anyone get unexpected / surprise results in DNA test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am the OP and I don't need you policing other people's replies unless they are offensive or attacks. Saying their results were boring is totally harmless and not worth getting in a pickle over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s truly interesting how many secrets families bury, and how many people have unknown half siblings. Our ancestors were not so angelic.

[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.

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Brown eye color is a dominant genetic trait whereas blue eye color is a recessive trait. So PP, even if you carry the blue eye gene, you’re more likely to have brown eyes because you have the brown eye color gene and it’s a dominant trait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s truly interesting how many secrets families bury, and how many people have unknown half siblings. Our ancestors were not so angelic.

Here's what's crazy to me- my dad is super into genealogy and has traced our family tree to the 13th century. But all it takes is one woman to have cheated on her husband and the whole tree is moot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I think another way to think about it is puppies. When a black dog and a white dog have puppies, the resulting puppies can be a varied mix of black/white. One puppy can be all white, one puppy can be all black, but usually the puppies will have a mix of both in various different patterns and amounts of coloring. They don’t all inherit the exact same amount of black or white from each parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Brown eye color is a dominant genetic trait whereas blue eye color is a recessive trait. So PP, even if you carry the blue eye gene, you’re more likely to have brown eyes because you have the brown eye color gene and it’s a dominant trait.

You just reiterated what I was saying, so not sure what your point is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Federal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s truly interesting how many secrets families bury, and how many people have unknown half siblings. Our ancestors were not so angelic.

Here's what's crazy to me- my dad is super into genealogy and has traced our family tree to the 13th century. But all it takes is one woman to have cheated on her husband and the whole tree is moot.

This is so true. I'm guessing that a lot of nobles and royals actually had their lines broken a long time ago.

[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.

Do you know what it's called? It must be very new.

[Anonymous]

https://www.germany.info/us-en/service/03-Citizenship/-/2479488

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish women could get info on their father's side. Well, you can, but you need a male relative to do the test, and I don't have one.

New tests can show both parentage apparently - OP here - this is my son's one which shows what we already knew about my side of the family and is showing us now also this combined with my DH's side. There's a lot of overlap, we're from the UK and have a lot of Irish / Welsh / Scottish ancestry (70%) and Scandinavian (they invaded Ireland substantially). The Maori percentage was about 8% which isn't huge but is also not trace

Nope. Women only have X chromosomes. You need the Y to get the haplogroup info on heritage from the father's side.

Really? So my Ancestry.com dna is only giving me matches from my mothers side? If I wanted male dna and have no brothers I’d have to use the dna from a male cousin?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish women could get info on their father's side. Well, you can, but you need a male relative to do the test, and I don't have one.

New tests can show both parentage apparently - OP here - this is my son's one which shows what we already knew about my side of the family and is showing us now also this combined with my DH's side. There's a lot of overlap, we're from the UK and have a lot of Irish / Welsh / Scottish ancestry (70%) and Scandinavian (they invaded Ireland substantially). The Maori percentage was about 8% which isn't huge but is also not trace

Nope. Women only have X chromosomes. You need the Y to get the haplogroup info on heritage from the father's side.

Really? So my Ancestry.com dna is only giving me matches from my mothers side? If I wanted male dna and have no brothers I’d have to use the dna from a male cousin?

Your are miscommunicating. The person you’re responding to is talking about Haplogroup. You, on the other hand, are talking about your DNA results and your matches, which you’ve been given for both sides of your family. Google Haplogroup.

[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.

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.

Everything in the Canadian Healthcare system isn't free. It doesn't cost what it does in the U.S.but a lot of it is not free.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s truly interesting how many secrets families bury, and how many people have unknown half siblings. Our ancestors were not so angelic.

It literally was toxic patriarchy and religion running rampant over everyone's lives. And there are people who think these were the good old days and want to bring it back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

It’s truly interesting how many secrets families bury, and how many people have unknown half siblings. Our ancestors were not so angelic.

It literally was toxic patriarchy and religion running rampant over everyone's lives. And there are people who think these were the good old days and want to bring it back.

That’s my conclusion too! These “happy days” were not so happy.