Ancestry.com DNA kits

I love this stuff. I'd be interested to know how they actually figure out the genome part and how that relates to different countries from a geographical standpoint. Sure, there's a genetic inclination among people who have historically lived in one area, but to call someone "American," for instance, comes from a very short historical perspective when compared to Human DNA. "Native American" is a whole other story, of course.

I bet there's a strong indicator for people from islands; Ireland or mainland England. Probably also for the indigenous peoples of Australia and Hawaii. There would also be a "container" of people in areas where it is difficult to travel; behind mountain ranges or across deserts from other people. I guess those same obstacles are great natural barriers where geopolitical lines form.

I'd also bet that in future generations these genealogical differences will wane substantially. The world is a lot smaller a place than it used to be.



I had a similar experience when my cousin did some research on our family. I always thought I was mostly German, but it turns out that's only half true - my paternal Great-great-grandfather immigrated here from Switzerland. Not a huge difference, but a significant one.

I got my kit couple weeks ago but I still have to do my sample and send it in. I should get on that soon seeing as it takes a couple weeks to get the results back.

Since then I've been working on my family tree with the help of a book one of my aunts left me. So far I've only worked on my dad's side of things. We're French-Canadian. Both my parents have French last name but I've discovered that one of my X times great-grandfathers was from England. I know we'll have a big portion of our DNA that's from France but can't wait to see what else we have. I also found out that one of my X time great-grandmother was 100% Native American (most likely Iroquois) so somewhere in there I have some Native blood.

I've been putting a lot of time working on the family tree. Thanks to the book I've been able to find up to my 10th great-grandfather and 10th great-grandmother on my father's side of the family and up to my 8th great-grandfather and 8th great-grandmother on my mother's side of the family.

Like I mentioned I'm pretty sure there's a big portion of us that will be from France due to the research I've made but there's no telling for sure until I get the sample done and sent out.

I'm also thinking of getting the 23andme kit as well but that one is quite a bit more expensive so that'll have to wait.

I have to get my Mom and Dad to get an Ancestry DNA kit that way my brother and I can have a better understanding of where we truly come from.

So far I only have a free account on the ancestry.com site simply because the book I have a long with other websites I found have been a great help in researching and completing the family tree. I might sign up for a paid account eventually but i'll sign-up for the 14 day trial to see if it's truly worth it once I can't find more information.

I've got just over 2000 people in my family tree. Everyone from my parents, cousins, cousins of cousins, etc. Still plenty more people to add lol. I know one thing they sure had different names back in the 1500's and 1600's.

Looks like my family has been in Canada for over 400 years.

Maverick, you aren't kidding about the names.

My family has a male tradition of the middle name "Richard." My son's, mine, my father's and his father before him all had Richard as the middle name. I have recently come to find out that my grandfather actually changed his to Richard from "Reinhold." I guess he was embarrassed or something.

I'm really not sure how or if they work.. My girlfriends mom got one for her birthday, and she has Native American in her. I believe her mom or dad was a quarter. She took the test and it showed zero native in her blood.. She is tan, almost like Italian, and it came back with a bunch of very predominate lighter skin ethnicity results. So I'd be curious.

It would be interesting to find out . All my grand parents came from Germany around the time of the war , they always just said as far as they know ,just German .

rhargrave431 wrote:

I'm really not sure how or if they work.. My girlfriends mom got one for her birthday, and she has Native American in her. I believe her mom or dad was a quarter. She took the test and it showed zero native in her blood.. She is tan, almost like Italian, and it came back with a bunch of very predominate lighter skin ethnicity results. So I'd be curious.

There are issues with indigenous Indians and their mitichondrial DNA and lack of biological differences, among other things. Im not an expert but things like this are interesting to me. It appears false negatives may be more common.

http://www.ipcb.org/publications/briefing_papers/files/identity.html

rhargrave431 wrote:

I'm really not sure how or if they work.. My girlfriends mom got one for her birthday, and she has Native American in her. I believe her mom or dad was a quarter. She took the test and it showed zero native in her blood.. She is tan, almost like Italian, and it came back with a bunch of very predominate lighter skin ethnicity results. So I'd be curious.

kzizok wrote:

There are issues with indigenous Indians and their mitichondrial DNA and lack of biological differences, among other things. Im not an expert but things like this are interesting to me. It appears false negatives may be more common.

http://www.ipcb.org/publications/briefing_papers/files/identity.html

Interesting read! Thanks for posting!

Falcon wrote:

Maverick, you aren't kidding about the names.

My family has a male tradition of the middle name "Richard." My son's, mine, my father's and his father before him all had Richard as the middle name. I have recently come to find out that my grandfather actually changed his to Richard from "Reinhold." I guess he was embarrassed or something.

I don't know what it is with the French but there's a hell of a lot of Jean-Baptiste in my family. Kind of lost count to be honest lol.

So far it's been pretty interesting. Found some married couples that had the same decease date only to find out they were killed by the Iroquois Indians.

What a coincidence. My wife and I just got our results in yesterday. She was disappointing the great-great-great grandmother she claimed to be Native American seems to not be represented in her DNA, but for the most part it was as expected.

My family history was mostly a mystery to me but it shows up as about half European and a quarter of both Scandinavian and British/Irish. She turned out to be about 85% German (and Germany's immediate neighbors), which I fully expected knowing her family. My favorite conclusion is that she is 3% Irish (she has red hair so people have always asked her if she is Irish which she has always vehemently denied.).

Who owns Ancestry.com?

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

The Illuminati as far as I heard

It is just to sow discourse among the populace by reinforcing ethnic groupings. Upon seeing my Scandinavian roots I have a strong urge to invade England and do some serious pillaging all of a sudden.

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

My wife got hers back today...her grandmother is 100% Greek (great grandparents-whom she knew as a child-immigrated from Greece...didn't even speak english)...so we figured she was 25% greek (her mom was half Greek).

DNA confirmed she is 29% Greek. So she hasn't been living a lie. lol

Her dad is Irish/Scandinavian...so she is 15% of each of those (30% total between the 2).

Then she has a small amount of West European...and them smaller amounts of West Asia, and Africa.

Very interesting stuff.

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

Ancestry.com has their corporate headquarters here.

I think the concept is pretty cool, but I can't be the only one that gets a little tin-foily about voluntarily submitting my name and DNA to be recorded into some database.

Ebs wrote:

I think the concept is pretty cool, but I can't be the only one that gets a little tin-foily about voluntarily submitting my name and DNA to be recorded into some database.

Is there an option to submit dna without identifying yourself?

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

Titan1 wrote:

Ancestry.com has their corporate headquarters here.

Because the L.D.S. Church owns all of the DNA services.

I'm worried that mine would come back as 103% Neanderthal............

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

Did you get yours thru the ancestry.com website? Or? I haven't checked it out yet, didn't know if there was a CDN place to get it from or not. Think pops wants one for Xmas....

Firefly47 wrote:

Who owns Ancestry.com?

-MAVERICK- wrote:

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

ns503 wrote:

Did you get yours thru the ancestry.com website? Or? I haven't checked it out yet, didn't know if there was a CDN place to get it from or not. Think pops wants one for Xmas....

I got mine from the ancestry.ca site. Like I mentioned the box came from the US and it took a bit of time to get here but I got it. There's a pre-paid return box included with the kit so everything you need comes with it.

I got it on sale as part of a Canada day celebration promotion they had at the time.

Edit: Make sure to create a free account on the site because that's where you'll receive your results. Also, make sure to register your test tube/sample on their site before sending it back. Each test tube has a unique number attached to it that identifies with that specific user.

-MAVERICK- wrote:

On the DNA box I received on the back it says Ancestry.com DNA, LLC.

It also says that the product is subject to one or more patents under license from DNA Genotek Inc. listed at www.dnagenotek.com/legalnotices

Box I received came from Lehi, Utah and the return box is going to Dublin, Ireland.

Titan1 wrote:

Ancestry.com has their corporate headquarters here.

avidchimp wrote:

Because the L.D.S. Church owns all of the DNA services.

That's interesting.

Ebs wrote:

I think the concept is pretty cool, but I can't be the only one that gets a little tin-foily about voluntarily submitting my name and DNA to be recorded into some database.

How else do you think Dick Cheney is going to get his next heart transplant? I stay away too.