23 and me test

[RunningBum]

I have never done the 23 and me test. Does it give exact countries for matches or just general areas of the World? It might be interesting to compare what I think I know about my ancestry on both sides and see if 23 and me confirms that or makes me rethink everything again.

My report shows me to be 100% European, and then breaks that down to parts of Europe, and then subparts.


(edited to add the regions I had 0%, after I found where they show it. I can add the breakout of the other continents if anyone wants it.)

NW European
-----------
British & Irish
French & German
Finnish
Scandanavian
Broadly NW

Eastern European (not further broken out)

Southern European
------------
Sardinian
Italian
Iberian
Balkan
Broadly southern

Ashkenazi Jewish (not broken out)

Broadly European (single digit % in my case so it's not like they just say 75% and a pinch of others, at least for for me)

I expected 50/50 British+Irish+Scandanvian / Eastern European, and I came out not too far from that. 52.1/37.5, so I guess one great grandparent was non-eastern. That's the only number that works out to be an even fraction to say that "exactly" 3 of 8 ancestors come from a specific place. The others are odd percentages which either show gaps in the knowledge, or more of a mutt heritage. I guess one mutt could throw all the other numbers off.

 

[workburnout]

I found out I have an aunt, age 80 who looks just like me only older, who I never knew about. She was the illegitimate kid of my grandfather, before he ever married or had other kids. It was a huge family secret no one ever mentioned until I recently did the 23andme test and she popped up as being closely related.
I messaged her and she immediately knew who I was - said she'd tried to send presents to us kids but they were returned to her by my parents who said we kids would not understand- and she was cut off from the family due to the "scandal" that dated back to the 1930s.
She and I have since spoken and emailed and plan to meet for the first time soon.

 

[RunningBum]

The ancestry was interesting, but I was more interested in what my genes show me to be of higher risk for, especially for things I could prevent, or work around. If I showed a greatly increased risk of Alzheimer's, I would probably be more proactive in making arrangements for power of attorney, for example.


The Promethease report also shows things some medicines I might have trouble metabolizing, so I might discuss with my doc to see about alternatives, or perhaps increase dosage. I just got the report 2 days ago so I haven't absorbed nearly all of it.

 

[RunningBum]

I opted out of contacting and being able to be contacted by relatives. I'm a little afraid of one showing up on my doorstep with their hand out.

 

[braumeister]

I found out I have an aunt, age 80 who looks just like me only older, who I never knew about. She was the illegitimate kid of my grandfather, before he ever married or had other kids. It was a huge family secret no one ever mentioned until I recently did the 23andme test and she popped up as being closely related.
I messaged her and she immediately knew who I was - said she'd tried to send presents to us kids but they were returned to her by my parents who said we kids would not understand- and she was cut off from the family due to the "scandal" that dated back to the 1930s.
She and I have since spoken and emailed and plan to meet for the first time soon.

What a nice story!
I encountered someone via 23andme who was predicted to be my first cousin since we share 7.5% of our DNA. I contacted her and we exchanged a few emails. Figured out that first cousin wouldn't be possible due to age difference, but first cousin once removed is certainly possible.

Unfortunately, she was adopted as an infant and has no knowledge of her birth parents. She hasn't made the effort to try to track them down because of "all the red tape" as she put it. So our actual relationship will remain a little mystery.

 

[cathy63]

I have never done the 23 and me test. Does it give exact countries for matches or just general areas of the World? It might be interesting to compare what I think I know about my ancestry on both sides and see if 23 and me confirms that or makes me rethink everything again.

You can't get specific countries because some regions weren't even countries until relatively recently in world history. For example, a genetic test probably cannot distinguish between Swedish and Norwegian because with the exception of isolated groups like the Saami, there's really only one population there, so your test results will just say Scandinavian.

And even then, Scandinavians will share a whole lot of common alleles with everyone else in Northern Europe, because of migration, trade, intermarriage, etc. Even if you're nominally "English", what does that even mean? Anglo, Saxon, Pictish, Celtic, Roman, Viking? A lot of peoples left their DNA there.

I'm also leery of these very exact percentages. It's been a while since I took biology in school, but I don't think you get exactly 25% of your DNA from any one of your grandparents. Meiosis doesn't guarantee a 50/50 split in each chromosome. It's entirely possible that your sibling could be tested and found to have some ancestry that you don't have just because you didn't happen to get any of the region-specific alleles from that ancestor. If you get a result that says you're 18% Scandinavian and 32% Southern Europe, you might still have one grandparent from Sweden and one from Italy, it's just that the subset of your DNA that the test looked at had more genetic material from the Italian grandparent than the Swedish one.

 

[workburnout]

What a nice story!
I encountered someone via 23andme who was predicted to be my first cousin since we share 7.5% of our DNA. I contacted her and we exchanged a few emails. Figured out that first cousin wouldn't be possible due to age difference, but first cousin once removed is certainly possible.

Unfortunately, she was adopted as an infant and has no knowledge of her birth parents. She hasn't made the effort to try to track them down because of "all the red tape" as she put it. So our actual relationship will remain a little mystery.

That's interesting! I think 23andme lists most people as "cousins". It had my aunt listed as a cousin, sharing 16 percent dna. She is my "half aunt" as her father is my grandfather - but her mother is not my grandmother.

Sounds like your relative could be a "half cousin" but you never know. Maybe she does not want to find out the whole story at this point in time.

 

[braumeister]

Sounds like your relative could be a "half cousin"

No such thing as a "half cousin" in genealogy.

Here's a chart that shows the proper terminology. You can use this to quickly determine the exact relationship you have with any relative.

RELATIONSHIP CHART

 

[Free To Canoe]

No such thing as a "half cousin" in genealogy.

Here's a chart that shows the proper terminology. You can use this to quickly determine the exact relationship you have with any relative.

RELATIONSHIP CHART

The chart is a great help to me. Thanks!

 

[workburnout]

The chart is a great help to me. Thanks!

Yes, true. However, my cousins from my Aunt (who has a different mother than my grandmother, and who's father is my grandfather) have approximately 1/2 as much dna shared as my cousins from my Uncle (who's father is my grandfather, and mother is my grandmother).

That Uncle and Aunt are siblings, but only have the same father (my grandfather), not the same mother.

Technically the term half cousin does not exist, but I don't know what term to use instead, to describe the situation.

If I ever get a chance to meet my Aunt's children, who live far across the country, I suppose we'd call each other cousins and leave off the "half" as that's not a real term.

 

[RunningBum]

I'm also leery of these very exact percentages. It's been a while since I took biology in school, but I don't think you get exactly 25% of your DNA from any one of your grandparents. Meiosis doesn't guarantee a 50/50 split in each chromosome. It's entirely possible that your sibling could be tested and found to have some ancestry that you don't have just because you didn't happen to get any of the region-specific alleles from that ancestor. If you get a result that says you're 18% Scandinavian and 32% Southern Europe, you might still have one grandparent from Sweden and one from Italy, it's just that the subset of your DNA that the test looked at had more genetic material from the Italian grandparent than the Swedish one.

I think I'm the only one who posted %s? I had assumed 50/50 split, so thanks for pointing out that isn't necessarily true. I actually only had one that looked exact, the 37.5%(3/8), but sometimes numbers will happen to add up to look even. In other words, maybe one parent was a little more than 75% eastern European, but I got less than 50% from that parent and it happen to work out to 37.5% in me, rounded to the nearest tenth, as all their numbers seem to be.

All my other % numbers are uneven, except the 100% European. That makes sense if all my ancestors are European based, since the numbers have to add up to 100%.

 

[MichaelB]

Mine says I am 99.9% European, 94% NW European, predominantly British & Irish. It will be fun to review with with DM, who always said there was more German ancestry, while these tests show less.

DW has less than 5% NW European, so our kids are real mixed up! We ordered kits for them on Amazon Prime day (1/2 price) so we'll see how the genes split up.

 

[rodi]

The results were interesting - and in our family's case there WAS some actionable info.

DH is 94% southern European - given that all 4 grandparents emigrated from Sicily - it makes sense.

I'm 90% NW European - mostly british isles... confirming I'm a pasty white chick. LOL.

It confirmed that I don't have the BRCAA gene and DH doesn't have the alzheimer gene. That was huge for both of us - we both had family reasons to want to check those genes.

It confirmed that DH has one variation of the MTHFR mutations, and I have the other variation... and one of our sons got the short straw and inherited BOTH mutations. This means his body doesn't produce the correct enzyme to break down b9 and b12. It can cause mental health issues (the neurotransmitters need the broken down form of b9 and b-12 to regulate... ), it can cause heart and stroke issues because homocystienes aren't properly dealt with, etc... The action is easy - take bio-available (methylized) forms of b-9 and b12. So we all take methylfolate and methylcolban now.

The final big eye opener was to find out my first cousins are slightly less related to me than we thought... turns out Grandma may have had an affair along the way because my aunt and my dad had different fathers. My cousin who discovered this was devastated.... he'd spent years tracing the line of the man he thought was his biological grandfather.... He compared DNA with one of the 2nd cousins he'd tracked down and had no match... so he used my DNA files to compare - and bingo a match. My aunt refuses to discuss it - why dig up stuff about dead people (her parents, our grandparents). I agree with my aunt about this.

So... it can open a can of worms... but in our case - the medical info was incredibly useful.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Mine says I am 99.9% European, 94% NW European, predominantly British & Irish. It will be fun to review with with DM, who always said there was more German ancestry, while these tests show less.

DW has less than 5% NW European, so our kids are real mixed up! We ordered kits for them on Amazon Prime day (1/2 price) so we'll see how the genes split up.

Do NOT argue with your mother. If she says your German, then thats the end of discussion.

 

[braumeister]

Has anyone done DNA testing from more than one source and compared them?

Like Ancestry and 23andme for example?

 

[cathy63]

I think I'm the only one who posted %s? I had assumed 50/50 split, so thanks for pointing out that isn't necessarily true. I actually only had one that looked exact, the 37.5%(3/8), but sometimes numbers will happen to add up to look even. In other words, maybe one parent was a little more than 75% eastern European, but I got less than 50% from that parent and it happen to work out to 37.5% in me, rounded to the nearest tenth, as all their numbers seem to be.

All my other % numbers are uneven, except the 100% European. That makes sense if all my ancestors are European based, since the numbers have to add up to 100%.

Sorry, I wasn't really pointing at you. It's just a pet peeve of mine whenever I see genetic testing results like that, not just in this thread. It's that college degree in probability and statistics that makes me skeptical of too much precision.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Has anyone done DNA testing from more than one source and compared them?

Like Ancestry and 23andme for example?

Identical Triplets Take A DNA Test, But The Unsettling Truth Is Revealed | NinjaJournalist

I [posted on this a few weeks ago, slight differences.

 

[Marita40]

I found that tabloid story about the bombshell identical triplets creepy...but it does appear to me that DNA testing at this still-early stage might indeed best be viewed as "entertainment" and not exact science. I'm interested in doing it but am holding out as it will no doubt be much improved as time goes on.

 

[Johanson]

I think I'm the only one who posted %s? I had assumed 50/50 split, so thanks for pointing out that isn't necessarily true. I actually only had one that looked exact, the 37.5%(3/8), but sometimes numbers will happen to add up to look even. In other words, maybe one parent was a little more than 75% eastern European, but I got less than 50% from that parent and it happen to work out to 37.5% in me, rounded to the nearest tenth, as all their numbers seem to be.

All my other % numbers are uneven, except the 100% European. That makes sense if all my ancestors are European based, since the numbers have to add up to 100%.

My Ancestry DNA test came back as 98% Scandinavian, < 1% Irish, and < 1% Western European.

 

[braumeister]

I found that tabloid story about the bombshell identical triplets creepy...but it does appear to me that DNA testing at this still-early stage might indeed best be viewed as "entertainment" and not exact science. I'm interested in doing it but am holding out as it will no doubt be much improved as time goes on.

The triplet story was just silly as far as the DNA testing goes. They had identical results when they were born, but all genes mutate as time goes by. When they were tested they were old enough that small differences would be expected.

 

[MichaelB]

The triplet story was just silly as far as the DNA testing goes. They had identical results when they were born, but all genes mutate as time goes by. When they were tested they were old enough that small differences would be expected.

Thanks for reading that story - I couldn't get through it.

Back to your question, though, my brother tested with Family Tree. We're going to compare, hopefully this weekend. He did say my results looked similar to his, and that he received a second batch of reports with much more detail. I'll update this thread when I've seen the two.

 

[Just_Steve]

I opted out of contacting and being able to be contacted by relatives. I'm a little afraid of one showing up on my doorstep with their hand out.

Or some one night stand from the 70's and 80's looking to sue me for 21 years of back child support. I really don't want to know if there are any mini me's out in the wild.

 

[Shanky]

I turned out to be 6.2 % West African, 2.2 percent East Asian / Native American, 1% Yakut and about 90% East European. Native American background was known, West African ancestry was not known. It was interesting to learn, but not much is actionable. I was often asked "where was my family from", and I always answered East European. Then I would be told "You have very dark eyes". I always took that as a compliment.

 

[Blue Collar Guy]

Or some one night stand from the 70's and 80's looking to sue me for 21 years of back child support. I really don't want to know if there are any mini me's out in the wild.

I know a couple of cases where "the man", has reached out to touch the relatives of "people of interest". Not a fun time.

 

[Katsmeow]

Has anyone done DNA testing from more than one source and compared them?

Like Ancestry and 23andme for example?

Yes, I tested at both. I have also uploaded my results to Gedmatch and to Family Tree and My Heritage. All of this helps if you are doing family tree research.

Each place gives slightly different information on ethnicity. That is just not as refined as many people might think. Even the same Ancestry info for example when uploaded to Family Tree the ethnicity info is a little different. It is overall the same but one of them shows, for example, more Scandinavian than the other.

I also uploaded my 23andme and Ancestry results to promethease for the health information. The most important thing to know that is that they don't test entirely the same SNPs. They do test many of the same ones but there are quite a few that one of them tests and the other does not. So that makes a difference in health results. Sometimes a big difference.