anyone get unexpected / surprise results in DNA test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom and dad both tested (I haven't yet - but assume I can just rely on their data).

Mom was 100% UK.

Dad was 99% Uk and 1% Ashkenazi jew from the north of Spain.

That was kind of funny - like, the most white, waspy, could-have-been-on-the-mayflower make up. Except 150 years ago, someone in Southampton probably had a wild weekend with a Jewish visitor from Spain.

There is literally no such category

She meant British Isles. Yes, that is a category

No sorry there is not.

Mine does! And I'm on 2 different sites. You must be on , hmmm, none!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom and dad both tested (I haven't yet - but assume I can just rely on their data).

Mom was 100% UK.

Dad was 99% Uk and 1% Ashkenazi jew from the north of Spain.

That was kind of funny - like, the most white, waspy, could-have-been-on-the-mayflower make up. Except 150 years ago, someone in Southampton probably had a wild weekend with a Jewish visitor from Spain.

There is literally no such category

She meant British Isles. Yes, that is a category

No sorry there is not.

I am 67% British Isles. Yes, there absolutely is a category that indicates British Isles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of incorrect information on here from people who don't understand the difference between autosomal dna and sex-linked dna. You get half of your dna from each of your parents regardless of your biological sex. Females don't have a Y chromosome, but that only means you can't get the limited information contained on that one chromosome regarding that haploid group. The poster at 15: 16 summarized it correctly.

Ethnicity is not inherited in equal parts, so you don’t get 50% of DNA from each parent.

Half of your DNA is from your mother and half is from your father. Each side is recombined so you get a random mixture from each parent. If your mom is 100% Irish and your dad is 50% Italian and 50% ashkenazi Jewish, then half of your DNA will be Irish, and half will be a recombination of Italian and Jewish. On that side, it may be an equal 25% Jewish and 25% Italian. Or, it maybe 40% Italian and 10% Jewish. THAT is how siblings get different results. But each sibling would be approximately 50% Irish.

Yes, half of your DNA is from each parent, but that doesn’t mean half of your ethnicity is from each parent. Your parents also inherited a random 50% of DNA from their parents. So a person could inherit DNA from their grandparents that their parents did not inherit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think is interesting is that my sister and share the same parents but have pretty different ethnic compositions. My mom is 100% italian, my dad is a combo of german, irish polish.

My sister is 60% italian, with less of the others.
I'm 20% italian, with more of the others.
Also, my son has more italian, 35%, than me.

Pretty cool.

This doesn’t add up. Biological siblings should be fairly similar. There is variation but not like what you are describing.

If your mother is 100% Italian, you both should be about 50% Italian. If your sister is 60% that means she inherited 10% Italian from your father’s side as well. The fact that you’re only 20% doesn’t make sense. As for your son having 35% Italian (more than you!), that indicates his father had some Italian DNA as well.

I think it's because humans have been mating with each other across culture for 100,000 years, so it's actually hard to pin down what an "Italian" is.

For example -- I took the test. I'm Indian (Bengali) and both my parents are from the same region of Bengal, as are their ancestors for as long as anyone can remember -- like, hundreds of years and many generations. I look like a completely typical Bengali woman.

But when I took the test, my results were 50% South Asian, 25% Central Asian, 25 % Southeast Asian. The only way this makes sense is because people in this region have been migrating and mating over the last, like 10,000 years. I read into their methodology and they said they take a "typical" person from that region and compare you DNA to that person. I *am* a typical Bengali person, but that's the breakdown I got.

Results from certain regions are not as accurate as other areas yet. My DH is also Bengali. My guess is a lot of Bengali’s don’t take the Ancestry tests. The more data they have and the more people in their data panel, the more refined and accurate the results are.

And yes “Italian” becomes meaningless when you look that far back in time. But I think most people are interested in more recent history - where did my great-great grandparents come from, for example. I did my DNA and there were significant surprises! (European background)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom and dad both tested (I haven't yet - but assume I can just rely on their data).

Mom was 100% UK.

Dad was 99% Uk and 1% Ashkenazi jew from the north of Spain.

That was kind of funny - like, the most white, waspy, could-have-been-on-the-mayflower make up. Except 150 years ago, someone in Southampton probably had a wild weekend with a Jewish visitor from Spain.

There is literally no such category

She meant British Isles. Yes, that is a category

No sorry there is not.

Mine does! And I'm on 2 different sites. You must be on , hmmm, none!

I’m the pp who said their parents were majority traced to the UK, and it’s been four years so I don’t remember exactly what the report called it, but yes it definitely traced it back to just that island. If I recall, even Ireland wasn’t included. We were shocked at how specific it was, and it wasn’t even just “western Europe”,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom and dad both tested (I haven't yet - but assume I can just rely on their data).

Mom was 100% UK.

Dad was 99% Uk and 1% Ashkenazi jew from the north of Spain.

That was kind of funny - like, the most white, waspy, could-have-been-on-the-mayflower make up. Except 150 years ago, someone in Southampton probably had a wild weekend with a Jewish visitor from Spain.

Curious if it said Ashkenazi? Spanish Jews are considered Sephardic, a different branch of Judaism with different food traditions, liturgy, and day to day language (Ladino not Yiddish). Not that there couldn’t have been a visitor I suppose but it seems odd.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone who has taken these tests concerned about privacy? I would be worried that my DNA will get sold to a health insurance company or life insurance company and will have to pay higher premiums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone who has taken these tests concerned about privacy? I would be worried that my DNA will get sold to a health insurance company or life insurance company and will have to pay higher premiums.

I thought about it, but decided to go for it anyway. My advice is to do just once company, Ancestry.com. I did 23 & me, and do regret that one. it was a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My sister did hers and found out we are as white as white can be. Not a drop of anything interesting.

This is SO irritating. Why is "white" or in actuality, a blend of European ethnicities boring? All it says is that you are ignorant of history. Do some work to learn about your heritage, which is just as "interesting" as every other heritage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dad's entire life as he knew it was obliterated by a DNA test 5 years ago.

-His brother was a half brother
-He had a full sibling that had been put up for adoption
-He had 3 half siblings (2 from his dad, 1 from his mom)
-And drum roll please......his brother's biological dad was the Catholic pastor of their church who had mentored them all his childhood, he told his confessions to, etc

As in, a Catholic priest? Was this a consensual relationship between the priest and his mom?

Yes, my dad had a horribly tumultuous childhood- his dad was in a traveling basketball league (which eventually became the NBA) so he was gone for months at a time and him and his siblings lived in total squalor with their mom. She was an alcohol and would sleep with people for money so apparently she and the priest had a standing arrangement. They had garbage everywhere- the the extent that my dad didn't walk until he was almost 3yo because he was crawling through garbage, no clean clothes, fended for themselves for food. When my dad was 5 (he's the youngest of the siblings they knew about/lived with), the Catholic Church (aha!) removed the children from the home and placed them in an orphanage where my dad lived in a cottage with 7 other boys and a nun until he aged out at 18.

5 years ago his brother needed a transplant and all the siblings got tested to see if they were a match. The sick brother had a different blood type than the rest of the siblings to the extend that there was no way they were full siblings which initiated this can of worms. He declined fairly rapidly, and my aunt threw herself into trying to find out the truth, and my uncle did find out on his death bed that his biological father was the priest- to which he exclaimed "holy sh-t! I am the son of god! Heaven here I come!". They all laughed until they cried which is a memory my dad holds on to.

The full brother they found lives in Texas and is 12 years younger than my dad and over 20 years younger than the oldest full sibling. He actually grew up 1.5 miles from the orphanage that his siblings were all at (without knowing) and was adopted at birth into a wealthy family, went to very high end private schools, etc. My dad and brother flew out to Texas and intended to meet him for a day and stay at a hotel, but the new brother insisted they stay at the house with him and they ended up being there for 3 nights/4 days. Since then, my dad and him have a standing phone call every other Thursday night and they've flown to see each other at least once every 6 months. They look so much alike it's crazy.

The priest is the one who instigated the kids being removed from the home and placed in an orphanage. I'm not sure if the intention was to repent for his sins and help the kids or to remove them from the equation for easier access to the mom.

The half siblings have sent some cordial emails (none of them are full siblings to each other) but it hasn't really gone anywhere substantial. I guess my dad's dad was out spreading his seed while on the road playing basketball.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mom and dad both tested (I haven't yet - but assume I can just rely on their data).

Mom was 100% UK.

Dad was 99% Uk and 1% Ashkenazi jew from the north of Spain.

That was kind of funny - like, the most white, waspy, could-have-been-on-the-mayflower make up. Except 150 years ago, someone in Southampton probably had a wild weekend with a Jewish visitor from Spain.

There is literally no such category

She meant British Isles. Yes, that is a category

No sorry there is not.

Every DNA testing service creates their own categories. So you should be a little more humble unless you have tested with all of them...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is a lot of incorrect information on here from people who don't understand the difference between autosomal dna and sex-linked dna. You get half of your dna from each of your parents regardless of your biological sex. Females don't have a Y chromosome, but that only means you can't get the limited information contained on that one chromosome regarding that haploid group. The poster at 15: 16 summarized it correctly.

Ethnicity is not inherited in equal parts, so you don’t get 50% of DNA from each parent.

More science miseducation...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think is interesting is that my sister and share the same parents but have pretty different ethnic compositions. My mom is 100% italian, my dad is a combo of german, irish polish.

My sister is 60% italian, with less of the others.
I'm 20% italian, with more of the others.
Also, my son has more italian, 35%, than me.

Pretty cool.

This doesn’t add up. Biological siblings should be fairly similar. There is variation but not like what you are describing.

If your mother is 100% Italian, you both should be about 50% Italian. If your sister is 60% that means she inherited 10% Italian from your father’s side as well. The fact that you’re only 20% doesn’t make sense. As for your son having 35% Italian (more than you!), that indicates his father had some Italian DNA as well.

No, it doesn't work like this. DNA companies select certain markers related to ethnic "reference populations." Each person is then compared to these populations. If they did not inherit these specific markers, they will have less of that ethnicity, even if they are siblings. This is an imperfect science, so it is more for fun, but the more people test, the more the algorithms will be refined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone who has taken these tests concerned about privacy? I would be worried that my DNA will get sold to a health insurance company or life insurance company and will have to pay higher premiums.

Discrimination based on DNA is against the law...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I think is interesting is that my sister and share the same parents but have pretty different ethnic compositions. My mom is 100% italian, my dad is a combo of german, irish polish.

My sister is 60% italian, with less of the others.
I'm 20% italian, with more of the others.
Also, my son has more italian, 35%, than me.

Pretty cool.

This doesn’t add up. Biological siblings should be fairly similar. There is variation but not like what you are describing.

If your mother is 100% Italian, you both should be about 50% Italian. If your sister is 60% that means she inherited 10% Italian from your father’s side as well. The fact that you’re only 20% doesn’t make sense. As for your son having 35% Italian (more than you!), that indicates his father had some Italian DNA as well.

No, it doesn't work like this. DNA companies select certain markers related to ethnic "reference populations." Each person is then compared to these populations. If they did not inherit these specific markers, they will have less of that ethnicity, even if they are siblings. This is an imperfect science, so it is more for fun, but the more people test, the more the algorithms will be refined.

Correct, I’m aware of how it work. But you must also know that one sibling can’t be 60% Italian while the other sibling is 20% Italian.