The use of a family DNA databank solved a killing in Newport Beach from 1973. A young girl was strangled and left in a ditch. The killer is now 72 and without these DNA websites might have died without ever being caught.
Kid did one of the kits. She is as non-diverse as it gets… Bummer. A distant relative popped up in the U.K. Which confirmed that I am my father’s kid. I am sure it has been confirmed that I am my mother’s kid. 
Lol. Kid wanted us to do the thing. I said I already learned everything I needed from her results. 
I’ve thought of doing one of the kits, but do I really want to see which blanched, pale, white, pallid, etiolated, snow white European countries my ancestors came from? Nothing south or east of Germany. It would be so boring.
@“Cardinal Fang” You might be surprised! I was.
Yes, DH was stunned to find out that 9% of his DNA is from the Iberian Peninsula. We figure one of his ancestors was in the Spanish Armada. Maybe that explains his passion for flamenco and Spanish guitar, which he played professionally.
I have not read any of the this thread but our neighbor adopted a boy from Russia like 14 years ago. They did a “23 and me” test. He found out he has a sister in another state. He went to visit her this past weekend. She also did" 23 and me" this past year. They look so much alike its crazy.
@intparent. I think you can go to the national holocaust museum website and I think there is a way to look up people /last names etc. Also I think you can find a Ellis Island registry somewhere to look up people/names.
My stepdaughter (who has two children adopted from Russia) hired someone to find her children’s birth mothers. A therapist that one child sees recommended that it would be a good idea. The kids are 17 and 19. It turned out that the birth mother of the younger child had passed away and the grandfather didn’t believe that he had a grandson and didn’t want to have any contact. (Obviously, not helpful for grandchild.) The other child’s birth mother has also passed; this grandfather is anxious to meet his grandchild. He keeps emailing and asks for $$$ to come visit his grandchild in the US. My stepdaughter is beside herself–she had hoped for more positive outcomes.
My BIL was adopted and did this recently. Found his five half sisters and brothers from his bio dad, who had passed away. He had located his bio mom several years back in a nursing home with the help of a PI. Found out she had him out of wedlock and bio dad supposedly never knew. He is now invited to the family gatherings with the half siblings who are amazed and delighted with his resemblance (physical and mannerisms) to their deceased dad. Teased my sister, who is planning her daughter’s wedding with a fixed budget, that she will now have to expand the invite list. She initially said no, but I will be very surprised if I don’t see them there.
Bromfield - that therapist needs to be fired. What else would one expect?! He or she should have known a little more about Russian adoptions to warm the mother about potential issues. Russia adopts kids out orphanages. Why do kids end up in orphanages? Most of the time, because the mother is a terminal alcoholic or drug addict etc. and both the father’s and mother’s family do not want anything to do with the kid. Or the child was born with a disability (think Boston wheelchair winner) and the parents gave up. And I am not surprised that the grandfather wants $$$ - I doubt that he is excited to visit the grandkid. Call me callous, but I bet that he wants the $$$ to fuel his own addiction or he feels entitled to support from his newfound relatives (Russia just upped the retirement age substantially, and many elders feel the pain). I am so sorry that your stepdaughter is dealing with this. It is not easy.
“I’ve thought of doing one of the kits, but do I really want to see which blanched, pale, white, pallid, etiolated, snow white European countries my ancestors came from? Nothing south or east of Germany. It would be so boring.”
That’s what I thought too, since my paper family tree traces back 100% to England. And the 23&Me ancestry report largely aligns with that, except that in this latest refinement of their estimates the 12.5% that was previously said to be"French & German" has been further clarified as originating from Switzerland. Even more specifically those genes are said to map to the Valais canton of Switzerland - the sparsely populated region that is perhaps most famous as the location of the Matterhorn.
If it’s true that is very specific, and such a specific location suggests that the Swiss genes come from a specific ancestor (plus his/her ancestors) and not from multiple Swiss ancestors coming in on different branches of the family tree. And 12.5% is the percentage of DNA one would expect from a great-grandparent. All eight of my great grandparents’ ancestry cannot be traced on paper to anywhere but England at least as far back as the early 1600s, which is when many of the lines peter out. I’m assuming that all my great-grandmothers actually did give birth to the children credited to them, since it’s hard to hide or mistake such a thing, but was one of my four great-grandfathers really some Swiss guy and not the English fellow listed on the family tree?
It’s intriguing to contemplate.
I think This American Life had a segment a couple of years ago on that dog poop DNA testing. I remember because I wished my apartment building would do it.
I did a DNA test with 23andme and just recently did the Ancestry test. The Ancestry results were basically the same—over 90% Eastern European. My closest relative (immediate family) is my brother. (I didn’t know he did the testing!) Next closest matches were my cousin and her two children.
Hope I didn’t already say this but my neighbors kid 13 adopted from Russia did the 23/me and found his sister from Russia also adopted. They went out to meet her a few months ago. They look like exactly alike. ?.
I have guest privileges on Ancestry dot com through my brother, who is the family history buff. I got an email this morning offering AncestryDNA for a Mother’s Day special of $59. I’m tempted, if only to see how close I am to my brother’s 95% European Jewish. If I do sign up for this, how much can I restrict access? I don’t really want to have stray relatives three times removed “discovering” me.
@Marilyn You can be private or public, that’s all.
I myself LOVE discovering new 4th cousins. Each one can fill in some blanks and tell stories, or sometimes I am the one filling in blanks for the new cousins.
So 23andMe helped me connect with a first cousin once removed. We became Facebook friends a couple of months ago, and have been enjoying learning that we have a lot of the same interests and viewpoints on the world. ?
Already know about all the first and second cousins, same generation or once removed. With my brother having put himself out there and a couple of cousins doing research, there shouldn’t be too many surprises. (Unless my mother was doing something we don’t know about during that cold Duluth winter so very many years ago.)
Not related to human ancestry, by here is a great story how DNA analysis can help with tracking down poachers: