DNA Testing - Science? or Humbug?

Discussion in 'General Chatter' started by kernowmaid, Dec 1, 2017.

  1. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    Bwa ha ha!!! My husband thinks we have totally lost it, lol!!
     
  2. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    We all knew that..some have lost more than others.
    I cast no aspersions....:rolleyes:
     
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  3. Ma-dotcom

    Ma-dotcom A Bonza Little Digger!

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    Not me, I just have a tiny shortage of toe.
     
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  4. Sis

    Sis Rootles out resources!

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    OK, it could be me, some days that is!:rolleyes:
     
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  5. Findem

    Findem The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.

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    Just a thought, the Roman army was made up of people of many ethic groups and colours, so it's likely in Roman England there could have be Greek, Egyptian, various European and lord knows what other nationality squaddies getting to know the local ladies in England. :rolleyes: :D
     
  6. Half Hour

    Half Hour Well-Known Member

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    Whether the local ladies wanted to be known or not. :oops:
     
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  7. Malcolm Webb

    Malcolm Webb Well-Known Member

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    Sorry for coming into this discussion late in the day. Here's my take on the A. DNA thing.

    I succumbed at the behest of my wife before Christmas when the price was "cheap" at £49.99. Both our results are in and she is excited. I still remain as sceptical as I was before.

    Apparently, I am 61% British and 30% Scandanavian; my wife is 63% British and 5% Scandanavian with some Irish and Scottish thrown in. That tells us no more than we already knew, or what we could have intelligently guessed at.

    I suppose the British/Scandanavian split would apply in some measure to 90% of the white British population.

    The tests also come up with "matches" of possible 4th to 6th cousins. My wife is keen to explore hers; I'm not that keen. Looking at my "matches" (80) there is only one who is researching a common name. The others who have trees on A have no names that are in my research (I don't have a tree on A.)

    As I said to my wife when she was trying to persuade me to do the test, it won't tell me where my 4 x ggf was born which would enable me to get further back than 1749 on my Webb side.

    Sceptical -- you bet; even more now than I was before. I am no further forward in my research and I am £49.99 worse off. My researches of other people's trees on A in the past has highlighted a lot of errors which the tree owners have not rectified and, in most cases, have not even acknowledged my emails.

    For those who are believers I wish you every success in your research. I shall carry on as though I had never spent the cash.

    All the best and a Happy New Year to you all.
     
  8. Bonzo Dog

    Bonzo Dog Still the Mad Scientist?

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    An acquaintance who also succumbed feels equally let down and furious about it. So far as he is concerned the results are about as useful as the statement that he owns a silver car with 4 wheels. He has sent just one e-mail, as yet unanswered, demanding his money back.
     
  9. Half Hour

    Half Hour Well-Known Member

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    I think the biggest problem is so very many people have not put their trees online so you can share results. I have found some relatives that I knew existed so have had contact through this, another who I would love to hear from but must be like you, Malcolm and has not logged in to see I have even sent him a message, and several 3 and 4 cousins who I am working with trying to trace our connections. A lot of the people I have been in contact with only have their trees going back a generation or two so our common ancestor does not show up yet. Gives me incentive to dig deeper. I love looking at the photos they put on and change every few days. The other day someone looked very similar to a cousin and myself in our younger years. I was lucky and she has a tree. I can see the family name connection, but I also see I need to go back at least one more generation to find that blood connection.
    When you dig deeper in to your tree, you find interesting things. I also have my husband's DNA on there and he has a lot more relatives than I do. I have found several common names from his family that seem to have re-connected in the eastern US in the 1700's so I see I need to go back further to complete their puzzle. These families were from Somerset and although his ancestors stayed in Somerset and intermarried until the beginning of 1900 it seems the same lines moved to the States and inter-married there.
    It also seems we share a distant cousin, but no Idea if we will ever figure out how or why :rolleyes:
    So my advice @Malcolm Webb is don't give up yet. Very systematically check them all out .
    One of my husband's cousins has also explained to me how you can download your Ancestry results and put them on another site and get even more matches. I haven't tried it yet, but I do plan on doing so. This other site takes the information and breaks it down even more.
     
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  10. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    Whoops......I didn't know Sue replied but I do agree with Malcolm Webb 200%!!!! Sorry about that Sue.

    And while it was on sale over Xmas for $70 or so in the US, it still costs us $150 in Canada! I absolutely think this is such a major rip-off!! I don't care who my 4th cousins are......in fact wouldn't have a clue who they were. My husband is an only child......no 4th cousins there. And how do you know that the "little geek" sitting in a lab (just guessing here) has a clue what he is doing because DNA is a complex science!!

    Mine would be UK and Germany.........period. My husband's would be a little more interesting (half Canadian, Half Spanish I guess.......and a lot of UK in both sides). I have found the freed slaves that married into the Figueroa and Cooper lines back in the late 1700's. They were probably quite light, one being described as "quadroon".

    So the answer is "not interested" even though a cousin in California offered to pay for it. I really appreciated the gesture.....his mother descends from the Figueroa side and showed traces of African which baffled her, lol. Btw, if you get a trace of Iberian Peninsula as a lot of Brits do (don't know why exactly).......it is still quite Anglo-Saxon and the wail of the bagpipes is common there!! I know all of this from a paper trail........do NOT need DNA to find out who was what 500 years ago. Don't really care.

    Oh, and a Jamaican friend succumbed and it showed (rightly) that she had Sephardic Jew (Spanish or Portuguese) in her makeup. 3 months later they wrote her and said "we changed our mind.....you are Ashkenazi Jew"!! NOT. That is middle European and German. She lectures on genealogy and knows more about her background than Ancestry!! But heck, some people swear by it, so if they want to spend the money, so be it. :sceptical: :headbang:

    OK, long rant over.......but I often say part of the above on Ancestry's Facebook messages and there are others who feel the same way. :p
     
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  11. Ma-dotcom

    Ma-dotcom A Bonza Little Digger!

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    Here am I unfussed & unfazed. I had sceptical thoughts regarding it all. I entered into the fun for my daughter who like her old Mum, 'wants to know & go find'. Our dear hubbies share the same last name & she would like to match them up one day, more so find some elusive rellies she has been chasing for years.

    Me I would have liked to find the Gt. & Greater G'dads who I have as family starters. Sussex ? & Liverpool [ probably] but really who cares?
    meantime I now have two extra Canadian cousins -so far- & a lovely cousin from UK who has brought me real joy with knowledge she has shared. Also a photo of that special Gt. Uncle & his wife & Son who was a surprise.

    I hadn't taken the time to go back & check Ancestry's Baptisms after they were added to & extended to 1916 for London's C of E. So many more babes to find & add to families, & I still haven't foud time to do so properly. Now I have a good reason in trying to put names to faces in photos.
     
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  12. WelchRegLost

    WelchRegLost Well-Known Member

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    hmm genealogy DNA testing £50 to£70 forensic DNA testing cost £500 to £3000. Ok some of that extra costy will be companies taking advantage of the government etc. but not more so than the companies taking advantage of those who want to have their DNA tested.
     
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  13. Findem

    Findem The Fearless One. Rest in Peace.

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    Don't forget that Spain was for a very long time under the rule of the Moors from North Africa, no doubt a lot of Moorish blood is still floating around Spain.
     
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  14. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    True.....but I am pretty sure Jose Maria Figueroa was from up near the French border in Galicia, born ca 1780. I have documents for him which state he was a "resident of Rio del Acha in Columbia, SA and native of Galicia, Spain". Our name was given to us by the Count de Froyla bc his farm workers went into battle with him!! We even have a coat of arms!! The name translates to "fig tree pickers". And it originated around Lugo in Spain.

    But I did see a parish book in a glass case in a cathedral in Ronda (on the south coast) and we couldn't believe our eyes.......here was this huge book open at the page for Catalina de Figueroa from June of 1601!! Ron and another spanish speaking friend translated it and it was for memorial masses for her 2 husbands. Wild woman!! Whether she is an ancestor is purely conjecture.......but it shows how old the name was. And thinking of the Moors, that probably accounts for their rather dark colouring in the south. Have you been to the Alhambra in Malaga?? I was enthralled!!
     
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  15. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    Yo Sis.....I added the bit about the documentation and I do have a photo of the page from the ancient book......had to go looking for it to make sure I got the data right. Blew us away......along with the tour guide!! LOL.

    I have a photo of Ron's great grandfather and Ron looks a lot like him.....not swarthy at all. Sort of a Spanish Don type.
     
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  16. Sis

    Sis Rootles out resources!

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    Does he do the Spanish dance where they shout ole' at the end?:D
     
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  17. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    HAH!! The Flamenco?? Nope, but he is a very good dancer. Latin in that aspect!! When we were younger, of course! You got me watching Spanish Flamenco on YouTube and that brought back memories...of watching gypsy dancers in Spain! :D
     
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  18. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    How would it be if 2 siblings had the test and the results came back....whoops!
    Something amiss...sometimes these things are best left alone.
     
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  19. Figgs

    Figgs Well-Known Member

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    Happens more often than you know. I read the Ancestry FB messages and quite often it is siblings.........quite often it can be a parent who doesn't match. They do say (and I am not totally sure I believe this) that 2 siblings can have very dissimilar results bc one inherits from Uncle #1 and another from a different ancestor. I suppose that is true, but I am interested in the number of people who find out that Dad is not their biological father, and some even find out whether it was the milkman or Dad's best friend.

    Like you say.......some things are best left alone. I am not sure what I would think if that were even remotely true, which it isn't in my family. I look too much like my father, lol. Night, pussycat......past midnight here and still -30C!!:eek:
     
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  20. Archie's Mum

    Archie's Mum Always digging up clues

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    I only have one sibling, a sister. If ever two peas belonged in the one pod, we're them.
    Night, pussycat......was/is our hottest day in recorded history today 47 point something :eek: Hubby will have to grip the sides of the bed tonight as he might get blown out with the ceiling fan going full blast.
     
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