anyone get unexpected / surprise results in DNA test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here, but obviously the only way to inherit DNA from your grandparents is to get it from your parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP. I don’t think that poster was implying that Europeans/their history is boring. She’s saying that she can look in the mirror and see that she’s white. She didn’t need a DNA test to tell her that. She probably knows where some of her ancestors came from, so if her DNA analysis only mentions those countries, she didn’t learn anything new. She was hoping there’d be some surprise in her results that made DNA testing worthwhile because it gave her previously unknown information. She found her results boring because there was no new revelation, not because there’s anything wrong with where her ancestors came from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here, but obviously the only way to inherit DNA from your grandparents is to get it from your parents.

Maybe she means you inherit lots of genes that aren’t expressed, but can be passed on. For example, I inherited the gene for blue eyes from my mother, but I have brown eyes like my dad. My dh has blue eyes. We have one blue eyed child who inherited that gene from both of us and one brown eyed child who inherited the gene for blue eyes from her dad, but inherited the gene for brown eyes from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here, but obviously the only way to inherit DNA from your grandparents is to get it from your parents.

Maybe she means you inherit lots of genes that aren’t expressed, but can be passed on. For example, I inherited the gene for blue eyes from my mother, but I have brown eyes like my dad. My dh has blue eyes. We have one blue eyed child who inherited that gene from both of us and one brown eyed child who inherited the gene for blue eyes from her dad, but inherited the gene for brown eyes from me.

Apparently ancestry results don’t skip a generation like recessive eye color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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...

Is it? I’m sure it depends on state law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wow Pp that is quite a story!

[Anonymous]

I learned that I'm 100 percent Ashkenazi. Like, not even 99.9. Not that it was a surprise, necessarily. It's shocking that I don't have any of the genetic disorders common to Ashkenazi ancestry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wild. Sounds like everyone is making the best of it, at least!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Hugs to your dad and his siblings. It's good to hear that he has these relationships with his siblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Black African American surprised to find my results were European and African split right down the middle 50/50. The other shock was for my entire life I’ve heard that we also have Native American ancestry. My DNA proved otherwise.

I’m surprised you find this surprising. Many African Americans have a lot of European ancestry.

Maybe someone along the way said Native American to explain why they looked so white, because they didn’t want to get into the pain of explaining or thinking about their white ancestors raping their black ancestors….

True. Many don’t realize that White slave owners raping their Black slaves was very common. This helped them to create more slaves (which meant more free labor or more slaves to sell for money).

So true! Many don't want to admit that this could be part of their history.

I'm concerned with how many half siblings could be out there. That would be on the male side. As a female, would my results show me what's on my biological "dad's" side?

[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 work for a company that does contract work for the Federal Government. We are not allowed to use any of these sites. No detailed explanation, just that it poses a significant security risk. This has been a rule since I was hired 5 years ago but it wasn't until last year when they brought it up at our annual trainings.

[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.

To add, my husband has no italian lineage.

OP here. So this interests me because my sibling had her DNA tested and I just assumed mine would be identical. Is the difference because your siblings used different DNA testing companies at different times, do you think? Or do you think it can be that variable between relatives?

Someone may have already answered this but the best visual explanation is candy theory (m&m, skittles,gummy bears). I'll use M&Ms.

Mom gets red. Dad gets green. Put them in jar and mix them up. You and a sibling each get a handful equaling 23 M&Ms. Each handful of 23 will be a different mix. Typically same but different percentages unless you are twins. Sites that offer chromosome painters show this in a graphic format.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I learned that I'm 100 percent Ashkenazi. Like, not even 99.9. Not that it was a surprise, necessarily. It's shocking that I don't have any of the genetic disorders common to Ashkenazi ancestry.

You might want to do the genetic testing. There are rare diseases that occur more frequently in Ashkenazi genes.

https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/health-topics/ashkenazi-jewish-genetic-panel-ajgp#:~:text=The%20Ashkenazi%20Jewish%20genetic%20panel,disability%20and%20a%20shortened%20lifespan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Someone may have already answered this but the best visual explanation is candy theory (m&m, skittles,gummy bears). I'll use M&Ms.

Mom gets red. Dad gets green. Put them in jar and mix them up. You and a sibling each get a handful equaling 23 M&Ms. Each handful of 23 will be a different mix. Typically same but different percentages unless you are twins. Sites that offer chromosome painters show this in a graphic format.

Note that I simplified this illustration by giving each parent one color/one ethnicity. That's rarely the case but it does make genetic genealogy easy when it happens.

[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.

To add, my husband has no italian lineage.

OP here. So this interests me because my sibling had her DNA tested and I just assumed mine would be identical. Is the difference because your siblings used different DNA testing companies at different times, do you think? Or do you think it can be that variable between relatives?

You get a random grab bag of genes from each parent. Siblings don't necessarily get the same ones, so that skews results that presume to make blanket statements about bigger-picture ancestry.