anyone get unexpected / surprise results in DNA test?

[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.

Yes, very much so. My parents are Canadian and old; they were happy to test because they get free healthcare! No concern of discrimination at this point. DH and i opted not to test for privacy and health insurance concerns.

[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.

The thing is that the classification of small portions of genetic data into heritage groups is not so straightforward. It really is a fuzzy tool, and there are different ways to define the heritage groups, too.

[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.

This is a good explanation. Thank you.

[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.

The thing is that the classification of small portions of genetic data into heritage groups is not so straightforward. It really is a fuzzy tool, and there are different ways to define the heritage groups, too.

I’m not sure your point? It’s actually quite accurate.

[Anonymous]

Nothing exciting in mine. My father always said we were English, Scottish, French, and German, and I came back 100% Northwestern European, with 98% being directly assigned to those four countries, and the rest being "broadly northwestern European." Whomp whomp.

[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.

The thing is that the classification of small portions of genetic data into heritage groups is not so straightforward. It really is a fuzzy tool, and there are different ways to define the heritage groups, too.

I’m not sure your point? It’s actually quite accurate.

Well, clarify what you mean by "quite accurate," and be sure to take note of the discussion above about algorithms selecting specific patterns to define the groups but not every descendant of the group inheriting that specific pattern.

There are also different algorithm systems and results change a lot depending on which one is used.

And... another weakness can be the size of the reference group used to represent a heritage group.

Plus, sometimes heritage groups are defined by some companies in a way that doesn't make sense to the members of the groups themselves. There is usually a logic to the companies' decisions, but it may not tell the whole story. A PP's confusion about the Indian origins of European Roma is a good example. There are probably companies that would describe Roma as European for that reason, and it wouldn't be entirely illogical, but it obscures a big part of the story. Then again, most European groups have things like central Asian ancestry in ancient times. So it becomes a question of when you're defining the beginning of time for grouping purposes.

Just not that simple.

[Anonymous]

You should check out the 60 Minutes story about how that DNA is being used!

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dna-genealogy-privacy-60-minutes-2021-01-31/

[Anonymous]

My results were fascinating, and when combined with genealogy research, I learned things I wouldn’t have otherwise known. My great-grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy, and on my other side I have other ancestors from Ireland, England and Germany. All of my results lined up with what we knew, but they even revealed things I did not know.

[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.

My husband is 50% Ashkenazi and he passed two of the major genetic mutations to our children. Most of his ancestors are 100% Ashkenazi Jewish which is the reason for the mutations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My results were fascinating, and when combined with genealogy research, I learned things I wouldn’t have otherwise known. My great-grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy, and on my other side I have other ancestors from Ireland, England and Germany. All of my results lined up with what we knew, but they even revealed things I did not know.

Germany is currently offering dual citizenship/passports to US citizens who can trace back and prove their relative came from Germany after a certain year. It's a short term program that will only be in effect for a couple years I believe. You should see if you qualify. An EU passport would be an awesome travel or retirement asset.

[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.

I never said having white/Northern European heritage isn't interesting. This thread is about getting unexpected/surprise results from DNA testing.

I've always been told our heritage is UK/Irish, so I was sort of hoping we'd learn -- as so many have on this thread -- that somewhere along the line someone strayed from the fold. Apparently not.

Also, your energy around celebrating being white is a bit..... odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My results were fascinating, and when combined with genealogy research, I learned things I wouldn’t have otherwise known. My great-grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe and Italy, and on my other side I have other ancestors from Ireland, England and Germany. All of my results lined up with what we knew, but they even revealed things I did not know.

Germany is currently offering dual citizenship/passports to US citizens who can trace back and prove their relative came from Germany after a certain year. It's a short term program that will only be in effect for a couple years I believe. You should see if you qualify. An EU passport would be an awesome travel or retirement asset.

Very cool! They immigrated back in the 1700s! So I probably don’t qualify, but it’s neat how countries are doing this now.

[Anonymous]

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.


A DNA test result is *boring* when you *know* you come from a specific place. No surprises = boring DNA test.

Keep up with the topic of the thread.

[Anonymous]

I was trying to find my dad's biological father. When I was able to identify the individual through Ancestry, it was a total stranger and not really surprising to me. It WAS a surprise, however, to my father's seven half-siblings - who'd all had a crappy childhood with their father after their mother died young. They didn't want to know anything about the father cheating on the mother on top of all that and voted to not have any communication with my father (I got all this from a biological cousin serving as go-between). Fine with me - my dad really did not care at all. And it was more of an interesting puzzle for me, and more about "solving" than meeting anyone new.

[Anonymous]

13:00 here; my father's biological father had been dead for over 20 years already by that time.