I’ve done the promethease thing. It’s interesting and more in depth than 23andme
The xkcd take on these tests is here: http://xkcd.com/1706/
I used Oxford Ancestors (Bryan Sykes) before the National Geographic, Ancestry, 23 and Me, or other tests were available. At the time, it covered the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup only. Sykes wrote a book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, about the seven haplotypes most common in Europe. It is very hokey, but entertaining.
Good one, QuantMech!
Cool, QM! I’m one of Ursula’s gals 
Clan Velda here. This group apparently started out in north-east Spain. Now the haplotype is most common among the Saami in Finland and Norway. My view is that this group was pushed northward by everyone else. Yeah, I get it, that sounds like my clan, all right.
I did the Genographic project years ago. While my mitochondrial DNA offered no surprises (closest match, Engliish) it was kind of surprising that it was a rare haplogroup for Northern Europe. Evidently that line of my DNA was stirred up all over the globe.
Trying to decide if the 23 and me would give much more info. I could pay for my brother’s test and have that information as well.
Humans have migrated so much over the years it’s really so arbitrary. For example, my paternal haplogroup which as I mentioned is generally Ashkenazi Jewish is consistent with having been in Sicily and then migrating north to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Jews were kicked out of Sicily in 1492. But that doesn’t really make me Sicilian. And especially for those of us with E Europe roots it’s all so arbitrary - were you Polish, or Galician, or Prussian, or Austro-Hungarian, or Russian? Depends where you are throwing the dart relative to the Polish partitions. Rinse and repeat for many other countries!
I did the Ancestry one, and my mil and fil did Ancestry as well (so the kids could see what they were-grandma+grandpa=dad, + me=them)
I didn’t want to do the 23 and me because I’m a hypochondriac, and I do much better dealing with whatever comes along as it comes along with regards to aging. However, I’d love to see what my Neanderthal percentage is-it averages about 3% of your DNA for the regular population, if I remember correctly.
It turns out that FIL is more english than the average english person in england today, which was funny.
MIL thought for sure she had jewish ancestry through the german side. turns out she’s neither german nor jewish, but more spanish! Older daughter says she spriritually identifies with the 11% italian (gma) and 4% italian (me) that her grandmother and I are comprised of.
We have had a family story that there are american indians in our lineage (iroquois), but I’m less than 1% american indian, and 0% pacific islander (another family story based on a last name).
So yeah, I look stereotypically like where I came from (mostly dutch and english), and I have no interesting geographic or ethnic ancestors to spin another family story around :).
I’m not interested in making contact with genetic relatives, though, because if this shows anything, we’re ALL related, if you go back far enough, so it’s not a good enough reason to be Facebook friends with you [-X
I am less Neanderthal than most of 23andme’s customers (preening in front of mirror).
I saw a program on the U of C channel last night. It was reporting on research done on how genes from our Neanderthal ancestors affect us today. Things like ability to clot, certain skin conditions like seborrheic keratoses are immune responses from our Neaderthal ancestors that actually protect us. (I don’t pretend to understand it all. But it’s something I am going to do further research on once I find out how much Neanderthal I am).
When you hit a surprise, like thinking the family is German, then learning it’s mostly Irish, it’s possible the Irish migrated to Germany, but intermarried with other Irish immigrants.
I’ve got DH’s side and mine researched back to when they took their boats from the old country. For several reasons, believe I’ve got this genealogy as close to 100% as possible. But the tales on my mother’s side were scrambled. They were Eastern European, but my maternal gm’s father said her mother’s line was really Scandinavian. My mother’s father claimed they were Spanish (Galician.)
So my mother had the Natl Geographic test done. Lo an behold, an element of Spanish and a large chunk of Finnish. We had thought our looks came from the east, but my ggm’s line was from the north.
My father’s family were Jewish immigrants and I know where from (Also Eastern Europe. Coincidentally, they descend from a line whose early history in the US was documented for a historic settlement.) But no idea of earlier migrations. If my brother took one of the newer, broader tests, would it show his (our) paternal line?
All the brother’s test would add to your knowledge is the paternal haplogroup, which merely shows where ONE branch (father’s father’s father etc) came from umpteen thousand years ago. (And of course your father’s mother’s father etc isn’t any less your ancestor than your father’s father’s father etc.)
Whatever the test says about your ancestry (German, English, whatever) reflects ALL of you. It is NOT just “your mom.” It should be virtually identical to your brother (assuming he is your full brother) but do note: it is possible you are (say) 51% mom 49% dad and brother is 49% mom and 51% dad.
For example, I should share ~25% of my DNA with my two half siblings. In actuality I share a bit more with my half brother than with my half sister because however things combined, he and I both “pulled” more from our mutual father than half sis did, and what we “pulled” happened to be more similar.
The NG test only followed her matrilineal line. so now we’re curious about my father’s and her father’s. Both are long gone.
“I’m actually in a 23andMe study right now because I have Lupus. If anyone who has Lupus wants to do 23andMe, they will give you a kit for free. There might be other rare diseases that they do this for, too.”
They will also do this for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis).
I had the 23&Me done and it said I was 99.9% British and “broadly northern European,” which agrees with the family tree that shows all my ancestors emigrating to the US from England. They came at different times (from the 1750s through the 1840s), and from different parts of England, but they all came from England.
What was interesting was the remaining 0.1%, which it identified as Middle Eastern or North African. I figure that must be contributed by some ancestor such as a POW slave brought back from the Middle East by11th century crusaders or something. Or maybe a north African legionary serving in the Roman army in the 1st century invasion of Britain. Or some such thing. It’s fun to speculate.
The health info the service provided was pretty skimpy - mostly rare conditions that I don’t carry the gene for. It also identified a bunch of 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cousins scattered around the country, plus my nephew whom I was unaware had also had himself tested. It correctly identified us as uncle and nephew.
So for me the whole thing is kind of fun in a parlor game kind of way, but I wouldn’t call it life-changing in any sort of way.
Just received my results from 23 and me. Enjoyable, but as others have said, skimpy on the health info. That’s because my health results were were all benign (things could be worse). After reading this thread, I paid $5 for the download to Promethease. Now I have LOTS of info to comb through (and to worry about if I chose to). There is a tab that filters results for NIH documented health risks. That narrowed the “bad” results considerably. It’s certainly a reminder that this remains science in the making. The overall analyses show early, incomplete, and constantly changing interpretations. It will be interesting to run the Promethease annually to update the interpretations.
(I am 4% Neanderthal, a J1c1 haplogroup, and .02 Ashkenazi.)
For anyone interested, here is the article on the Alzheimer’s related genes. The main point of the article is the role these genes play in child development, with Alzheimer’s as a late occurring effect.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-alzheimers-gene-children-20160713-snap-story.html
It is possible to find your APOE variants from the ‘browse raw data’ function and searching http://www.snpedia.com/index.php/SNPedia, but the $5 Promethease analysis seems like the way to go.
@jasmom- Hello fellow Neanderthal! I’m feeling the urge to make hand paintings on the walls this afternoon…
^^Those were Cro Magnons. Neanderthals didn’t paint
For those who are testing .1% something or similar, just remember that it’s very likely that it’s just a stray piece of DNA which happens to align with x place. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have ancestors from there
True enough.
So funny enough I just looked at my promethease report and one of the top things for me is: “6x higher risk of rheumatoid arthritis”
Well then… (I was diagnosed with RA in February)