@Greenwitch Solta is the island where my Dad was born–it’s close to Split. Thanks for the advice about the consulate. I have a link to old church records, but I can’t read the Victorian script. I got the link from a closed Facebook group for people interested in Croatian genealogy.
fun youtube, Asian americans take DNA test
I wonder what happened with those Asian-Americans in the new version of the 23andMe report. I bet the tiny Native American fractions evaporated.
@Bromfield2 Have you tried a Croatian Catholic Church? I suspect you could find more than one elderly parishioner and/or priest, nun, or brother who could help you at a fraction of what someone overseas would charge. There are several such churches in New York; I googled and found one in Chicago. http://www.stjeromecroatian.org/eng/inchicago.html The link has a list of Croatian Catholic churches in the US and Canada.
You might give it a try.
‘fun youtube, Asian americans take DNA test”
Going to send this to my son.
I like what she said about not getting some DNA even though a parent or sibling has it. It was explained to me awhile back to think of a bit pot of chicken soup vegetables. One ladle might have carrots and celery in it, while another ladle might only have carrots and parsnip in it.
Interesting article on one company sharing their data with the FBI. Just something to keep in mind if you decide to take one.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/major-dna-testing-company-sharing-genetic-data-with-the-fbi/ar-BBT3Pft?li=BBnb7Kz
If my DNA helps catch a criminal, I’m all for it. Who wants the Golden State killer still out there?
But just hope that your DNA does not end up at a crime site even if you had nothing to do with the crime.
https://www.wired.com/story/dna-transfer-framed-murder/
They also sell your data to Big Pharma
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwkaz3/23andme-sold-access-to-your-dna-library-to-big-pharma-but-you-can-opt-out
And it’s also used to help deport people
https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/wjkxmy/canada-is-using-ancestry-dna-websites-to-help-it-deport-people
H had waited a long time for his aunt (mom’s sister) to share her DNA results. Long story, but H has another 1st cousin on the same website. Strangely, the aunt matched them both --as a first cousin. I don’t know if there is another explanation, but it seems that either H’s grandma had an affair, or that this “aunt” is actually the child of another aunt (long deceased) who was a teenager when she was born. (Both of these seem unlikely, but if I had to choose one, I’d pick the grandma…) Also interesting that this “aunt” had presented herself professionally as a “woman of color.” H used to roll his eyes at this when he thought she was about twice as “colorful” as he is (H is roughly 11% NA/AA). Turns out she is only just (same percentage) as “colorful” --which makes her minority status even more questionable. She is supposed to call H tomorrow to talk about family history. Should be interesting.
@emilybee That is one of the better metaphors I’ve heard. I would extend it to add that sometimes, after you have ladled out a large number of bowls of soup, you realize that what you thought was carrot, was, in fact, parsnip…
A lawyer in this arena was discussing this on the radio this week. He says there is still a process an investigating agency needs to go through, to be authorized, per current legal rules.
I agree with TatinG that you have to make up your mind beforehand, how you feel about this. Alll the wild speculation does make my head spin. Worry about Facebook and Google with the potenital to track your interests. Worry about the ads that then show up. (Or what they do if you repeatedly research a medical condition, eg.) Worry about going to the mall and then geting vendor ads. This stuff is happening now. Worry about the trail you leave on your computer, whether or not you erase files or clear cache.
Me? I worry about whether my 3 loopy cousins would find me via DNA and cause issues. I’ve never met them, but each is a doozy. But that won’t stop me from a DNA test. My own social/seacrh media being used does bother me.
A friend’s boyfriend was recently contacted by a33 year old woman who found out through 23 and me that he was probably her father - she’d made a DNA connection to a close relative of his He was willing to help her solve the mystery and they met after a DNA test proved that he was her father. Mother had slept with most of the teens and men in the small town, she’d been put up for adoption and has had a wonderful life - much better than it would have been if mom had kept her.
But the kicker is - while doing the paternity test to prove he was her father (his brother also agreed to be tested for paternity) he learned that he is not the son of his own father. There had always been rumors that his mother (a sweet old lady now with dementia) had an affair with a certain man in town, but he hadn’t believed them. He’s waiting for the right opportunity to tell the biggest snob in the small town that he is her brother!
Interesting. In the simplified model, a first cousin and a half-aunt both share a sixteenth of one’s DNA.
“Interesting. In the simplified model, a first cousin and a half-aunt both share a sixteenth of one’s DNA.”
That’s what is likely the case here. The algorithm is probably guessing that all three are first cousins (instead of 2 cousins and one aunt) based on rough similarity in their ages. If one were a lot older than the other two it might guess aunt.
Something similar happened to me in the opposite direction when 23&Me guessed that my nephew was my grandson based on similarity in DNA percentage coupled with a difference in age that often amounts to two generations instead of one.
A few of our family members did the DNA testing. We discovered matches with an arm of the family that we knew existed but didn’t have all the names. A grandfather’s second family, none of whom knew that he had had a previous marriage and child.
There is some inexactness in the algorithms. One of my kids shows up as “father or son” of his parents, and that’s a first degree relative lol. I would take the aunt vs cousin determination with a large grain of salt and would assume the known family history was correct.
I just got a match in Russia for a first or second cousin once removed. We share 3.1% of our DNA. My grandfather and family left Russia in the early 20th century and we didn’t know we had any fairly close family left there. I’m in communication with my match’s great nephew as the match is 81, but we haven’t detangled our common and surprising connections yet.
It’s interesting to look at the matches. I have 394 4th cousins or closer. Crazy!
They just solved a cold murder case in Alaska using DNA results from a website. The suspect’s aunt agreed to give them a DNA sample and they went from there. The guy has been living in Maine for a long time. He supposedly killed a college girl in a dorm bathroom in the early 90s.