The results of my much talked-about DNA test

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Wonder if there's anywhere I could get this done here. We Brits tend not to be as fascinated by our heritage as you are across the pond. So there may not be a market for affordable DNA testing here. I'd love to know how much Scottish I actually have. I know I had a great aunt and uncle from Glasgow (although, I'm not even sure we were blood-relatives), who I could never understand as a kid! My family name is Bruce, and we have red-heads on both sides of the family, so there's gotta be some Celt in the mix. I just don't know how much and it would be nice to find out. I've often felt I was born on the wrong side of the boarder.

It makes sense to me that Brits would not be as interested in this sort of thing because your history and genealogy afaik, is much easier to trace than many of ours. Unless one is Native American, it's hard for many of us to know just where we came from before our grandparents or if we're lucky, great grandparents. These testing sites service and take samples from people all over the world. You could easily use one of them.

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There is one through National Geographic that runs about $200,and it seems is supposed to give you a map of how your ancestors migrated from one area to other areas..also mentioned if you were in a neanderthal line or other.

By participating, you will:

• Discover the migration paths your ancient ancestors followed hundreds—even thousands—of years ago, with an unprecedented view of your ancestral journey.
• Learn what percentage of your genome is affiliated with specific regions of the world.
• Find out if you have Neanderthal or Denisovan ancestry.
• Have the opportunity to share your story and connect with other Genographic Project participants, helping us fill in the gaps in the human story.

http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/browse/productDetail.jsp?productId=2001246&gsk

Not sure how accurate any of these things are,lots of places hyping this.

That's pretty much the standard results. It looks like they dropped the price too. 23andMe dropped it considerably over the past few years.

[nbdy]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Cool. At first I sort of scoffed at these tests, but more and more I am considering it. Every person I am aware of doing it has been very pleased. Being the fair specimen that I am I figured I pretty much knew, but a news clipping in grandmother's things that we went through when she died was a yellowed wedding announcement of my great-great grandfather and a Hopi woman. Goes to show, in the U.S. you may not know.

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

And the more people who do these tests, the more accurate, or rather, detailed the results. People sure did get around. It may have taken 40,000 - 50,000 years, but they did it.

That's very cool you have something going back to your great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother. We have precious little information even about my grandparents. We have stories, but my father was a notorious "embellisher". We have a story that when my father was in Idaho in the early 1900s, he had an encounter with a bear. It was probably a juvenile brown bear, but every time he told the story the bear got bigger and bigger until it was just about a 20' Kodiak (OK, so I inherited my ability to embellish from him). But that's about how reliable my family stories are.

Sadly, I don't even have any pictures. My sister has them all and is not inclined to share them - they're all packed away in a box. I do have a picture of my parents, whom I'm beginning to see in a more favorable light (another story for another time). What I think I will do is scour the internet for some nice pics of the people who represent my ancestors... a Viking family, a Mesopotamian farmer, Sicilian peasants, a Greek hoplite (yeah, we have some Greek in there too). I will make a small collage of those and keep as my ancestors to venerate and toast to.

Disclaimer: I probably should have put this thread in a general section, but I started it here because the whole project came about because I wanted to know "Do I, or do I not have Viking and/or Norman ancestors?". I'm not of the folkish variety, but it was just one of those gut feelings that something in me told me I have Heathen ancestry.

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

If I could justify the expenditure, I would be really interested in doing this. It's just not to be right now. It is cool seeing the results though. We've come a long way.

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Don't feel bad. It took me a year of dilly-dallying to spring for the $99. I was going to ask my brothers and sisters to pony up $20 each (5 of us), but since they're not even interested it would have been a lost cause. One of the guys I work with is Norwegian (grandparents from Norway). I told him a few weeks ago I was doing this, and that I suspected I had Scandinavian ancestry. He doesn't come into the office often, but this morning I said "What did I tell you... ek em vikingr". He sputtered and said "huh, wut?" I said "Old Norse, I am Viking; I told you". His eyes opened up and he said "Really! how cool!" Then we launched into a long conversation about the whole thing. He said the only Norwegian he knows is "uff da!" lol

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Haha, that is really cool. ^^ The thought stays on the backburner until I have some random spending money and a need to spend it, or I get some major itch to "know."

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

I know it's been a few weeks, but roughly how long did it take from when you ordered the kit to when they gave you results?

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

It took about 3 weeks from the time the lab received the sample. They say 4-6 weeks, but I think because I agreed to participate in the DNA Relatives database, they gave it priority. It serves their (and our) purpose to get as much DNA into the population database as possible, as quickly as possible.

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Ok, so expect it give it a couple months for results...

I've really been on the fence about this for a long while now (a couple years?), but I've never had any form of expendable income until very recently. And then I spent 20 minutes yesterday trying to figure out my family tree and realized I was only doing it to see what regions of the world my bloodlines come from and was like... there's a better way if this is my only goal.

Now I just have to consider if the money is worth the risk that the results will show that my hunches are inaccurate. :P

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

I may spring for the Ancestry.com version also. That focuses more on creating a family tree and gives a slightly different view of ancestry. I may subscribe to Ancestry.com to see if they really can access all the records they say they can. I'm not wealthy by any means, but this is important to me. I piss away more than $100 in one month on cafeteria food and other shit! I always thought that records in small Sicilian villages were almost non-existent. I came to find out that Sicilians actually kept excellent village records. It's just a matter of accessing them, they were usually scribbled in old ledgers. I may have mentioned that I did find my paternal great-grandparents' names (all 4) through the Mormon archives. It was just a stroke of luck. I also took my DNA results file and uploaded it to Promethease and GEDcom. Promethease ($5) analyzes health risks. It called out some things I already know, and somethings I suspected about my health, and by extension, my family's. GEDcom performs finer matches of DNA relatives than 23andMe. Without extended families, and with families so far-flung these days, it's almost impossible to know what your family tree is before the grandparents.

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Wow I didn't know about the other options for DNA results. Food for thought. Especially since we can't (or won't) trace our relatives back beyond my grandparents and there have clearly been some patterns in diseases even in the past 2 generations.

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

On a philosophical note, as they say, if you don't want to hear the answer don't ask the question. Of course I want to hear the answers. A few of my personality traits, some not so savory have been mapped. It makes me wonder if there were a way to manipulate those genes and combinations of genes, to downplay or eliminate the less than savory aspects, would I? or would I be eliminating that which makes me, me? Now, I'm not a serial killer (cereal killer yes, serial killer no ) and I don't hurt puppies but would I want to be less brash and impulsive, more sociable and outgoing? Maybe I'd want to increase my "fearlessness", or recklessness, depending on the situations? Would I want to eliminate my ocpd, bipolar and other traits? Would I want to "design" myself? I really don't know the answer. The downside to all this genetic knowledge is the potential for abuse sometime in the future. Well, I got my tinfoil hat ready.

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

I think for me it's more to figure out where I "come from." One side of my family will just not speak a word about anyone older than my father or uncles, and the other side tends to... tailor their stories to make themselves look better, or simply omit information they don't like for personal reasons. Basically, we have surnames in our family that come from Finland, Russia, Sweden but the only lineages I've ever been told were German and Norwegian. To me, that just doesn't add up.

I'll have to mull it over a bit longer. Not in small part because we just shelled out a fair bit more than I wanted to for motorcycle related apparel (gotta leather up) this month. But at least the info you're giving me is beyond what I was getting from looking up the "kits" offered online, so thank you for that!

[Thorbjorn]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

I think for me it's more to figure out where I "come from." One side of my family will just not speak a word about anyone older than my father or uncles...

That is the problem I'm encountering with my father's side. I have traced his mother's line back to my great-great-great grandparents, to the late 1700s in Sicily. I'm reasonably confident it's correct. Yay me! I subscribed to Ancestry.com, and leaves are sprouting all over. Except for my paternal grandfather's line. I can only get as far as his father's and mother's names. My grandfather was very secretive, but what we do know, is that he was a less than savory character, having to flee Sicily for stabbing a man (in an altercation over a dog ). I'm not sharing any of the genealogy or DNA info with my family yet until it's reasonably complete and accurate, and we (one of my sisters who knows of this) feel they're ready, but they may never be.

[Willow]

Re: The results of my much talked-about DNA test

Except for my paternal grandfather's line. I can only get as far as his father's and mother's names. My grandfather was very secretive, but what we do know, is that he was a less than savory character, having to flee Sicily for stabbing a man (in an altercation over a dog ).

That's pretty much in line with the secretiveness in my family too. Although no dog.. as far as I know, and I haven't heard mention of any illegal activities but I don't doubt it happen since that side of the family is pretty much prone to suicide, drinking themselves to death, and abuse. There's literally a graveyard with probably 30 graves in it of my relatives whom I was never told about until I was brought there as a teenager and told they all killed themselves in some form or another (mostly car "accidents" and shoots involving alcohol), and most of them wouldn't be much older than my dad is now. That was probably one of the most sobering days of my life.

But hey at least it's not just me. ^^