Anyone find something funny in their DNA test?

I found a article relevant to this:

https://gizmodo.com/how-dna-testing-botched-my-familys-heritage-and-probab-1820932637?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits

Salient points:

Quote:

As Adam Rutherford, a British geneticist and author of the excellent book “A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived,” explained to me, we’ve got a fundamental misunderstanding of what an ancestry DNA test even does.

“They’re not telling you where your DNA comes from in the past,” he told me, “They’re telling you where on Earth your DNA is from today.”

And

Quote:

That the data sets are primarily made up of paying customers also skews demographics. If there’s only a small number of Middle Eastern DNA samples that your DNA has been matched against, it’s less likely you’ll get a strong Middle Eastern match.

I signed up for ancestry.com and it is great entertainment for me. It was pretty easy to trace some family back to the civil war. One got killed at Andersonville. All kinds of side story's, wedding licenses etc. Hard to quit searching. Pictures of headstones of ancestors, some with recent flowers and flags? Cool beans.

Quote: petroglyph

I signed up for ancestry.com and it is great entertainment for me.

I went thru that phase and got
so bored with my boring family
I gave up. It's like, if you think
your life is boring, just buy a video
camera. You'll soon confirm it and
the camera will gather dust.

Quote: Evenbob

I went thru that phase and got
so bored with my boring family
I gave up. It's like, if you think
your life is boring, just buy a video
camera.

That is probably me, too. I was the youngest in my family, and my dad was the youngest of his, so by the time I was old enough to ask questions,
most were gone. I was a good target for all the genealogy commercials. I signed on for 6 months, and will try to get my fill of it before renewal.

My sister, 15 years or so ago, paid for one of those family tree services and gave me a copy. Not many lines were filled in. It is impressive how much data has been added to the searchable bank since then. With a few clicks, it is pretty easy to acquire a lot more info than what she paid for. I like the photo's of particularly the wedding licenses, they are all signed and dated, and name kin.

Quote:

You'll soon confirm it and
the camera will gather dust.

Good analogy. I've paid for some good cameras in the past. My brother finally shared the old 8mm movies that my folks took. I watched them like you say, and they are stored in a box, gathering dust. The format has changed in over 50 years as well.

Someone at WoV reminded me of this thread. Yesterday I got the results of a genetic DNA test I took about a month ago. Some surprises. I thought I was 100% European, mainly northern, but this is what came back:



Here are a couple terms I wasn't familiar with before:

Quote:

... any genetic link you have to ancient Beringians is not necessarily reflective of your relation to modern-day indigenous peoples...

this is called the Elizabeth Warren disclaimer

Quote: odiousgambit

this is called the Elizabeth Warren disclaimer

Post of the day!

Quote: Wizard

Someone at WoV reminded me of this thread. Yesterday I got the results of a genetic DNA test I took about a month ago. Some surprises. I thought I was 100% European, mainly northern,

I wonder what SE Europe consists of?

The United Nations uses the following geo-scheme.

Eastern Europe
Belarus
Bulgaria
Czechia (Czech Republic)
Hungary
Moldova
Poland
Romania
Russia
Slovakia
Ukraine

Northern Europe
Åland Islands
Denmark
Estonia
Faroe Islands
Finland
Guernsey
Iceland
Ireland, Republic of
Isle of Man
Jersey
Latvia
Lithuania
Norway
Sark
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Sweden
United Kingdom

Southern Europe
Albania
Andorra
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Croatia
Gibraltar
Greece
Italy
Malta
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Portugal
San Marino
Serbia
Slovenia
Spain
Vatican City

Western Europe
Austria
Belgium
France
Germany
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg
Monaco
Netherlands
Switzerland

I have felt that the DNA tests are a bit of a scam. My mother and her sister took the same test, and my mother came back 6% Italian and her full blooded sister came back 41% Italian. There is no Italian at all in their conventional view of their ancestry. While I waas not shocked by a small percentage, given the difficulty in identifying haplogroups, the massive difference made me think the whole series of results is pure speculation.

I, too, think the whole thing is a bit of a scam. Seems quite speculative as to origins. I also don't particularly want a record of my gene map out there. Feels very Big Brother, and I'm not interested in 3rd party interpretations of my data. We're only a couple steps away from insurance companies denying coverage due to "pre-existing" conditions based on genetic tendencies towards say, Alzheimers or Parkinsons or many other issues.

Quote: Evenbob

These tests are a scam.

"..these ancestry tests have little scientific backing, and are often so unreliable and inaccurate that they amount to "genetic astrology."

But they appeal to peoples egos,
so they're a huge success.

They also appeal to law enforcement

https://www.wired.com/2015/10/familial-dna-evidence-turns-innocent-people-into-crime-suspects/