Warning on Ancestry (and other) DNA tests?

[MLMshouldbeillegal]

Ancestry, My Heritage and the other DNA testing companies are all pushing their tests as the ideal Christmas gift, and they are cheaper than ever. Ancestry had a black Friday offer for £50, My Heritage even cheaper at £39.

AIBU to think these tests should come with a wee health warning? That although it's marketed as a "find out your ethnicity" tool, in fact it might reveal some long-hidden family secrets?

I have tested with Ancestry and uploaded my data to other sites too. No surprises on my tree, matches with distant cousins who all fit into the picture as I know it. But I also go genealogical client work and I'm currently working with a man in his 70s who was given one of the tests for father's day back in June and is trying to process the fact that he is not matching with other descendants of his grandfather. Or at least the man he thought was his grandfather. So in later life, he's trying to come to terms with his much loved grandfather, who his father absolutely adored, is probably not his biological relative. It's a lot to deal with.

The testing companies really push the "find out if you're part Viking, part Native American" in their marketing but that aspect isn't really very accurate - My Heritage says I'm >2% Iraq/Iran/Turkey and I'm definitely not. Ancestry is more accurate given what I know about my tree.

Taking one of these tests could open up a whole can of worms in terms of relationships in the family, in this generation or further back with people who are long dead, and who you can't get answers from. For some people it can be a lot to process and I dont think the implications are properly laid out.

@mugoftea456

My father walked out when I was a child, no huge trauma to me. However i do know he went on to have more children, none of which know i exist. I would never to one of these test, it would be awful for the other children to find out about their fathers previous life in this way.

But surely this is your father's responsibility....

He brought you and his subsequent children into the world.

My Heritage says I'm >2% Iraq/Iran/Turkey and I'm definitely not.

How do you know? That's going back to 3xGreat grandparents, of which you have 32. Do you know the full history of all of them to know not one of them was from those places?

@poopyface

There was quite a lot of info/warning about it when I did mine

I'm amazed that people are so thick that they don't realise that they might find out something unpleasant with these things.

For the life of me I will never understand why anyone would willingly offer their DNA up to some company, with, let’s be honest, absolutely no idea as to what could happen to that DNA in future.

I always find it interesting that many of the same people who would object to giving their DNA away at birth or even to being on CCTV would actually pay a company to have their DNA. And while at the moment those companies claim to not sell it on, I absolutely wouldn’t just assume that’s never going to happen.

I would think that finding out you’re related to some dim and distant Amazon tribe should be the least of your concerns when giving away your DNA.

In fact he needed counselling because he reckoned he needed counselling for discovering he had a black ancestor.

Anyone involved in donor egg or sperm arrangements today or for a past number of years knows that DNA testing will be procureable in the future.

But you've done it yourself?

I wouldn't do it myself, just because I think they're a fad and not only cos they will give your DNA to the Police or anyone else and possibly sell it for what they can get

I did one precisely because I didn't think my Grandfather was biological. I posted on here about it at the time.
My Dad was an olive skinned man with dark eyes and black curly hair, he was open to some serious racial abuse as a kid in the 1940's. Our area was a base camp for US soldiers and Nan had told me how they had been given sweets and chatted up by them, and that, coupled with the fact my Gran was apparently 7 months pregnant when she married Grandad, raised an eyebrow.

Everyone who could have been hurt by the revelations was dead, including my parents, so I took the test.
I discovered my Grandfather was very much biological and the DNA pinpointed me to an almost exact area of Ireland where the locals very often had a Mediterranean appearance, so much so locally the term 'black Irish' was used.

Since then I've found the small town my x2 Grandfather and further back came from and many distant cousins with our usual surname, all who resemble my Dad with their olive skin, dark eyes and thick curly hair.

Part of me wishes I'd done it sooner, it answered a lot of questions and I'm certain my late Dad would have been fascinated by it. He'd always said there was an Irish connection somewhere and he was right, but I realised it could have gone many other ways.

@appleturnovers

My Heritage says I'm >2% Iraq/Iran/Turkey and I'm definitely not.

How do you know? That's going back to 3xGreat grandparents, of which you have 32. Do you know the full history of all of them to know not one of them was from those places?

There is nothing to indicate Middle Eastern ancestry on my tree at all.

My Heritage (based in Israel) are the company telling me I have that ethnicity. Ancestry, the company with the biggest database of test takers, give my ethnicity as 98% British and 2% Norway which matches more accurately with the paper trail.

Furthermore, I have no cousin matches - even at the most distant level - with anyone from the Middle East.

My mother has found out she has a half sister she knew nothing about!

I can imagine quite a few skeletons are unearthed with these tests!

I was mostly French/German (my mom’s side is French and has been for as long as we can tell) and on the African side my dad’s country wasn’t listed. They then had an update and the 40% French suddenly dropped to 8% and I am now 42% Spanish and Portuguese, 8% French and still no percentage of my dad’s bio country.

Part of that could be due to country borders changing. If your ancestors were from France where it borders Spain then it could be more accurate.

I wonder what the DNA of someone from Strasbourg who's family have been there generations would reveal?

11:03DaisyNGO

I can't remember the details, I think it was the context of a 23 and me test which flagged someone up for either Parkinson's or Alzheimer's. While you might think knowing you're at risk would help you make lifestyle changes to avoid it, apparently this is not the case for some illnesses as the anxiety increases vulnerability.

I think youd have to be really naïve to not realise this was one of the possibilities. In my family we have discovered several new relatives and its been super positive and lovely. My ex who was adopted as a baby has discovered that his biological father is as much of a waste of space as he ever was, but is now in touch and enjoying knowing other relatives, and another friend has discovered a sister and theyre getting on like a house on fire.

I'm expecting a kit through the door any day from 23andme.com I've gone for the whole dna plus health kit as well to see if I'm at risk from anything. I'm the sort of person who would rather know about health risks. Plus I half hope I find out my parents aren't actually my parents! I'd love some skeletons in the closet.

My younger sister did one and found it interesting

My older sister did one and got very different results

It turns out that my mum had an affair and at the age of 50, my sister found out that our dad isn’t her dad. It’s so awful

A friend discovered a half-sibling, the sibling was born before his parents met and he has no idea if his (deceased) father ever knew. He has decided not to ask his elderly mother.
A lot of adoptions were secret a few generations ago, many illegitimate grandchildren brought up by relatives as their own etc.........sperm and egg donation ..............lots of potential skeletons in cupboards.

I wonder what the DNA of someone from Strasbourg who's family have been there generations would reveal?

Most people who have border ancestry have a large circle on the Ancestry maps crossing both countries. My paternal side is all Scottish borders, centred on Kelso which is only about 5 or 10 miles from the border with England. Many of my ancestors were from Northumbria. So on the ethnicity map, although it says "Scottish", the circle goes down as far as about Middlesbrough in England and also includes the Isle of Man and a good chunk of Northern Ireland too.

Similarly, their "Ireland" group includes Brittany in France and some of the Outer Hebrides.

Wales has a good chunk of Merseyside, border counties like Hereford and Gloucester, and Somerset across the Bristol Channel.

So I would imagine someone from Strasbourg would have something like "western European DNA". Lots of people are fixated on the percentages within the UK and it's really fairly meaningless. According to Ancestry I have no "English" DNA but the paper trail confirms dozens of ancestors from Northumbria, but they are lumped in with Scottish DNA.

You definitely need to go into it with your eyes open. I have the same reservations as many about handing over my dna, but it was my best shot at finding out the truth about my parentage, and it did that. It confirmed my sister and I are half siblings as we long suspected but no-one would tell us the truth. It has enabled me to track down my biological father who is as big a waste of space as my step-father, but at least I know who he is and where I come from. That has put to bed a lot of demons, so i'm glad I did it.

@AdmiralCain

I'm often shot down on mumsnet as being a tin foil hat wearer but don't do these tests!! They give all your DNA data to a private company and very alarmingly with your Genome they'll know all your genetic disorders etc. When it comes to health insurance / travel insurance they'll void it if you have an underlying condition and don't declare it. I KNOW there's the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prevents insurance companies obtaining genetic information but yeah like companies don't sell your data...

You don’t have to use your real name!

Don’t scaremonger and tell people they will have their insurance voided, that’s absolute rubbish!

You honestly think that the data will be sold, the people traced and then they will have their insurance voided because they have a genetic predisposition to an illness that they don’t even know about and may not go on to develop? That’s just ridiculous.

I’ve thought about doing it, partly because my great uncle got a girl pregnant in the war and his mother ‘paid her off’ (I don’t know how, they were very poor). I’m not sure if even my great uncle knew. And maybe if that baby or it’s descendants were looking I could help them piece it together.

But then maybe it would come as a shock to them. So maybe best not to meddle!

Surely it would occur to you, you may find something you didn't already know ?

@DeadoftheMoon

When I got my results, I told my dad 'It says [his name] is your father.' He insisted on seeing for himself. Apparently, he'd never believed I was his child. I was 62 or 63 ...

Ouch that must've stung a bit

@irishfarmer

God, hopefully the adult DS of a friend of mine never does one. His dad is not his bio dad, and he has no clue! Even if he read a warning I don't think for one second he would think that would be him. He has no reason to think his dad is not his bio dad.

But if you know, other people will know. It's likely to happen whether he does a test or not.

@RedToothBrush

Just for your info Scotland had two pieces of case law related to Common Law wife. Around 1909 a lady moved in with her partner, took his name, and they presented themselves as Husband and wife. He died months later, the court ruled she was Common law wife.
The second case was in the 60s they'd lived together for years but didn't have a pretence of marriage the court rules they were co-habitees.

So I don't think it was that unusual for a couple in 1910 not to have the formal paperwork for marriage.

These tests are great for establishing genetic relationships and for illuminating lies and gaps in the paper trail. I think the ethnicity estimates are spot on at the continental level but, having tested with ancestry, 23andme, MyHeritage and ftdna (and more) there is some variation between which bits of each continent appear in the results. The genetic communities on ancestry and MyHeritage are very similar for me and both my parents (who are in two distinct groups) and the migrations have been fascinating to research. It was good to match with my biological dad even if we don’t have much of a relationship and to identify my maternal grandfather and his lineage.

I don’t see how it’s possible to construct a family tree based only on records which might be false, destroyed or have key info missing, and without establishing which regional groups you should start looking into.