BS: DNA Ancestry Project

Subject: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 11:29 AM

Anybody doing that? You send a cheek swab, and they tell you the history of your y chromosome if you're male and your mitochondrial DNA if you're female... you get to see yourself on the map of human migrations out of Africa. Cool as all get-out. I want in as soon as I can find a donor for the other half of my own ancestry... how about y'all? Interested? Fearful of misuse of the database? Hmmm?

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Jeri
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 11:54 AM

What do you mean by 'as soon as I can find a donor for the other half of my own ancestry"'?

I've thought it might be fun. Is this three project that finds your earliest maternal ancestor? Something about all people tracing back to 4 women. I'd do this, except from what I recall when investigating this previously, it costs a big pile of money. Plus, if I need another family member to donate anything, I can't do this.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 12:05 PM

I'd love to do it on a smaller scale - I reckon what with marriages and things, I'm related to most of a small village in Dorset!

I'm having enough trouble finding a great great great grandparent, I really don't think narrowing it down to 4 African women is going to help me!

And I can think of many other uses for the cash (about $75 last I heard).

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: MMario
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 12:37 PM

I am very leery of any results that includes "home test kits"

I'm sorry - when you see the mathematics and arguments that go into various serious research projects in DNA distrubution - where the donors are carefully documented - well - tracing ancestry - even through DNA just ain't that simple.

it's like the "Trace your family tree" booths you see at various county faires. They give you a general "maybe"

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 03:25 PM

One of the more "reputable," and possibly the one intended, is at National Geographic Genographic Project.

This study makes no claim of being able to trace individual ancestors, but only intends to relate your DNA to probable migration paths within the population. It may tell you where you come from but makes no claims about being able to identify who you came from.

There are a number of "commercial" sources for DNA analyses that make varying claims about geneological information they can find, but this field appears also to include at least a few "less credible" operators who just want your money. It has to be remembered that they can't tell you anything about specific ancestors unless they also have the DNA from the specific ancestor or from close descendants of him/her.

The Nat Geo survey looks good enough that I'd be tempted to participate "for the good of the science" but as it traces the maternal line, costs money¹, and my sister (who almost certainly has the same mother I did - we're not as sure about dad, maybe) has sent in her sample, so I've decided to defer my participation.

¹ The Participation Kit costs U.S. $99.95 (plus shipping and handling and tax if applicable).

John

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 04:26 PM

theres also family tree dna

and the dna ancestry project

I understand something like one of these sites was used by UK police to narrow down a suspect (they submitted the DNA and received a close match by someone distantly related - which gave them the surname)

and I believe 15 year old who searched for his paternal fathers name
(he was adopted -the father anonymously donated sperm)
but he knew the University where his father went and so when he sent in his DNA test and got a surname - it was a matter of searching University attendance records ..

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:02 PM

I note that Family Tree DNA uses the DNA tests/kits from the National Geographic Genographic project, and for an (apparently) additional fee will check the Nat Geo DNA result against their own database of other peoples' DNA. Since participants in the Genographic project would have to authorize release of any personal information, the identities in the FT database would have to be independently collected to provide any "personal matches."

The DNA Ancestry Project is less "up front" about what data they have to make useful conclusions from your personal results, but (in the manner of many geneo services) implies they can link you (but of course only you) to a number of famous ancesters.

Since the size of the database used for comparison is of "competitive ($$$$) value" quite likely you'd be required to let them put your personal info into their "commercial databases" so that when your long lost cousin Chongo looks for his relatives they'll be able to collect his 9 bananas before sending him to look you up.

There have been a few "popular press" articles published from people who've had various degrees of success with trying to trace/find individual ancestors this way; but for the most part the failures are in the majority, and the successes are marginally better than random chance associations. My own impression from the articles I've seen is "not quite ready for prime time."

John

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:12 PM

I know who my ancestors were back to about 6 or 7 generations -- why would I want to know more? Oh, sure, I'm about 10,000,000th in line for the throne of England and even closer than that to be Holy Roman Emperor, but the number of people I'd have to knock off to take either office is pretty daunting.

I don't see any reason to do it, unless a) there is some Awful Genetic Disease involved or there is some other compelling reason or, b) you're so obscure you need this sort of thing to feed your self-esteem.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:19 PM

I had mine tested. I found out that I am an identical twin with Marty Feldman. Funny, I never saw it, though it was staring me in the face
.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Alice
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:43 PM

I am interested, but I thought it cost $700 the last time I checked.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Alice
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:50 PM

Actually, we all come from the same mother. One woman,not 4, one female ancestor.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 05:50 PM

I'm just personally pleased that a few generations back, my relatives found their way onto the boat...........I would much rather send a few bucks to the preservation of Ellis Island project.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 27 Sep 07 - 08:25 PM

I did it for a family Christmas present..I thought it would trace us back to Native American or Cornish sides of maternal line, but it took us straight to Netherlands...where I had a Dutch-American grandmother..ggm??? I would love to have one of my brothers do it for the Garveys..it turns out one of the main DNA researchers, or hobbyists, because I believe he is a physicisit,...is Dennis Garvey..I am trying to contact him...

I think it is intersting..I just started family stuff...it was always so dismal the stories we were told, but I think my mother exaggerated the doom and gloom aspects. I think it is a very good thing to do. I am related to Bat Masterson and I find much of my self-esteem is related to that fact...mg

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 03:53 AM

Lin found a treasure trove of records at the Ellis Island site, but nearly all of her family came through there fairly recently.

I've found one line going back to England ca. 1605, with apparently reliable records; but most of the other branches on my ancestral tree are stumps. A great-great grandmother has a very nice monument in a pretty cemetery nearby, but great-great grandfather does not appear in any census, deed, newspaper or other source we've been able to find. (Their daughter, great grandma, is in a couple of the local history books - homesteader, muleskinner, and fur trapper of some notable reputation before her marriage.)

My paternal line truncates with my own grandfather. Although we know a partial name for his dad (and a cousin claims to have lots more info that she refuses to show to me) documentation/traceability is otherwise non-existent.

I just assume that I come from a long line of horse-thieves and bootleggers who kept out of the public eye. Lin can trace a couple of black sheep in her family - but only because they all got caught. Mine must have been more successful(?).

John

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: PMB
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 04:07 AM

Careful with this ancestry thing. Even without DNA, my sister discovered that my grandmother (who we KNEW was from Dublin) was actually born in India and had never set foot in Ireland. Not that it makes any difference, it just explained why we all prefer curry to boiled praties and cabbage.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 05:50 AM

Ah yes, the family skeletons. One of my great great uncles and his brother signed up together for World War I, only it turns out that the brother was really his nephew and illegitimate to boot!

That put a whole heap of cats among the family pigeons, with one aunt refusing to believe it until she saw the birth certificate!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 09:38 AM

I'm thinking of either the one called "DNA Ancestry Project" or the National Geographic one. Both seem reputable, and cost only around $100.

The "home testing kit" is only a cheek-swab preparation, nothing great.

By the "other half" I mean one person will only provide either paternal or maternal ancestry, and I want a relative to provide the other half, so I can trace both my mother's mitochondria and my father's Y chromosome. Which won't tell me anything about ancestors with my family name, as we are an illegitemate branch of the family.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 12:18 PM

my dad researched his genealogy back in the Czech Republic -
he had only known about his grandfather who worked for the railway (Praha to Vienna) who lost the job due to his drinking and the next generation was doomed to poverty.

he later found out that they were farmers and lived in the same place for nearly 300 years but took on the name of the previous owners of the farm he got about as far as 1585. (they later lost or sold the farm when according to family tale, the son wanted to marry the daughter of the town executioner- the family was against it but eventually gave them money and sent them to America)

Going through the family records one does get a glimpse of how life was -- one of the ancestors had 7 children (5 of whom had died young)
Another one lived to almost 95 years. Typically the oldest one inherited the farm -so didnt usually marry until his 40s when the father passed away and retired.
One great-great-great-grandfather was a soldier (a captain in the Kaiser cavalry) who retired and married in 1820 after 15 years service so Im trying to find out if he fought in Austerlitz or the other Napoleonic battles.

Another great-great grandmother was a licensed midwife - who must have taught one of her daughters the skills as she came to Chicago in the early 1900s and later amassed a fortune by fixing peoples backs, midwifery, and illegal abortions --- she went back to the old country
and built some quite modern apt buildings back in the 30s - which are called AMERICA to this day.

It can be quite addictive to try and find out more, as previously we may only have known a name - but now can find out something about a life lived.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 12:22 PM

thread drift, Iknow but history channel has a show called
ancestors in the attic - which is hugely popular and has some good genealogy links.

I have to say I didnt give much thought to my ancestry until I had my own children - they are still toddlers now -but when I showed the older one (medieval drawings of my home town) she said it looks 'old fashioned'

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 Sep 07 - 12:32 PM

One of my ancestors used to help slaves escape from the South. He'd bring them across the Ohio into Illinois, which was free territory. Then he'd take them across the Mississippi into Missouri, where he'd sell them back into slavery.

Not a nice occupation.

But then again, he'd been "missing" for five or six years when he turned up at his sister's house, had a sandwich and cup of coffee, to his sister that the sheriff was after him and what he'd been doing. He then vanished into the night and the family never saw him again.

Then there was the one who was a pro baseball player, contracted syphillis, and finally drowned in a boating accident (we think; it may have been suicide).

Mostly they have been ordinary working people: machinists, firefighters, cops, carpenters, draftspeople....

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Sep 07 - 02:25 AM

It's the ordinary ones who are the most interesting I find.

I would have said there was nothing unusual about my family but we've got rumoured suicide pacts between two brothers, mental health incarcerations, tenuous links to local celebrities and some of the saddest lives you could imagine.

One person, my great great great grandmother, had 9 children, of whom only 3 made it past their 16th birthdays, and 3 died before they were 4. She developed epilepsy and spent the last 12 years of her life in the local Asylum - a building that still existed in the 1970s when I visited it, not knowing my ancestor had died there. It's not a great deal unlike a Victorian prison, with single rooms off several corridors, little or no privacy and fewer comforts.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Mrrzy
Date: 02 Oct 07 - 08:51 AM

Fascinating, isn't it? Of course, the projects to which I refer won't tell you anything interesting like that, just when your particular ancestors came out of Africa and where they went... also fascinating!

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:08 PM

Got my data - We're related to Otzi, the iceman! I'm THRILLED!

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: GUEST,Fantasma
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 03:22 PM

I'm curious about it, and I think it would be fun in that "read your horoscope daily" sort of way.

I have to agree, I too am skeptical of the kit thing, knowing it is a bit more complex than that.

But hell, if Henry Louis Gates can get away with it on PBS swabbin' Oprah and Chris Rock--if I had $100 to throw away, I'd do it, sure.

I loved the "African American Lives" series--it made for great TV. Kinda like picking curtain number 3 with Monty Hall.

Alice, I'm assuming you are a Christian, so are referring to the creation myth of Adam and Eve? No disrespect intended.

But I wanted to mention this cool book I picked up years ago and read one summer while I was doing my annual retreat to the woods for a few weeks. You might be interested in it. It is called "The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Scioence that Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry" by Bryan Sykes.

That was a fun read for a geek like me, in the same way the "African American Lives" PBS program was fun. Except the book was far more informative and revealing about the whole science of genetics bit.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Slag
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:28 PM

If you happen to tag any of the royal lines you have a wealth of information available to you and history takes on a new meaning. I agree with John in Kansas, It has a ways to go before they can say for sure on anything. However, the needed info comes from YOU! The more data they obtain with verifiable genealogies the better it will become. So, if you don't discover much the first go around your data is in there and after a period of time you should see some more refined results.

Subject: RE: BS: DNA Ancestry Project
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 11:34 PM

You don't get anything more recent than, say, 5-10,000 years ago - no "lines" of today, royal or otherwise.