23andMe DNA/health test

[+ WilliamM]

I agree. I got mine done and was hoping it would be more specific than "Great Britain." It's all very vague. Some of the health information that 23AndMe provides is interesting, but not particularly useful. I don't need a dna test to tell me that I'm able to roll my tongue

 

Thanks, I know alread that my grandparent and maternal greatgrandparents were from Scotland.

[bnm73]

Isn't that how they caught the "Golden State Killer?" The police asked for copies of the genetic tests one of those for-profit companies did and then compared those to DNA collected at crime scenes?

[+ Avalon]

I got Great Britain yet I've seen a commercial that broke down Africa into several tribal groups.

[mike carey]

I got Great Britain yet I've seen a commercial that broke down Africa into several tribal groups.

Even allowing for the variations between Celtic, Germanic and Norse heritage, Great Britain is far less diverse than Africa. So you would expect these companies to be able to differentiate between the various racial groups on the continent.

[Rudynate]

Even allowing for the variations between Celtic, Germanic and Norse heritage, Great Britain is far less diverse than Africa. So you would expect these companies to be able to differentiate between the various racial groups on the continent.

 

 

As they acquire more data, their analysis seems to acquire more resoluion. My profile has more detailed ancestral data than it did when I first submitted the sample.

[marylander1940]

Isn't that how they caught the "Golden State Killer?" The police asked for copies of the genetic tests one of those for-profit companies did and then compared those to DNA collected at crime scenes?

 

And that's something good, isn't it?

[marylander1940]

When I had mine done by Ancestry it said 82% Great Britain. My aunt's said 55%.

 

What does that mean? Celtic, Anglo-Saxon etc.? GB is diverse!

 

I had trace Iberian Peninsula. My aunt was 2%. Did someone fall off an Armada ship and swim ashore?

 

The Spaniards lost 30% of their ships because of a storm, yet most of their soldiers went back to Spain going around the British Islands without receiving the expected help from Irish and Scots.

 

Back in Spain they faced the English Armada counterattack and defeated it (something is barely talked about in history lessons....)

[bnm73]

And that's something good, isn't it?

 

In that particular circumstance...? Potentially, but there are some thorny issues involved.

 

Bear in mind that there were no warrants issued. The person they were after had not submitted any thing to the DNA company. The POLICE instead took DNA from a rape kit and sent it in. The company in question identified several distant relatives, which eventually lead to the person they arrested. The police went DNA-fishing, in other words.

 

Putting aside the questionable practices of the police, it points out that the DNA-testing companies have no oversight. They are not bound by privacy laws like the medical industry. They can -- and do -- share your information with whomever they want. Assuming der Trumpenfuhrer gets rid of "pre-existing conditions" coverage like he has said he wants to, expect insurance companies to deny coverage to anyone with a genetic predisposition for diseases based on DNA profiles from these companies.

 

And I question whether the tests regarding ethnicity are accurate. All those test for are markers that are "common to" a particular area. The things they look for aren't "exclusive to" a particular area.

[samhexum]

DEAR ABBY: I am a 64-year-old woman; my sister is 68. A few months ago, she was shopping and saw a man who looked exactly like our father. (Dad passed away in 2008.) A conversation ensued, and he subsequently came to visit her at her home. He’s 69. She snapped a picture of him and sent it to me, and the resemblance is uncanny. He was born in the same state as our father, was adopted and never knew his birth parents. We never had a brother; it was always just the two of us and our parents. She wants me to meet him.

 

He’s married and doesn’t want to tell his family about us. I would be happy to meet him, brother or not, but I need to know the truth before getting involved. It would be too weird for me to just wonder. He seems reluctant to take the DNA test. My sister and I are in the AncestryDNA system already, so it would be easy for us all to confirm. What should I do? — GETTING INVOLVED

 

DEAR GETTING INVOLVED: Because this man doesn’t want his family to know he may have siblings, is reluctant to take the test and you would prefer not to meet him unless you know his status, do nothing. The next move should be his.

[+ Avalon]

DEAR ABBY: I am a 64-year-old woman; my sister is 68. A few months ago, she was shopping and saw a man who looked exactly like our father. (Dad passed away in 2008.) A conversation ensued, and he subsequently came to visit her at her home. He’s 69. She snapped a picture of him and sent it to me, and the resemblance is uncanny. He was born in the same state as our father, was adopted and never knew his birth parents. We never had a brother; it was always just the two of us and our parents. She wants me to meet him.

 

He’s married and doesn’t want to tell his family about us. I would be happy to meet him, brother or not, but I need to know the truth before getting involved. It would be too weird for me to just wonder. He seems reluctant to take the DNA test. My sister and I are in the AncestryDNA system already, so it would be easy for us all to confirm. What should I do? — GETTING INVOLVED

 

DEAR GETTING INVOLVED: Because this man doesn’t want his family to know he may have siblings, is reluctant to take the test and you would prefer not to meet him unless you know his status, do nothing. The next move should be his.

 

Offer him a drink and get the DNA from that. It works on tv shows!

[samhexum]

Trucker pals who met at work discover they’re father and son

 

Two Wisconsin truck drivers became buddies at work but found out they actually share a much deeper connection — they’re father and son.

 

Nathan Boos, 28, who was adopted, never asked about his biological parents, so his adoptive mom and dad never disclosed their identities.

 

“Growing up I always knew that I was adopted, it just never crossed my mind that I would ever find my parents,” the Tilden resident told local news network WEAU-TV.

 

But unbeknownst to him, he’d been working alongside his biological father, Bob Degaro, 56, at Rock Solid Transport in Chippewa Falls for the past two years.

 

Boos and Degaro became pals at work and were friends on Facebook — but it was Boos’ adoptive mother who made the link between the two. She told her son that his biological dad was also a truck driver.

 

“She just went on my Facebook and went through my friends list and brought up his picture and I said, ‘Get out of here,’” Boos recalled.

 

Degaro was equally floored.

 

“He messaged me on Facebook one day and asked me if I knew his biological mother and I’m like yeah, that’s my ex-wife … and I about fell out of my seat … I’m like, oh my God,” Degaro said.

 

Degaro said Boos was put up for adoption for financial reasons.

 

“Back then I wasn’t much of a dad. His biological mom had chosen the adoptive parents because they were somewhat related … distant cousins, I believe, but I didn’t know that,” he explained.

 

The two men are now working on strengthening the friendship they had already forged at work. Degaro is even planning on attending Boos’ upcoming wedding.

 

“It’s still kind of a shock and there’s days I’m not sure exactly what to say or how to act,” Degaro said. “I mean, he is my son but yet we didn’t have that father-son relationship growing up and then we became working partners before we knew who we really were.”

 

Boos added, “We’re just taking one day at a time, one mile at a time, as we say.”

[bnm73]

Personally, I wouldn't want to know. I have enough troubles with family that I KNOW about....why invite more problems?

[+ Reisr30]

Isn't that how they caught the "Golden State Killer?" The police asked for copies of the genetic tests one of those for-profit companies did and then compared those to DNA collected at crime scenes?

 

I’m not worried about running into issues with the law but I am worried about privacy issues and how my data would be protected and used. That’s why I’m reluctant to do this.

[+ oldNbusted]

I’m not worried about running into issues with the law but I am worried about privacy issues and how my data would be protected and used. That’s why I’m reluctant to do this.

 

[+ Reisr30]

Wow

[samhexum]

Has anyone used the 23andMe or similar DNA/ancestry/health testing kits before?

I bought 23andMe and sent in my spit two weeks ago. My parents and grandparents are all from Kentucky and Florida, and beyond that I know nothing of my ancestry or heritage...

I've been asked if I'm Russian, or Polish.

I had mine done. The 23andme assay revealed my ancestry to be 100% European.

I had the Ancestry.com DNA test done.

Personally, I wouldn't want to know. I have enough troubles with family that I KNOW about....why invite more problems?

 

How my lost wedding rings led me to a sister I never knew existed

 

When Brittany Oliver, then 29, looked down at her left hand on a beautiful day, she felt like she’d been punched in the stomach: Her diamond wedding rings were gone.

 

Incredibly, she would get them back the next day — and that would lead her to a new discovery: a long-lost sister.

 

It would take four years, though, for their story to unfold.

 

The saga begins on Labor Day 2015, at New York’s Seneca Lake.

 

“I’d been playing volleyball in the sunshine with my husband, Steven, and daughters when I saw the rings were gone,” Oliver, now 33, tells The Post.

 

Frantic, she retraced her steps. She even had friends, who owned a boat, post a sign about the missing jewels and cruise around the lake. But hours passed to no avail.

 

Eventually, she says, “We went home. I was devastated.”

 

While Oliver was combing the ground for her precious jewelry, Kala Rounds, another local spending her holiday at the lake, caught wind of her plight.

 

“I heard that a woman was in tears over a lost ring and jumped to help,” says Rounds, then 25. “I thought about the time I’d lost a bracelet from a boyfriend and how upset I’d been. I could only imagine how losing a wedding ring would feel.” So she joined a group of strangers determined to help her find them.

 

The search party spent hours scouring the shoreline. Rounds, now 28, remembers wading through waist-deep water, squinting through the muck on the lake bed, hoping to see a glint. Occasionally, someone would spot one and fish out a piece of jewelry — but there was no sign of Oliver’s diamond-studded wedding band or her engagement ring. They were starting to give up hope when a guy in the group hollered that he’d found the rings in the water.

 

Someone called Oliver, who hopped on her friends’ boat, while Rounds corralled the search team onto her family’s boat. They met in the middle of the lake for the handoff.

 

Both women remember seeing each other that day: the mother of two in happy tears, and Rounds, a disability-access counselor, pleased to have helped. The two went their separate ways: Oliver to her home in Watkins Glen, NY, and Rounds to Odessa, NY — both small towns, just 15 minutes apart. After an upbeat Facebook post from Oliver, life went back to normal — and remained so, until Christmas 2018.

 

“[My husband], Steven, thought a 23andMe test would be fun,” Oliver says. So he wrapped one up for his wife, who was glad to receive it. Having grown up with her maternal grandparents, a mother who was in and out of her life and an estranged father, Oliver was interested in learning about her ancestry and family.

 

But when the results arrived in January, something wasn’t right.

 

“There were family connections on there that I didn’t understand,” says Oliver. Unable to reach her mom, she asked relatives if they could explain the results, but everyone was strangely evasive.

 

After a day of confusion, “I finally spoke to my mom . . . and that’s when she reluctantly dropped a bombshell — the man on my birth certificate may not actually be my father,” Oliver says. “I went into shock.”

 

It turns out her mom had been dating two people at the time of her conception. One was the man Oliver grew up believing was her father. The other was Mike Rounds.

 

“One quick Google, and there he was,” she says. “The next day I took a deep breath as his home phone rang, ready to launch into this speech I’d prepared. But thinking I was a telemarketer he said, ‘Make it quick.’ So I just blurted out, ‘I think I’m your daughter.’ ”

 

An hour later, Oliver, Rounds, and his wife, Beth, met at a local restaurant. It turned out the two families had been living just 15 minutes apart.

 

That’s when Kala Rounds — now living in Syracuse, NY, two hours away — got a text from Beth, her mom.

“She told me everything. And just like that, I had a sister.”

 

The news didn’t come as a total shock to Rounds: Her mom had once told her that her dad might have gotten an ex pregnant. But for Oliver, it was a bolt from the blue.

 

“There was so much for me to absorb,” she says. “For 32 years, I thought I knew who my parents were. Then suddenly I have a different dad, a brother and a sister. It made my head spin.”

 

As soon as Oliver returned from meeting her biological dad and his wife, she reached out to Rounds on Facebook. “I nervously typed, ‘Hey, I’m your sister.’ I wanted her to realize that it was OK for us to talk.”

 

The messages began flying immediately, and Rounds — recognizing Oliver’s name from that fateful incident in 2015 — mentioned the rings. Brittany was blown away.

 

“When I realized it was Kala who’d helped find them, I couldn’t believe it. This woman who’d spent hours searching [to help] a perfect stranger, she was my sister. It was overwhelming,” she says.

 

Four days later, the two met at Kala’s grandmother’s house.

 

“I was supernervous and kept trying to make jokes,” Kala says. “But as soon as we started talking, it was like we’d known each other forever.”

 

Both sisters were amazed at how similar they were. “When I decide to do something, I do it right away, no hesitation,” Kala says. “I’d never met anyone like that before, until Brittany.”

 

Brittany agrees. “The nerves just fell away as I realized I was a blond-hair, blue-eyed version of Kala.”

 

Now the sisters text constantly, and get together for meals, campfires and bowling. Brittany’s still amazed at everything that happened to bring them together. That day by the lake she thought she’d lost something precious — only to find something even better.

 

“Meeting my sister was like a perfect piece of a puzzle falling into place.”

 

 

 

 

[+ quoththeraven]

Yes, someone I know who is half Chinese said the closest the test could get was East Asian, not a specific ethnicity.

Apparently they've gotten more specific. After a botched attempt to collect a sample, I finally succeeded and sent one in, and the results are:

 

48% Korea/North China (48-50% range)

26% Ireland and Scotland (i.e., Celtic) (0-26%)

14% England, Wales and NW Europe (0-17%)

8% Germanic (0-22%)

2% Japan (0-5%)

1% France (0-1%)

1% Sardinia (0-4%)

 

What I expected:

 

50% Korea/North China

25% Ireland, possibly with some England tossed in

25% Germanic (also possibly Ashkenazi/German Jew, which didn't turn up)

 

Apparently my German side has substantial genes in common with people who emigrated to England or further west in Europe. (There are people in this group in Germany, but the bulk live in England, Wales or Belgium.) I also don't know at what point the Sardinian showed up, assuming it's not just an artifact, but presumably that's part of the Germanic/England, Wales and NW Europe heritage.

 

Japan is also a puzzle; it'd be more likely to see it going the other way (a tiny bit of Korean among Japanese). But it's less of a geographic surprise and could reflect very remote ancestry.

 

These are Ancestry DNA results, btw. I specifically asked that they not look for genetic matches.

[JayCeeKy]

My Ancestry DNA results have been revised now, over the past 18 months, three different times. Ancestry says that they submit "your DNA to a reference panel made up of thousands of people. Because reference panels and the way we analyze your DNA both change as we get more data, your ethnicity results can change as we get more data, too." They originally stated that I was 65% Irish/Scottish, but that number was recently revised to only 50%. I still think that I'm half Scotch and half Bourbon.

[+ quoththeraven]

My Ancestry DNA results have been revised now, over the past 18 months, three different times. Ancestry says that they submit "your DNA to a reference panel made up of thousands of people. Because reference panels and the way we analyze your DNA both change as we get more data, your ethnicity results can change as we get more data, too." They originally stated that I was 65% Irish/Scottish, but that number was recently revised to only 50%. I still think that I'm half Scotch and half Bourbon.

Those percentages aren't hard and fast numbers, which is why I reported the ranges. It makes sense that as they gather more information that some results might be revised. As you can see, my percentage of Korean heritage is much more definite than my European heritage, which isn't surprising considering how much more homogeneous Korea is than Western Europe.