Radio 4 Programme on DNA Ancestry Tests, Thursday 11-Jul-2024

[Chris Doran]

An episode of the "Sliced Bread" series which examines whether products are "the best thing since SB or marketing BS".

BBC Radio 4, Thursday 11th July 12:32pm - 12:57pm, repeated Saturday 13th 5:30pm - 5:54pm
"A listener questions the accuracy of a DNA ancestry test, so Greg Foot takes two different tests and has the results to him by DNA genealogist from Finding Families, Louise Baldock. Greg also speaks to Mark Jobling, Professor of Genetics at Leicester University, to find out what these companies are looking for, what they can or can't determine from a person's DNA and if sharing DNA with these companies is safe." (Radio Times)

Will be on BBC Sounds after the broadcast (Season 7, Episode 10 for anyone looking for it in the future).

[Biggles50]

Cheers for the info Chris.

I’ll give it a listen

[ikas]

Thanks for the heads up, Chris. Sounds interesting.

[ptdrifter]

Thanks Chris

[SouthseaSteel]

Thanks for the head up.

It was quite interesting for a generic 30 minute show - happy that they ascribed the DNA matching aspect of testing as sliced bread (SB) and the "ethnicity" aspect as BS!! 

[Biggles50]

Just listened to it, link follows

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0020xzb

Best quote……. “At least they got the right Continent”.

For those that cannot be bothered listening they considered that there are three aspects:-

1) Ancestry origins, ethnicity, admixture call it what you are comfortable with

2) Biological matching to blood relatives

3) Traits, which was not covered but it is intended to have a programme specifically about it.

The ethos of the programme was to determine if a DNA test is the best thing since Sliced Bread and hence the programme title, or if it is BS.

Well I was pleased that they oft quoted in the programme that Ethnicity results should be taken with a large pinch of salt, I prefer to still used the term “bottle of Saxa”.

The MyHeritage result was well, as expected from MyHeritage.

As it is, it was 25 minutes that I will never get back.

[HughC]

Thank you for the link to the podcast, Biggles.
It came as no surprise that they rated the "ethnicity" results as unreliable.

I did notice that one member of the panel remarked in passing that matches can come about by chance, something that I've long suspected.  According to Ancestry, I have fairly strong matches with a group of people in North America; of course it's possible that someone, somewhere, had an extramarital affair, but none of those people shares a match with any of my known cousins, which I find suspicious.  I think more should have been made of that point.

And one member of the panel (possibly the same one) should explain to us what is meant by "loren forcement".

[Biggles50]

Thank you for the link to the podcast, Biggles.
It came as no surprise that they rated the "ethnicity" results as unreliable.

I did notice that one member of the panel remarked in passing that matches can come about by chance, something that I've long suspected.  According to Ancestry, I have fairly strong matches with a group of people in North America; of course it's possible that someone, somewhere, had an extramarital affair, but none of those people shares a match with any of my known cousins, which I find suspicious.  I think more should have been made of that point.

And one member of the panel (possibly the same one) should explain to us what is meant by "loren forcement".

Very true.

I am in contact with a Group of Second Cousins in Canada and they have been trying to help me solve who a slightly more distant Canadian Cousin is.

She has a small tree that contains people with a family surname from the same line as me and my 2C’s.

It would seem that unknown members of my family emigrated a generation before my Grandfather and his Brother (the 2C’s GGF).

[HughC]

The verdict was that security is unlikely to be a problem.
Just looking through the current issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine,
and found this:

23andMe
The DNA-testing company is being investigated by privacy watchdogs after a data breach
(tinyurl.com/sw-argus-23)