genealogy question

[btfc]

"This is a really good discussion."

Yes, it is!

I saw a news piece recently where the reporter was tested by three different DNA testing services and got different results from each. No luck finding it with Google so far.

[PeterB]

btfc wrote:
"This is a really good discussion."

Yes, it is!

I saw a news piece recently where the reporter was tested by three different DNA testing services and got different results from each. No luck finding it with Google so far.

Not exactly the one you were thinking of, but close: http://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/in...estry.html

[srf1957]

DeusxMac wrote:
[quote=davemchine]
[quote=And that only works if everyone was monogamous]

-That's the part I was wondering about. :-)

I've been using the tools on the 23andme website tonight and have made positive links with two other families. So far it has been a fun situation.
Monogomy has nothing to do with it.

It doesn't matter how many women your father "slept" with, you only inherit from your actual mother. And vice versa. Who was talking about 4g grandfather? Without knowing the persons involved could be remarried , adopted preexisting condition. That is why most genealogical tests go through matriarchal lines.

[davemchine]

Since 23andme has been a semi-frequent topic here I thought others would enjoy seeing what kind of results it provides regarding genetic heritage. I'm quite sure PeterB is right and the results are not conclusive. I paid $99 and didn't really expect the results to be perfect. It is interesting though and my results do agree with what I've been told regarding our families past.

My next door neighbor did the same test and received very surprising results. She used those results to find new family members and fill in the gaps of her own genealogical records. It's all very interesting.

[DeusxMac]

srf1957 wrote:
[quote=DeusxMac]
[quote=davemchine]
[quote=And that only works if everyone was monogamous]

-That's the part I was wondering about. :-)

I've been using the tools on the 23andme website tonight and have made positive links with two other families. So far it has been a fun situation.
Monogomy has nothing to do with it.

It doesn't matter how many women your father "slept" with, you only inherit from your actual mother. And vice versa. Who was talking about 4g grandfather? Ah, I know it's way up there at the top, but the original poster was.

[Janit]

PeterB wrote:
I'm still not convinced from that graphic above. Saying, for example, that you are "1.5% Scandinavian" ... what does that mean? Sure, there could be markers or even haplotypes which are more commonly found in people of Scandinavian descent, but that doesn't mean you (or they) are Scandinavian. In other words, someone could have a marker or markers but not really be from that region. (This could happen simply because of migrations, etc.) It's simply not that exact, and giving the data/percentages that way is misleading.

Also... I chuckled a bit when I saw the large swath of medium blue that I'm taking them to mean "nonspecific Northern/Southern European" but which also looks to include a lot of Eastern Europe, for which you'd think they'd have more precise markers. A lot of Jews are from that part of the world, and I'd guess they have separate markers for that, but the likelihood is good that anyone who is Jewish or of non-Jewish European descent is not "pure"... if you know what I mean! (

It would be nice to see the reasoning they use to yield these numbers. No doubt they use oversimplified percentages because the general public would choke on any technical discussions of probabilities and haplotypes etc. It is also easier for customers to identify with particular places or nationalities than with haplotype distribution probabilities.

Genetic markers move through populations and through space with time. Migration does not negate origin conclusions, it is part of the package.

There have been some interesting studies of European Jews. Complementary studies of Y chromosome DNA and mitochondrial DNA suggest that many of the Jewish men who migrated into the area came without wives and married local European women. In general many European women were absorbed into the Jewish community, and many fewer European men married in.

[haikuman]

miley-score010:
This is indeed a great topic and most interesting discussion

Thanks for getting this started davemachine ~!~

Rudie *(:>*

[PeterB]

Janit wrote:
Genetic markers move through populations and through space with time. Migration does not negate origin conclusions, it is part of the package.

Right, but it depends on how you define "origin". Saying someone's origin is Scandinavian is misleading, because that implies that only people from that part of the world could have those markers/haplotype, which is simply wrong. Also, we're all just mutated Africans anyway... so it also depends exactly how far back you want to go, when you say "origin".

[Janit]

PeterB wrote:
[quote=Janit]
Genetic markers move through populations and through space with time. Migration does not negate origin conclusions, it is part of the package.

Right, but it depends on how you define "origin". Saying someone's origin is Scandinavian is misleading, because that implies that only people from that part of the world could have those markers/haplotype, which is simply wrong. Also, we're all just mutated Africans anyway... so it also depends exactly how far back you want to go, when you say "origin".
Indeed. The results above do say they "reflect where your ancestors lived 500 years ago," drawing from 31 populations. My interpretation of the results is that 60.5% of his tested loci were most commonly spread out in a large area of Northern Europe 500 years ago, 1.5% of his tested loci were highly focused in Scandinavia 500 years ago, etc.

Of course, the ancestor carrying those "Scandinavian" loci might have left Scandinavia for Europe 550 years ago and there would be no way know. Nevertheless, there appears to be some low level of relatedness to the Scandinavian population.

[sekker]

As a geneticist, I'm ok with the genealogy definition they use. It's just an average estimate, not an absolute path in terms of origin that they are describing. This is for entertainment use.

What I object to are the health predictions - there, the company's approach is not nearly sufficiently precise. I fear that there are people who take their comments far too literally.