and include many thousand individuals) but this one branch remains a mystery and stops at my great-grandfather - who left a marriage cert in 1885 and died in 1889 (so missing both censuses!). No father given on marriage cert, and even his own name and age vary between the two certificates that I do have. No records of his burial appears in Leicester records - the only clue is his German name, which I inherited. No records in the National Archives or the London Gazette, and no will left. Was he perhaps Jewish? No records indicate this although he could have changed his surname to Anglicise it. However, I don't see the point in paying for a DNA test unless it would provide more than a vague guess.

Offline markbridge

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #128 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:09 GMT (UK) »
Many thanks to everybody who has replied so far - fascinating comments and some great pointers for my article. I will respond individually to those who have sent private messages.

To give those who haven't taken the tests an idea of what ethnicity results look like I'm posting my results from Ancestry and Family Tree DNA, with a summary of my known family history.

Paper-trail family history:

50% Anglo-Irish - mix of families of English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish origin
31.25% English
12.5% German - from Thuringia, Eastern Germany
6.25% Jewish - mix of Sephardi and Ashkenazi lines

AncestryDNA:

38% Great Britain
20% Ireland
18% Scandinavia
11% Iberian Peninsula
 
(trace regions)

5% Italy/Greece
4% European Jewish
2% Europe East
1% Finland/Northwest Russia
<1% Europe West

Family Tree DNA:

39% British Isles
25% Western and Central Europe
18% Southern Europe
13% Eastern Europe
5% Scandinavia

Timeframe:

Ancestry says: "AncestryDNA can reach back hundreds, maybe even a thousand years"

Family Tree DNA says: "myOrigins results are your personal genetic ancestry that reflects the last 100 to 2,000 years"

Cousin matching:

Both sites list lots of people who are probably my distant cousins. In a few cases, I've been able to spot the relationship, so the DNA confirms the paper-trail.

Answering a couple of points:

Re Trystan's question, the companies compare customers' DNA results to samples from modern reference populations, rather than samples of ancient DNA.

On Steve's point, we would pay for people who have already had the AncestryDNA test to transfer their results to Family Tree DNA for comparison. It's for people who are willing to share their ethnicity results with us on an anonymous basis as described in my first post. We wouldn't want to see, handle or claim ownership of their raw data.

Offline *Sandra*

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #129 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:21 GMT (UK) »
DNA testing is not something I’ve given much thought to or know much about.   I can see that it has its merits, for those who are not aware of their anti descendants and those who may have been adopted and/or do not know their family background.  There may be advantages for this in medical areas such as paternity testing.  From the limited number of articles I have read, it seems to be a little expensive.  Are the results truly accurate  ???

Sandra
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Offline cathayb

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #130 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:24 GMT (UK) »
thats very interesting Mark.it dosnt narrow it down that much though or say how far it goes back.i think i prefer the paper trails and the excitment of finding connections.with the paper trail and so many folk researching now i have found about 75 living relatives that i knew nothing about before but we share gt.gt grandperants(our families had very large families one infact having 26 children)to receive photos of new found relatives or actually meet in person and see how similar we look and behave tells me so much more than any DNA test ever could.
birchs taylors penfold orchard hughes all romany gypsies in the west country

Offline J.J.

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #131 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:36 GMT (UK) »
I have to agree with alanmack and others who've asked how might we trust the test results?  As a  patient whose very important medical test results have been mixed up with others, I have to point out that there is always the human element involved...error. This will be inclined to increase as numbers elevate. ( the amount of people having it done and the amount of people working on it)

I also imagine this new economy of ours will dictate a price increase to match increased demand  (remember when it was the opposite?)

J.J. 
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Offline falcybe

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #132 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:39 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, trystan, but no thanks  :) I looked at it once a few years ago and came to the conclusion that the testing would not give me any information that is interesting to me

cheers,
falcybe
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Offline ThrelfallYorky

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #133 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:41 GMT (UK) »
I'm afraid I eventually gave up on reading all the preceding posts. Like almost everyone on here except the most meticulously documented / royals / or even happy fantasists at the other extreme, I know that there are some "known unknowns" in my tree. Almost all on one side head clearly and neatly back to mid 1500s, not even many "hasty marriages" that may cast interesting doubts. Other side less certain, but how would DNA testing help me with this issue, for example: Two lumps of Irish ancestry, but where in Ireland not known, on that side. DNA testing may well say "Irish X%" - but it wouldn't tell me exactly where, or, even more important for family history chasing, which Irish surname came from which bit of Ireland, would it? Perhaps if I had ancestors teeth, testing those to see how the enamel had developed as the person grew up may help?
I'm under the impression that Male DNA is preferable - sorry, no male relatives left on line, so that'd not be a goer.
The cost is mentioned often - is the result worth the cost is something only the seeker can evaluate. I have heard often that different companies produce different results from the same person - and that leads one to wonder about either the accuracy of the analysis, or the probity of the firms involved.
The USA has by the very way it developed, highly diverse ethnic mixes, so that may well be why the main market is there. Many US citizens seem almost pathetically keen to discover Scottish ancestors, or, more recently, Irish seems to be fashionable, too. There's a good market there, perhaps DNA can select an appropriate tartan?
Perhaps it is the gentle process and progress of the piecing together of the history of one's own family, its movements, social developments and personalisation of the bald record that interests many of us more than seeking an exotic ancestry? Some in my wider family have been told that there is Nordic ancestry - and typical colouring, and build even up to a generation ago would bear this out, but we'd never know if it was Sigmund Sigmundson, or Magnus Boldtooth, or whoever, would we?
I'd not have even looked at this without Trystan's "prompt", but I'm not really at all interested in it as an area. Like many others, I'd rather spend my pennies (or bawbees, or kroner, or whatever) on documentation of the trail I'm following.
DNA research is a fine thing especially in medical areas, I'm not knocking that. But  - does it really help in this hobby? - Not massively, in my opinion.
Sorry if this load's not been highly useful or relevant, but - done it now.
Threlfall (Southport), Isherwood (lancs & Canada), Newbould + Topliss(Derby), Keating & Cummins (Ireland + lancs), Fisher, Strong& Casson (all Cumberland) & Downie & Bowie, Linlithgow area Scotland . Also interested in Leigh& Burrows,(Lancashire) Griffiths (Shropshire & lancs), Leaver (Lancs/Yorks) & Anderson(Cumberland and very elusive)

Offline Maggie.

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Re: The Times wants your views: DNA ethnicity results
« Reply #134 on: Wednesday 03 February 16 17:47 GMT (UK) »
Many years ago in 2005, when it would seem I had more money than now, I purchased a kit and sent off a DNA sample as part of what then was the Genographic Project but whose data was later added to Family Tree DNA.  At that time the only test for females was mtDNA and eventually the result came back that I belonged to haplogroup U5, at 36,000 years a more recent European branch of haplogroup U whose origin dates from 50,000 years ago and most likely arose in the Near East.  Although I found this information fascinating it has not helped my genealogy research one bit. 

Over the years there have been many advancements in DNA testing and I'm periodically approached to see if I would like to purchase further testing on my sample to gain what would likely be more useful information and I have been tempted to save up for autosomnal testing.  As the samples are kept for 25 years (think I'm right) I have another 10 years to make my mind up about this but so far I have not been tempted.

However as my OH is adopted, with little idea who his father is/was, I really think our money would be more usefully spent on purchasing a sample kit for him.

Maggie
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