Are DNA kits to test ethnicity mostly accurate or a rip off!

[QueenArnica]

So backstory is...

This is long as it contains statistics...

DS (now 13) asked for one of these kits for Christmas a couple of years ago. His results came back as follows:

North and West European 73.5%
Sardinian 13.2%
Irish, Scottish, Welsh 6.4%
Iberian 4.5%
Italian 2.4%

We were pretty impressed as my DH is half Italian, my FIL is from Sardinia.

Now me... all my life people have assumed I’m either Italian, Spanish, Portuguese due to my colouring. My DC have Italian names and again the assumption is because I have Italian roots. My DF has the same colouring as me and never knew who his father was so I always curious as to my background.

So my results came back:

English 70.6%
North and West European 14.2%
Scandinavian 5.8%
Finnish 1.7%
East European 7.7%

So my AIBU is looking at the 2 sets of results is the whole thing a scam as they lack similarity? Also AIBU to be sad that it didn’t come back identifying me as a Spanish Princess?!

Congratulations if you got to the end of this and apologies if it bored you to tears!

Told this on here before.

My Dad was exceptionally dark. So much so he suffered racial abuse in the 40's. Long after he died I discovered my Nan was heavily pregnant when she married Grandad, so for me it raised the possibility he may have been illegitimate.
I took a test and it came back extremely conclusive pointing exactly to an area of Ireland where my unusual surname was extremely common (I'd been told we were originally Irish heritage anyway), added to this the area was known for very dark haired, dark skinned people or 'the black Irish' as they were nicknamed.

To me that was pretty conclusive putting everything together that my Grandad was indeed my Dads Father, coupled with stories of our roots being in Ireland it fitted.

DH reckons he's 100% Anglo Saxon. When the tests go on offer for Fathers Day I'm going to buy him one

Are the tests still being done? I really wanted to do the Ancestry one, probably on Amazon , but wondered if they were still going ahead during lock down.

I think they are pretty accurate. Only problem I've had with mine is that it bought up a relation we didn't know we had. She got in touch and turns out she is adopted and my mum's brother had a secret child no one knew about! He is currently not talking with any of us as we have "invaded his privacy" by putting up our DNA samples (both myself and another cousin did the tests). It's all very awkward now (not as awkward as the conversation he had with his poor wife though I would imagine).

There is a video on youtube, a US TV presenter and her identical twin sister did them and got similar but different results.

One of the problems is that there isn't really an 'Irish, Scottish' gene, just that most of the people with that gene are found in those places.

The North East of England has a large number of people who probably had one or more Viking ancestors.

Then there are sometimes groups of people who's genetic make up is different to the general population, eg areas with Jewish populations, if you are a Manchester Jew whose family has lived there for generations you may well share more genes with someone in Isreal than your nearest non Jewish neighbour.

The tests are a good start but you need to take them with a pinch of salt and a look at your family history.

'East European' doesn't really have a meaning, we used to mean communist Europe, but genetically east and west Berlin would be the same. Is Italy that far from Croatia?

It's weorth noting South Africa could never have legislated aparetheid had genetic testing been available.

My issue with them is the small print...

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/10/dna-ancestry-tests-cheap-data-price-companies-23andme

These schemes basically exist to harvest your DNA.

To answer the earlier question 123Me is still operating at the moment although it's a bit slow. I'm doing it and am due my results in a couple of weeks.

‘One of the problems is that there isn't really an 'Irish, Scottish' gene, just that most of the people with that gene are found in those places.’

And in England,Wales parts of France and the Spanish basque region.

Can anyone recommend the best test for building family trees? I know very little about my family history on either side so would love to do a test, but unsure which would be best!

The results are all based on an algorithm, that’s based on whatever data set they gave.
Most are extremely incomplete and white centric. (Ie very little Asian, middle eastern or African Genetic samples)
Also there is huge privacy issues with them.

This a good podcast about issues with one of the companies

www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sciencefriction/23andme/11147566

DS had his done and it was pretty accurate, and he found lots of second and third cousins he had already discovered through research, who had also had DNA tests and were matching with him.

It's weorth noting South Africa could never have legislated aparetheid had genetic testing been available

Really? DNA testing cannot distinguish someone who has no non-African ancestors from someone whose only African ancestors left Africa 50,000 years ago?

Bear in mind apartheid had a category for people who had mixed heritage.

As several posters have already pointed out, tests from ancestry are for autosomal dna and link you to people living on geographical areas. They are also limiting as they only give dna results from a relatively small number of generations.
Ydna - Y chromosome- men only - and
Mtdna- female only - go back much further.
I use my results for genealogy to help me establish connections and confirm paper records.
My dads ydna is part of a worldwide project which has now established my male ancestors were vikings who were part of the original raids, and not those from 1066. That's a fascinating project which is creating an international family tree based on ydna known as haplogroups. Not percentages but actual named dna strands. Researchers have been able to track the male line from northern England to Ireland and then onto America. When you consider that most family trees peter out due to the lack of records, using dna like this is really interesting.

What's the best place to get this done? I'd love to know mine!

Here's a much better explanation of YDNA ! https://isogg.org/wiki/YchromosomeeDNAtests

@LolaLollypop autosomal to reach the most people - AncestryDNA. For ydna and mtdna FamilyTree DNA.
IMHO doing a dna test is not really worth it unless you intend to either uncover relatives or assist you in your family tree research.
As pointed out, the ethnicity of autosomal tests is not reliable.

I did a DNA test out of interest plotting my family tree, and discovered my father wasn’t who I thought they were. It’s happened to thousands of people actually, DNA NPE (not parent expected) is the term we used.
So... proceed with caution is all I’d say.

For those asking, a close friend of mine who is a historian, works in genealogy and swears by ancestry.com kits.

I should also add that after researching my tree for 15 years using paper records, I discovered 40 people and rising who have no paper connection to me or my father. A bit more digging and it looks like his mother had a different father entirely...
Buyer beware!

Sorry, I meant ancestry.co.uk kits

Mine was accurate. I have strong Romany heritage in my father’s side and my result came back showing a percentage from northwest India, where some Romanies are believed to have originated.

I have done Ancestry and loved my results. As predicted I am predominantly welsh and English (live on the border with welsh side and English side going back generations literally rice and chips) but excitingly I’m Greek and African and east European as well. I feel I came over with the Romans as the family farm was literally on a Roman hill fort.

@BuffaloCauliflower that must have been a shock! You are right. I was sure we had no skeletons until I saw the dna...
My maternal grandmother and her generation are no longer alive so my Dad is rather bemused by this revelation rather than upset. I have a named suspect now - her 1911 next door neighbor !

Also I have many, many Cousins in USA which is exciting as I don’t know anyone that left for US.

I knew my ancestry pretty well and my test picked up the obscure non-UK input from four generations back.

@GrimDamnFanjo yes it was pretty traumatic actually! Even my mum didn’t know (I won’t go into details but I do believe her - she even bought me the DNA test) I have a great relationship with my ‘new dad’ now, mine is definitely the best version of how this story goes. Many people have had their lives completely destroyed by finding out their parent isn’t who they thought.