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[fleur-de-lisa]

This message was self-deleted by its author (fleur-de-lisa) on Thu Jul 11, 2013, 05:56 PM. When the original post in a discussion thread is self-deleted, the entire discussion thread is automatically locked so new replies cannot be posted.

[aquart]

1. No, but I'd do it in a heartbeat if it was cheaper.

[GentryDixon]

2. How much is it?

I deleted the email for the special without really reading it.

My family is said to have Mulengeon blood through the Goin line. My family on my Dad's side is from the Claiborne, Union County area of Tennessee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon

[fleur-de-lisa]

4. On ancestry.com it's usually $199 for members . . .

though they have a special right now for $129 per test. It is my understanding that you get better results if a closely related male and female, say brother and sister, have the test done.

[GentryDixon]

8. Thanks.

[fleur-de-lisa]

9. I have never heard the term 'Melungeon' before . . .

I went to the link you provided . . . that was interesting!

[GentryDixon]

12. I am white, but I have very dark hair and

almost black eyes. My twin took after my Mom, so she is blonde but does have brown eyes, just lighter than mine.

In looking at the pictures of the ancestors on my Dads side from my genealogy work, I see all are very dark haired, but in the Civil War records, some have blue eyes. Interesting stuff for sure!

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. No ...

I would give pause to submitting my DNA to my government, absent a properly executed court order. Why would I give it to a private corporation controlled by a religious sect?

[rablrouzer]

5. Yes, and surprise!

Back in Missouri, my paternal ancestors were slave owners.

It was part of the "family story," but actually confirmed by the census records from 1850 and 1860.

The DNA swab revealed "African" ancestry, as in, not Caucasian.

Wonder how the relatives "big" in the DAR would feel about that?

And does give one a different perspective on Affirmative Action!

Of course, we're all from Africa . . .

There was also some other more useful info. Such as a higher likelihood of age-related eye disease which may be preventable with diet (eat Kale!), and certainly points to regular eye exams.

Too bad we can't all have these DNA tests. Maybe if "Obamacare" takes hold. If it doesn't, having a DNA report showing a more than normal possibility of a disease would surely be a "pre-existing condition."

[fleur-de-lisa]

7. What service did you use . . .

if you don't mind sharing? If I can get the level of detail you received, it would be well worth the cost. I just don't want to pay for the service only to be told something I already know, like my ancestors are from Western Europe.

[rablrouzer]

15. DNA Service Used

https://www.23andme.com/

There was a $99 sale.

Regular price is $299.

[sharp_stick]

6. The National Geographic Genographic

Project is one I want to do but it's kind of pricey at $200

Their site is pretty informative. I'd love to learn more about the migration paths of ancestors.

I may ask for this for my next birthday, maybe I'll get lucky.

https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/about/

[lonestarlib]

10. I used Ancestry's $99 initial offer.

Ancestry's is not a cheek swab. Theirs requires a deposit of about a tablespoon or so of saliva into a test tube. Both males and females can participate. They look at at all your DNA. Although you see your ethnicity by percentages, you don't get a chart or print-out of common alleles. Your DNA is compared with that of everyone else who has participated. Then, Ancestry tells you that your DNA matches x, y and z, etc., and predicts that x is a 3rd cousin, y is a 4th cousin, and z is a distant cousin. And your trees are compared, showing your common ancestor if possible. I had 7 web pages of matches from day 1. I have confirmed some of my research (provided our trees are correct). I also have some matches that are puzzling, but intriguing. Some of my matches are to people who don't have trees on Ancestry, so those are useless.

You do realize that even if you have Cherokee ancestors, you may not have inherited that part of your grandfather's DNA, or that you could have inherited too small an amount to show up in the test because of the randomness of DNA?

[OhZone]

11. I'm afraid they'll say I'm from Kolob! lulz nt

[mysuzuki2]

13. I just sent in a saliva sample to 23 and me.

It is expensive - $299, but you get back the results of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA so you get info on both maternal and paternal ancestry. You also get info on dleterious genes. And, interestingly, they will give you your percentage of neanderthal ancestry. I'm looking forward to that.

[Paulie]

14. Oh yes, several times

I have pretty much everything familytreedna.com sells, 23 and me via spit sample. Both are collecting cheek cells.

I learned I'm on a rare branch of R1b1b2, sort of an Anatolian barbarian. Since I don't know a any paternal ancestry it was something. Maternal side is a rare H.

23 and me is more health related than genealogy, though they try. Its because they use SNP and not STRs.

[kdmorris]

16. I haven't

I was going to, but then the police in Seattle gained access to the samples to attempt solve a crime, which gave me pause:

http://www.q13fox.com/community/wamostwanted/featuredcases/kcpq-wmw-dna-identifies-cold-case-murder-suspect-as-descendant-of-mayflower-pilgrim-20120106,0,6178217.story

[dgibby]

17. I did the Ancestry.com DNA test,

which was free when I participated. I learned the percentage of my make-up, ie, mostly British Isles, with some Eastern European. They also list names of people you are or may be related to and what the relationship is (cousin, etc). I've met several cousins I didn't know I had. Wish more of my family would participate. Maybe I'll be able to break through my paternal brick walls one of these days.

[NOLALady]

18. I have.

I bought the 23andMe kit when it was 99$. I was also offered the free Ancestry beta autosomal test.

I took the tests because I don't know most of my family origins as my Dad was adopted. I discovered he has Ashkenazi ancestry, probably a GGFather. I may never determine his birth parents, but I have an idea of his origins.

Ancestry tests have been offered for 79$. I called them last week and it was indicated they may have sales around the Holidays.

I like that I could print out my Health Reports and give copies to my Doctors.

Yes. IMHO, think it was worth the cost.

BTW, are your Swiss ancestors from Louisiana?

[fleur-de-lisa]

19. Thanks for the info . . .

I just mailed my DNA sample to ancestry.com yesterday. Hopefully I will have the results in a month or so.

To answer your question, no, my Swiss ancestors were not from Louisiana. They lived in Illinois after arriving in the US in the mid-1800's, then most of them ended up in Washington state and California. I live in New Orleans and I have close relatives in Mississippi, but they are not originally from the south.

[NOLALady]

20. New Orleans is my home,

but I've been on the Northshore about 25 years. We will be in the City Thursday to celebrate the Holiday with family. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, neighbor.

My Swiss ancestors arrived in PA 1788. They were in New Orleans by 1810, West Feliciana Parish by 1850. Do you know if your ancestors were French Swiss or German Swiss?
Our surname traveled from the Swiss Cantons to the Palatinate and back again to the areas of Berne, Moutier, Cremines.
They can also be found in the areas of Eszerningken, Gerwischlehmen, Gumbinnen, Ostpr/dr.
Some were in Prussia before they were in Switzerland.

[fleur-de-lisa]

21. Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

My great, great grandmother was from northern Switzerland (Canton Aargau), so I assume her family was German Swiss. The man she married, my great, great grandfather, was a German immigrant from Hannover, Germany, so that would make sense.

This stuff is so interesting! I'm always happy to run into other people who are really into researching their ancestry!

[NOLALady]

22. Have you received your results?

If so, what do you think? Accurate? Worth the cost?

[fleur-de-lisa]

23. Funny you should ask . . .

I just received the results this morning. Not accurate and not worth the cost.

The summary said my heritage is 98% 'British Isles' and 2% 'unknown'.

My family and I have proof documenting that I am 1/8 Swedish, 1/16 Swiss and 1/16 German, with the rest being British and Irish. So by my calculations, I am 75% British Isles. I'm very disappointed in these crappy results!

[NOLALady]

25. What do you think of

the DNA matches?

My Dad was adopted. I guess I'm not very concerned about my heritage/ethnicity. But, I would like to see if the testing can give me an idea of the ancestry of his birth parents. I may never be able to determine the identity of my GParents, but I'd like to get an idea of their family connections.

[Paulie]

28. Could he test or have any brothers to test?

The YDna line would help trace his paternal line. If you could mydna test him it would help trace his maternal line, as mtdna is passed via the egg.

[NOLALady]

29. About a year and a half ago

before they started the autosomal testing, I tested his yDNA through ancestry. Some months after that test, 23andMe offered the autosomal test.

His yDNA is European, mtDNA African. His X shows lovely chunks of Native American and Middle Eastern (probably the Ashkenazi). I'd hoped the matches would produce some local Louisiana surnames to give me an idea of his birth parents. But, the Ashkenazi rules! We had no idea of Ashkenazi ancestry. Most of his/our matches are Ashkenazi and its practically impossible to determine a relationship.

Hopefully, I will have better match results through ancestry.

[Paulie]

27. Ah! Keep in mind

If this was an autosomal test then it's not recent ancestry you'll find (not genealogical). And your counting of mixture isn't how it's done. It's a blending of your parents (50:50) and they are blends of their parents. So once you get to about 4 generations back there isn't much specificity if your autosomal profile.

This is why y-DNA for males and mtdna (for both males and females) works better for genealogy as it is specific to a particular direct line, though only for that line. Testing cousins gets you the other related lines.

[JimDandy]

33. So which of these tests

are used to see if you are a baby's daddy - like on some episodes of (I think it's) Maury?

[Paulie]

34. Neither. They do a test on the CODIS markers

Those used by the FBI for criminal cases.

These are 13 pairs of markers (plus an additional one for gender), and if you can test the parents and the child, line the results up, you can compute a probability of relationship. Siblings will be different from each other, as they each get a slightly different set of each parent (excluding identical twins) but you get results that are like in the millions to one for/against parentage.

Having a matching Y DNA profile means genetic relationship but that can be 10s to hundreds of years and would include all males in that line, even cousins that live on the other side of the planet. It's not specific. MTDNA is even worse as there are potentially less variation over.thousands of years and a maximum number if markers you can test (16535 if I remember)

[JimDandy]

35. Thanks for the info. Have a son

who believes a child is his, but the mother hasn't allowed him to put his name on the baby's birth certificate. He is trying to find out how and where to do a DNA test as inexpensively as possible in order to prove that the baby, who he loves dearly, is his. The test needs to be acceptable to a court, in case it comes to that. Was hoping the $99 test would fill the bill, but it doesn't sound like it. Do you have any suggestions for a situation like this?

[tibbir]

24. BTW, I checked the 23andme site yesterday

and it's going for $99 again. I decided to take them up on it.

[applegrove]

26. I did the National Geographic one. Showed my ancestors coming

from central asia to Scotland. Didn't know the central asia part.

[sybylla]

30. That's a traditional "celtic" migration

Celtic origins are in central Asia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celts

[sybylla]

31. 2 reasons I won't do it...

Privacy issues and the fact that they give you so little information.

Either it's too general or it's y-chrom or Mtdna, both of which only trace one line in a tree that contains thousands that come together to make you who you are.

Tertiarily, though this is probably a minor consideration for most people, I'm a bit troubled by the potential for paternal discrepancy.
http://men.webmd.com/news/20050810/paternity-study-shakes-up-family-tree

In other words, the results you're getting may not match the men in your family tree. If not, will it matter?

I had a family association remove my branch of the family from the association because of one y-dna test. After 250 years, can they really be certain with one test? The results might be accurate, but what exactly are the results telling you? Be cautious with your conclusions.

[OnionPatch]

32. I just took the autosomal DNA test from Ancestry.com.

I figured it might help me break through on some of my brick walls and I was right. I thought it was totally worth the cost though maybe others might not have as much luck with their results.

The thing that made it all worthwhile was to find proof that I am, indeed, my father's daughter, despite what my sisters say! (Linked with 95% accuracy as a cousin to other DNA members linking to his lines.)

I'm 82% British Aisles, which is no surprise. Most of it is probably Scottish. A little surprising is the 5% Scandinavian and a bigger surprise is the 5% Finnish/Volga-Ural. I have zero people in my tree from Scandinavia or Finland/Russia. They probably migrated to Europe earlier than my tree goes back. And what happened to my German lines? I guess DNA doesn't always pass down. Maybe I lost my German DNA.

Aside from confirming a lot of lines I had in the tree with my DNA results, I was able to find a link to a line I'd been researching for years. Info on them was really sparse. I had put together a theoretical tree with all the little scraps of info I found. I had with tons of evidence but no proof, which was really frustrating. The test connected me to a predicted 4th to 8th cousin who tied into my theoretical tree perfectly! That was pretty exciting to find.

I'm enjoying the DNA test results. I'd pretty much run out of places to look on the lines I'm interested in, so it's great to have a lot of new clues to investigate.

[CanonRay]

36. I just had it done

49% Central European
20% Eastern European
11% Middle Eastern (Sicilian roots)
20% Scandinavian

That last one...I have no idea.

My wife has been able to connect with actual distant cousins, people with whom she shares grandparents 6 generations back. Interesting stuff.

[nickinSTL]

37. I did the Genographic Project's first round

just did mt-DNA & found (to no one's surprise), that my line is on a K subclade that probably is from Scandinavia.

Since my mom's family is, as far as we can find genealogically, all Norwegian, this wasn't big news.

I've just sent in my sample for the 2.0 testing, which will provide more information, and will include some nuclear DNA analysis, so that should be interesting.

Now watching the progress...the sample has been received & they're in the process of isolating the DNA.

[nickinSTL]

39. Update

I got the results from the 2nd round from the Genographic Project.

Nothing new on my mtDNA, but the autosomal DNA was kind of interesting.

The results show what percentage of your DNA is from various groups. Northern European, Southeast Asian, Mediterranean, etc.

Then, they compare your percentages to modern reference populations.

My results were an exact match to the percentages of the German reference population, which is interesting. I've figured out, based on genealogical research, that I'm about 56% Norwegian, 25% German, 12% Swedish, 6% English, nearly 1% Scottish, and then tiny amounts of Sami, Irish and Breton.

I would have expected a closer match to Norwegian than to German, though to be fair, as they didn't actually have a Norwegian (or Swedish) reference population, I don't really know for sure what those percentages would be, although based on the Danish and British populations, I'd expect them to be a little different from the German.

[carolinayellowdog]

38. Have done it five times with three companies- 23andme the best for the least

I started ten years ago with DNAPrint, now out of business, then upgraded to another test of theirs with more markers; then Y and mitochondrial tests with AncestrybyDNA. 23andme was expensive when they started so I waited for a $149 special. It was worth that and more, and now the special price is even lower, $99. There has been plenty of confusion about the presence of small amounts of Native American and Subsaharan African ancestry. The earliest tests found no African, but 23andme did-- which matches the paper trail that leads to four colonial mulatto lines.