Have you ever thought of having your DNA tested?

[bjd]

Thanks, Bixa. That was really interesting. I'll save my money and stick with what I already know.

What I also found interesting is that at first I thought these women doing the test were American. It turns out it's in Canada, even to the people skating on the rink in front of the city hall in Toronto. So much for differences in accents.

[bixaorellana]

Oh, early on I picked up on the slight ''aboot'' that all the speakers had!

That was a little out of the ordinary, as generally I hear no difference.

[bjd]

"Aboot"? "Aboot"? you're kidding!

[bixaorellana]

Ha ha ~ one of the woman narrators has a touch of that. There are quite a few Canadians here, especially in the winter, plus I have close friends here who are Canadian. That's why it surprised me to pick up a trace of accent in the video.

[kerouac2]

Actually, I would like to do another test just to compare the results to the first one. However, 1) I don't feel like paying that much money again and 2) the company I used is the only one currently breaking French law against DNA tests. To use another company, you have to pay extra for a rerouting service in another country. Then again, this site is international enough that there are probably enough members who would accept to serve as mailboxes.

[htmb]

Jan 31, 2019 17:43:23 GMT kerouac2 said:

Actually, I would like to do another test just to compare the results to the first one. However, 1) I don't feel like paying that much money again and 2) the company I used is the only one currently breaking French law against DNA tests. To use another company, you have to pay extra for a rerouting service in another country. Then again, this site is international enough that there are probably enough members who would accept to serve as mailboxes.

You mean, like someone to smuggle your dna out of the country?

I see that Italy also doesn’t allow home dna testing, but I’ve decided to try MyHeritage with the hope of finding some loving Italian cousins, especially on my biological father’s line. I’ve been able to trace my maternal grandfather’s family back to his hometown in Bari, but have hit a dead end on my father’s side.

[bixaorellana]

More fun with DNA!

The napkin a man tossed away at a hockey game was retrieved & used to link him with DNA found at a crime scene in 1993.

...authorities used genealogy to identify a suspect and then worked surreptitiously to retrieve a DNA sample from [that suspect.]
...
More than 15 million people have offered up their DNA to online genealogy services in recent years. While they represent a small fraction of all people, the pool of profiles is large enough to allow 60 percent of white Americans — the primary users of DNA sites in the United States — to be identified through the databases, according to researchers. Researchers believe that in the coming years, 90 percent of Americans of European descent will be identifiable, even if they have not submitted their own DNA. (<-- from the NYTimes article)

If you have access to the NYTimes or know how to get around the paywall, this is the article to read: www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/jerry-westrom-isanti-mn.html

This is a sort of dumbed-down version, but presents the pertinent facts: www.thedailybeast.com/dirty-hot-dog-napkin-leads-to-arrest-in-25-year-old-murder-mystery

[bjd]

From an interesting article in my most recent New York Review of Books:

"If you are searching for your own noble blood, genetic research has both good and bad news for you. If you follow a pedigree, with all its forkings, back to the eighth century, you will trace over a trillion forks—an impossibility, because that is more than the number of people that have ever existed. When Joseph Chang developed the first statistical model of heredity in 1999 to explain the paradox, he established that many forks disappeared if our ancestors were closely related to one another, and that if you go back seven thousand years, “you reach a point in time when all the individuals who have any descendants among living people are ancestors of all living people.” So you might have pharaohs in your ancestry, and possibly caesars and Holy Roman emperors as well. Yet because of the swapping of DNA fragments during sexual reproduction, the DNA of our ancestors becomes diluted very quickly. Only 1 percent or less of an ancestor who lived four centuries ago is present in your DNA."

[kerouac2]

Madame Crazy has returned, although she is being nice now, apparently having realised that she was off her rocker earlier. She has asked a number of questions about a branch of the family that she has clearly been researching. She even came up with one name that I had never heard -- since it was a baby who died before reaching his first birthday (and "families don't talk about that" especially when the husband and wife were first cousins). I have been replying to the best of my ability.

[mich64]

I am getting confused, is the DNA match shared by you and this woman? Perhaps the DNA company only matched your names in their database? I know that is reaching for a simple answer since it is supposed to be about DNA matches, but the whole situation is just odd.

Did she show you anything from the DNA company stating your information matched? Did the DNA company notify you that they had found a match before she contacted you? If not, maybe check with them to see if you actually do have any matches on file.

[kerouac2]

It's the DNA company that sends messages along the lines of "Mme. X is a second cousin." Then you can click on the link to send a mrssage to the person. The email address is masked unless you decide to reply to a message that you receive.

[deyana]

K2, Sorry for you bad experiences with "Madam Crazy" but maybe there was something to learn there.

I've had nothing but good experiences with the people I have got to know by being matched via out dna. Lots of surprises for sure. And some "cousins" who I never knew about and are now friends with. So it's all good so far.

[cheerypeabrain]

Not exactly DNA match but I've been referred to the Genetics department at the local university college hospital because of the frequency of cancer in my family, especially the women. There's a huge questionnaire to fill in first and there's no guarantee that I'll be accepted. If I am I have regular blood tests and checks...so it's worth doing.

[kerouac2]

Absolutely.

[whatagain]

Some people are cursed with a DNA prone to cancer indeed. We have a friend who just finished her chemo for breast cancer - seems ok but now they will cut the second breast and remove her uterus and some more. Mother died from breastcancer at 40 some, twin survived a cancer at 20... got to be cautious ...

[cheerypeabrain]

Well I filled in my questionnaire....it wanted details about my grandparents' siblings but I've no one to ask really..even my older cousins can't really help. I've discovered that most of the females in my family who've had cancer were diagnosed around 69-70 years of age but they all had different forms of cancer (aside from my 2nd sister and 1st sister's daughter had the same type). With such a big family it's difficult to gather all the information.

Anyway...just have to wait and see whether the Genetics department decide to follow up my case.

[kerouac2]

Madame Crazy still contacts me from time to time, but her crazed period seems to have ended. She asks for something reasonable from time to time. This time she wanted me to upload my data from MyHeritage to Family Tree DNA. No problem -- except that there was. "We can't accept this upload because the test is more than 6 months old."

I did have some hopeful news for Mme. Crazy though. It seems that my brother is going to do a test, probably at 23&Me. I told her that I would keep up updated on that.

France is about to pass a law that would end anonymity on sperm/egg donors. But it will not be retroactive, of course, so that is sure to upset the thousands of people in Mme. Crazy's situation.

[bjd]

So your DNA has changed in the past 6 months?

Must have been thought up by the same French bureaucrat who demands a copy of a birth certificate that is less than 3 months old for administrative reasons.

[kerouac2]

I think they just want DNA fanatics to pay for another test.

[htmb]

I think you’re right, Kerouac. My original test was through FamilyTree in 2007/8. When I decided to upgrade to a new Family Tree test, all I did was pay the extra money and Family Tree used my old sample.

Not long ago Family Tree and My Heritage, having been connected in some sort of way, split from one another. I still believe Family Tree results can be uploaded to My Heritage, but it might not work the other way anymore. I don’t think anyone but paid members can upload to Ancestry or to 23 and Me, but there is a place called Gedcom(?) where anyone can upload their dna results for free(I haven’t tried it). Your relative may ask that of you next. I’m wary of doing that, myself.

[kerouac2]

Since there was a big sale on FamilyTree and they are no longer afraid to break French laws, I actually signed up for a new test. I got the kit and sent it back to Texas and am now awaiting the results in a couple of weeks.

I informed Madame Crazy that she will soon have some new results over which to obsess. She was delighted but also clearly annoyed that I was a bit flippant about it, although she didn't say so to my face. But I was thrilled when she accidentally sent two text messages to my phone that were clearly destined for somebody else. One of them said "K2* is a total shit." She has not dared to contact me since then.

*K2 = pseudonym

[whatagain]

Such a lolely lady. So much for trying to remain polite with her.
I think next time you send her an email - like with your test - you should sign k2, the total shit.

[kerouac2]

Yes, but I still give her mitigating circumstances for trying to find her birth mother.

[whatagain]

You are too good a person.
We have a say from where I come from.
If somebody shits in your boots it is ok unless it overflows. ( not boots but ´bottes' - not wellingtons either invetween shooes and wellingtons !

[deyana]

So, there's been an update on ancestry. Did it make any difference to your results, K2?

[kerouac2]

It implied that I have more English origins than in the first test. I find that rather ridiculous since everybody in the past comes from France, Germany and Switzerland. However, both tests found about the same Scandinavian droplets in my DNA. But the other test also replaced the Middle East part with 3% Sephardic Jew and 3% Ashkenazi Jew. Okay, that's fine but they placed it in the Mediterranean region (mostly Spain) instead of the Middle East. In any case, the number of contradictions between the two tests greatly reduced my confidence in the results.

In the good news department, Madame Crazy seems to have given up on me.

[whatagain]

So they differentiate Jewish DNA ? Like they would differentiate Protestant and catholic DNA ?
- the good thing is that I am sure Jewish blood would be found in everybody and it should help neonazis to reconsider or fear to be sent into an oven.
I beware of pure blood. Like in Harry Potter. Pure blood are not recommendable people.

[kerouac2]

In any case it shows how oriented these companies are. While it is obviously true that the Sephardic and Ashkenazi people have totally different genetic makeup, I don't think that they automatically qualify for any sort of religious label. Since the Sephardic groups are basically Arabs, it would seem to me that these people would have mixed quite a bit with Muslims. Then again -- not being an expert -- I am willing to entertain the idea that certain minority groups mix as little as possible with other people. However, what weakens this concept is that if I have genetic material from both of these groups, obviously they did mix with other groups.

[bjd]

I should think that both Askkenazi and Sephardic Jews have the same original DNA, since they were in the same place to start with. Only with the diaspora did other genes get mixed in from local populations.

Fortunately, there is no such thing as "pure blood". Any such person would have died off centuries ago.

[htmb]

I’m continuing to have fun with this whole DNA testing thing. Of my last three cousin matches on MyHeritage, two were French and one was Italian. Because one of the French cousins owns a shop by the same name, I was able to look her up using her email address. The shop is located halfway between Metz and Nancy. Perhaps a quick visit there one day would be fun.