What would it take to submit someone’s dna sample to one of these outfits like Ancestry.com to get a report on a person’s ancestry background?

What do they need to run the tests. How accurate are the reports?

My mom just did it. They send you a plastic tube and you fill it up with spit and send it back. Pretty easy and we actually got the results faster than expected.

Read the fine print if you are worried about privacy. This person did 23 and me, the competitor and they store and categorize your data.

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Originally posted by sig77:
My mom just did it. They send you a plastic tube and you fill it up with spit and send it back. Pretty easy and we actually got the results faster than expected.

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Originally posted by sig 226:
Read the fine print if you are worried about privacy. This person did 23 and me, the competitor and they store and categorize your data.

This is true but the data is not connected to you in any way. They have no clue who is who.

How much dna material is needed?

The tube holds how much?

Ancestry test is better for where you come from info. 23&me better for health stuff. Privacy stuff is pretty tight and some class actions a few years ago got agreements to limit. Also 23&me collects group DNA data that is helping with some cancers and genetic disorders.

There seems to be considerable doubt on the accuracy of this process. Here is a short read on the topic:
https://www.legalgenealogist.c...4/16/still-not-soup/

It’s either small tube yiu fill with spit for 23& me or three small cotton swabs for ancestry. Very small abouts. Takes about 5 minute

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Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
There seems to be considerable doubt on the accuracy of this process. Here is a short read on the topic:
https://www.legalgenealogist.c...4/16/still-not-soup/

The Today show just did the same thing in December and they all matched exactly. YMMV

We know somebody whose sisters all did ancestry.com, I believe it was, and they all came back with different heritages

I did it last year. My parents are both 100% Ukrainian, but I just wanted to see if there was a surprise in my genes.

Turns out I’m 100% Ukrainian.

It’s gonna be interesting to see how you get the spit from the unsuspecting individual you’re planning to do DNA research on...

One of their commercials, with the white woman who had no idea she was 26% Native American, is curious. Twenty-six percent is one quarter, which means one grandparent was Native American. How do you not know this?

Get 'em stinking, blind, falling down drunk. When they pass out on the couch, stand by to collect drool.

While you're at it, might as well bring a variety of magic markers

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
One of their commercials, with the white woman who had no idea she was 26% Native American, is curious. Twenty-six percent is one quarter, which means one grandparent was Native American. How do you not know this?

Tons of reasons, the quickest that comes to mind would be adoption.

My parents are waiting on results now. My mother we have a decent idea, but are curious on percentages. My father was adopted, so all we know is "middle east", which obviously is a HUGE area.

Closest we've ever gotten was Iraqi nationals telling me that they thought I was Iranian when we first met (I was in civvies) because of face structure and some other features that I guess people from the region would know. It'll be interesting to see the results!

Three triplets that appeared in Playboy were tested. Their ancestory was a bit off:
"Nicole seemed to have an 11 percent German and French heritage, her sister’s numbers came up totally different. Jaclyn’s results showed she was 18 percent German and French, while Erica’s said she was 22.3 percent German and French."
"the DNA test claimed that Nicole, the oldest Dahm sister, was 18 percent Irish and British while Erica was only 16 percent Irish and British."
"Erica and Jaclyn, the youngest sisters, both came back with the exact same results. It seemed that Erica and Jaclyn’s Scandinavian ancestry was exactly 7.4 percent. Surprisingly, Nicole’s results said that she was made up of 11.4 percent Scandinavian ancestry."
http://www.ninjajournalist.com...l-triplets-dna-test/

While there was no huge gaps, the conclusion was that he tests are still not advanced enough to get 100 percent accuracy. This brings to mind a couple of Ancesty ads where people use the test to discover their "roots." One I recall "When Lyn wanted to find out her ethnic origin, she looked to AncestryDNA through which she learned she was 26 percent Nigerian. Knowing more than before about her culture, Lyn was able to embrace her gele, calling it the most important hat she's ever owned." Really?

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Originally posted by Icabod:
Three triplets that appeared in Playboy were tested. Their ancestory was a bit off:
"Nicole seemed to have an 11 percent German and French heritage, her sister’s numbers came up totally different. Jaclyn’s results showed she was 18 percent German and French, while Erica’s said she was 22.3 percent German and French."
"the DNA test claimed that Nicole, the oldest Dahm sister, was 18 percent Irish and British while Erica was only 16 percent Irish and British."
"Erica and Jaclyn, the youngest sisters, both came back with the exact same results. It seemed that Erica and Jaclyn’s Scandinavian ancestry was exactly 7.4 percent. Surprisingly, Nicole’s results said that she was made up of 11.4 percent Scandinavian ancestry."
http://www.ninjajournalist.com...l-triplets-dna-test/

While there was no huge gaps, the conclusion was that he tests are still not advanced enough to get 100 percent accuracy. This brings to mind a couple of Ancesty ads where people use the test to discover their "roots." One I recall "When Lyn wanted to find out her ethnic origin, she looked to AncestryDNA through which she learned she was 26 percent Nigerian. Knowing more than before about her culture, Lyn was able to embrace her gele, calling it the most important hat she's ever owned." Really?

I'm curious and not a DNA expert by any means, but...would genes and traits affect the "percentages" in any way?

For example, like I pointed out my father is middle eastern, country TBD, and my mother is German with some Irish and Italian that we are aware of.

My sister inherited most of the traits from my mother's side - blue eyes, dark hair, fair skin, tall, etc. While I inherited the traits from my fathers side, the middle eastern traits. Dark eyes, dark skin, dark hair, etc. My sister and I don't appear related at first glance in any way.

So I wonder if she and I were to do it, if the %'s would be the same, or if I would have a higher percentage of "middle eastern heritage" while her Germanic numbers would be higher.

Again I have zero knowledge in this area, and my layman's brain seems to think that would make sense...

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:
One of their commercials, with the white woman who had no idea she was 26% Native American, is curious. Twenty-six percent is one quarter, which means one grandparent was Native American. How do you not know this?

Funny you should mention this.

My purpose in inquiring was to figure out how to get useable material from Pocahontas.

It might not becas easy as I hoped.

I did both 23 and Me and Ancestry. There are some minor discrepancies but none of major consequence. I was surprised by the 23 and Me of the number of Neanderthal markers I have. 307, the highest they have on file was 391. Most of my ancestors are from Central Germany so it does make sense that I would have a high number of markers. I guess I definitely qualify under the knuckle dragger group! The Ancestry results show many more marker areas than 23 and Me. If you want the health results from 23 and Me wait a bit. The price has gone from $100 down to $69 for the report. Supposedly I have until Feb. 1 to decide but am somewhat curious if it will decrease even more if I choose to wait. I am 69 years old so much of the health data may not be all that valuable to me at this point in life, I've got just about everything that can go wrong so far and expect more. I might bite if it goes to $50.
Both of my tests in December were spit in the tube type.
I also turned up a 1st cousin once removed or second cousin from Idaho that none of the family is aware of. She was adopted at birth so is very thrilled to suddenly have an extended biological family. We have determined she is from my mothers side of the family as she is also shown as related to one of my cousins from that side but no ties to known relatives on my fathers side. There may have been some wild oats strewn somewhere.

My brother and I both did DNA testing, from two different companies. I sent mine to My Heritage and my brother to Ancestry. Obviously, we did this to test their legitimacy. We understood our mother to be 100% Irish, and our dad to be a mixture that included Irish. Our tests were very similar, about 60% Irish, and 38% English. Difference was that my test said 60% “Irish, Scottish, or Welsh.” My brother’s test from Ancestry specified “Irish” right down to the predominate province of origin, “Munster.” Family history was that (at least) my mother’s maternal side was from County Clare—in Munster Province. I think it’s neat that both tests came out pretty much the same. Surprised to find out that our dad was much less of a mix of heritage than we thought.