That’s creepy.
Has anyone done both Ancestry.com DNA and 23andme? I wonder how the results compare.
What a great way to spread your DNA without any financial or parental responsibilities. Really creepy.
The Law and Order episode was ‘pulled from the headlines’ of a case in Virginia where a doc had sired over 100 children through sperm donation at his clinic. There was a Saturday Night Live skit on it and I think Al Franklin played the doctor with a big Afro hairdo and all the children had them too (as the doctor was denying they were his).
http://nymag.com/news/features/trent-arsenault-2012-2/ describes how a man fathered numerous children in a more above-board way. However, the FDA did not approve and forced him to stop.
I guess the doctor figured if a few of his kids that didn’t know they were half-siblings happened to meet and marry that’s a chance he was willing to take.
I find it pretty interesting in general how DNA testing is starting to reveal bad behavior that the perpetrators probably thought would never be found out.
My daughter advised me of a conspiracy theory. Apparently DNA places are doing a lot of soliticity young people. She “has heard” it is so that later, when the kids are old, they can use the young DNA to become younger.
Obviously, I don’t believe that but I do find it “interesting” that they are targeting young people.
Consolation, my cousin was born 1951. When he did 23&me, he found out he was part of such a group. I didn’t post this before, because it felt so personal. The details sound all too familiar.
After googling I found that there are a number of such cases, some of which have resulted in criminal prosecution. This particular one doesn’t seem to be known to the public. Perhaps because the doctor was deceased by the time people were able to find out through such services.
I did 23andme and recently (a week ago) did Ancestry.com. I’m interested in seeing how the two compare.
Keep us posted, @Bromfield2.
I shared earlier in post #20 on this thread, regarding doing both Ancestry and 23andme:
23&me correctly identified my relationship to my nephew and two nieces who had also been tested, but it said that another nephew (brother to the first one) is my grandson. In that instance it seems to have genetically mistaken me for my father.
I just ran across this article about genetic testing companies agreeing to abide to certain guidelines:
https://gizmodo.com/ancestry-and-23andme-agree-to-new-rules-to-make-you-fee-1828001465
It also includes their Best Practices Outline here:
https://fpf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Privacy-Best-Practices-for-Consumer-Genetic-Testing-Services-FINAL.pdf
I still haven’t made the leap, but I may jump in at some point.
@scipio Nieces/nephews and grandchildren have almost the same amount of shared DNA with you (average as well as range). The companies have algorithms to make an educated guess at the actual relationship. Age can be a factor.
I did both 23 and me and Ancestry. I confess I did the Ancestry test a couple of years ago, looked at my results once, and never checked in for the free week of membership that comes along with it. I’ll have to contact them to take another look at the results. Yes, I have the gene for procrastinating!
From what I remember, Ancestry said I have a small amount of Scandinavian genes, and 23 and me did not (although that could be covered by things like “broadly European”).
Ancestry had a bright green blob on county Galway, Ireland, where indeed some great grandparents came from, saying that it was a very strong correlation, but while the % of Irish ancestry on 23 and me was about the same, there was no distinguishing blob anywhere.
Ancestry doesn’t distinguish between Italian and Greek, and has a big section for central Europe, so I don’t recall a distinction between French and German.
Both tests found a small amount of Native American but 23 and Me puts it on a timeline so I can see where that was in my ancestry (1700-1800 or so).
23 and Me has a cool section of genetic traits you are more or less likely to have, and there’s a whopping 97% more of a chance that I can do a backbend flip over than the rest of the population. I can’t! And even in my limberest youth I could only do a drop down back bend - never the flip over part. Should I start practicing?
H is mostly Italian and he has so many traits related to coffee - more likely to drink espresso, less likely to drink instant coffee, etc.
Basically, they both are good but Ancestry’s membership fees make it annoying. On 23 and Me, you can share your results with family members and look at all the results together. Not sure about Ancestry that way. Both H and I are less Neanderthal than all of our daughters, lol.
I haven’t contacted anyone on either site yet, and some of the names are familiar, but many are not.
One daughter is 0.4% Finnish, but H and I are both 0%. 8-| I told her there might have been a partial immaculate conception while I was watching Matti Nykanen win the ski jump during the Olympics!
As more and more people take these tests, will the results become more accurate? How do they determine what’s Finnish versus what’s Norwegian?
Mine showed 8% British, but I have genealogy records for 15 of my 16 great greats and they are all German or Dutch. The great great immigrated from Germany also, but I have nothing on his parents there. No idea where the British comes from.
It’s easy to see how that result could happen. Suppose you have a few Neanderthal genes, and your husband has a few Neanderthal genes, different ones. Then suppose your daughters by chance got all of them, or most of them. They’d appear to be more Neanderthal than you.
If you and your husband have about equal amounts of Neanderthal genes, but they are different genes, then it’s 50/50 whether your daughters will get more Neanderthal genes or fewer.
Just a moment ago read a facebook post from my husband’s cousin’s son-in-law (that sounds more distant than it really is). Anyway, the SIL is adopted, and his wife (cousin’s dau) decided to give him a 23 and me kit before the birth of their first daughter to see if they could fine out any medical history. Well, he found 2 half brothers, one of whom he just flew out to meet, and the other he will meet soon. The half brothers participated by facetime in the baby naming of the newborn second daughter. So sweet.