topic Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done? in SmorgasBoard

Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

MarineVietVet — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 05:48:08 GMT

I'm not talking as part of a paternity determination or criminal investigation.

I mean for ancestry reasons. Several months ago I sent off for a DNA kit to give me some idea of where my ancestors are from. Some of the countries I knew about but there were a couple of surprises.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

macuserftw — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 13:32:10 GMT

That's actually really cool! Where did you get the DNA kit from? I would be interested in knowing where my ancestry stemmed from.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Gunnar419 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 14:42:22 GMT

Cool. I had a test from 23andme.com back when the government allowed them to report both ancestry and medical results. I'm more interested in the medical than the ancestry part (which mostly confirmed what I already knew, though there were a couple of surprises as with MarineVietVet), but either way they've been a great company to deal with.

They continue to keep contact with people who've been tested to engage them in various surveys about various traits and habits. Very enlightening.

I hope the government will get out of their way and let them report medical results for new testees again soon. Finding out my genetic advantages and disadvantages for different conditions was the best part.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 16:05:43 GMT

MarineVietVet - yeah good story Thanks for giving us your life story we entered it in the National Data base ... "big brother is watching". As a Vet you know this is flirting with ...?

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

MarineVietVet — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 01:58:28 GMT

@macuserftw wrote:
That's actually really cool! Where did you get the DNA kit from? I would be interested in knowing where my ancestry stemmed from.

I got mine at ancestry.com but 23andme also has them.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

MarineVietVet — Tue, 31 Mar 2015 02:04:53 GMT

@Spider15 wrote:
MarineVietVet - yeah good story Thanks for giving us your life story we entered it in the National Data base ... "big brother is watching". As a Vet you know this is flirting with ...?

Time to take off your tin foil hat.

The guvmant doesn't need a DNA test to know all about me.

I'm sure I'm on more than one list already. No worries on my part.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Boragard — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 03:44:58 GMT

Yes I just got my results March 10th...Very cool!

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Kirmie2010 — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 08:04:41 GMT

I was thinking about getting these for awhile, it seems really neat. Seeing someone elses little graph cinches it for me. Ill have to save up a bit so I can buy one for my wife as well. Would like to do the kids but I think the coolness would be lost on them

Will be nice to finally have documented proof I am some royal of some country that needs me back!

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:57:44 GMT

MarineVietVet - my lips are sealed

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

MidnightVoice — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 19:33:22 GMT

Apparently my parents have not been telling Fibs - I really am British with odd little bits of German and Scandinavian thrown in.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 11:59:58 GMT

My mother's mother (grandmother) was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and to be admitted they had to prove from actual record books everything that happened to the family starting in the old country and then it was verified. Interesting as what my parents told me varied from what I found from the DAR. Just don't trust or I would be interested in the DNA approach.

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

tacpoly — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 20:27:19 GMT

@Gunnar419 wrote:
...I hope the government will get out of their way and let them report medical results for new testees again soon. Finding out my genetic advantages and disadvantages for different conditions was the best part.

The problem with these genotyping services is that the companies don't really understand what the polymorphisms (SNPs) mean by themselves or in combination; even experts have an incomplete understanding. Even if these companies understand, it's difficult to convey accurately what increases and decreases in risk truly. People think statistics are intuitive but they're not; just look at how many people overestimate their risk of developing cancer -- specially with breast cancer and getting preventive double mastectomies. And even if the person understands the consequence of the mutation/polymorphism, what does he/she do about it?

Re: Has anyone ever had a DNA test done?

MidnightVoice — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 16:12:56 GMT

I am: Haplogroup R1b1b2a1a1

Today R1b1b2a1a1 is found mostly on the fringes of the North Sea in England, Germany and the Netherlands, where it reaches levels of one-third. That distribution suggests that some of the first men to bear the haplogroup in their Y-chromosomes were residents of Doggerland, a real-life Atlantis that was swallowed up by rising seas in the millennia following the Ice Age. Doggerland was a low-lying region of forests and wetlands that must have been rich in game; today, fishing trawlers in the North Sea occasionally dredge up the bones and tusks of the mastodons that roamed there. Doggerland had its heyday between about 12,000 years ago, when the Ice Age climate began to ameliorate, and 9,000 years ago, when the meltwaters of the gradually retreating glaciers caused sea levels to rise, drowning the hunter's paradise. Doggerland's inhabitants retreated to the higher ground that is now the North Sea coast.