Who has had their DNA checked for ancestry? Or will you?

[Thebobo]

Ok I'm going to prove to my employer that I am not African American! (In case you missed it my personal file labels me as a African American.) Actually I was just curious and its cheap now.

 

[lxskllr]

Nope. Aside from the dubious results, I don't want my dna in databases. What does it matter anyway? You can be whatever you want. Want to be Irish? Tell everyone you're Irish. Drink whiskey and beer, learn the difference between a jig and reel, and walk in like you own the place. Who's gonna tell you you aren't Irish?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Nope. Aside from the dubious results, I don't want my dna in databases. What does it matter anyway? You can be whatever you want. Want to be Irish? Tell everyone you're Irish. Drink whiskey and beer, learn the difference between a jig and reel, and walk in like you own the place. Who's gonna tell you you aren't Irish?

Scotsmen.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've kind of been toying with it as I'm just curious about not only ancestry but medical stuff and just genetic stuff in general. Though I don't like the possible security/privacy implications. Supposedly if you ask them to destroy the results they have to, but how do you really know they did.

Then again I'm sure the government already has DNA for every citizen anyway. It's probably taken at birth or something.

 

[DietDrThunder]

No way I’ll ever have my dna in a database by choice. My finger prints and photos are already in the U.S. government databases, which is why none of my devices can be accessed by fingerprints or facial recognition. Not that I’ve done anything wrong, but the data breach of the government databases has already caused me a big headache.

 

[Noah Abrams]

The results about ancestry, how specific are they? Or are they just some vague general mumbo jumbo?

 

[SKORPI0]

NO.

https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/science/do-ancestry-dna-tests-actually-work
http://www.slate.com/articles/techn...ne_ancestry_including_elizabeth_warren_s.html
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ccurate-how-secure-and-how-private/915918001/

Whether there’s any harm in people basing their identity on faulty reasoning is unclear, but the success of these commercial endeavors proves that at the very least, consumers find it kind of fun.
Genetic testing is basically just a low-cost way to get a blurry picture of whom your ancestors might have been related to.

 

[brianmanahan]

i might someday, just for the heck of it and to compare against the estimates i've come up with.

i already have my family tree mapped out to at least the 4th generation back in every branch (and some back 20+ generations), so i can already calculate my country of origin percentages pretty accurately.

not like it matters, but i find it kind of fun to do. especially in north america where there's no written history past 400-500 years.

 

[DigDog]

i can already trace my lineage to the middle ages.

 

[pcgeek11]

I'd rather not turn over my DNA to unknown people for who knows what purposes.

I don't trust them...

 

[Gillbot]

No because idgaf

 

[interchange]

If my DNA is going to be used to create the next generation of super intelligent people, I prefer passing on my generic material the old fashioned way.

 

[IronWing]

If my DNA is going to be used to create the next generation of super intelligent people, I prefer passing on my generic material the old fashioned way.

Patent it and charge your kids a licensing fee.

 

[brianmanahan]

No because idgaf

good thing your ancestors did though

otherwise you wouldn't be here

 

[Red Squirrel]

Anyone know about the medical portion of the tests that 23andme does? I know you're not suppose to take those as 100% but generally are they decently accurate? I think it could be useful as a way to skew diet/live style to prevent whatever it comes up with. Like if it says I have a high risk of something I can look into what I should do to prevent it. If anything it would be more of a "good to know" thing.

I still worry a bit about the privacy side of it, but really the government probably already has all that info anyway, so whatever. Healthcare is free here so there's no insurance companies to worry about either. In the states the big concern would be that insurance companies get the data and stop insuring you or charge you more.

 

[lxskllr]

Anyone know about the medical portion of the tests that 23andme does? I know you're not suppose to take those as 100% but generally are they decently accurate? I think it could be useful as a way to skew diet/live style to prevent whatever it comes up with. Like if it says I have a high risk of something I can look into what I should do to prevent it. If anything it would be more of a "good to know" thing.

Better not knowing imo. Any diet/lifestyle changes that are better for $disease, are probably better for anyone, and you should be doing them anyway. Just something else to worry about...

 

[WelshBloke]

Nope. I know who my dad and mum are, and my grandparents. I know where I was born. I know where I grew up.

That's who you are.

You're not Irish because a bunch of people you never met lived in a country you've never been to but you happen to be descended from came from.

 

[Charlie22911]

I actually mailed off my 23andme specimen a couple weeks ago, takes about 6 weeks to process; I opted for ancestry + health.

Once I get my results I’ll share my thoughts on it and if I thought it was worth it.
It should be noted though that your ancestry results are highly variable and can only really narrow down from what continent your ancestors hailed. The rest is pretty much statistical analysis or something of the sort.

 

[WelshBloke]

i can already trace my lineage to the middle ages.

Whoopee doo. Everyone's lineage goes back as far as yours!

The impressive thing would be the people who didn't have that!

 

[Kaido]

I'll just leave this here:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ry-dna-test-fertility-sperm-father/485240002/

 

[Red Squirrel]

Given I have red hair I imagine it's safe to assume I'm at least partially Irish, or Scottish, or somewhere along those lines. Not that it really matters, it's more a cool thing to know, I guess.

 

[Thebobo]

Better not knowing imo. Any diet/lifestyle changes that are better for $disease, are probably better for anyone, and you should be doing them anyway. Just something else to worry about...

Not sure I agree and example would be if they find out that you are predisposed to a cancer you would get tested more often and hopefully catch it earlier and possibly prolong your life. But then you would be worry a lot more knowing you are predisposed and the stress that can cause can kill you.

I had some extra dough and I wanted to know where I came from beyond my grandparents. But then again I use facebook, windows, chrome all the stuff haters here hate.

 

[Thebobo]

Given I have red hair I imagine it's safe to assume I'm at least partially Irish, or Scottish, or somewhere along those lines. Not that it really matters, it's more a cool thing to know, I guess.

You could be from Mother Russia as well.

 

[Zeze]

I always wondered if this worked for Asian people. Their schtick is looking up all the western records, right?

 

[local]

My paternal grandfather was adopted, we don't even know his birth name. He had a large family and all of us have the adopted last name. So getting him tested is just one more tool I am using to try to track down where we all came from.