• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Who has had their DNA checked for ancestry? Or will you?

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Have your or would you check your DNA ancestry?

  • Sure thing

    Votes: 23 48.9%

  • Hell No - explain

    Votes: 17 36.2%

  • Where is Mongrel

    Votes: 7 14.9%
  • Total voters
    47
OutHouse said:
I was totally obsessed with my family line a few years ago and did the Ancestry DNA test. It help confirming things and filled in a few black holes. one of the things it confirmed is that my 11th great grandfather and his brother did come over around 1640's and landed in Hampton NY.
and that they came from Kent England. going past and getting info out of the English logs is pretty difficult for us peasants. before England, my name is from Holland.

during the early 1800's my paternal grandfather married a scott woman of the McAdams clan and one of my aunts was killed in a Indian raid in south Carolina. also my 7th grandfather served in the continental army and I was able to get enough evidence to present to the Sons of the Revolution. they took it to review for accuracy. a few months later the SOA president of Colorado called me and said all was confirmed. I got a very nice document that they already framed for me.
Click to expand...
Dang, that's cool. I've love to know details like that about my ancestry. I ordered the MyHeritage one yesterday but I should've gotten the Ancestry one. Oh well, I can do that one next, rofl.
 
I honestly don’t understand the expectation of privacy where DNA is concerned, you shed it all over the place wherever you go.
Fingerprints are also uniquely identifiable, and you leave those everywhere as well; no one really makes a fuss about those though.

By the way, got a notice that DNA extraction of my first sample failed, I got my second collection kit today. Guess I’ll be mailing that off tomorrow!
 
Charlie22911 said:
I honestly don’t understand the expectation of privacy where DNA is concerned, you shed it all over the place wherever you go.
Fingerprints are also uniquely identifiable, and you leave those everywhere as well; no one really makes a fuss about those though.
Click to expand...
Same as data, Random dna isn't categorized and placed in a searchable database. That's also why I don't like license plate scanners and public cameras. I don't give a shit if some random person sees me in some random place, but I have a big problem with data being stored and indexed, available two years from now, and correlated with other data captured to provide a highly accurate picture of my daily activities. Oh, and fuck google.
 
lxskllr said:
Same as data, Random dna isn't categorized and placed in a searchable database. That's also why I don't like license plate scanners and public cameras. I don't give a shit if some random person sees me in some random place, but I have a big problem with data being stored and indexed, available two years from now, and correlated with other data captured to provide a highly accurate picture of my daily activities. Oh, and fuck google.
Click to expand...

That is understandable, however that is the reality we live in; anyone with sufficient motivation can go around collecting DNA, Fingerprints, DNS logs, or photograph you in public.
To separate yourself from that possibility is to separate yourself from modern society, like it or not they are mostly inseparable.
Data collection and analysis is not bad in and of itself though, motive is what’s important; which means Facebook can take a hike. But I digress.
 
Didn't send out my cats saliva used mine we'll say maybe I am African American. After all my siblings always teased me I was adopted. 😉
 
Charlie22911 said:
I honestly don’t understand the expectation of privacy where DNA is concerned, you shed it all over the place wherever you go.
Fingerprints are also uniquely identifiable, and you leave those everywhere as well; no one really makes a fuss about those though.

By the way, got a notice that DNA extraction of my first sample failed, I got my second collection kit today. Guess I’ll be mailing that off tomorrow!
Click to expand...

But we're not expecting it to end up in a collection center for eons and possibly be used for research. It brings up a lot of freedom issues.

Even scarier when it's possible it could be correlated with cell phone data.

Red Squirrel said:
Not really surprised tbh. That's why I'm slightly less concerned about getting my DNA checked since chances are the government already has it anyway and they are the biggest threat. Though if by chance they don't have it, then it will enable them to get it...
Click to expand...

The problem is when you voluntarily get you DNA checked you literally have no idea where that data ends up and what it can be used for. Even if there's regulation in its usage you're assuming someone is actually going to follow those rules. And then there's massive data breach.

So you paid for this DNA test with a credit card which is tied to your SS#, contains the location where you live and now has your health and ancestral info.

What could possibly go wrong? The Chinese are going to steal it, program it into the first red headed bio mechanical robot that's going to rob Canadian banks and you'll on the hook since your DNA will be all over the crime scenes.

All that to find out your ancestry is Welch?
 
Last edited:
paperfist said:
But we're not expecting it to end up in a collection center for eons and possibly be used for research. It brings up a lot of freedom issues.

Even scarier when it's possible it could be correlated with cell phone data.



The problem is when you voluntarily get you DNA checked you literally have no idea where that data ends up and what it can be used for. Even if there's regulation in its usage you're assuming someone is actually going to follow those rules. And then there's massive data breach.

So you paid for this DNA test with a credit card which is tied to your SS#, contains the location where you live and now has your health and ancestral info.

What could possibly go wrong? The Chinese are going to steal it, program it into the first red headed bio mechanical robot that's going to rob Canadian banks and you'll on the hook since your DNA will be all over the crime scenes.

All that to find out your ancestry is Welch?
Click to expand...

Most of what you said is fair and reasonable, but that last part is just alarmist and unnecessary; not to mention highly improbable for the foreseeable future.
 
paperfist said:
What could possibly go wrong? The Chinese are going to steal it, program it into the first red headed bio mechanical robot that's going to rob Canadian banks and you'll on the hook since your DNA will be all over the crime scenes.

All that to find out your ancestry is Welch?
Click to expand...

Yeah I could see that happen, basically used to "spoof" a crime as someone else.

Hopefully I turn out Irish so I can just play the "I was drunk and don't remember a thing!" card. 😛
 
Charlie22911 said:
Most of what you said is fair and reasonable, but that last part is just alarmist and unnecessary; not to mention highly improbable for the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...

I was partially playing around, but I think in the foreseeable future stuff like this is possible. You don't have to look back to far in the past to see stuff that you didn't think could happen did happen. The 9/11 laws were we give up privacy for protection; abuse of the FISA court; Russian meddling; data leaks galore to not only federal stuff, but credit reporting agencies. Facebook data collection...

Man I'd be real careful giving up a part of yourself because it seems like no one on the other end behaves when there's money to be made.
 
DigDog said:
if by royalty you mean son of a king, no. if you otherwise mean aristocracy (descendant of titled nobles) then yes.
my family is directly related to these guys: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrero_della_Marmora
Click to expand...

My grandmother was a geneologist. Traced us back to the Talbot in the 1300's.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Talbot

Actually tracing something back that far is incredibly difficult vs just entering your surname on a website and getting your 'family' crest.
 
honestly, i do not know how the various genealogy websites work; possibly they just host information already catalogued previously elsewhere. i had a brief encounter with them back in the 90s, typed in my surname, got "no answer" and scoffed. that was it.
On the other hand, Italy (being a medieval country at one point and whatnot) has had heraldry since forever, so there's plenty of organizations who are dedicated to recording as much historical data as they can find - most of the time you can access this for free, sometimes they will sell it to you for a small fee, say, $100 or so.
I didn't need that because my family was always monarchic, i've had to listen to more than my share of speeches when i was young on how everything was better when we had a king. We have family portraits going back to the original family founder, and i had to do some internet digging for connections between him in the 1880 and his family in the 1700s. After that, it gets a bit nebulous... my family is an offshoot of the ferrero, my last name was made up out of thin air to disguise a relationship out of wedlock. (we're bastards)
The crest comes from a free heraldry service (in italian). The difference between heraldry and genealogy is that genealogy see people as people, while heraldry sees people as organizations. The whole "i descend from this family and therefore i am this way" kinda got lost between the first and second industrial revolutions. Now, heraldic organizations exist because they think it's important, genealogy organizations exist because they think it's cute. As far as i can tell, they don't put importance on one's family tree besides "it's nice to know".


i secretly think that most people who use genealogy websites in the US today are because they want to know if they have ever had any ... you know .. any .. if they were ever .. you know what, let's leave it at that.
 
Had 23 and me. Both of who I think are my mother and father are.

I'll add to it that it correctly identified my brother, mother, an uncle and a second cousin. We all have different names and addresses. The test was not BS.

I also submitted to Prometheus but the health results are not very user friendly. Maybe if I can get the health upgrade from 23andme for $50 (I've seen it on sale for $50 once), I'll upgrade to see if they are any more conclusive.

I'd honestly be more interested in knowing my dog's mix. Everyone has always asked me and I say mostly Lab (based on appearance). Animal tests run a little more expensive.
 
Last edited:
It all gets stored in the database cor crimes. You can be walking throigh a crime scene that did not happen yet and its the only peice.

You can take credit if you like.
 
Thebobo said:
Ok I'm going to prove to my employer that I am not African American! (In case you missed it my personal file labels me as a African American.) Actually I was just curious and its cheap now.
Click to expand...
Just saw this thread ... don't do it ... for your intended purpose.. You are (may be) indeed African at some point. My brother got an interesting result from 23andme ... Am I too late?
 
I will never do it, I don't care. I have checked one of our dogs DNA, turns out he is half shepherd, half sheepdog, i.e. a mutt just like me.
 
ctbaars said:
Just saw this thread ... don't do it ... for your intended purpose.. You are (may be) indeed African at some point. My brother got an interesting result from 23andme ... Am I too late?
Click to expand...

To late, it's ok I double checked with the folks... :
 
I did mine over Christmas and it came back somewhat as I expected. I guess my understanding of genetics is incomplete as it came back that I am 58% Italian while I expected 50%, mother 100% Italian and 50% from father's side. Also it says Ireland/Scotland/Wales and Great Britain which I can assume means the breakdown between Celtic and Anglo Saxon, they really don't explain. More interesting are the matches to people you had no idea you were related to including 2 African-American 3rd cousins.
 
Well I am not african american.

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 36%
Europe West 31%
Great Britain 24%

Low Confidence Regions

Scandinavia 3%
Finland/Northwest Russia 3%
Iberian Peninsula 2%
Europe South <1%

Well irish it is then!
 
Thebobo said:
Well I am not african american.

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 36%
Europe West 31%
Great Britain 24%

Low Confidence Regions

Scandinavia 3%
Finland/Northwest Russia 3%
Iberian Peninsula 2%
Europe South <1%

Well irish it is then!
Click to expand...
So you have something similar to me, I really wish they would detail what the breakdown is between Ireland/Scotland/Wales and Great Britain. Ireland is obvious but Scotland/Wales seems odd since I always thought Great Britain was England/Scotland/Wales.
 
Thebobo said:
Well I am not african american.

Ireland/Scotland/Wales 36%
Europe West 31%
Great Britain 24%

Low Confidence Regions

Scandinavia 3%
Finland/Northwest Russia 3%
Iberian Peninsula 2%
Europe South <1%

Well irish it is then!
Click to expand...
I could tell you were Irish by the hat your cat avatar is wearing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top